Dark Side of the Ring Season4 Episode8
Dark Side of the Ring Season4 Episode8
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TVTranscription
00:00 (ding)
00:02 (dramatic music)
00:12 - Abdullah the Butcher was like a nightmare come to life.
00:17 He terrified people.
00:19 (screaming)
00:20 - Just a savage, bloody, thirsty machine.
00:23 - Trying to rip the eyeball.
00:24 - When Abdullah walks in the ring,
00:26 you know you're gonna get blood.
00:29 - Every match he was in, he bled.
00:31 You bled.
00:33 - Oh my God, right on the head.
00:34 - One of the most infamous wrestlers of all time,
00:37 Abdullah the Butcher,
00:38 left a legacy of violence and bloodshed wherever he went.
00:42 From Puerto Rico, to Japan, and across North America.
00:45 - It's Abdullah!
00:47 Think about what he's experiencing.
00:50 He's getting cooked!
00:52 - You can't think of a heel that was bigger than Abdullah.
00:55 You can't.
00:56 (screaming)
00:59 - He made money everywhere he went.
01:02 But the more money we made,
01:03 the more danger we had to face.
01:05 - Even though Abdullah was playing a character,
01:08 inside, that was him.
01:10 - He would have people with slingshots hitting him
01:12 and then throwing things at him
01:13 because they think he's a damn guy.
01:15 - Fans at ringside, when he got too close,
01:18 I mean, they were running.
01:20 - Everybody's bloodthirsty.
01:25 Everybody's bloodthirsty.
01:28 They want it.
01:28 - Notorious for blurring the line
01:31 between reality and fiction,
01:33 Abdullah remained a mystery even to those closest to him.
01:37 - See, you all know the wrestler.
01:39 You don't know the person.
01:40 - He's a hero all the time.
01:44 He is a very good person.
01:46 - In a gruesome but successful career
01:48 spanning seven decades,
01:50 Abdullah's thirst for blood made him infamous,
01:53 but also led to his downfall.
01:55 - He cost me my WWE career.
01:57 That was a fact.
01:58 The Hep C caused me not to have my WWE contract.
02:02 (shouting)
02:04 You're a piece of shit,
02:05 and I hope that when you die,
02:07 you die a really slow and painful death.
02:09 (crowd booing)
02:19 - He's already open on the forehead,
02:20 acting like he finds the taste of the blood pleasurable.
02:25 - Abdullah the Butcher would come
02:26 into a regional wrestling territory
02:28 and just set business on fire.
02:30 - Blood everywhere.
02:32 - The difference between Abdullah and everyone else
02:35 is when anyone else came into the territory,
02:38 fans were rooting for their favorite to win.
02:41 When Abdullah came in,
02:42 they were rooting for their favorite to survive.
02:44 - And he's gonna win it.
02:46 Misses, he's getting ready to carve up a steak dirty.
02:49 - Hello, I'm Mick Foley,
02:50 sometimes known as the hardcore legend,
02:53 and I have been involved with professional wrestling
02:55 since 1985.
02:57 I knew of the legend of Abdullah
03:01 because in those days,
03:02 you learned about people outside of your geographic area,
03:05 largely by the magazines.
03:07 And the magazines painted this amazing portrait
03:11 of this unstoppable monster.
03:13 I was so intrigued by Abdullah the Butcher
03:16 that the first thing I did
03:18 when I got to college as a freshman
03:19 is I put a black and white photo of him on the wall
03:22 and began to tell the entire dormitory
03:24 that he was my father.
03:25 - When you have those Taekwondo karate pants
03:31 and you see him with a fork
03:34 with all those gigantic cuts,
03:37 and he opens those big eyes
03:39 and you see him on promos eating liver
03:42 and the blood of the liver coming out,
03:44 that's Abdullah the Butcher,
03:47 and he was unstoppable.
03:50 My name is Hugo Sabinovich.
03:52 I'm from Guayaquil, Ecuador,
03:53 and I've been in this passionate industry
03:56 for close to 50 years,
03:58 and I will do it again.
04:00 Love Lucha Libre.
04:02 No one was safe.
04:04 - Here he comes again, he hits right on the lumbar.
04:07 - Not the referee, not the owner of the company.
04:10 He will put fear into your body,
04:13 into your brain, your soul.
04:15 (speaking in foreign language)
04:22 (laughing)
04:24 - What's happening in here?
04:25 Can you explain to everybody what you're watching?
04:29 - Yeah, eating the raw meat, chicken.
04:34 And he could even take a phone book
04:38 and tear it in half.
04:41 My name's Josephine Heron Shreve.
04:49 Abdullah the Butcher is my brother.
04:51 Windsor at that time, when I was growing up,
04:57 I always say that's old school.
04:59 And it was like we was raised in a two-bedroom house,
05:04 wartime house.
05:05 There was eight of us.
05:07 Two or three of us slept in a bed together.
05:10 I had my own room because I slept in the bathroom.
05:16 I had a cushion to put in there.
05:18 My father and I have to go to the bathroom.
05:20 They piss in a can.
05:22 My mother had to come in the washroom.
05:24 She knock on the door
05:24 and I get out of the tub and let her in.
05:27 'Cause I don't think my mother wanted to piss in a can.
05:29 Okay, that's the way it was.
05:32 My name is Ralph Shreves.
05:33 I own Larry, Paul Shreves's brother,
05:39 as Abdullah the Butcher.
05:42 I call him Larry.
05:43 That's his name to me.
05:48 Abdullah the Butcher is his money name,
05:50 his rasslin' name.
05:52 If you ever interview him,
05:55 you just look at his damn head.
05:57 You ever interview him?
05:59 Oh, there you go then.
06:00 I guess he tells the truth,
06:02 but I'll tell you one thing,
06:04 there I think you should be better off
06:06 talking to him at longer distance.
06:09 Yo, that's D.E.!
06:11 You have your ass jump up in one minute.
06:13 And you scared to death.
06:15 You do good acting.
06:17 (crowd cheering)
06:19 Oh yeah, we just got a--
06:34 I want to take it off and say,
06:36 oh, I got my head off, let me take my head off.
06:38 Looking good.
06:41 There he is.
06:42 There he is.
06:43 (laughing)
06:44 Oh, it really is you.
06:45 (laughing)
06:48 My name is Larry Shreve.
06:51 My name, my other rasslin' name is Abdullah the Butcher.
06:55 I'm from Khartoum, Sudan,
06:57 but now, since I'm pretty near out,
07:01 I'm from Khartoum, Sudan, Windsor, Ontario.
07:04 - Your parents had to take care of a lot of kids.
07:08 Like, was it challenging?
07:09 - Oh, they worked hard.
07:10 My mother worked hard, my dad worked hard.
07:12 - Yeah.
07:13 (gentle music)
07:16 - When I see my mother on the floor, scrubbing floors,
07:25 you know, at a funeral home,
07:26 I said to myself, holy shit, my mother works hard.
07:31 But I never knew that she was on her hands and knees
07:33 until I went there.
07:34 I didn't want to learn how to read or write
07:39 because I was only worrying about my mother and father.
07:43 I wanted to make money.
07:46 I used to buy candy, three for a penny.
07:51 Go to school and, you want to buy some candy?
07:56 Right.
07:57 I'd sell it for maybe a penny a piece or whatever.
08:01 Where the kids owed me money, and I said,
08:03 when you gonna pay me my money?
08:07 So maybe he got scared, like I was gonna do something,
08:11 right, so he wouldn't go to school.
08:15 Maybe his mother came and says,
08:17 my kid is scared to come to school.
08:19 And that was it.
08:20 Then I said, I gotta get out of here
08:23 and try to make some money where I don't have a problem.
08:27 And that's what I done.
08:28 - So Larry only finished the second grade?
08:31 - He only finished the grade second.
08:32 I was a year smarter than him,
08:34 and I'm not really that smart myself.
08:36 But I'm saying we done a lot.
08:38 He done, Larry, he went to people's houses
08:40 knocking on their door and asking for old clothes
08:42 and all that.
08:43 And he had a secondhand store with all kinds of old clothes,
08:46 and he had a store.
08:48 He shined shoes for years.
08:52 Then he got a janitorial service business.
08:55 He had people cutting grass and all that.
08:58 He had a truck where he went around,
09:00 moving stuff out of people's basements and all that.
09:02 He was a worker.
09:04 Let's just say he was always a hustler.
09:07 He'd been in the karate and all that.
09:10 He had a karate place where, like senior citizens,
09:13 he trained them to learn how to defend themselves.
09:16 That's right in Windsor, you had about eight or nine
09:18 old ladies in their 60s or 70s,
09:20 and he had it where they could defend themselves.
09:22 Just old people and that.
09:25 - I was down at the Windsor Arena,
09:26 and I was doing karate and stuff like that.
09:28 And the manager of the place, he said,
09:32 "Hey, you should be a wrestler."
09:34 I said, "Oh, I don't want to do that crap."
09:36 He said, "You can make some money."
09:39 I said, "Oh, okay."
09:41 - Abdullah crosses the river to Detroit,
09:44 where he meets the original Sheik,
09:46 one of the innovators of hardcore wrestling.
09:49 - Wait a minute, the Sheik has got that five!
09:51 - Look at that despicable act of fighting!
09:54 - Abdullah playing the Arabic wrestler,
09:57 they only had one at that time,
09:59 and that was, they called him the Sheik,
10:01 but not the Iron Sheik, the Sheik out of Detroit.
10:05 He used to do all that stuff,
10:07 you know, cut you with your forehead,
10:09 walk around crazy.
10:10 (crowd cheering)
10:13 - He pulled out that fireball!
10:17 - Hi, this is Mr. USA,
10:19 WWE Hall of Famer, Tony Atlas.
10:22 Grew up watching the Sheik, he imitating the Sheik.
10:26 - Out of his camel punch or anything of that nature.
10:28 Wait a minute, wait a minute, that's my spot!
10:30 Corner punch, oh this is a grudge match, this is war!
10:33 - I told my dad, I said, "Dad,
10:35 "I'm wrestling at Colville Hall."
10:38 My dad says, "Those are some dangerous people over there."
10:41 My dad, he see me with cuts on my head.
10:44 He told my mother, "Tell him that
10:46 "you better get out of that shit."
10:48 I said, "Dad, listen, smack me."
10:51 He said, "For what?"
10:53 I said, "Just smack me."
10:55 (dramatic music)
10:58 (dramatic music)
11:01 He went,
11:08 he seen me bleeding.
11:11 He said, "I didn't hit you that hard."
11:14 Then I showed him the blade.
11:17 He said, "Now I know you're crazy."
11:21 (laughing)
11:23 - Having learned this bloody trick of the trade,
11:25 Abdullah travels the world showcasing his hardcore style.
11:30 While working in Puerto Rico,
11:31 he meets promoter Carlos Colon
11:33 and his right-hand man, Hugo Savinovich.
11:36 - I started working with Carlos,
11:38 and they say, "You're good, but you're not big enough."
11:41 He says, "I wanna make you a manager."
11:42 And then he says, "By the way,
11:44 "we're bringing into Puerto Rico one monster."
11:49 Abdullah the Butcher and I, I have heard of him,
11:51 and I said, "Wow, I mean, what a way
11:53 "to begin a managing career."
11:55 Managing him, it was just a crazy, crazy way
12:00 of earning a living.
12:01 - Everybody just going crazy here.
12:03 - By 1983, he was already drawing gigantic money
12:07 in the Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico.
12:09 People will fill up the stadiums.
12:12 Abdullah will make the promoter, Carlos Colon, look good.
12:16 But at the same time, he will destroy them.
12:20 - Perhaps the fear of being involved in this match.
12:23 - Abdullah would rest in Puerto Rico for a couple of months.
12:25 He'd rest in Japan for a couple of months,
12:27 and then he would come back to the States.
12:29 And he was a big draw.
12:35 I mean, wherever he went, he drew money.
12:37 - Abdullah was worth every penny that he got paid,
12:41 and trust me, he was making huge money.
12:45 He looked really like a rich guy.
12:51 - Abdullah was very cautious of his money.
12:54 When he got paid, as soon as you give it to him,
12:56 he'd count it.
12:58 - I made sure my mother and father,
13:00 my brothers and sisters got some of it.
13:03 My mother used to work for the funeral home
13:05 and stuff like that.
13:07 I went there one day and I said, "Come on, Ma."
13:09 She said, "What?"
13:10 She said, "I want you to meet Mrs."
13:12 I said, "I don't wanna meet them."
13:14 You understand?
13:15 You're here scrubbing floors and stuff like that,
13:17 and I'm supposed to be Abdullah the butcher?
13:19 You're on your hands and knees scrubbing floors and stuff?
13:22 From that day, she never worked another day of her life,
13:26 and I made sure of that.
13:27 But I was dumb.
13:30 I didn't have the schooling.
13:32 Like I tell you, if I know what I know now,
13:35 everybody shafts me.
13:37 You understand?
13:38 - Despite his successful and profitable rise to fame,
13:42 Abdullah today finds himself in legal trouble
13:45 and financial ruin.
13:47 What has the whole situation been like for you personally?
13:50 - Hell.
13:51 You don't know who in hell's working with you
13:55 or working against you.
13:56 You understand?
13:57 I'm in bad shape.
14:00 Real bad shape.
14:01 - And anybody, anywhere, that does not fear
14:12 the name of the almighty Abdullah the butcher
14:16 is either an insane fool or they're lying to you.
14:20 - With Larry Shreve, yeah, it could be really difficult
14:24 for a fan to know where the character ends,
14:27 where the real person begins.
14:29 - He has reigned terror in the Russian Empire.
14:32 [growling]
14:33 What in the?
14:35 - Someone who rode with him for hundreds of hours,
14:38 yeah, you get to know the real guy
14:41 or what he wants to show you of the real guy.
14:45 - Abdullah the butcher moves swiftly for a big man.
14:48 - See, he always talk about he's an entertainer.
14:52 He's entertaining you,
14:54 but the real true person you all don't know.
14:57 My name is Jocelyn Malika Marjo.
15:01 I met Abdullah while I was on the streets
15:06 feeding the homeless.
15:08 He told me his name was Joe
15:10 and I was just so excited to see somebody else out there.
15:15 Like myself feeding the homeless.
15:18 So I didn't know he had a restaurant.
15:20 Gave me the address of the restaurant
15:24 and I brought my son over there.
15:25 My son said, "Do you know who that is?"
15:28 He said, "That's Abdullah the butcher."
15:31 And I said, "Who is that?"
15:32 Because I'm not into wrestling.
15:35 Abdullah was his hero.
15:37 - Your son liked all the bad guys.
15:39 - He loved the bad guys, yes.
15:42 Abdullah was the best heel that the world ever saw.
15:46 Even picturing in my head now,
15:48 just the way he stands,
15:49 the way he moved around the ring
15:51 and the things he did.
15:53 To see a whole crowd of people move back,
15:58 he could walk through an aisle
15:59 and people would run from him.
16:01 And we'd come through that ring,
16:02 people go, "Uh-oh, here come Abdullah."
16:05 It got so, it wasn't a gimmick.
16:07 - He was in character most of the time,
16:10 especially when it went public.
16:12 I remember seeing a flight attendant go over to him
16:14 and as soon as Abdullah saw that flight attendant,
16:16 eyes bugged out, his mouth started watering
16:19 and she tried to get his beverage order
16:23 and just walked away.
16:24 I was like, "Abby, are you okay?"
16:25 He goes, "Gotta protect the character, champ.
16:28 "Gotta protect the character."
16:29 And that's what he would do.
16:31 And so in his own way,
16:32 he would create this grassroots campaign
16:36 for the authenticity of his character.
16:39 - When he went into the ring with any wrastler,
16:42 he made them a good wrastler.
16:45 - You got to fight Abdullah,
16:47 you fought Abdullah, you got over him.
16:49 People knew you the next day.
16:51 - They got like a crown on their head
16:52 because they're wrastling one of the best.
16:55 - That's why I say, "Abdullah made Carlos Cologne.
16:59 "Abdullah made Tony, Mr. USA Atlas."
17:03 Everybody that fought Abdullah became a big star.
17:08 - The two of you got fight.
17:09 There goes Kevin Manhoef.
17:11 - The duty battle continues between Abdullah and Kevin Manhoef.
17:14 - Here he is with a big karate thrust
17:16 to the head of the Dirty Dutchman's tail.
17:19 [crowd cheering]
17:21 - What really made Abdullah was the time in Japan.
17:26 In Japan during that time,
17:29 wrestling stayed about 7% real.
17:32 If you got a karate kick in Japan,
17:34 it was a real karate kick.
17:35 You got chalk in Japan, it was a real chalk.
17:38 The only thing that was fake in Japan
17:40 were who won and who lost.
17:42 [crowd cheering]
17:44 It was on the cover of all the magazines.
17:49 They have billboards of Abdullah,
17:52 you know, pictures of Abdullah.
17:54 - He was what I call crazy over.
17:56 Like he was an iconic part of Japanese culture.
18:00 [crowd cheering]
18:03 - Good, oh, that's fine.
18:05 Doesn't bother me at all.
18:07 - As crazy as this might sound,
18:15 he recorded an album in Japan,
18:19 in the dressing room.
18:21 - My name is Abdullah the Butcher.
18:24 I wanna do all these crazy things to you.
18:26 My whole family hates me because I'm too vicious.
18:32 They never seen nothing like me.
18:34 I was different.
18:35 They only seen the wrestling, you know.
18:40 That was it.
18:41 I was different.
18:42 - Having found success with the hardcore style
18:49 he adapted from the chic,
18:51 Abdullah becomes a mentor to wrestler Devin Nicholson.
18:54 But this long-term friendship will end in disaster.
18:58 - I actually ended his career.
19:01 Retired him in the ring, retired him out of the ring.
19:04 My name is Devin Nicholson
19:07 and my wrestling name was Hannibal.
19:09 - There will be no more Abdullah after the 23rd.
19:15 - No class, no idea how to dress.
19:17 - Starting his career with Stampede Wrestling in 2001,
19:21 Devin begins working under the name Madman Hannibal
19:25 and soon launches his own indie promotion,
19:27 Great North Wrestling.
19:29 In 2006, he begins working with Abdullah.
19:32 - Before all the negative stuff happened,
19:36 I actually considered him somewhat of a mentor.
19:40 And like, I would say he was the first wrestler
19:44 to like, take me under his wing a bit
19:48 and teach me about how to get heat and stuff.
19:51 We ended up tag teaming and wrestling each other
19:56 numerous times.
19:58 I knew I used to work for him.
20:00 - Right, like you guys were friends, weren't you?
20:01 - Yeah, I used to fly into Toronto or whatever
20:05 and we had shows.
20:07 He'd come out to Calgary, Alberta, we'd have shows.
20:11 You understand?
20:11 - Abdullah, you think I'm not ready for you?
20:15 (screams)
20:16 I'm gonna get you in your last match in Canada.
20:19 - There will be some people that will always
20:23 hate me for exposing him, but whatever.
20:27 I don't care.
20:28 I stopped him from wrestling.
20:30 - Already 68 years old and six decades into his career,
20:42 Abdullah returns to Canada to wrestle Hannibal
20:46 in what's being billed as his retirement match.
20:49 - I remember my first experience of Abdullah.
20:51 My grandmother was actually somewhat of a wrestling fan
20:55 and I remember she let me rent a wrestling movie
20:58 called "I Like to Hurt People."
21:00 - Against the butcher from the Sudan, Abdullah the Butcher.
21:04 - And I just remember thinking,
21:06 how did they make this blood effect?
21:08 You didn't really know how they did blood in those days.
21:11 I'll probably have to edit this.
21:15 And I know Bret Hart would put it in his mouth, he said,
21:19 but I was always afraid to do that.
21:23 So then you would take the blade and put it like there,
21:26 the tape over top, and then when it comes time to bleed,
21:31 you'd pull it out and then, I'm not gonna do it,
21:34 I'm not Abdullah, but you'd slice down like that.
21:39 - Now, for me to hit myself, I'd hit myself like this.
21:42 You see it?
21:46 - I was around Abdullah a lot
21:49 and you never actually see him do the deed.
21:52 The blood would arrive as if by magic.
21:56 - Abdullah had razor blades on all his fingers.
21:59 First he'd cut you with the razor blade.
22:02 - And once he got it, he's got a fork.
22:04 - And then he would take the fork and scrape it across
22:06 to make it bigger so he could bleed more.
22:08 He actually would stick that fork,
22:10 he was sticking with that fork too.
22:12 He's like stabbing you in the head with that fork,
22:14 hurt like hell.
22:15 - That's Abdullah, Abdullah the Butcher.
22:17 - He would cut you deep.
22:20 - Well, did anybody ever complain about being cut?
22:23 - Not to Abdullah.
22:24 Because, you see, in the olden days,
22:28 the guys would tell you this, "Suck it up.
22:31 If you don't like it, you're in the wrong business, kid.
22:35 Suck it up."
22:36 There was no bitch in the complaining wrestling.
22:39 I didn't carry a blade, I didn't juice every night,
22:42 but this was part of these guys gimmick.
22:44 - Abdullah the Butcher, it can be over.
22:45 - Abdullah, bruiser Brody, Dusty Rowe,
22:50 (crowd cheering)
22:53 - Abdullah's blade every night, every night.
22:56 It's kind of like, "Brit Flair gotta have the road."
22:58 Well, Abdullah gotta have the blade.
23:01 - Why do they call him Abdullah the Butcher?
23:04 What does a butcher do?
23:06 They take the make blood.
23:07 They try to hurt you, to torture you.
23:09 This guy here, he was rushed to the hospital,
23:13 he had four stitches in the back of the head
23:15 'cause this guy chopped him in the damn head and got cut.
23:18 Don't think that this is off Tony Blood.
23:21 - Abdullah's intense bloodlust and unpredictable style
23:24 keeps him from signing with the world's largest promotion,
23:28 Vince McMahon's WWE.
23:30 - Vince kind of knew that Abdullah
23:33 was gonna be very hard to be controlled.
23:37 And I think that if you would even ask Abdullah,
23:42 I don't think he even trusted himself
23:45 because I don't think a lot of the times he planned things.
23:48 - We were gonna have a tag team match in Ottawa
23:52 and before the match, we were appearing
23:54 on a local television show called "Rogers Daytime."
23:59 - I just happen to have a fork right here.
24:01 (crowd gasping)
24:03 With the old, you know.
24:04 - And without this being planned or anything.
24:09 - It's always a pleasure.
24:10 - Thank you. - Why do you have to go?
24:12 - He put the male host in a headlock.
24:15 (woman screaming)
24:16 - Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah!
24:18 - Walked the male host over to where there was going
24:21 to be a cooking segment after.
24:23 (man screaming)
24:26 And then the guy started bleeding.
24:32 - Settle, back off!
24:34 - You know what, I might have just finished.
24:35 - You know what?
24:36 - I think you should come with me.
24:37 I kept you in the show.
24:39 - It was the weirdest moment ever.
24:41 The guy was like, I just remember him shaking like that.
24:43 He was like going into shock almost.
24:46 It was like a guy that obviously isn't used to bleeding
24:50 or getting in fights or anything.
24:52 - We'll be right back after this.
24:54 - I think that was 2009.
24:56 He couldn't even really get away with it then.
24:59 It was a miracle he did, but you could see like how
25:03 in the old days he could get away with stuff like that.
25:07 But I think in 2022, it would be hard to assault
25:11 a TV show to get away with it.
25:13 I think he was in his late sixties by then too.
25:16 So it certainly helped.
25:20 - After years on the independent circuit
25:23 and mentorship from Abdullah,
25:25 Hannibal finally achieves his own opportunity
25:27 to wrestle for the WWE.
25:29 - When I was signed by WWE, he actually screamed with joy
25:35 because I guess since he never actually wrestled for them
25:38 and it was kind of like someone that kind of represented him
25:43 in a way was gonna get in.
25:45 - But after a series of routine blood tests,
25:48 Hannibal receives career shattering news.
25:50 - In my blood tests, they found that the hepatitis C virus
25:54 was present and I was like,
25:58 well, first of all, I was confused
26:02 on like how I would have such a thing.
26:05 A lot of guys would use dirty razor blades,
26:07 you know what I mean?
26:08 'Cause everybody didn't care about blades.
26:10 Everybody didn't care about blades.
26:10 So we say something like, "Hey, Abbie,
26:14 you got a blade I could use?"
26:15 Then he go use the blade and you know,
26:20 when you borrow something, you gotta do what?
26:22 Give it back.
26:24 And they would give it back to Abdullah.
26:27 So it was very easy for somebody to catch a disease
26:31 because who knows where that blade came from
26:33 or who they cut before they cut Hannibal.
26:36 - Did it cross your mind at that point
26:38 that it might've been Abdullah?
26:39 - Yes, 'cause there was no other way
26:42 that I would have thought that I would have caught it,
26:44 but I wasn't, like at this point,
26:47 I didn't think that I would have the evidence or anything.
26:52 - At some point, you and this guy Hannibal
26:56 were friendly with each other, right?
26:58 - Yeah, we were good friends.
26:59 I used to work for him.
27:00 He was a promoter.
27:01 - Right.
27:02 - So I don't know what happened,
27:06 but I don't wanna talk about this.
27:08 I don't wanna talk about it.
27:10 - His career cut short by his hepatitis C diagnosis.
27:22 Hannibal is desperate for answers.
27:24 - I had a guy that was doing a documentary on me.
27:27 It was called "This is Hannibal."
27:29 We were hoping that it was gonna be
27:30 my journey to WWE movie,
27:33 but it ended up just being like a sad movie.
27:36 Obviously, it didn't work out.
27:39 The contracts got rescinded because I have hepatitis C.
27:43 So he was the one that actually saw the cutting incident,
27:47 and he showed me the clip from the 2007 match.
27:52 And he's like, "What is Abdullah doing here?"
27:54 - I haven't even seen footage of the match,
27:58 to be honest with you.
27:59 I would love to see it.
28:02 - You can see here, he's cutting his own head
28:04 with his razor blade that's taped to his finger,
28:07 right where all the scars are on his forehead,
28:09 what he's been doing for the past 50 years.
28:12 And you see him doing that to my forehead.
28:20 So I'm like, "He's blading me."
28:22 - Oh my God, so eight years managing him
28:26 in different countries.
28:27 I never saw him doing that to another guy.
28:32 And if that's the case, wow.
28:37 - Many local news stations saw my movie
28:39 and did their own stories on it,
28:41 because Ottawa, I don't think ever had somebody
28:44 that had made WWE.
28:46 Ronald Cazza, one of the top lawyers in this area,
28:50 saw the case, and with his skill as a lawyer,
28:55 he was able to basically force Abdullah
28:59 to provide his blood test.
29:00 According to his blood work,
29:03 there's a history of hep C's,
29:05 so you would think that he knew,
29:08 but whether he knew or not,
29:10 he should have known it's dangerous
29:12 to cut someone with a razor blade with blood on it.
29:15 - The footage of Abdullah cutting Hannibal
29:19 with a used razor blade,
29:21 and the results of Abdullah's blood test
29:23 form the basis of a lawsuit filed by Hannibal,
29:26 a lawsuit that Abdullah claims
29:28 he couldn't read or understand.
29:31 - I was getting a lot of letters, right?
29:33 What am I gonna do, open it up?
29:36 I don't know what the hell it says.
29:39 If it wasn't for Malika, no.
29:45 I'd really be in bad shape.
29:48 - And he said, "Sat me down."
29:51 He said, "Sit down, Malika."
29:53 But he told me he didn't know how to read and write,
29:56 and he cried like a baby.
29:58 A big, huge man, like this, crying.
30:02 I never seen a man cry like that.
30:05 That's when I understood what was going on in his life,
30:12 and he would ask me to open his mail and read it to him.
30:16 And after I looked through it,
30:18 it included the court case with Devon Nicholson.
30:23 I don't know anything about that.
30:26 - My sister called me and said,
30:29 "You lost the case in Toronto."
30:34 I said, "What?"
30:36 And it was default.
30:40 That's what, because I didn't show up, and that was it.
30:47 - When you aspire to be a professional wrestler,
30:49 this is how you celebrate a legal victory.
30:51 - He ended up losing in court in both Ontario and Georgia,
30:56 and he was found guilty of negligence, assault, and battery.
31:01 He either knew or should have known that he had Epsi,
31:05 which Abdullah still denies,
31:07 even though he provided the blood tests.
31:09 - Court documents show that Abdullah
31:13 carries the same rare strain of Hepatitis C as Hannibal.
31:17 In the years that follow, Abdullah makes a range of claims,
31:21 including the allegation that it was Hannibal
31:23 who gave the disease to him.
31:25 After the Canadian judge sees the video evidence,
31:28 coupled with the confirmation that both men
31:30 share the same rare strain of Hep C,
31:33 the court side with Hannibal.
31:35 - It's very good to have that on the record
31:38 after all these years of being called a liar.
31:41 - Devon Nicholson was awarded $2.3 million in damages.
31:46 - No, I don't think it's your pay, no, not that much, no.
31:50 - What should he have gotten?
31:52 - Nothing.
31:53 I wouldn't have sued him.
31:56 When you get into a certain profession,
31:59 you know, you're taking the risk.
32:00 Hannibal could have done it himself.
32:04 That's what the guys told me,
32:07 told it, he don't change his blade, do it yourself.
32:12 He let Abdullah cut him.
32:14 He could have cut himself, but he was scared to cut himself,
32:16 so he got somebody else do it, and it cost him.
32:20 - In dire financial straits,
32:29 Abdullah continues to make wrestling-related appearances
32:32 and autograph signings.
32:34 Hannibal claims that Abdullah has moved around his assets
32:39 in order to avoid paying him, and to this day,
32:42 the matter is still in front of the courts.
32:45 - He's never paid anything, hasn't paid a penny.
32:47 Nah, I don't think he have it.
32:52 - I want you all to look at this.
32:55 These, this is dangerous,
32:58 this stuff that you have ever seen.
33:00 Look at this.
33:02 - Oh boy.
33:04 - He has no money to repair none of this.
33:07 Now this is a light fixture
33:10 where the water is coming down.
33:13 This is electrical.
33:15 I, listen.
33:16 - This is how his house is right now, currently.
33:19 - Right now, currently.
33:21 That's why I didn't allow you all to come back there.
33:23 Oh, I am stressed.
33:29 I'm stressed.
33:31 I've never had blood pressure
33:33 until I got moved into this house.
33:36 - But it's worth it when you see someone
33:39 being taken advantage as if he built a career.
33:43 - Should've went to school.
33:46 Should've went to school to learn how to read and write.
33:51 I studied money.
33:56 But I needed more than that.
34:00 I got shafted.
34:03 I got shafted.
34:04 All the tapes, what I made for many, many years,
34:10 got nothing.
34:12 - Whatever he's going through,
34:15 whatever he's going through, that was all his anyways.
34:18 I don't wanna say too much, just tell the,
34:21 that's the truth.
34:22 My brother, don't worry, my brother is,
34:25 he's a very nice person, but people play games with him.
34:29 - Are you aware that he says that he can't read or write?
34:32 Did he ever tell you that he can't read or write?
34:33 - No, and I've seen him order at restaurants, reading menus.
34:38 I've seen letters from him.
34:42 I've seen him sign autographs.
34:44 He's owned several businesses over the years
34:46 and been involved with large wrestling contracts
34:49 with companies like WCW and Japanese companies.
34:54 - So he can't read or write?
34:57 - No, no, he never could.
34:59 But he'd find ways, like if they told him, like,
35:03 to go to a chicken farm or something like that,
35:08 he'd draw a picture of a chicken.
35:11 - I don't mean this to be humorous,
35:15 but he knew how to read a menu.
35:17 You know, like we would eat out three times a day.
35:20 He never had an issue.
35:22 I don't know if that's the case.
35:25 If it is, I think it's just,
35:29 it's an accolade for him to be that successful
35:32 around the world without that ability.
35:34 But I don't know, I've only recently heard that.
35:37 - That's like a shock to me
35:40 because he made great business transactions,
35:44 even in a check, in a check you have to write it.
35:49 I did not know that.
35:50 And eight years we travel a lot,
35:54 spent a lot of time together, and that is a shock to me.
35:58 If that is a guy of a second grade education, wow.
36:02 That whoever was the teacher,
36:05 we've gotta find him or her and honor that person
36:10 because that teacher did a lot.
36:12 - Abdul, the butcher himself,
36:14 getting stitched up right here.
36:16 - The punishing style of hardcore wrestling
36:18 has a long legacy,
36:20 but it often comes at great personal cost
36:22 for those involved.
36:24 - Abdul and Carlos Colon invented a match
36:26 with a chain going right across the ring
36:28 and they were hooked to it.
36:30 And even with the rain, a storm,
36:33 you could still see just all the blood coming down.
36:36 It was horrendous, but for the fans,
36:40 it was just devastating, the punishment
36:43 that they inflicted on each other.
36:45 - We felt invincible,
36:48 and they trained you to feel invincible.
36:52 - At those times, we will put the blood of their opponent
36:55 as part of being a heel,
36:56 and suck the blood out of your opponent's head.
36:59 When I talk about it right now,
37:03 I see the expressions on the young,
37:05 the new generation, like,
37:07 what the heck were you guys thinking?
37:10 But back then, it was a whole different world.
37:14 - Anytime you watch something,
37:19 even if you watch a movie picture or something like that,
37:23 they always have violence in it, right?
37:26 You have like the cops and the robbers,
37:27 you have this and stuff like that.
37:29 It's always violence.
37:31 And if you don't give the people violence,
37:33 they don't come and see you.
37:36 - In a twist of fate in 2021,
37:38 seven years after his own court battle,
37:41 Hannibal finds himself at the center of his own controversy
37:44 by brutalizing a referee.
37:47 - They were looking for someone to bleed from the spike.
37:49 So the promoter found this referee
37:53 that was a known bleeder to take the spike.
37:57 It hit him several times for,
38:03 and it did some damage.
38:05 The promoter for that show
38:07 did not have any medics on site.
38:11 It went on longer than it should have.
38:16 Like it was bad communication all around.
38:19 - Guy, the referee, he ended up getting an infection.
38:22 His head was, I mean, mutilated.
38:25 - I was appalled.
38:26 I saw the dude's head with a dozen different gaffes
38:30 with staples in his head.
38:31 I'm just like, what in the heck happened here?
38:34 Why have charges not been pressed?
38:36 Why is this guy not in jail?
38:39 Even your story is saying
38:41 you were recklessly, dangerously careless
38:44 and damn near killed this guy 'cause you're just sloppy.
38:48 And if we believe that he got mad
38:50 and actually attacked this guy with a spike,
38:52 it's like, you should be in jail.
38:55 You should never be booked to wrestle again.
38:57 This is not good for the business.
38:59 This isn't 1960 where we're gonna convince somebody
39:01 that he's the madman from the Sudan
39:03 that attacked somebody with a spike.
39:05 There's no place for that in the industry anymore.
39:09 - Oh my God, that even makes no sense.
39:12 I mean, you just were in that situation
39:16 and wow, strange things do happen
39:19 because what are the chances that you win a court case
39:24 and now you're gonna do that to a referee?
39:27 Crazy.
39:30 - To this day, Abdullah's legal problems haunt him
39:39 and the Hepatitis C controversy
39:41 has tainted the legacy of his legendary career.
39:45 - I know it was horrendous to hear
39:49 because you never wanna hear
39:51 that somebody did this to another guy.
39:55 But then you also wonder because in my case,
39:59 I was around him in bloody matches, you know,
40:03 and Carlos Colon and other guys,
40:06 but none of us tested positive to that.
40:11 - Hannibal eventually finds an experimental treatment
40:16 that cures him of his Hepatitis C,
40:18 but his bitterness remains.
40:20 Is there anything that he could do to make this right?
40:23 - Yes.
40:24 I mean, start paying what you can
40:31 and take some responsibility for what you did.
40:34 You've been found guilty in both Canada and the US,
40:38 but you never apologized for anything.
40:41 And yeah, it's just been a nightmare situation,
40:45 but I would never expect that from him.
40:47 So all I can do is move on, which I have been doing.
40:51 I'll be honest, talking about this situation,
40:55 I mean, this is hopefully the last time
40:59 I'll have to talk about it.
41:01 It was a terrible period of my life and I'm over it.
41:06 - Because the lawsuit is argued in a civil trial,
41:12 the judge found Abdul the Butcher liable,
41:14 but not guilty of causing Hannibal's Hepatitis C.
41:18 - This is the Hall of Fame and all these rascals here,
41:22 these are the old ones, they're probably all dead now.
41:25 They're all in the Hall of Fame with Abdul the Butcher.
41:28 Well, I put it this way, all my family is his biggest fan.
41:31 He's done good.
41:33 And I hate to say this, there's a lot of good rascals
41:36 and I put it this way, he's one of the best.
41:38 - Being around our next inductee
41:43 always made me a little nervous.
41:45 This is a man who took hardcore to another level.
41:49 Take a look.
41:50 - In 2011, Abdul the Butcher is inducted
41:55 into the WWE's Hall of Fame.
41:57 - When I found out I was gonna be in the Hall of Fame,
42:00 I says, I don't believe it until they book me there.
42:03 And Terry Funk was the one who put me over strong,
42:08 said nice things about me.
42:11 He said, whatever people say about Abdul the Butcher,
42:14 he made these promoters a lot of money.
42:18 - I cried because I know the story that
42:22 to be what he became, he paid the price.
42:28 And yes, he made the money,
42:32 but it wasn't easy being Abdul the Butcher.
42:37 - What's missing in wrestling today is the idea
42:40 that someone, an opponent is fighting for something bigger
42:44 than a title or a victory.
42:45 They're fighting for their lives.
42:47 That's what he brought to the table.
42:49 And I don't know if anyone ever did it better
42:51 than Abdul the Butcher.
42:52 - I never see anybody that the fan was actually afraid of.
42:56 There was afraid of him.
42:59 And I never saw that with anybody.
43:02 - I think he should be remembered for his greatness.
43:07 His greatness because he is the God of wrestling,
43:11 not the negative, you know, just one little situation.
43:17 And it's not proven.
43:21 He didn't get a chance to prove his innocence.
43:28 I don't care if they take everything he owns.
43:33 I would never turn my back on a man of greatness,
43:38 such greatness.
43:39 He's gonna be okay with the help of God.
43:44 - Long after you're gone,
43:45 what would you like people to think
43:46 when they hear the name Abdul the Butcher?
43:49 - Just to give me the respect for what I done.
43:54 And a lot of things people say I done, I did not do.
43:57 You know what I mean?
43:59 And that's all I can say.
44:02 Whatever you wanna think, I'll leave it up to you.
44:05 (bell ringing)
44:07 (bells chiming)
44:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]