11 Forgotten Old School Wrestling Scandals By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: It goes without saying but people back in the past could and have managed to get away with things that be absolutely illegal today. Pro Wrestling has seen it's far share of scandals from the early days of the circus to the Monday Night Wars of the 1990's to the present day.

While scandals like the Montreal Screw Job, the Madison Square Garden Incident, and The Steroid Trial are probably the first few that comes to your mind when talking about old school scandals, the ones I'll be mentioning here are scandals that affected not only the individuals themselves as well as their friends and families but in a few cases they also affected the wrestling world for generations to come...and somehow they have been lost in the annuals of history.

11. Japanese Legend Gets Stabbed

Best known as "The Father of Puroresu" aka Japanese Pro Wrestling, Kim Sin-rak better known as Rikidozan was and still is seen as one of the most talented wrestlers to ever compete in Japan.

Through his work as a sumo wrestler, Dozan would take on pro wrestling in the early 1950's-60's and would go on to win the Japanese Heavyweight Championship, helped in bringing North American wrestling to Japan creating the Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA) whilst also competing in a series of legendary matches with names like Mike Sharpe, Lou Thesz and Masahiko Kimura just to name a few.

However, with that superstar success comes a lot of problems and while stories about Rikidozan's ego going wild, getting into fights with people in bars or in the streets to having his more salacious incidents being covered up thanks to his friendship with Japanese politicians it's the events that happened on April 1963 that would shake the wrestling world.

On April 8th 1963, Rikidozan was seen having couple of drinks at an Alaskan Night Club belting out insults at the musician before encountering a 24 year old man named Katsushi Murata, inside the clubs bathroom; Murata, who was a member of a Yakuza sub-branch gang is rumored to have stabbed Riki in the left part of his abdomen with a mountain knife.

According to reports, the incident began when Murata accidently stepped on Riki's foot which led to the drunken wrestler getting physical with Katsushi even going so far as to kicking him down the doorway.

Although he would deny all charges, Murata admitted that he got into a fight with another professional wrestler which forced him to carry knife with him as a result; The injuries Rikidozan suffered saw four parts of his small intestines being pierced and needed surgery, unfortunately the great pro wrestling legend died on December 15th 1963 due to internal hemorrhaging and peritonitis.

10. The Title Match That Changed An Industry

Buddy Rogers and Lou Thesz are two names who need no introduction as they are seen as the innovators and pioneers of various gimmicks and wrestling styles that was would be used by names like Ric Flair and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

"The Original Nature Boy", Buddy Rogers was a slick but crafty man who knew his self worth and wasn't afraid to break the conventional norms of the time if it meant making history, arguable the greatest example of this would of be that time on June 1st 1961, when the promoters of the NWA made the choice to put the wildly popular Rogers in a match against Pat O' Connor for the NWA World Championship which saw Rogers become the new champion.

However, this decision would come back to bite the NWA in the ass as Buddy Rogers was beginning to realize how much of a draw he was and decided that he wanted to work for more money and wrestle in territories throughout the northeast as opposed those in the South and Midwestern areas (aka the territories that were supported or owned by the NWA).

This drew the ire of many like Karl Gotch and Killer Kowalski who reportedly broke Buddy's hand and leg respectively over the Nature Boy's Maverick attitude. But the biggest critic would have to be none other than Lou Thesz who was given an title shot at the behest of the NWA's Board of Directors who were looking to make sure that Buddy dropped the belt in a clean fashion.

To make sure that this clean title win would happen, the higher-ups of the NWA decided to put a few caveats into the match including a Twenty-Five Thousand dollar loss of income if Rogers tried any funny business. The match took place and Thesz became the NWA World Champion but that win by Lou Thesz would led to a trickle down effect that who change everything.

Promoters Toots Mondt and Vince McMahon Sr. weren't to happy with the title change as they knew Rogers was a bigger draw, unfortunately the issues between Mondt, McMahon and the rest of the NWA Broad of Directors over this decision with the NWA title led to McMahon and Mondt leaving to create their own promotion known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) before becoming the WWF and later the WWE.

The NWA would fall into decline in the following decades after this title change, ultimately becoming an instrument for brand new companies like ECW, WCW and TNA to get a level of credibility before carving out their own legacies in the industry.

On a more positive note, the NWA was revived by Smashing Pumpkins Lead Singer Billy Corgan in 2019 and has been going on successfully ever since.

9. WCW's Racism Lawsuit

When discussing WCW and controversy you either think of: The Finger Poke of Doom, David Arquette or Vince Russo as World Champion, Hulk Hogan being Hulk Hogan or Jim Herd firing Ric Flair while still being the world champion. But, perhaps surprisingly...or unsurprisingly a Southern based wrestling promotion would get hit with a large lawsuit due to issues regarding race and the treatment/booking of minorities in the company.

In the 2000's, ten current or former WCW wrestlers including Thunderbolt Patterson, Sonny Onoo and Hardbody Harris banded together a filed a lawsuit against WCW and various other Ted Turner subsidiaries like Turner Sports Inc., Turner Broadcasting and Turner Entertainment Group for numerous claims that were all racial influenced or motivated.

The claims that the workers brought up in court ranged from unequal treatment in work place, having predominately white officials and employees using inappropriate jokes and language, witnessing wrestlers of color getting fired for little to no reason, reduced payment and pushes compared to white wrestlers and plans to use wrestling minorities in angles that were blatantly racist among others.

While the claims made by the plaintiffs were damning issues would arise as on April 3rd 2001, the judge decided that World Championship Wrestling did not commit any acts of fraud or breach of contract when it came to the employees, however that didn't mean those who were accused got away scot-free as the judge maintained that the discrimination part of the lawsuit would still be proceeding as followed.

To complicate matters even more, the WWE purchased WCW's assets on March 26, 2001 which could of led to the suit ending with no resolution, undeterred by this the workers decided that if this case ended without a proper conclusion then they would sue the WWE as well.

By 2003, the case was settled with all of the workers involved in the suit were being paid an undisclosed amount of money while also signing a non disclosure agreement that was attached to it as well, there by ending the case with the plaintiffs getting what they felt was owed to them.

8. One Crazy Night At McDonald's

The names Ken Patera and Masa Saito were highly regarded stars in the 70's and 80's with both men becoming legends in American and Japanese wrestling whilst achieving feats like Patera being the first and only man to hold the WWF Intercontinental Championship and the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship at the same time and Saito competing in the 1964 Summer Olympics.

However, a violent altercation with the police following an insane trip to McDonald's would see the two wrestlers not only behind bars but go down into infamy.

On April 6th, 1984 Patera and Saito were in Waukesha Wisconsin following a recent wrestling event and the pair decided to leave their hotel room to go out for a late night snack and the place they choose was a nearby McDonald's.

Upon arriving at McDonald's, the pair were told by employees that the fast food joint was closing down for the night (the time they went there was midnight by the way); Enraged over this, Patera did the only sensible thing a person who was craving for something to eat at 12:00 at night would do... he presumably walked away, came back a few minutes later and returned...with a 30 pound rock and chucked it into the drive thru window of the aforementioned McDonald's.

Realizing what the hell Ken Patera just did, the duo quickly made it back to the hotel but not before the employees, who were still in shock over the whole rocking throwing thing called the police and informed them about the incident.

Two Wisconsin police officers were called and went to the hotel looking for the wrestlers; After finding their location, the officers went to go and get them; Unfortunately for the police they had no idea how bad the situation was going to be.

After Saito answered the door, he began threatening the cops which as you could imagine wasn't a smart idea; Violence started to erupt with Saito and Patera repeatedly slamming the head of a nineteen year old female police officer into a wall resulting in her getting a concussion, broken teeth and an injury to her appendix.

More police we called to the hotel in order to settle they issue but that's when things got even worse... Patera, Saito and the cops engaged in an all-out brawl which saw four out of the thirteen police officers being sent to the hospital.

Eventually, it took the remaining cops to arrest and handcuff both Patera and Saito and the two would end up going to court the next year.

The verdict saw both men being charged for resisting arrest, obstruction as well as assault and battery; The jury found them guilty and the two men were forced to serve two years in prison while also being forced to serves six years of probation.

7. Dirty Business, Dirty Dealings

Danno O' Mahony was a man from West County Cork in Ireland who took up the art of pro wrestling in the 1930's and is credited for using "The Irish Whip", a move that has become commonplace in wrestling today.

Although he was inexperience compared to other wrestlers, O' Mahony, under the management of promoter Paul Bowser was the next big thing in wrestling with the biggest win of his career came in June of 1935 when he defeated fellow wrestler, Jim Londos to become the world champion.

O' Mahony was a popular draw in the early stages of pro wrestling however, his popularity would be short lived due to the fact that he no longer felt like a major draw in the eyes of the fans following his championship win.

Not to mention that Danno was having issues with his visa as well having promoters like Billy Sandow come out and openly criticized the Irishmen for his lack of wrestling skills.

This led to many promoters at the time scheming of ways to get the belt off of him.

During a title match between O' Mahony and Dick Shikat (another wrestler who was managed by Bowser), Shikat "went into business for himself" and began to outwrestle and legitimately hurt O' Mahony in the ring which resulted in him becoming the new champion before making the shocking decision to auction off the title to various promoters including Billy Sandow.

Though a series of no showing events and dirty dealings, the issue regarding the belt and who exactly was the champion would eventually lead to a court case that hindered the popularity of the sport.

O' Mahony's career didn't last long after this as he would continue to compete in the ring until his retirement in the 1940's, tragically he would die do to injuries he suffered in a car crash.

6. The Death of Frankie Townsend

A former US marine who became a multi-talented wrestler in the 1960's, Frankie Townsend was known for his good looks, agile nature and his tremendous singing skills, so much so that he was called "The Singing Wrestler" and he even managed to score a deal with Fontana Records to which led to hit songs like "I'm the Greatest" and "At the End of a String".

One of his favorite past times was sailing on the high seas and competing in yacht races, however it's this past time that ultimately led to his mysterious demise.

In May of 1965, Townsend and his crew boarded a yacht called the "Dorado" and were set to compete in another thrilling chase that went all the way through Washington State, however the rough waters that the crew experienced that day led to the death of "The Singing Wrestler" after falling overboard into the ocean.

Although the crew tried to save Townsend, it proved to be unsuccessful as Frankie's body was lost at sea and was never recovered; Theories about Townsend, who was unmarried and had no children persisted as rumors of him having affairs with various woman would run rapid.

In one case, it's believed that one of those women were rumored to be the wife of one of the sailors who accompanied Frankie on his fatal yacht trip in 1965.

Due to a lack of evidence, there was no investigation of any kind; The mystery over Townsend's death remains unsolved and will most likely stay that way forever more.

5. Pulling Back The Curtain On Professional Wrestling

Tiger Mask is a legendary figure in the sport of professional wrestling who has had various different men wear the mask and continue on the legacy through a series of an amazing matches both in his native land of Japan and in the United States.

However in 1983, Satoru Sayama the original Tiger Mask shocked Japanese fans when he left New Japan Pro Wrestling for the Universal Wrestling Federation which was created by disgruntled NJPW wrestlers who had left the promotion to create a "more realistic style of wrestling" a style that Sayama wanted to have in his matches that he felt he wasn't getting NJPW.

Unfortunately, this major signing for Japan's UWF didn't go exactly as planned as many of Saymara's ideas for the promotion felt more ego driven than anything else and after a match with Japanese star, Akira Maeda in September of 1985 which got more realistic and hard hitting due to some stiff kicks to Saymara's groin. He would become embittered with the sport and left the UWF a year later.

But if you thought that was bad, this larger than life wrestler committed one of the most heinous acts in the history of the wrestling...He exposed the business.

In 1985, a book called 'Kayfabe' was made by Saymara, in which he revealed in the ins and outs of the wrestling business at the time with the hope of exposing the industry as a nothing more but a sham...As you could probably imagine this pissed off a lot of promoters and wrestlers who did everything in their power to keep the illusion of Pro Wrestling being a legitimate sport alive.

Following this, Saymara left the pro wrestling business behind him and began his new career as an instructor of martial arts after founding the organization known as 'Shooto', but he would leave in 1995 following issues he had with the board of directors; Saymara would return to wrestling in 95 and would continue to wrestle with his last match happening in 2016.

4. Edward Wright and the WWA

Unless you're a wrestling historian or you do a lot of research like me, then it's safe to say that you probably have never heard of Edward "Bearcat" Wright, who was a draw in pro wrestling in the 1960's.

Wright was a second generation boxer who turned to wrestling in the late 1950's after finishing his career off with an 8-0 win/loss record. The former boxer wasn't the most technical when it came to wrestling but his six foot six, near 300 pound frame was enough to catch the attention of fans and promoters alike.

He would wrestle against other black wrestlers during this time as segregation was still rapid in the wrestling world, that was until Edward Wright made a shocking announcement during a show in Gary Indiana where he refused to wrestle in 'Black Only' matches going forward.

This saw Wright getting banned by the State Athletics Commission but he would find success in other promotions and even inspired names like Thunderbolt Patterson and Bobo Brazil to do the same.

Wright would wrestle in various promotions like Big Time Wrestling and Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA), defeating such legendary names like Killer Kowalski and "Classy" Freddie Blassie.

In fact, his win over Blassie saw "Bearcat" Wright become the first black man to win the WWA world Heavyweight championship; So why is he forgotten in the annuals of history...Well that might have something to do with the fact he got blacklisted from sport.

Following his historic championship title win over Freddie Blassie, "Bearcat" Wright inexplicably refused to defend his title against other competitors and in some cases he would no show events.

Although the reasons for Wright's refusal to defend his title were never explained, his attitude about the whole situation plus, the frustration by wrestlers and promoters alike led to rumors of Wright being difficult to work and thus, plans to get the belt off of him were already in the works.

The promoters of WWA got a individual by the name of "Judo" Gene LeBell to take care of there problem with Edward Wright.

LeBell, who had experience in martial arts was tasked with making sure that Wright dropped the belt to his opponent Edouard Carpentier, however, Wright had a feeling that something was wrong and as a result he didn't go the ring.

The promoters saw this as an opportunity and thus, stripped the title off of Wright and awarded it to Carpentier.

After this, Edward Wright would be blackballed from various territories but, would find success in the Southern territory areas of the U.S. before passing away at the age of 50 in 1982, but was immortalized following the announcement that he would be inducted into the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame.

3. The Boys On The Tracks

In 2018, retired pro wrestler, Billy Jack Haynes revealed a shocking secret when talking about his involvement in a drug smuggling ring that happened in the late 1980's.

According to a recorded confession that he made to a local Arkansas news station "ArkansaMatters", Haynes revealed that during the 1980's he had a side job as a cocaine trafficker and would also serve as an enforcer to any drug deals that he would be hired for; In the confessions, Haynes talks about being hired to be the muscle for an unnamed male politician who was involved in the drug trade and was suspicious about how a recent flow of drug money managed to disappear.

On August 23rd 1987, the former professional wrestler reportedly witness the deaths of two teenaged boys who were supposedly killed under the orders of this unnamed politician before their bodies were then dumped onto to train tracks and left to be crushed by an oncoming locomotive.

The boys, later identified as Larry Kevin Ives and Don Henry were out late at night in the woods in Little Rock Arkansas but sadly they never returned; around 4 a.m. the engineer of the oncoming train reported that something was placed side by side on the train tracks with a large tarp on top it however, the train couldn't be stopped and the boys bodies were ran over.

A medical examiner ruled the boys deaths as an accident or suicide due to a reported amount of Marijuana, however the families of the deceased children refuse to believe these claims and after a few more autopsies into the boy remains it revealed that they actually cause of death was homicide.

In the interview Haynes is very nervous about his retelling of the story as he remarks during the confessions with the line: "I'm standing here putting my life on the line, telling you that I could very well be killed".

Although questions regarding Haynes' reasoning for the devolving the is information decades later is unknown, the case remains unsolved and is seen as one of Arkansas most chilling crime in it's history.

2. Kensuke Saski's Murder Allegations

Kensuke Saski is up there with names like Tiger Mask as one of the all-time best performers in Japanese Wrestling, who's in-ring style has led to critical acclaim and success around the globe, But like all legends, they tend to have something in their careers that they'd like to keep secret and for Saski it's the possibility that he was responsible for the death of a young NJPW trainee.

In 1995, Hiromitsu Gompei was starting out in the business and was reportedly under the watchful eye of Saski while he was training in the dojo; However one of these training sessions resulted in Gompei's death and a possible cover up.

As the story goes, Gompei's skills weren't reaching the levels that other NJPW trainees would have reached and reportedly Saski beat up the young star giving him such brain/head trauma that it resulted in his death.

Although, various wrestlers believe that Saski was responsible for Hiromitsu's death, the former WCW and NJPW Champion was never charged with for the incident and even today very few know about the horrific incident that may or may not of involved one of NJPW's most popular stars.

1. The First Ever Screw Job

72 years before Vincent Kennedy McMahon shocked the wrestling world with the infamous Montreal Screw Job at Survivor Series 1997, there was another act of double crossing and conspiracy that shook the wrestling world to it's very core.

In the early 1900's, a man called Edward "The Strangler" Lewis was seen as a remarkable athlete thanks his amazing technical abilities in the ring which led him to being seen by some as a shoot style wrestler aka a wrestler who could illegitimately beat someone up if they refused to do business or if they got out of line.

By the 1910's into the early 1920's Lewis was the world heavyweight champion and he defeated all of his opponents to the applause of the fans in attendance as well as the approval of the Gold Dust Trio, who were the big bosses of the wrestling business at the time.

However, the problem was that despite Lewis being a popular figure in the sport, his matches were way too long and boring (even for early pro wrestling standards); This resulted in ticket sales and fan interest dwindling at a rapid pace, so in order to fix that predicament the Gold Dust Trio devised a plan where The Strangler would lose the championship belt to an unknown person in a dirty fashion, which would spark interest in eyes of fans.

The opponent chosen for the title match was Wayne Munn, a Nebraskan native who was a star athlete in college football but an inexperience green horn when it comes to wrestling. On January 8th 1925 the title match between Wayne Munn and Edward Lewis took place and in a result that surprised wrestling fans at the time, this unknown journeyman wrestler defeated The Strangler to become the new world champion after muscling out of Lewis's offense and "injuring" him.

With a new champion crowd and a rematch between Lewis and Munn set for the foreseeable future, the plan was to build up the creditability and likability of the new champion in the led up to the rematch thus making it the most highly anticipated rematch in wrestling history, however unbeknownst to Munn, Lewis and the Gold Dust Trio a plan was being hatched that would put a damper on their plans.

During his tour as world champion, Munn was set to take on 46 year old Polish wrestler, Stanislaus Zbyszko in a 2 out of 3 falls rematch for the world championship. On April 15th 1925, the challenger was set to lose the match in order to build up the new champion but to the surprise of all in the know, Zybyszko went against the original idea and outwrestled Munn in a way that completely exposed the champion and pinned him multiple times leading to the referee (who was in on the ruse set up by the trio) refusing to count the pin whicg caused fans to erupt in angry as they would shout and yell at the referee to make the count.

Left with no choice, the referee made the count and Zybysko won the first round; Despite attempts made by Munn's manager to get the match called off following the first fall, the match continued on with Zybysko defeating Munn for the second and final fall of the match and as a result Stanislaus Zbyszko became the new world heavyweight champion...so what the heck happened?

As it turns out Zbyszko did indeed agree to the planned finish but the so called "King of Poland" was paid a considerable amount of money by another wrestling camp to switch allegiances and double cross the Gold Dust Trio by winning the match and the title.

The mastermind behind this whole conspiracy plot was a pro wrestler called Joe Stecher, who held a grudge against Edward Lewis following a match between the two men back in 1916; Seeing an opportunity to undermine the competition, Stecher and his camp paid Zbyszko to "shoot" on Munn in the match resulting in Wayne getting embarrassed and the new champion jumping ship to enemy territory.

Once Zbyszko joined Stecher's wrestling camp, a match was made which led to Stecher beating Stanislaus to become the new world champion (a moment that must of enraged Edward Lewis and The Gold Dust Trio in seeing the enemy holding their world title).

Eventually through a series of negotiations, a match was set between Lewis and Stecher for the world heavyweight championship which saw The Strangler defeated Stecher for the belt.

The repercussions following this scandal was felt for decades as the wrestling world would continue to endure shady business dealings thanks to greed and ego from The Fabulous Moolah defeating Wendy Richter for the WWF Women's Championship in the mid 1980's to the Montreal Screw job to the finish of the WCW championship match at Starrcade 1997 the Stanislaus Zbyszko Screw Job is considered the most infamous scandal in the sports history and would set the foundation for many of the scandals that would come after it.