Organised crime and professional wrestling

[The Reverend]

Although it may seem a silly subject for a thread, I am being serious. Has the world of organised crime crossed over into wrestling? With how big it was in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s I’m surprised that wrestling in New York never caught the eye of, also Big Apple based, the five families of the Mafia.

Considering it’s murky history, dodgy characters, and also huge profits, I can’t believe that there hasn’t been more of a criminal element involved in professional wrestling. I know of the Yakuza being fans in Japan, and may be even having some involvement. I remember reading an old Apter type mag that alleged that Bruno Sammartino may have had Mafia backing ala Frank Sinatra (although I’ll take it with a pinch of salt due to the source), and I’ve also heard that due to it being so profitable in the UK during the 60’s that the Krays had some interests in British wrestling. I seem to recall they may have used some wrestlers to work the doors at the clubs – makes sense I guess.

With its involvement in everything from the recording industry to porn, I’m surprised organised crime hasn’t been involved more – but perhaps that says more about wrestling, that it’s (was) so dirty, depraved and full of corrupt characters even gangsters wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole!  

[TibBo]

I guess one of the most profitable parts of getting involved with sports for the is the bet/match-fixing side, which is difficult when its all fixed anyway...
But there has been plenty of cross-over.  Not sure what you are looking for specifically but I think the WrestleMe Jimmy Saville Ep goes into some of the UK stuff.

[Merzbow]

46 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

I know of the Yakuza being fans in Japan, and may be even having some involvement.

You'd be lucky to find a promotion that didn't have Yakuza involvement, MMA too. A lot of it would be them forcing local stores to buy up blocks of tickets that would then be "given away" to customers etc.

The former owner of FMW took his own life to pay them back with his life insurance but even then the surviving family were having to pay them after.

[Carbomb]

2 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

You'd be lucky to find a promotion that didn't have Yakuza involvement, MMA too. A lot of it would be them forcing local stores to buy up blocks of tickets that would then be "given away" to customers etc.

The former owner of FMW took his own life to pay them back with his life insurance but even then the surviving family were having to pay them after.

Yeh, it was actually the revelation of Yak involvement that put paid to PRIDE - otherwise, they might have continued being the bigger MMA promotion and the UFC might have gone under.

I thought it was fairly well known that British wrestling had a significant gangster presence for a while; people like the Scarlos, Mick McManus, not to mention that Jimmy Savile was involved - I would not have been surprised if that was how he managed to cultivate the power base he did that made him untouchable until he died.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Was Dino Bravos connection to the Underworld through wrestling? I'm sure I read he ended up in with a dangerous couple of years that ended up with him winding up dead 

[TheScarlettChad]

Wasn't he invovled in cig smuggling? 

[Merzbow]

36 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Yeh, it was actually the revelation of Yak involvement that put paid to PRIDE - otherwise, they might have continued being the bigger MMA promotion and the UFC might have gone under.

I haven't kept up for many years now but did the same thing happen to DREAM? I recall RIZIN started from the ashes of both so it's now three big companies with some of the same guys running them.

I'd imagine it's tough to get anything done without them muscling their way in at some point, especially if you're in need of money.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

Was Dino Bravos connection to the Underworld through wrestling? I'm sure I read he ended up in with a dangerous couple of years that ended up with him winding up dead 

Not just dead….

1 hour ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Wasn't he invovled in cig smuggling? 

….. yes, which is why he was found with 11 bullets in him and surrounded by (IIRC) about 40 casings, in his own home. They made sure. According to Bret, he knew it was coming too.

And yes, Yakuza. There was always a rumour that “Mr G1” Masahiro Chono was a safe bet in certain big matches because he was their favourite wrestler.

[BomberPat]

I am writing something at the moment about wrestling connections to Soho, and there's a few wrestlers that were involved in protection rackets, and some that claimed closer connections to the Krays, but how much of that is genuine and how much is typical old London bullshitters doing the, "you knew where you stood with their lot, they were proper villains" routine is unclear.

Edited May 3 by BomberPat

[Carbomb]

45 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I haven't kept up for many years now but did the same thing happen to DREAM? I recall RIZIN started from the ashes of both so it's now three big companies with some of the same guys running them.

I'd imagine it's tough to get anything done without them muscling their way in at some point, especially if you're in need of money.

I didn't know much about DREAM, but it really would not surprise me.

[Merzbow]

32 minutes ago, air_raid said:

And yes, Yakuza. There was always a rumour that “Mr G1” Masahiro Chono was a safe bet in certain big matches because he was their favourite wrestler.

Shame they never came to the US to sort out Easy E for not booking him properly.

[The King Of Swing]

NOAH was also involved in some sort of Yakuza scandal. Think it actually cost the promotion it's TV deal.

[TAFKA Jonny Vegas]

8 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I thought it was fairly well known that British wrestling had a significant gangster presence for a while;  Mick McManus.

I'd be really interested to hear more on this? My Nan's boyfriend used to tell me stories about WOS when I was a kid and Mick McManus was a name that always stuck out. A quick Google and I couldn't find anything related!?

[air_raid]

12 hours ago, Merzbow said:

Shame they never came to the US to sort out Easy E for not booking him properly.

Good talent : getting sucked into the Jericho vortex since 1997.

[BomberPat]

following on from my earlier post:

A lot of old wrestlers were recruited by gangsters for odd jobs in London, much as boxers had been over the years. The slumlord Peter Rachman used Bert Assirati, Norbert Rondel (who wrestled as The Polish Eagle Vladimir Waldberg, and Peter Rann, as debt collectors and for protection rackets and intimidation.

Royston Smith, who wrestled as Fuzzyball Kaye, was a dwarf wrestler who definitely had some gangland connections, but they've probably been massively exaggerated - he claimed to have been an intimate associate of the Kray Twins, working as heavy for them among various other bits of criminal activity, but Charlie Kray claimed that he only ever met him once and that his claims were bollocks. Tony Scarlo claimed that he used to run wrestling shows on behalf of Reggie Kray, and that Royston Smith was their go-between and eventually fucked things up by trying to screw people out of money. Whether that's true, Scarlo bullshitting, or Smith getting one over on Scarlo by claiming Kray involvement, who knows.

There's a bit of old wrestling bollocks that the Kray Twins wanted to be wrestlers before they became boxers, as they idolised the Borg Twins. I think that's absolute bullshit, typical self-aggrandising wrestling lore to try and make wrestling seem important. If nothing else, the Borgs started wrestling a good ten years or more after the Krays started boxing.
 

Reggie Kray does seem to have promoted a couple of shows at York Hall, though - the only claim I can find for this is in the book "The Profession of Violence", and is more or less word-for-word what appears on the Wrestling Heritage website, though which came first I don't know; this also repeats the story of Royston Smith and Tony Scarlo's involvement, though gets Smith's name wrong, which isn't a great sign. The two shows likely happened, though one seems to be a charity event headlined by a Boxer vs. Wrestler match and was probably more of a boxing show than a wrestling show, and the other has a full card listed, but whether it's genuinely a Kray Twins deal I don't know.

 

In the United States, I wrote in my book about the Mabray Gang - they were a group that fixed sporting events all over the country, and a fair few big name wrestlers and promoters of the 1900s were involved. 

Beyond that, I actually doubt there would have been much involvement from major organised crime groups in American wrestling by the second half of the twentieth century. Groups like the Mafia may have owned a share of some of the venues or picking up concessions elsewhere, but mostly crime interests in sport were around securing gambling money, and that disappeared from wrestling around the 1920s. That said, I can't imagine Vince McMahon Sr. got as powerful as he did in New York without a back-hander here or there.

 

And then obviously in Japan, Rikidozan was murdered by a Yakuza thug.