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Post by jimfear on Dec 26, 2009 17:28:52 GMT -5
Earlier today I was reading a review for an ROH show that mentioned a joke or reference made on commentary about Dino Bravo and the Montreal Mob. It got me thinking....how many other times have organized crime and pro wrestling crossed paths? I've heard the Yakuza used to have quite a stranglehold on business in Japan. What instances can you guys think of?
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Dec 26, 2009 17:36:10 GMT -5
I've heard that supposedly Jacques Rougeau had a hit put on the Dynamite Kid.
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Post by BitterAF on Dec 26, 2009 18:13:51 GMT -5
When Jericho was in Japan, he was playing catch with a flower pot with someone else (Benoit maybe?). Anyway, it fell and broke in the street. A limo came up shortly after and made them clean it up. The mob helped whatever Japanese company it was help sell tickets and sat in the front row.
Not a real serious one, but if it happened to me, it would be a funny story to tell later on.
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Post by Limity (BLM) on Dec 26, 2009 18:18:18 GMT -5
According to Zbysko's autobiography (yes, I read it...), he was with Bruno Sammartino and met some high up in the Italian mob once. According to Zbysko Sammartino was close with them.
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jobber2thestars
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Post by jobber2thestars on Dec 26, 2009 18:35:34 GMT -5
I read Tajiri refused to do a Yakuza gimmick, due to his being afraid of the actual organization.
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Post by kennerado on Dec 26, 2009 18:48:09 GMT -5
Thats true, Jimmy Yang and the other dude were meant to be Yakuza members in the storyline.
The most well known one I can think of is when Sabu beat the shit out of a Yakuza member sitting front row, after the show they went after him and Mike Awesome saved him.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 9:56:28 GMT -5
According to Zbysko's autobiography (yes, I read it...), he was with Bruno Sammartino and met some high up in the Italian mob once. According to Zbysko Sammartino was close with them. *Fred Blassie mentioned "organized crime" a few times in his book, one story involving Bruno in the mid-60s. "Bruno always had a huge entourage hanging around him. When he'd go to a town, the most powerful Italians would latch themselves onto him and decided they were his protectors, whether Bruno liked it or not. Some of the guys were businessmen, some were politicial types, and some others - I'm sure - were mobsters. I'm not implying that Bruno would ever have any dealings with the mafia on his own. Bruno had gotten so famous that he couldn't always pick the boneheads from the rest." In this particular story, Fred won a match by count-out in Roosevelt Stadium when he heeled Sammartino in the nuts while the referee was distracted. Back in the dressing room, Blassie realized he was in the wrong one. They had no connecting hallways, so he was stuck with a bunch of these people, kayfabing his gimmick as Bruno was being hauled in on a stretcher. "Typical Italian stunt! You hit a guy in the neck, he grabs his balls!" One of the men was Jilly Rizzo, Frank Sinatra's #1 sidekick and the owner or his own saloon. He heard Blassie say that and whipped out a gun. "[Expletive deleted], I'll kill that sonuvabitch!" Bruno kayfabed him. "No. Let me take care of him in the ring." *Lou Albano was 1/2 of a tag team known as The Sicilians, holding the WWWF United States tag team titles in 1967. (They didn't have a World tag title until 1971.) They would wear white fedoras and a black glove. Before their match, they would raise the gloved hand and mutter "Mafia." That stopped when Lou was approached by some guys in the Chicago syndicate who represented Tony Accaro, the big-time boss of the group. "You're degrading the Italians," he was told. "There's no such thing as the Mafia; we're legitimate businessmen." Lou cut a deal with the guys so they could still be The Sicilians, but they had to get rid of the black glove. *There were also some stories dealing with the Yakuza in Japan. At one time, he beat up on some members (unknowingly) as they stumbled around drunk in the street and refused to move. The chief boss sent a message, "He likes you, Mr. Blassie. He just ask that you no longer beat up on his men." "If they agree to no longer tie up traffic in the street, then I will no longer hit them." 'I know what he was doing. He was trying to save face. After that he sent all kinds of gifts and offered to introduce me to more women...Respectfully, I took them up on their offer many times.''
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biafra
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Post by biafra on Dec 27, 2009 10:45:17 GMT -5
There was something in the first Foley book about him eating dinner with some Yakuza members and the guys slipping the guy he was with a roll of money.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 27, 2009 12:07:43 GMT -5
There was something in the first Foley book about him eating dinner with some Yakuza members and the guys slipping the guy he was with a roll of money. Tiger Jeet Singh was his eating companion. It's disputed how much influence the Yakuza has in professional wrestling in Japan, but I'd venture the guess they are still there. Mike Awesome, Tajiri, and many others were very fearful of crossing them, and I'd say that was probably prudent on their part, given what happened to Rikidozan, this was certainly prudent.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 12:12:55 GMT -5
It seems like I remember reading a story on here a while back about Bob Orton having a run in with the Yakuza, but I can't remember what happened. Maybe someone else can recall it.
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The OP
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Post by The OP on Dec 27, 2009 13:07:35 GMT -5
Personally, I wouldn't find it hard to believe if all forms of for-profit sports and entertainment have had or maybe even continue to have connections to organized crime at some level.
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Post by Galluchadore on Dec 27, 2009 13:54:23 GMT -5
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the most incident involving the Yakuza and Rikidozan.
"On December 8, 1963, while partying in a Tokyo nightclub, Rikidōzan was stabbed with a urine-soaked blade by gangster Katsuji Murata who belongs to Bōryokudan Sumiyoshi-ikka. Reportedly, Rikidōzan threw Murata out of the club and continued to party, refusing to seek medical help.Another report states that Rikidōzan did indeed see his physician shortly after the incident, and was told the wound was not serious. He died a week later of peritonitis on December 15. It is rumored by Kimura that his murder was in retaliation for when Rikidozan attacked Kimura during a wrestling match (ignoring the pre-agreed arrangement and attacking Kimura for real)."
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 15:44:17 GMT -5
Yeah the only one I heard about was the one with The Sicialians
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Triple Kelly
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Post by Triple Kelly on Dec 27, 2009 16:17:09 GMT -5
Shoichi Arai, the President of FMW, owed a lot of money to Yakuza-connected organizations and hung himself soon after FMW closed.
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Post by Perigryn on Dec 27, 2009 19:14:18 GMT -5
There was a story that Onita planned to lure Invader 2 to a match in Japan and have him murdered by Yakuza for what he did to Bruiser Brody.
Would the Messiah (XPW) incident count?
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Post by chunkylover53 on Dec 28, 2009 0:25:04 GMT -5
The Full Blooded Italians were a Mafia-like stable, does that count?
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Post by johnnytightlips on Dec 28, 2009 1:29:47 GMT -5
After watching Kevin Nash's shoot interview, I was thinking of starting a thread about this. He was talking about some show in Montreal and something about nobody didn't want to do a job there because of the mafia, I didn't exactly remember what he said.
In Sabu's shoot, he said that he & Hayabusa (I think) had a meeting with the Yakuza in a hotel.
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 28, 2009 1:55:57 GMT -5
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the most incident involving the Yakuza and Rikidozan. "On December 8, 1963, while partying in a Tokyo nightclub, Rikidōzan was stabbed with a urine-soaked blade by gangster Katsuji Murata who belongs to Bōryokudan Sumiyoshi-ikka. Reportedly, Rikidōzan threw Murata out of the club and continued to party, refusing to seek medical help.Another report states that Rikidōzan did indeed see his physician shortly after the incident, and was told the wound was not serious. He died a week later of peritonitis on December 15. It is rumored by Kimura that his murder was in retaliation for when Rikidozan attacked Kimura during a wrestling match (ignoring the pre-agreed arrangement and attacking Kimura for real)." I actually did bring it up earlier, but I neglected to mention Kimura's statement that Rikidozan deliberately making him look bad was a possible factor.
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deeks
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Post by deeks on Dec 28, 2009 2:30:26 GMT -5
There was a story that Onita planned to lure Invader 2 to a match in Japan and have him murdered by Yakuza for what he did to Bruiser Brody. The real story was that Onita was looking for a huge money making match for FMW's one year anniversary show at the Sumo Hall in 1990. Since the Brody murder was still fresh in wrestling fans minds and covered in Japan, Onita decided to exploit it. He flew, with a bunch of Japanese media, to Puerto Rico to do an angle with Brody's murderer Jose Gonzalez(Invader I). After a joint press conference between Onita's FMW and Gonzalez's WWC, Onita was attacked by Gonzalez and some WWC staffers in a manner that was suppose to remind everyone of the Brody murder that occurred two years earlier. Onita made sure to smear the blood from his head wound over his chest to give the appearence that Gonzalez had stabbed him in the chest and stomach with a knife like Brody. Onita then tried to find a doctor to give him stitches for better pictures, but was refused stitches in every hospital because the wound was so small. Onita finally paid one doctor to give him two stitches for the pics. The idea was that Invader I would show up Japan and face Onita in FMW to try to "finish" the job. Onita would then get revenge for both he and Brody by beating Gonzalez in some stupid FMW deathmatch. Meanwhile both Onita and Gonzalez would make a good deal of money capitalizing on Brody's murder. Once the bloody Onita pictures ran in Japanese wrestling magazines, with the titles reading, "Brody killer tries to take out Onita" Japanese fans were disgusted since Brody was a beloved figure. Onita quietly stopped the angle and didn't book Gonzalez for the show. To save face, Onita then concocted the story that he was only trying to lure Gonzalez to Japan so the Yakuza could kill him for Brody's murder. Typical BS from Onita.
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Dave at the Movies
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Post by Dave at the Movies on Dec 28, 2009 2:52:59 GMT -5
I liked Jericho's story. He said that the Yakuza guys wore Cosby sweaters which is kind of funny. lol
I also heard once I think it was in Hogan's first book him talking about a guy who had a Hell's Angels gimmick. Now for those familiar with Hell's Angels should know that in biker gangs their logo, patch, or more commonly used term colors are very important and they don't take kindly to people wearing it. Some guy had a Hell's Angels gimmick(I don't think it was Adonis but it might have been) and the Hell's Angels beat the crap out of'em for it and almost killed him.
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