Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling

By ALEX MARVEZ
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, May 17, 2007

They aren't the types of sordid stories that can be found on one of World Wrestling Entertainment's "historical" DVD releases.

"Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal" is comprised primarily of controversial free-lance magazine articles Irvin Muchnick has written over the past 19 years. Muchnick dishes dirt on alleged behind-the-scenes improprieties of well-known figures like WWE owner Vince McMahon, Jimmy Snuka, Hulk Hogan and the Von Erich family while also tackling such serious issues as the deregulation of pro wrestling by state athletic commissions and the rash of young-grappler deaths that have rocked the industry.

"There are some things real serious fans already know about, but it's a useful historical document having them all in one place," Muchnick said this week in a telephone interview. "Wrestling as an industry has reached a maturity where it finally has a history. I think there's a hunger for stories that tell us how we got from where we were in the mid-1980s to where we are today."

As the nephew of St. Louis promoter -- and former National Wrestling Alliance president -- Sam Muchnick, Irvin Muchnick was familiar with the industry's backstage workings before penning his first grappling article in the mid-1980s. That gave him a unique perspective when chronicling such topics as the steroid scandal that engulfed WWE in the early 1990s and the drug problems that contributed to the premature deaths of four Von Erich brothers (David, Kerry, Mike and Chris).

Muchnick, though, didn't have aspirations of following in his late uncle's footsteps. Instead, Muchnick made a name for himself as a free-lance author who now works as a self-described "writers'-rights advocate and activist" in Berkeley, Calif.

"I've always tried to have the perspective that wrestling tells us a lot about what's happening in the mainstream American spirit as well as societal and even political discourse," said Muchnick, 52. "I try to explain to people who would not be interested in the subject otherwise that they should be because of the footprint wrestling has left in American popular culture."

McMahon may want to stamp his footprint on Muchnick's chest for all the negative passages written about him in the 154-page book. But Muchnick said he gives McMahon credit for becoming the most successful wrestling promoter in history even though WWE's national expansion in the mid-1980s ruined the territorial system where his uncle once thrived.

"McMahon is just a little more ruthless and a little smarter than everyone else," Muchnick said. "It's time to give him credit for that."

"Wrestling Babylon" ($17.95; ECW Press) can be purchased at www.ecwpress.com.

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Sabu, three others cut by WWE: WWE has announced the release of Terry "Sabu" Brunk, Charles "2 Cold Scorpio" Skaggs, Vito LoGrasso and Rob Conway.

Brunk was one of the biggest names on the Extreme Championship Wrestling talent roster when WWE re-launched the brand last June. But Brunk was gradually phased out while younger talent like CM Punk, Elijah Burke and Marcus "Monty Brown" Cor Van received stronger pushes.

Skaggs was an ECW star in the mid-1990s who had spent almost all of the past decade working in Japan before signing with WWE last year. LoGrasso found some success as a cross-dressing grappler, while Conway's biggest success during his seven-year WWE run came as a three-time tag-team champion while teaming with Sylvain Grenier as Le Resistance.

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Questions and answers

Q: Whatever happened to Baby Doll? -- Jeremy Scott, Cooper City, Fla.

A: After almost a 20-year absence, Baby Doll (real name Nickla Roberts) has resurfaced on the independent scene in the Carolinas. Roberts, 45, was best-known as Tully Blanchard's valet during the mid-1980s.

(More of the Irvin Muchnick interview can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com. Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez c/o the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33301, or e-mailed to amarvez@sun-sentinel.com. Please include your full name and city of residence. Because of volume, no phone calls will be accepted and letters will not receive a written reply.)

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