10 Forgotten Pro Wrestling Scandals

Professional wrestling has had more than its fair share of scandals.

No surprise then that a few crimes and misdemeanours may have been forgotten about, even if they were major news at the time or particularly salacious in detail.

Some were somehow never major news, while others were effectively swept under the mat. Regardless, they’re all part of professional wrestling’s sordid history and we ought to make sure they do not fully escape out collective memory.

These are 10 Forgotten Pro Wrestling Scandals.

10. Hardbody Harrison

A former US Army veteran of the Gulf War, Harrison Norris Jr. decided to try his hand at pro wrestling and enrolled in the WCW Power Plant training school in the mid 90s.

Used as an occasional jobber by the Turner-backed organisation, the man who performed as Hardbody Harrison was one of several talents who received a sizeable payout (rumoured to be one million dollars) when a racial discrimination lawsuit against the company was settled in 2003.

Norris didn’t use that money to create a better life for himself, however. On the contrary, he was making the lives of others completely miserable.

In August of 2004, Norris was arrested in Smyrna, Georgia and charged with three counts of false imprisonment. He spent the night in jail and was released on $55,00 bond.

A year later, the FBI raided his home and he was once again arrested, this time on nine federal counts of false imprisonment and trafficking women, who accused the toughman contest winner of various abuses.

Choosing to represent himself during trial, Norris couldn’t convince the jury and was sentenced to life in prison, which is where he remains today.

9. Art Barr

The second-generation son of wrestler-cum-promoter Sandy Barr, Art Barr’s career seemed to be on the up in his father’s Portland territory during the late 80s thanks to adopting the gimmick of Beetlejuice.

On July 6, 1989, however, Barr had a sexual encounter with a 19-year-old in the stairwell of an empty armoury following a show in Pendleton, Oregon. The woman later told police it was not consensual in nature and Barr was duly levied with a severe charge.

Much to the consternation of local press sympathetic to his alleged victim’s plight, Barr (as Beetlejuice) continued to be featured on television as a heroic babyface who danced around the ring with children.

On the day his trial was set to begin in July of 1990, Barr pleaded down to a lesser charge, avoiding a prison sentence but being hit with a $1,000 fine, paying for his victim’s medical and counselling bills, 180 hours of community service and two years of probation.

Hounded out of his home territory in the wake of his conviction, Barr soon resurfaced in WCW as ‘The Juicer’.

The negative press followed him there, however, with a concerted media campaign effectively causing his dismissal after just a few months.

8. Monkeygate

The murky, behind-closed-doors world of the Japanese professional wrestling dojo system has bred more than its fair share of scandals.

The most egregious as far as animal lovers would be concerned was the despicable treatment of a pet macaque monkey named Cora at the Dragon Gate promotion’s training facility during the 2000s.

For a start, they didn’t have the proper permits to own the animal. Second, Dragon Gate trainees were supposed to care for it but, evidently, did anything but over the course of several years.

In 2009, a wrestler named RYOMA (these days going by ‘YO-HEY’) began keeping a blog from the perspective of Cora (including graphic photos and videos), which is when then monkey’s mistreatment came to light.

Among the acts of documented abuse were burning the poor animal, dragging her around with a chain around her neck, forcing her to drink Sake and scaring her with firecrackers.

Once the blog was discovered, Cora was removed from the premises and sent to live with the parents of a roster member.

The guilty parties appeared during a press conference with shaven heads as an act of contrition, expressed remorse for what had happened and accepted heavy fines, while RYOMA was immediately fired.

7. The Mike Levy Incident

The power of the internet can be used for great things, but in 2008 a wrestling forum used their influence to get a very green wrestler booked for a deathmatch tournament.

Mike Levy, a blatantly inexperienced hardcore ‘wrestler’, got a match at IWA Mid-South’s Queen of the Deathmatch tournament due some ironic cheerleading from the CZWFans message board.

Booked against promoter Ian Rotten’s girlfriend Mickie Knuckles, Levy looked out of his depth even in such a low-rent setting, hitting Mickie with a needlessly stiff headbutt and neglecting to sell pretty much anything he was hit with.

It was a one-sided affair that ended with Levy on the losing end, but his woes were only just beginning.

After the match, several members of the IWA Mid-South roster, along with Knuckles, Rotten and even Rotten’s young son proceeded to put a hellacious beatdown on the man who called himself ‘The White Lion’.

Levy, still not getting the memo about selling, refused to stay down until he was beaten so badly (including with weapons) that he simply couldn’t get up.

Incredibly, no charges were filed in relation to what came to be referred to as ‘The Mike Levy Incident’.

6. Atsushi Onita's Political Incorrectness

As someone who had been thrown into barbwire, through glass and set on fire as Japan’s King of the Deathmatches, Atsushi Onita was well prepared for a career in the cutthroat world of politics.

Onita followed in the footsteps of fellow wrestlers Antonio Inoki and Hiroshi Hase when, in 2001, he was elected to a seat in the Japanese Diet.

Aside from launching a post-9/11 humanitarian mission in Afghanistan – which included putting on matches for kids using crude rings made out of sticks and rope – the most remarkable thing about Onita’s political career was his scandalous exit.

The FMW founder – who had once claimed to have slept with over 20,000 women – was fired after it emerged he had used government accommodations to host a, erm, ‘three-way dance’ with an unnamed actress from the world of adult entertainment and a female employee from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation.

5. The Suspicious Death Of Chief Don Eagle

Chief Don Eagle will not be a name familiar to the vast majority of today’s fans, but in his prime he was, by all accounts, quite the specimen inside the squared circle.

A quick technician who unleashed moves like the flying top-rope splash at a time when that sort of thing just wasn’t done, Carl Donald Bell rapidly ascended the ranks and became a draw in the mid-western United States.

Chief Don Eagle was also a victim of one of the earliest ‘screwjob’ finishes, when Chicago promoter Fred Kohler conspired to get the AWA Title (Boston version) off him and onto Gorgeous George via a quick count.

The former golden gloves champion was forced to retire due to injuries in his late 30s, after which he become involved in construction projects.

On March 17th, 1966, Bell was found dead at the age of 40. By all appearances, his death was caused by his own hand and a firearm.

Many close to the Chief – including his protégé Billy Two Rivers – refused to believe that was what happened and speculated that his sudden demise may have been to do with financial trouble related to his construction projects.

Adding to the mystery, Eagle’s widow Jean was murdered two years later, leading some to swear there was a connection.

4. Death at the Dojo

Hiromitsu Gompei was recruited to the New Japan Dojo by Hiroshi Hase, who believed the national collegiate champion wrestler had the tools to become a major star in the business.

Gompei was sceptical of pro wrestling and he, along with his parents, had to be convinced by Hase, who made several trips to assure them he was in good hands.

Two weeks after Gompei agreed and during just his second training session, he reportedly took a bump on his head, passed out and died four days later.

It later materialised that Gompei was under the supervision of Kensuke Sasaki and rumours began to spread about just what had gone on that day, with some accounts suggesting the rookie was worked to exhaustion and then roughed up as form sort of punishment.

No charges were brought against anyone in connection with the tragic incident and Gompei’s family didn’t file any lawsuits, but the whole ugly scenario resulted in the end of the relationship between New Japan and Hase, who never felt he got a satisfactory explanation for what had unfolded on that fateful day.

3. Another Death At The Dojo

One death at a dojo – accidental or otherwise – is one too many.

But, amazingly, there have been several others, some of them involving famous wrestlers.

There was, famously, the story of Brian Ong, a 27-year-old trainee who took a flapjack from Dalip Singh (AKA The Great Khali) in the APW dojo in California, landed on his head and subsequently passed away in May of 2001.

Less well-known is the story of Takayuki Okada, better known as Pride MMA fighter Giant Ochiai.

Okada was training in the dojo of Riki Choshu’s short-lived World Japan promotion on July 28th, 2003, wrestling around with future WWE star Kenzo Suzuki, when he fell unconscious and slipped into a coma.

He passed away on August 8, with the cause of death listed as acute subdural hematoma, AKA a bleed on the brain.

A despondent Suzuki quit the promotion in the aftermath, while Choshu himself refused to accept any responsibility for Okada’s death – and was taken to task for it by the media and Okada’s parents, who accused him of negligence.

No charges were ever brought against anyone in relation to Giant Ochiai’s death.

2. Chris Adams

British wrestler Chris Adams is probably best known today as the person who popularised the Superkick as we know it.

Back in the 1980s, he was a hot property for the Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling promotion, where he formed a legendary team with Gino Hernandez and had many epic battles with the Von Erich brothers.

Like Hernandez, however, ‘The Gentleman’ would meet his end in dubious circumstances.

Following a so-so run in WCW, Adams decided to settle in south Texas, where he worked as a promoter and occasional wrestler.

It was during this time that his problems with drugs and alcohol really began to spiral, culminating in an evening in April of 2000 where he and his girlfriend – a 30-year-old exotic dancer named Linda Kaphengst – got loaded on GHB and booze and fell into comas.

Adams emerged from his, but Kaphengst did not and her family were forced to pull the plug on her life support.

Charged with manslaughter and facing up to 20 years in prison, Adams while out on bond visited his friend Brent Parnell’s house where things at some point got out of control, ending with Parnell shooting Adams dead in self-defence.

He was just 46-years-old.

1. Tiger Ali Singh & WWE

When it comes to racial sensitivity both on-screen and off, professional wrestling doesn’t have the best track record. This extends from provincial outlaw promotions to the industry leaders.

In 2002, former WWE star Tiger Ali Singh sued the company over alleged racial discrimination and ethnic harassment.

Seeking $7 million in damages, the second-generation, Canadian-born wrestler of Indian descent claimed that his turban was stolen in the locker room and filled with trash, that he was referred to as a ‘taxi driver’ from his co-workers, and that another of his turbans was torn into pieces.

For what it’s worth, comedian and one-time WWE creative team member Patric O’Neal later relayed his own firsthand account of Vince McMahon forcing Tiger to wear a turban to the ring, against his protestations (due to the turban being sacred in the Sikh religion).

Singh also claimed that he was unjustly fired by the promotion after suffering a career-ending injury while on loan to the IWA promotion in Puerto Rico.

Furthermore, Singh said he suffered the injury (a major concussion) after being forced to wrestle in the rain and was left to fend for himself on the island afterwards.

WWE ended up settling out of court.