Dark Side of the Ring 4x7

1. Abdullah the Butcher was like a nightmare come to life.

2. He terrified people.

3. Just savage, bloody, thirsty machine.

4. Trying to rip the eyeball.

5. When Abdullah walked in the ring,

6. you know you're gonna get blood.

7. Every match he was in, he bled.

8. You bled.

9. Oh my God, right on-

10. One of the most infamous wrestlers of all time,

11. Abdullah the Butcher left a legacy of violence

12. and bloodshed wherever he went-

13. From Puerto Rico to Japan,

14. and across North America.

15. - It's Abdullah!

16. Think about what he's experiencing.

17. He's getting cooked!

18. You can't think of a heel that was bigger than Abdullah.

19. You can't.

20. He made money everywhere he went.

21. But the more money we made,

22. the more danger we had to face.

23. Even though Abdullah was playing a character,

24. inside, that was him.

25. He would have people with slingshots hitting him and

26. throwing things at him, because they think

27. he's hurt the damn guy.

28. Fans at ringside when he got too close,

29. I mean, they were running!

30. Everybody's blood thirsty.

31. Everybody, everybody is blood thirsty.

32. They want it.

33. Notorious for blurring the line between

34. reality and fiction, Abdullah remained a mystery

35. even to those closest to him.

36. See, you all know the wrestler,

37. but you don't know the person.

38. He's a hero all the time.

39. He was a very good person.

40. In a gruesome but successful career spanning 7 decades,

41. Abdullah's thirst for blood made him infamous,

42. but also led to his downfall.

43. He cost me my WWE career, that was a fact.

44. The Hep C caused me

45. not to have my WWE contract.

46. - Japan. Japan.

47. You're a piece of shit and I hope that when you die,

48. you die a really slow and painful death.

49. Now he's biting again the wound that's

50. already open on the forehead.

51. Acting like he finds the

52. taste of the blood pleasurable.

53. Abdullah the Butcher would come into a regional

54. wrestling territory and just set business on fire.

55. Blood everywhere!

56. The difference between Abdullah and everyone else

57. is when anyone else came into the territory,

58. fans were rooting for their favourite to win.

59. When Abdullah came in,

60. they were rooting for their favourite to survive.

61. Oh, what a...

62. Looks like he's getting ready to carve up

63. a steak there and eat a little bit of it.

64. Hello, I'm Mick Foley, sometimes known as the

65. Hardcore Legend, and I have been involved with

66. professional wrestling since 1985.

67. I knew of the legend of Abdullah,

68. because in those days, you learned about people

69. outside of your geographic area largely by the magazines.

70. And the magazines painted this amazing portrait of

71. this unstoppable monster.

72. I was so intrigued by Abdullah the Butcher that the

73. first thing I did, uh, when I got to college as a freshman,

74. is I put a black and white photo of him on the wall,

75. and began to tell the entire dormitory that

76. he was my father.

77. When you have those, those, uh,

78. Taekwondo karate pants, and you see him

79. with a fork with all those gigantic cuts...

80. And he opens those big eyes and you see him on promos,

81. eating, uh, liver and the blood of the liver coming out...

82. That's Abdullah the Butcher, and he was unstoppable.

83. My name is Hugo Savinovich.

84. I'm from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and I've been in this

85. passionate industry for close to 50 years.

86. And I will do it again! Love lucha libre.

87. No one was safe.

88. Here he comes again, he hits Bronko Lubich.

89. Not the referee, not the owner of the company.

90. He would put fear into your body,

91. into your brain, your soul.

92. Yeah. Eating a raw, raw meat.

93. Chicken.

94. I don't know. And he could even

95. take a phonebook and tear it in half.

96. Mhmm.

97. My name is Josephine Hearon Shreve.

98. Abdullah the Butcher is my brother.

99. Windsor, at that time when I was growing up,

100. I always say that's old school.

101. And it was like we was raised in a two bedroom house,

102. war time house, there was eight of us.

103. Two or three of us slept in a bed together.

104. I had my own room because I slept in the bathtub.

105. I had a cushion to put in there.

106. My father and them would have to go to the bathroom,

107. they'd piss in a can.

108. My mother had to come in the washroom,

109. she'd knock on the door, and I'd get out of the tub

110. and let her in. 'Cause I don't think my mother

111. wanted to piss in a can, okay?

112. That's the way it was.

113. My name is Ralph Shreve.

114. I am Larry Paul Shreve's brother,

115. as Abdullah the Butcher.

116. I call him Larry.

117. That's his name, to me.

118. Abdullah the Butcher is his money name,

119. his wrestling name.

120. If you ever interview him,

121. you just look at his damn head.

122. - You ever interview him? - Mhmm.

123. Oh, there you go then.

124. I guess, you, he tells the truth,

125. but I'll tell you one thing,

126. there I think you should be better off

127. talking to him a longer distance.

128. He'll have your ass jump up in one minute,

129. and you scared to death.

130. He's a good actor.

131. [Off-screen] Oh yeah we just gotta-

132. I wanted to take it off with the thing.

133. I got my head off, let me take my head off.

134. [Off-screen] Looking good.

135. Yeah, that's me.

136. My name is Larry Shreve.

137. My name, my other wrestling name,

138. is Abdullah the Butcher.

139. I'm from "Cartoon", Sudan,

140. but now since I'm putting air out,

141. I'm from "Cartoon", Sudan, Windsor Ontario.

142. Oh they worked hard. My mother worked hard,

143. my dad worked hard.

144. When I seen my mother on the floor, scrubbing floors,

145. you know, at the funeral home, I said to myself,

146. "Holy shit, my mother works hard."

147. But I never knew that she was

148. on her hands and knees until I went there.

149. I didn't want to learn how to read or write because

150. I was only worrying about my mother and father.

151. I wanted to make money.

152. I used to buy candy, three for a penny.

153. Go to school, and uh,

154. "You wanna buy some candy?" Right?

155. I'd sell it for maybe a penny a piece or whatever.

156. When the kids owed me money and I'd say,

157. "When you gonna pay me my money?"

158. So maybe he got scared

159. like I was gonna do something, right?

160. So he wouldn't go to school.

161. Maybe his mother came and says,

162. "My kid is scared to come to school."

163. And uh, that was it. Then I says,

164. "I gotta get out of here and try to make some,

165. you know, money where I don't have a problem."

166. And that's what I done.

167. He only finished the grade second.

168. I was a year smarter than him and I'm not really that smart

169. myself, but I'm saying we done a lot.

170. He done, Larry, he went to people's houses knocking on

171. the door and asking for old clothes all that,

172. and he had a second hand store with all kinds of

173. old clothes, and he had a store.

174. He shined shoes for years,

175. then he got a janitorial service, uh, business.

176. He had people cutting grass and all that.

177. He had a, he had a truck where he went around

178. moving stuff out of people's basements and all that.

179. He was a worker.

180. Let's just say he was always a hustler.

181. He'd be into, he'd been into karate and all that.

182. He had a karate place where like, senior citizens,

183. he trained them to learn how to defend their self.

184. That's right in Windsor he had about eight or nine

185. old ladies in their 60s or 70s,

186. and he had where they could defend their self.

187. Just old people and that.

188. I was down at the Windsor arena and I was doing karate

189. and stuff like that, and uh, the manager of the place,

190. he said, "Hey, you should be a wrestler."

191. I said, "Oh I don't want to do that crap."

192. He said, "You could make some money."

193. I said, "Oh, OK."

194. Abdullah crosses the river to Detroit

195. where he meets the original Sheikh,

196. one of the innovators of hardcore wrestling.

197. Wait a minute. The Sheikh has got the fire!

198. - Oh! - A despicable act of biting.

199. Abdullah playing an Arabic, uh, wrestler,

200. they only had one at that time.

201. And that was, they called him The Sheikh.

202. Not the Iron Sheikh, the Sheikh out of Detroit.

203. He used to do all that stuff, you know,

204. cut you in your forehead. Walk around crazy.

205. A ball of fire into the face...

206. Put out that fireball!

207. Hi, this is Mr. USA,

208. WWE Hall of Famer, Tony Atlas.

209. He grew up watching the Sheikh,

210. imitating the Sheikh.

211. Camel clutch.

212. Wait a minute, wait a minute, that's my scarf!

213. Oh this is a grudge match! This is war!

214. I told my dad, I said, "Dad, I'm wrestling at

215. Cobo Hall." My dad says,

216. "Those are some dangerous people over there."

217. My dad used to see me with cuts on my head.

218. He told my mother, "Tell him that he'd better,

219. he'd better get out of that shit."

220. I said, "Dad, listen, smack me."

221. He said, "For what?" I said, "Just smack me."

222. He went-

223. He seen me bleeding.

224. He said, "I didn't hit you that hard!"

225. Then I showed him the blade.

226. He said, "Now I know you're crazy."

227. Having learned this bloody trick of the trade,

228. Abdullah travels the world

229. showcasing his hardcore style.

230. While working in Puerto Rico,

231. he meets promoter Carlos Colón and

232. his right hand man, Hugo Savinovich.

233. I started working with Carlos and they say,

234. "You're good, but you're not big enough."

235. He says, "I want to make you a manager."

236. And then he says, "By the way,

237. we're bringing into Puerto Rico, one month...

238. Abdullah the Butcher."

239. And I, I have heard of him, and I said,

240. "Wow, I mean, what a way to begin a managing career."

241. Managing him, it was, you know, just,

242. a, just a crazy, crazy way of earning a living.

243. Everybody just going crazy here.

244. By 1983, he was already drawing gigantic money in,

245. in the Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico.

246. People will fill up the stadiums,

247. until I will make the promoter Carlos Colón look good.

248. But at the same time, he will destroy you.

249. Perhaps the fear of being involved in this match-

250. Abdullah was wrestling in Puerto Rico for a couple of

251. months, he'd wrestle in Japan for a couple of months,

252. and then he would come back to the States.

253. Whoa!

254. And he was a big draw.

255. I mean, wherever he went he drew money.

256. Abdullah was worth every penny that he got paid and

257. trust me, he was making huge money.

258. He lived really like a rich guy.

259. Abdullah were very cautious of his money.

260. When he got paid, as soon as you'd give it to him

261. he'd count it.

262. I made sure my mother and father,

263. my brothers and sisters, got some of it.

264. My mother used to work for the funeral homes and

265. stuff like that, I went to her one day and I said,

266. "Come on, Ma." She said, "What?"

267. She said, "I want you to meet Mrs., ah..." I says,

268. "I don't want to meet them. You understand?

269. You're here scrubbing floors and stuff like that and

270. I supposed to be Abdullah the Butcher,

271. and you're on your hands and knees scrubbing floors?"

272. From that day, she never worked another day of her life.

273. And I made sure of that.

274. But I was dumb.

275. I didn't have the schooling.

276. Like I tell you, if I know what I know now,

277. everybody shafts me. You understand?

278. Despite his successful and profitable rise to fame,

279. Abdullah today finds himself in legal trouble and

280. financial ruin.

281. Hell.

282. You don't know who in the hell is working with you

283. or working against you. You understand?

284. I'm in bad shape. Real bad shape.

285. And anybody, anywhere, that does not fear the

286. name of the almighty Abdullah the Butcher,

287. is either an insane fool or they're lying to ya.

288. With Larry Shreve, yeah, it could be really difficult for

289. a fan to know where the character ends,

290. where the real person begins.

291. He has reigned terror in the-

292. For someone who rode with him for hundreds of hours, um,

293. yeah, you, you, you get to know the real guy.

294. Or what he wants to show you of the real guy.

295. Abdullah the Butcher moves swiftly for a big man.

296. See, he always talk about he's an entertainer.

297. He's entertaining you.

298. But the real true person, you all don't know.

299. My name is Jocelyn Malikah Marshall.

300. I met Abdullah while I was on the streets

301. feeding the homeless.

302. He told me his name was Joe and I was just so excited to

303. see somebody else out there like myself

304. feeding the homeless.

305. So, I didn't know he had a restaurant.

306. He gave me the address of the restaurant and

307. I brought my son over there.

308. My son said, "Do you know who that is?" He said,

309. "That's Abdullah the Butcher." And I said,

310. "Who is that?" Because I'm not into wrestling.

311. Abdullah was his, uh, hero.

312. He loved the bad guys, yes.

313. Abdullah was the best heel

314. that the world ever saw.

315. Even picturing it in my head now, just the way he stands,

316. the way he, he moves around the ring,

317. and the things he did.

318. To see a whole crowd of people move back.

319. He could walk through an aisle and

320. people would run from him.

321. And when he come through that ring and

322. people go, "Uh oh, here come Abdullah."

323. It got so it wasn't a gimmick.

324. He was in character most of the time.

325. Especially when he went out in public.

326. Uh, I remember seeing a flight attendant

327. go over to him, and as soon as Abdullah saw

328. that flight attendant, his eyes bugged out,

329. his mouth started watering,

330. and she tried to like get his beverage order and

331. just walked away. And I was like,

332. "Abby, are you ok?" And he goes,

333. "Gotta protect the character, champ.

334. Gotta protect the character." And that's what he would do,

335. and so in his own way he would create this grass roots

336. campaign for the authenticity of his character.

337. Put it this way, when he went into the ring with

338. any wrestler, he made them a good wrestler.

339. If you had to fight Abdullah, you fought Abdullah.

340. You got over.

341. People knew you the next day.

342. They got like a crown on their head because

343. they're wrestling one of the best.

344. That's why I say, Abdullah made Carlos Colón.

345. Abdullah made Tony "Mr. USA" Atlas.

346. Everybody that fought Abdullah became a big star.

347. Here he comes, hard! There goes Kevin with a...

348. The dirty battle continues between Abdullah and Kevin.

349. And here he is with the big karate thrust to the head of

350. the Dirty Dutch Mantel.

351. What really made Abdullah was the time in Japan.

352. In Japan during that time

353. wrestling was still about 70% real.

354. If you got a karate kick in Japan,

355. it was a real karate kick.

356. You got chopped in Japan, it was a real chop.

357. The only thing that was fake in Japan were

358. who won and who lost.

359. He was on the cover of all these magazines.

360. They had billboards of Abdullah, you know,

361. pictures of Abdullah.

362. He was what I call "crazy over".

363. Like, he was an iconic part of Japanese culture.

364. You're through!

365. That's fine, it doesn't bother me at all.

366. Agh!

367. As crazy as this might sound,

368. he recorded an album in Japan.

369. In the, in the dressing room.

370. They never seen nothing like me.

371. I was different.

372. They only seen the wrestling, you know?

373. That was it. I was different.

374. Having found success with the hardcore style

375. he adapted from the Sheikh, Abdullah becomes a mentor

376. to wrestler Devon Nicholson.

377. But this long term friendship will end in disaster.

378. I actually ended his career.

379. Retired him in the ring, retired him out of the ring.

380. My name is Devon Nicholson

381. and my wrestling name was Hannibal.

382. There will be no more Abdullah after the 23rd!

383. No class, no idea how to dress.

384. Starting his career with Stampede Wrestling in 2001,

385. Devon begins working under the name "Mad Man Hannibal",

386. and soon launches his own indie promotion,

387. Great North Wrestling.

388. In 2006, he begins working with Abdullah.

389. Before all the, all the negative stuff happened,

390. I actually considered him

391. somewhat of a mentor and like...

392. I would say he was the first wrestler to like,

393. take me under his wing a bit, and teach me about

394. how to get heat and stuff.

395. We ended up tag teaming and wrestling each other, uh,

396. numerous times.

397. I knew- yeah, I used to work for him.

398. Yeah. I used to fly into, um, Toronto or whatever,

399. and we had shows.

400. He'd come out to Calgary, Alberta.

401. We'd have shows. You understand?

402. Abdullah, you think I'm not ready for you?

403. I'm gonna get you, in your last match in Canada.

404. There will be some people that will always, uh,

405. hate me for exposing him, but whatever.

406. I don't care.

407. I stopped him from wrestling.

408. Already 68 years old and six decades into his career,

409. Abdullah returns to Canada to wrestle Hannibal in

410. what's being billed as his retirement match.

411. I remember my first experience of Abdullah.

412. My grandmother was actually somewhat of a wrestling fan,

413. and I remember she let me rent a wrestling movie

414. called, "I Like to Hurt People."

415. Against the butcher from the Sudan, Abdullah the Butcher.

416. And I just remember thinking, um,

417. how did they make this blood effect?

418. You didn't really know how they did blood in those days.

419. You'll probably have to edit this.

420. And I know Bret Hart would put it in his mouth,

421. he said, but I was always too afraid to do that.

422. So, then you would take the blade and put it like there,

423. and tape over top and then when it comes time to bleed

424. you'd pull it out.

425. And then, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not Abdullah,

426. but you'd slice down like that.

427. Now, for me to hit myself, I would hit myself like this.

428. You see it?

429. I was around Abdullah a lot.

430. And you never actually see him do the deed.

431. The blood would arrive as if, you know, by magic.

432. Abdullah have razor blades on all his fingers.

433. First he'd cut you with the razor blade.

434. And what does he got? He's got a foot!

435. And then he would take the fork and scrape it across and

436. make it bigger so it could bleed more.

437. And he after would stick that fork,

438. and he would stick you with that fork too.

439. He's about to stab you in the head with that fork,

440. hurt like hell.

441. That's Abdullah, Abdullah the Butcher!

442. I mean, he would cut you deep.

443. Not to Abdullah.

444. Because, see,

445. in the older days the guys would tell you this,

446. "Suck it up!

447. If you don't like it you're in the wrong business, kid.

448. Suck it up."

449. There was no bitching and complaining in wrestling.

450. I didn't carry a blade 'cause I didn't juice every night.

451. But this was part of these guys' gimmick.

452. Abdullah, Bruiser Brody,

453. Dusty Rhodes...

454. Abdullah bled every night. Every night.

455. It was kind of like, Ric Flair gotta have the robe,

456. where Abdullah gotta have the blade.

457. Why you, why do they call him Abdullah the Butcher?

458. What does a butcher do?

459. They take the- make blood.

460. They try to hurt you, to torture you.

461. This guy here, he was rushed to the hospital.

462. He had four stitches in the back of head,

463. 'cause this guy chopped him in the damn head and got cut.

464. Don't think that this is all phoney blood.

465. Abdullah's intense blood lust and unpredictable style

466. keeps him from signing with the world's

467. largest promotion, Vince McMahon's WWE.

468. Vince kind of knew that Abdullah was going to be

469. very hard to be controlled, and

470. I think that if you would even ask Abdullah,

471. I don't think he even trusted himself.

472. Because I don't think a lot of times he planned things.

473. We were going to have a tag team match in Ottawa and

474. before the match we were appearing on a local

475. television show called, "Roger's Daytime."

476. I just happen to have a fork right here.

477. - Oh. - Eh?

478. With the old, you know.

479. And without, uh, this being planned or anything.

480. - It's always a pleasure. - Thank you.

481. - Why do you have to go?

482. He put the male host in a headlock.

483. - Abdullah! Abdullah!

484. Abdullah, settle down!

485. He walked the male host over to where there was

486. going to be a cooking segment after.

487. And then the guy started bleeding.

488. Settle, back off, are you gonna manage this Friday?

489. - Ah, you know what? - You should come with me.

490. And come to the show on Friday night.

491. It was the weirdest moment ever.

492. The guy was like,

493. I just remember him shaking like that.

494. He was like going into shock almost.

495. It was like a guy that obviously isn't used to

496. bleeding or getting in fights or anything.

497. Uh, we'll be right back after this.

498. I think that was 2009.

499. You couldn't even really get away with it then,

500. it was a miracle he did.

501. But you could see like how in the old days

502. he could get away with stuff like that.

503. But I think in 2022 it would be hard to assault

504. a TV show host and get away with it.

505. I think he was in his late 60s by then too.

506. So, it, so it certainly... helped.

507. After years on the independent circuit and

508. mentorship from Abdullah, Hannibal finally achieves

509. his own opportunity to wrestle for the WWE.

510. When I was signed by WWE

511. he actually screamed with joy,

512. because I guess since he never actually wrestled

513. for them, and it was kind of like,

514. someone that kind of represented him in a way,

515. was going to get in there.

516. But after a series of routine blood tests,

517. Hannibal receives career shattering news.

518. In my blood test they found that the Hepatitis C virus

519. was present, and I was, like...

520. well, first of all, I was confused on like

521. how I would have such a thing.

522. A lot of guys would use dirty razor blades, you know.

523. 'Cause everybody didn't carry blades.

524. Everybody didn't carry blades.

525. Sometimes you'd say something like,

526. "Hey Abby, you got a blade I could use?"

527. Then he'd go and use the blade and, you know,

528. when you borrow something you gotta do what?

529. Give it back.

530. And they would give it back to Abdullah.

531. So, it was very easy for somebody to catch a disease

532. because who knows where that blade came from?

533. Or who they cut before they cut Hannibal.

534. Yes.

535. 'Cause there was no other way that I would have

536. thought that I would have caught it, but I wasn't...

537. like, at this point, I didn't think that

538. I would have the evidence or anything.

539. Yeah, we were good friends, I used to work for him.

540. He was a promoter.

541. So, I don't know what happened but, uh,

542. I don't want to talk about this.

543. I don't want to talk about it.

544. His career cut short by his Hepatitis C diagnosis,

545. Hannibal is desperate for answers.

546. I had a guy that was doing a documentary on me,

547. it's called, "This is Hannibal."

548. We were hoping that it was going to be my journey to

549. WWE movie, but it ended up just being like a sad movie.

550. Obviously, it didn't work out.

551. That the contract got rescinded because

552. I have Hepatitis C.

553. So, he was the one that actually saw the

554. cutting incident, and he showed me the clip

555. from the 2007 match.

556. And he was like, "What is Abdullah doing here?"

557. I haven't even seen footage of the match,

558. to be honest with you.

559. I would love to see it.

560. And, you see him doing that to my forehead.

561. So, I'm like, he's blading me.

562. Oh my God.

563. Eight years managing him in different countries,

564. I never saw him

565. doing that to another, another guy.

566. And if that's the case, wow.

567. Many local news stations saw my movie and

568. did their own stories on it,

569. because Ottawa, I don't think,

570. ever had somebody that had made WWE.

571. Ronald Caza, one of the top lawyers in this area,

572. saw the case and

573. with his skill as a lawyer he was able to

574. basically force Abdullah to provide his blood test.

575. According to his blood work there's a history of Hep C,

576. so, you would think that he knew.

577. But whether he knew or not, he should have known

578. it's dangerous to cut someone with a razor blade

579. with blood on it.

580. The footage of Abdullah cutting Hannibal

581. with a used razor blade,

582. and the results of Abdullah's blood tests

583. formed the basis of a lawsuit filed by Hannibal.

584. A lawsuit that Abdullah claims he couldn't read,

585. or understand.

586. I was getting a lot of letters, right?

587. What am I gonna do, open it up?

588. I don't know what the hell it says.

589. If it wasn't for Malikah, no.

590. I wouldn't, I'd be, I'd really be in bad shape.

591. And he sat me down, he said, "Sit down, Malikah."

592. But he told me he didn't know how to read and write,

593. and he cried like a baby.

594. A big, huge man, like this, crying.

595. I've never seen a man cry like that.

596. That's when I understood what was going on in his life,

597. and he would ask me to open his mail and read it to him.

598. And after I looked through it, it included the,

599. the court case with Devon Nicholson.

600. I don't know anything about that.

601. My sister called me and said,

602. "You lost the case, in uh, Toronto."

603. I said, "What?"

604. And it was default.

605. That's what, because I didn't show up, and that was it.

606. When you aspire to be a professional wrestler,

607. this is how you celebrate a legal victory.

608. He ended up losing in court in both Ontario and Georgia,

609. and he was found guilty of negligence,

610. assault, and battery.

611. He either knew, or should have known

612. that he had Hep C, which Abdullah still denies

613. even though he provided the blood tests.

614. Court documents show that Abdullah carries the

615. same rare strain of Hepatitis C as Hannibal.

616. In the years that follow, Abdullah makes a

617. range of claims including the allegation that it was

618. Hannibal who gave the disease to him.

619. After the Canadian judge sees the video evidence,

620. coupled with the confirmation that both men share the same

621. rare strain of Hep C, the courts side with Hannibal.

622. It's very good to have that on the record after all this,

623. all these years, of being called a liar.

624. Devon Nicholson was awarded $2.3 million in damages.

625. Nah, I, I don't think he should pay it, no.

626. No, not that much, nah.

627. Nothing.

628. I wouldn't have sued him.

629. When you get into a certain profession,

630. you know, you're taking a risk.

631. Hannibal could have done it himself.

632. That's what the guys told me,

633. "Tony, he don't change his blade.

634. Do it yourself." He let Abdullah cut him.

635. He could have cut himself,

636. but he was scared to cut himself

637. so got somebody else to do it.

638. And it cost him.

639. In dire financial straits, Abdullah continues to make

640. wrestling related appearances and autograph signings.

641. Hannibal claims that Abdullah has moved around his assets

642. in order to avoid paying him, and to this day

643. the matter is still in front of the courts.

644. He's never paid anything.

645. He hasn't paid a penny.

646. Nah. I don't think he have it.

647. I want you all to look at this.

648. These, this is dangerous.

649. This is stuff that you have never seen.

650. - Look at this. - Oh boy.

651. He has no money to repair none of this.

652. Now this is a light fixture

653. where the water is coming down.

654. This is electrical. I- listen.

655. Right now, currently.

656. That's why I didn't allow you all to come back there.

657. I am stressed. I'm stressed.

658. I've never had blood pressure until

659. I got moved into this house.

660. But it's worth it when you see someone being

661. taken advantage as him. He built a career.

662. I should have went to school. I should have went to school

663. to learn how to read and write.

664. I studied... money.

665. But I needed more than that.

666. [Off-screen] Right.

667. I got shafted.

668. All the tapes, what I made for many, many years...

669. got nothing.

670. Whatever he's going through,

671. whatever he's going through that was all his anyways.

672. So I don't want to say too much,

673. I'll tell it, that's the truth.

674. My brother, don't worry, my brother is a,

675. he's a very nice person, but people play games with him.

676. No, and I've seen him

677. order at restaurants, reading menus.

678. I've seen letters from him. I've seen him sign autographs.

679. He's owned several businesses over the years and

680. been involved with large wrestling contracts with

681. companies like WCW,

682. and Japanese companies.

683. No. Nope, he never could.

684. But he'd find ways like, if they told him, like,

685. to go, uh, to a chicken farm or something like that,

686. he'd draw a picture of a chicken.

687. He...

688. I don't mean this to be humorous, but like,

689. he knew how to read a menu? You know?

690. Like, uh, we would eat out three times a day,

691. he never had an issue.

692. I don't know if that's the case.

693. If it is I think it's just, uh,

694. it's an accolade for him to be that successful

695. around the world without that ability, but I don't know.

696. I've only recently heard that.

697. That's like a shock to me,

698. because he made great business transactions.

699. Even in a cheque, in a cheque you have to write it.

700. I did not know that, and I,

701. eight years, we travelled a lot.

702. Spent a lot of time together and that is a shock to me.

703. If that is a guy of a second grade education, wow.

704. That, whoever was the teacher,

705. we gotta find him or her and honour that person,

706. because that teacher did a lot.

707. Abdullah the Butcher himself

708. getting stitched up right here.

709. The punishing style of hardcore wrestling has

710. a long legacy, but it often comes at

711. great personal cost for those involved.

712. Abdullah and Carlos Colón invented a match with

713. a chain going right across the ring,

714. and there were hook to it,

715. and even with the rain, a storm,

716. you could still see just all the blood coming down.

717. It was horrendous, but for the fans,

718. it was just devastating the punishment that

719. they inflicted on each other.

720. We felt invincible.

721. [Thunder

722. And they trained you to feel invincible.

723. At those times we will put the blood of their opponent

724. as part of being a heel, and suck the blood

725. out of your opponent's head.

726. When I talk about it right now I see the expressions

727. on a young, the new generation, like,

728. "What the heck were you guys thinking?" But you know,

729. back then it was a whole different, different world.

730. Any time you watch something, even if you watch

731. a movie picture or something like that,

732. they always have violence in it. Right?

733. You have like the cops and the robbers,

734. you have this and stuff like that.

735. It's always violence.

736. And if you don't give the people violence,

737. they don't come and see ya.

738. In a twist of fate in 2021,

739. seven years after his own court battle,

740. Hannibal finds himself at the centre of

741. his own controversy by brutalizing a referee.

742. They were looking for someone to bleed from the spike, so,

743. the promoter found this referee that was a

744. known bleeder to, to take the spike.

745. It hit him several times for...

746. and it did some damage.

747. The promoter that, for that show, um,

748. did not have any medics on site.

749. It went on longer than it should have,

750. like it was bad communication all around.

751. Oh my God. That even makes no sense.

752. I mean, you just were in a situation and... wow.

753. Strange things do happen because

754. what are the chances that you win a court case and

755. now you're gonna do that to a referee?

756. Crazy.

757. To this day, Abdullah's legal problems haunt him,

758. and the Hepatitis C controversy has

759. tainted the legacy of his legendary career.

760. I know it was horrendous to hear,

761. because you never want to hear that somebody

762. did this to another guy, uh,

763. but then you also wonder because

764. in my case I was around him

765. in bloody matches, you know?

766. And Carlos Colón, and other guys...

767. but, none of us tested, you know, positive to that.

768. Hannibal eventually finds an experimental treatment that

769. cures him of his Hepatitis C, but his bitterness remains.

770. Yes.

771. I mean, start, start paying what you can and

772. take some responsibility for what you did.

773. You've been, you've been found guilty

774. in both Canada and the US,

775. but you never apologized for anything.

776. Yeah, it's just been a nightmare situation,

777. but I would never expect that from him.

778. So, all I can do is move on, which I have been doing.

779. I'll be honest, talking about this situation, I mean,

780. this, this is, uh, hopefully the last time

781. I'll have to talk about it.

782. It was a terrible period of my life, and I'm over it.

783. Because the lawsuit is argued in a civil trial,

784. the judge found Abdullah the Butcher liable,

785. but not guilty, of causing Hannibal's Hepatitis C.

786. This is the Hall of Fame, and all of these,

787. these wrestlers here, these are the old ones.

788. They're probably all dead now.

789. They're all in the Hall of Fame with Abdullah the Butcher.

790. Well, I put it this way, all my family is his biggest fan.

791. He done good.

792. And I hate to say this, there's a lot of

793. good wrestlers, I put it this way, he's one of the best.

794. Being around our next inductee

795. always made me a little nervous.

796. This is a man who took hardcore to another level.

797. Take a look.

798. In 2011, Abdullah the Butcher is inducted into

799. the WWE's Hall of Fame.

800. But if I'm looking to be in the Hall of Fame, I says,

801. "I don't believe it until they book me there." You know?

802. And Terry Funk was the one who would put me over strong,

803. you know, said nice things about me.

804. You know, he said, "Whatever people say

805. about Abdullah the Butcher,

806. he made these promoters a lot of money." See.

807. I cried. Because I know the story that, uh,

808. to be what he became

809. he paid the price, and,

810. yes, he made the money, but...

811. it wasn't easy being Abdullah the Butcher.

812. What's missing in wrestling today is the idea that

813. someone, an opponent, is fighting for

814. something bigger than a title or a victory.

815. They're fighting for their lives.

816. That's what he brought to the table,

817. and I don't know if anyone ever did it better than

818. Abdullah the Butcher.

819. I never seen anybody that found

820. what they're actually afraid of.

821. They was afraid of him.

822. And I never seen that, I never saw that with anybody.

823. I think he should be remembered for his greatness.

824. His greatness, because

825. he is the God of wrestling.

826. Not the negative, you know,

827. just one little situation and it's not, um...

828. proven.

829. He didn't get a chance to

830. prove his innocence.

831. I don't care if they take everything he owns,

832. I would never turn my back on, on being a greatness.

833. Such greatness.

834. He's gonna be okay with the help of God.

835. Just to give me the respect for what I done,

836. and a lot of things people say I done I did not do.

837. You know what I mean? And that's all I can say.

838. Whatever you want to think, I'll leave it up to you.