:lol:
Match Fixing Scandal Rocks Professional Wrestling
The world of professional wrestling has been forced to defend its credibility after a former wrestler accused the sport of widespread match fixing last week. Gary Richards, who competed under the name Ice Man, made the allegations in a cover story article in ?Sports Illustrated.?
?Every single match in the sport?s history has had a predetermined outcome,? said Richards. ?Professional wrestling officials are completely open about this practice to the wrestlers and make no attempt to cover it up. It?s obscene and entirely against the spirit of athletics.?
The article states that Richards quit the sport late last year due to his guilt over taking part in fixed matches throughout his six-year career. ?I simply couldn?t look at myself in the mirror anymore,? he said. ?I was living a lie.?
Richards said he had an idea the sport wasn?t completely legitimate during his rookie year when World Wrestling Federation promoters required that he select a stage name and replace his wrestling singlet with a bright, sequined outfit that included a cape.
?I knew that professional sports have to worry about marketing and promotion, but it seemed a little excessive that they wanted me to change my name and dress like that,? he said.
Then, minutes before his first bout, Richards claims a WWF official told him he would pin his opponent, The Executioner, 30 seconds into the third round. ?At first it didn?t hit me what the guy was saying,? said Richards. ?I thought he was just kind of making a prediction. But then, exactly 30 second into the third round, I got The Executioner in a choke hold and he went down like a house of cards. I?m almost positive that he was in on the whole thing. It seems like too much of a coincidence.?
After several victories to start his career, Richards claims he got his first order to take a dive in his eighth match. ?I was supposed to get hit over the head with a folding chair, smash a blood packet over my head and then fall to the ground like I had been knocked out,? he said. ?Every fiber of my being screamed out that I shouldn?t go through with it, but I was too far inside the professional wrestling machine already. I was afraid what would happen to me if I didn?t do it. Maybe they would start hitting me with folding chairs that weren?t fake or something.?
But after his first loss, Richards said the match fixing got easier to take ? at least for a while. ?The money, the crowds, the women, the tights ? it was hard to give up,? he said. ?But my conscience eventually won out.?
Now Richards stands alone as the sole accuser of a sport long lauded for its ethics and credibility.
?Gary Richards, or The Iceman as he was known to us, is a bitter wrestler who is trying to besmirch the good name of one of America?s finest institutions,? said Vince McMahon, the CEO of the WWF. ?He was never able to win a belt and now he is trying to take the sport down with him. But he will not succeed. There is not the slightest shred of fact in anything he says.?
Richards said in the ?Sports Illustrated? interview that he knew the WWF would deny the charges. ?I?m ready to take them on,? he said. ?Pro wrestling fans will be shocked when the truth comes out and they learn that the so-called ?sport? is nothing more than an elaborate show staged solely for entertainment purposes.?
Match Fixing Scandal Rocks Professional Wrestling
The world of professional wrestling has been forced to defend its credibility after a former wrestler accused the sport of widespread match fixing last week. Gary Richards, who competed under the name Ice Man, made the allegations in a cover story article in ?Sports Illustrated.?
?Every single match in the sport?s history has had a predetermined outcome,? said Richards. ?Professional wrestling officials are completely open about this practice to the wrestlers and make no attempt to cover it up. It?s obscene and entirely against the spirit of athletics.?
The article states that Richards quit the sport late last year due to his guilt over taking part in fixed matches throughout his six-year career. ?I simply couldn?t look at myself in the mirror anymore,? he said. ?I was living a lie.?
Richards said he had an idea the sport wasn?t completely legitimate during his rookie year when World Wrestling Federation promoters required that he select a stage name and replace his wrestling singlet with a bright, sequined outfit that included a cape.
?I knew that professional sports have to worry about marketing and promotion, but it seemed a little excessive that they wanted me to change my name and dress like that,? he said.
Then, minutes before his first bout, Richards claims a WWF official told him he would pin his opponent, The Executioner, 30 seconds into the third round. ?At first it didn?t hit me what the guy was saying,? said Richards. ?I thought he was just kind of making a prediction. But then, exactly 30 second into the third round, I got The Executioner in a choke hold and he went down like a house of cards. I?m almost positive that he was in on the whole thing. It seems like too much of a coincidence.?
After several victories to start his career, Richards claims he got his first order to take a dive in his eighth match. ?I was supposed to get hit over the head with a folding chair, smash a blood packet over my head and then fall to the ground like I had been knocked out,? he said. ?Every fiber of my being screamed out that I shouldn?t go through with it, but I was too far inside the professional wrestling machine already. I was afraid what would happen to me if I didn?t do it. Maybe they would start hitting me with folding chairs that weren?t fake or something.?
But after his first loss, Richards said the match fixing got easier to take ? at least for a while. ?The money, the crowds, the women, the tights ? it was hard to give up,? he said. ?But my conscience eventually won out.?
Now Richards stands alone as the sole accuser of a sport long lauded for its ethics and credibility.
?Gary Richards, or The Iceman as he was known to us, is a bitter wrestler who is trying to besmirch the good name of one of America?s finest institutions,? said Vince McMahon, the CEO of the WWF. ?He was never able to win a belt and now he is trying to take the sport down with him. But he will not succeed. There is not the slightest shred of fact in anything he says.?
Richards said in the ?Sports Illustrated? interview that he knew the WWF would deny the charges. ?I?m ready to take them on,? he said. ?Pro wrestling fans will be shocked when the truth comes out and they learn that the so-called ?sport? is nothing more than an elaborate show staged solely for entertainment purposes.?
