the darkside of wrestling

For the people born in the 80s and 90s, I think it's safe to assume that most of us grew up watching the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), which lost its name in 1994 because of a trademark confusion with another WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) in the UK, and eventually became WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in 2002.

And by default, we all had our favorite wrestlers. Mine was Chris Benoit.

For me, Chris Benoit was a symbol of strength, aggression and my impending manhood.

Who can forget his iconic storyline win in Wrestlemania XX?

The struggle was felt as he was placed as the number 1 entry (who would need to throw 29 more wrestlers over the top rope thereafter) in the Royal Rumble and actually won it, then dramatically went on to claim his prize at the biggest stage of them all, Wrestlemania (XX), winning the World Heavy Weight Championship belt against Triple H and Shawn Michaels in the Classic Triple Threat Match.

I actually cried at this moment. With confetti flying around the arena, Eddie Guerrero, his long time buddy (whom shortly just won the WWE Championship belt from the match before), congratulates him on stage.. this will forever remain one of the best, if not the best, moments in Wrestlemania and WWF/WWE history.

Or not.

The WWE has removed all their connections with Chris Benoit and even cut this rare, iconic, and classic moment out of Wrestlemania. The WWE has erased him from the company's history. Why? because over a three-day period from June 22 to 24, a family was found dead with bibles lying down along side them. The perpetrator was found to have committed suicide, hanged by his neck on a weight lifting machine. It all happened, in Good Old JR's terms: "OUTTA NOWHERE!", and the perpetrator was the Rabid Wolverine himself.

(the author is aware that that JR reference was kind of tasteless)

This is the Darkside of Wrestling.

Other stories exist but none are as absurdly gory as with the ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), the bloody hardcore brand that ultimately died in 2001 and acquired and rewired by the WWE company in 2003, with its 'wrestlers' named Abdullah the Butcher and New Jack.

Abdullah the Butcher arrived in the ECW on 1993, involved in storylines with Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, and Kevin Sullivan (who is also a part of a conspiracy story concerning Chris Benoit's death). Abdullah the Butcher's signature and recognizable trademarks are his scars because of his excessive blading (how wrestlers make themselves bleed during matches) and using a metal fork as a weapon to stab his opponent's heads.

Abdullah's habit of cutting people was all fine and dandy (I guess) for his opponents, but he overlooked one important detail: he had Hepatitis C. All the wrestlers he used his own blade on had their blood in contact with his and automatically got infected. Talk about evil.

Here is a sample of one of his matches:

Next we have New Jack, dubbed by a lot as The Most Violent Man in Wrestling. He became famous in the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand and was notorious for having a stiff hardcore wrestling style that actually hurt his opponents.

A quick search of his name on Youtube will take you to some of the most violent clips in wrestling history.

With titles like "New Jack Attacks Pro Wrestler With A Knife - Rare Footage", "ECW New Jack Violent Moment", and "The Most Shocking Pro Wrestling Match Ever"(Where he almost kills a 69-year old wrestler), being the top three results, you know that he was a guy that did not f☠ck (this is a Stone Cold reference) around.

If you are interested and want to watch some of his matches, you could search his name on Liveleak.com (yes, the home of uncensored terrorist videos) for full length streams of his matches.

Being a huge fan of wrestling and a huge-r fan of horror, all of my favorite wrestlers, though coincidentally, mingle with the dark side. Chris Benoit (with that dark end to his career), Kane, Gangrel, and Goldberg (who starred in the Horror B-movie "Santa's Slay", horrific) are my favorite wrestlers.

Born from this sudden realization, here is a short comprehensive list of wrestlers influenced by the horror genre:

The Undertaker

One half of the Brothers of Destruction, hailing from Death Valley, Texas, The Undertaker is regarded as one of the best wrestlers of all time. From the year 1990, The Undertaker character has gone through a lot different phases namely: Western Mortician (90-91), The Deadman (94-96), Lord of Darkness (96-99), The American Bad-Ass or Biker Taker (00-01), Big Evil (01-03), before going back and staying as The Dead Man. The Undertaker is one of the most protected properties of the WWE, only losing his 21-year WrestleMania win streak recently to Brock Lesnar. His trademark moves are the Tombstone and the Last Ride.

KANE

The other half of The Brothers of Destruction, standing 7ft Tall, The Big Red Machine! According to the story line, Kane is Undertaker's half-brother. Kane debuted as a pyromaniac at the "In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker" pay-per-view event. Before then though, he was a maniacal Dentist, with his entrance theme being the sound of a dentist's drill (horrifying). Nowadays Glenn Jacobs, the one that played Kane, is the Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

Paul Bearer

Served as the manager of Kane, Mankind, and most famously, of The Undertaker. He carried The Undertaker's urn around and presented him every time he entered the ring. Until The Undertaker decided to bury him under cement in front of a live audience that is. If it isn't that glaringly obvious yet, his name is a play on the word 'Pallbearer'.

MANKIND

A mentally deranged schizophrenic who constantly squealed (even throughout his matches), shrieked "Mommy!", spoke to a rat named George, enjoyed pain, physically abused himself (such as by pulling out his hair), wore a mask and lived in boiler rooms

Mankind was originally conceived as a mentally disturbed man in a leather mask and chains but the WWF deemed it too dark and only left the mask. He is one of the most iconic and important wrestlers in the WWF and ECW participating in seminal specialty matches like the first ever Buried Alive match with The Undertaker in 1996, and even having his own specialty match called the Boiler Room Brawl. Mick Foley has three different faces: Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love, all of them tough as nails and hardcore. But the most memorable one is still Mankind. He survived several controversial matches like falling off the center of the 20 ft cage of the Hell in a Cell match, being smacked 10x in the head by a steel chair (his family hated The Rock for a while), and various matches concerning fire, barbed wire to the skin, and thumb tacks. If you ever feel underappreciated for your hard work, think of Mick Foley.

GANGREL

Part of The Brood (with Edge and Christian) and later The Ministry of Darkness (with The Undertaker), Gangrel was one of the most terrifying things on live television. Having real fangs, drinking blood in a chalice, and entering the ring from underground. Gangrel's name was taken from a faction in the role playing game Vampire: The Masquerade.

VISCERA

Viscera was also part of The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness where his role was the enforcer. He would later take on the name Big Daddy Voodoo, shorten it to Big Daddy V, and later return again as Viscera (but now as a ladies' man).

The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman debuted in the WWE through promos (what the WWE calls its storyline archs) where he came out of unexpected places like closets, vans, etc chanting a modified version Friday the 13th's One, Two, Freddy's coming for you.. and other nursery rhymes before smacking clocks to his head. His ring entrance is a memorable one: He crawls to the stage with live worms in his mouth while pink smoke envelops the place. His catchphrase is the rather lackluster "I'm The Boogeyman and I'm comin' to get'cha!"

Finn Bálor

Gaelic for "Demon King", Finn Bálor is one of the new breed of wrestlers that sparked me and my sister's interest in wrestling. So much that we actually bought tickets to WWE in Manila, but his appearance got cancelled because of a leg injury. Sob. Good thing we got to see John Cena literally destroy the ring by doing the FU on Big Show (Throwback to the old times) as well as see and hear Chris Jericho's BREAK THE WALLS DOOWWWWNNN entrance live!

Finn Bálor's wrestling is an intense, fast-paced sight to behold. But what really hooked me and my sister was his creepy ring entrance shtick (refer to video above, start at 1:49, wix doesn't support direct timed links)

The Wyatt Family

And now for the creepiest and most disturbing incarnation of horror in modern day wrestling: The Wyatt Family. A backwoods-cult family straight out of 1972's Deliverance, these guys are the only reason I was interested in checking up with modern day wrestling. Their promos are genuinely the most unsettling videos in wrestling since the late 90s.

Check this out:

On a much, much lighter side, well for me, here are some notable movie spawns from a marriage of the Horror and Wrestling genre:

EL Santo and Blue Demon horror movies

El Santo and Blue Demon are two of the most famous and iconic Mexican luchadores with El Santo even being referred to as one of "the greatest legends in Mexican Sports".

I have seen a dozen of these, the most notable being Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters (1969), Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1972), Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1968), and the one I've watched with commentary courtesy of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Santo vs. the Vampire Women (1962).

These films are obviously fun to watch and there are a lot of them (over 50 I think), good luck with translations though.

Wanna-Be's (1986)

Don't let the cutesy poster fool you, this is a blend of horror and science fiction OVA from Japan. I saw this after writing the Anime Abandon article, and I've amassed a lot. It might be time for a follow-up article.

I end this post with.. whatever this is.

Artwork by SkyTwist

-Outré-