Wrestling is an intense world where the athleticism of the Olympics meets soap opera story arcs.
There's betrayal.
There's revenge.
There's ladders.
And you'd better believe there's amnesia.
With all of this bombastic spandex in play, it's easy to forget there are real people
inside these wrestling costumes, with lives that sometimes become every bit as dramatic
as the stories they're paid to act out.
Sometimes, all that intrigue comes to a head with the untimely passing of a wrestler, leaving
fans with more questions than answers.
Steve Bradley
Born Steven Bisson, the wrestler known as Steve Bradley had a tumultuous career.
He started wrestling professionally when he was just 15 years old and would wind up working
for Power Pro Wrestling and the WWF/WWE, feuding in the ring with Savio Vega and travelling
the world before being cut loose in 2002.
On the morning of December 4, 2008, Bradley's body was found in a parking lot in Manchester,
New Hampshire.
The lot was adjacent to a wrestling school he once operated, and there were no witnesses
to his passing.
Bradley had been indicted on possession of charges in the months before his passing,
a not-infrequent twist in the lives of athletes who suffer from chronic pain, but a cause
has never been determined.
Police cited no suspicion of foul play, and the passing of Steve Bradley remains a mystery
to this day.
Espectrito II and La Parkita
For the uninitiated, there's a subsect of luchador wrestling called Mini-Estrella, or
"Little Star," traditionally dedicated to wrestlers with dwarfism.
Two of the more prominent names in the sport were Espectrito II
and La Parkita, real-life twin brothers Alejandro and Alberto
Jimenez.
Alejandro was especially popular, eventually working with the WWF as "Mini Mankind."
After wrapping up a show in 2009, the Jimenez brothers were escorted back to their Mexico
City hotel room by a pair of pros, where the two women laced the brothers' drinks
with eye drops.
According to their later statements, they only intended to knock the Jimenez brothers
unconscious and rob them, but the dosage they used was intended for much larger people.
Both brothers were fatally poisoned, with some questions being raised about whether
their tragedy had anything to do with Alberto's recent interest in local politics.
Bruiser Brody
Even after 30 years, the deadly stabbing of Frank Donald Goodish, aka Bruiser Brody, remains
highly suspicious, in no small part because it occurred in close proximity to his colleagues,
and there's still no straight answer as to why it happened.
It was July 17, 1988, in Bayamon [bah-yah-MAWN], Puerto Rico.
Bruiser Brody was prepping for a match when he was approached by Jose Huertas Gonzalez,
a wrestling colleague known as Invader 1, who asked him to step into the shower area
to discuss a business proposition.
What happened next is unknown, but we know Gonzalez stabbed Brody and that the crowd
gathered for the event prevented paramedics from arriving in time to save his life.
Gonzalez pleaded self defense and was acquitted of a crime, after most of the American witnesses
didn't receive summons to testify in the case until after the trial was over.
Shady business.
La Fiera
Little is known about the death of luchador Arturo Casco Hernández, aka La Fiera.
He was a second-generation wrestler, the son of Hércules Poblano and brother to Ángel
Poblano, both luchadors themselves.
Arturo was probably the best known of the three, having held a couple of belts before
he went into soft retirement at the beginning of the 2000s.
And then on September 10th, 2010, he was found dead in Mexico City.
We know he was stabbed five times, and it's been speculated that he was attacked as a
result of his rumored involvement with hard drugs… but that's about it.
The truth has not yet come out.
Abismo Negro
Wrestler Andrés Alejandro Palomeque González, aka Abismo Negro, was on a tour bus just after
midnight in March 2009 when he started acting unusual.
According to witnesses, González suddenly became panicky and demanded to be let off,
despite the fact that the bus was in the middle of nowhere.
He got lost in the dark, and his body was later found floating face down in a nearby
river.
It's been speculated that Andrés was suffering a steroid-induced anxiety attack when he exited
the vehicle, but these reports were never confirmed as his cause of death was simply
listed as drowning.
The Benoit family
Seemingly out of nowhere on June 25th, 2007, a superstar 22-year veteran of professional
wrestling went from beloved icon to horrifying monster.
"Former champion Chris Benoit found in his Atlanta home along with his wife and young
son.
Police now treating the discovery as a double crime."
Over the next few days, it was revealed that Benoit had offed his wife, Nancy, on the night
of June 22nd, 2007.
The next morning, he sedated and offed their 7-year-old son, Daniel, then eventually took
his own life by hanging himself.
Relatives blamed drugs and drug-induced paranoia.
At 4:00 p.m. on June 25, the police arrived at the scene of the crime.
The news broke shortly after that.
Or it would have, if the news hadn't already broken half a day earlier on Wikipedia.
Hours before anyone supposedly knew about the deaths of Benoit, the Wikipedia entry
on Chris was edited by an anonymous source to include a line about the death of Nancy.
An investigation started immediately, with the culprit eventually turning out to be a
habitual Wikipedia editor who cited "rumors and speculation" from other websites.
People still wonder how that prediction was so eerily right.