411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Bikers, Bombs, and Bedlam: Johnny K-9’

-Back at it with the latest Dark Side of The Ring. This one I am going in blind as I know nothing of Johnny K-9, so this should be interesting. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder, Chris Jericho is our narrator for this season.

-Wrestler Johnny K-9 was a complex man that lead a life of violence and crime outside the ring. He was a member of the Satan’s Choice Biker Gang and various talking heads mention how power hungry he was. Seems he blew up a police station in Ontario and Cornette says he couldn’t wrap his head around that he was a bad person.

-We start with footage of K-9 vs Sam Houston in 1987. Johnny was a job guy on WWF TV and the talking heads explain what a JOB guy was to all of us at home. Lance Storm mentions WWF would hire local guys just to get beat to put over their bigger stars. This is right in my wheelhouse as far as my childhood, but I just don’t remember the guy.

-We see news footage of an interview with Johnny and he took the name K-9 when he was arrested and saw the K-9 unit on a cop car. We meet Tracy Edwards, who is the widow of Johnny. She was an exotic dancer doing a roller blade show and Johnny walked in her bar in 1993. It took one look and she knew they would be together.

-Johnny goes on the Indy scene when WWF appearances dry up and that is where Scott D’Amore met him. Scott says he met Johnny after his WWF run and he was much bigger. Johnny told Scott it was the two of them tonight and D’Amore mentions he nearly shit his pants. They had a good match and Scott says that is was helped him get booked. He puts over Johnny’s toughness and his widow does the same. Apparently Johnny wanted to be hit hard enough he would bleed.

-She continues that Johnny’s dad was abusive and would beat his mom and his kids. He would hide from his father under his bed and get his hands and feet locked in the bars so he did couldn’t find him with a broom.

-D’Amore tells a story about getting short changed by a booker and Johnny grabbed the promoter by the throat. He threatened the promoter until he agreed to pay D’Amore more money. “Kid, I don’t think that guy is going to short you on money again.” D’Amore agreed, but told Johnny he was pretty sure they would never get booked by him again. No kidding!

-Tracy tells a story of Johnny ordering pizza and then greeting the delivery man at the door butt naked. It would make Tracy laugh. D’Amore tells a story of Johnny jumping on stage at a show and playing the drums which impressed the boys, but then he tried to sing and he sucked. The the boys loved it though and the more they laughed the more it egged on Johnny. They have video footage of this event for those wondering. It was the next night at the show that Johnny met Jim Cornette.

-Jim Cornette tells us he was the promoter for Smokey Mountain Wrestling. The promotion was started to give fans old time wrestling with a southern feel. He was managing The Heavenly Bodies and they had a show in Michigan and that’s where Cornette first saw Johnny K-9. Cornette felt he could bring him to Tennessee as a bad ass heel. It seems Johnny had a tattoo across his stomach, “True to The Crew,” and Cornette asked him about it. He tells Cornette he was in prison and his gang agreed to get the tat when they got out of jail. Cornette asked if somebody was going to check and Johnny told him they were people that you needed to live up to your word with, and that’s when Cornette had an inkling that Johnny had a checkered past.

-Commercials!

-Cornette didn’t like the name “Johnny K-9” and thought of Dick The Bruiser. Lance Storm mentions Cornette gave him and Jericho the tag name of The Thrill Seekers. Cornette used the name Bruiser Bedlam for Johnny. The talking heads mention he would arrive in an open top jeep in a tank top no matter the weather. Everyone thought he was this tough guy and they soon realize he could be a teddy bear.

-Johnny got instant credibility in SMW by getting a win over Bob Armstrong on his first night. Cornette: “nobody beat Bob Armstrong.” They did videos where he would use his hand to put nails through boards and he told Cornette he could break a beer bottle over his head. First try and it doesn’t break, so Cornette tells him they can gimmick the bottle. He would have none of it and second take the bottle doesn’t break. Johnny started bleeding so Cornette baked the bottle and let it freeze a bit so it would crack and next time it broke. They show video and Cornette mentions if you see a guy bleeding from the head and smashing beer bottles you would believe he is crazy.

-Cornette is asked if he knew what Johnny did for a living outside of wrestling and he laughs that he doesn’t know. That leads us to meeting Bill Dunphy who is a retired journalist. Hamilton, Ont was an industrial powerhouse in the 60s and 70s, but that fell by the wayside. Johnny grew up borderline poor and he didn’t make as much as he wanted wrestling. Tracy says to make more money he worked for a family, but won’t say their name.

-Len Isnor, a retired Detective Staff Sergeant fro Ontario Provincial Police, will though as it was apparently The Gravelle Family. The family hired Johnny as a debt collector and soon some of the other crime families would hire him as well. Tracy mentions he would come home at times with blood on his shoes and hands. He had bigger dreams as his brother was a member of the Red Devils bike gang. He wanted that and joined Satan’s Choice Motorcycle Club. They let Johnny open a chapter in Hamilton and he ran the show there.

-Mark Carlos next and he is a former member of Satan’s Choice. He mentions nobody ever came up as fast in the ranks as Johnny did. The big picture is money and Johnny helped bring more money. He would make $20-30 grand in a matte of 20 minutes.

-Len was assigned to Hamilton and started to investigate Johnny. Tracy mentions that Johnny loved wrestling and it’s why he would go wrestle for $200 a night even with making big money with the gang.

-They discuss the Flop House in SMW. It would house 4-5 guys and Johnny decided to live there when Jericho was there. He wanted to do his share and offered to do the dishes. It seems his idea of doing dishes was just holding the dish under the water and then shaking it off. Jericho had him do the garbage after that. He tells us that Johnny was a great guy to hang around as far as roommate.

-Cornette mentions he booked a Main Event with Bruiser Bedlam against Randy Savage. It was Macho’s idea to put Bruiser over because he felt that was Cornette’s guy and he was just coming in for the one show. That shocked Jim and he made sure it wasn’t clean at least as people got involved, but in the end Bruiser Bedlam pinned Randy Savage. That’s our Macho Man! D’Amore says that was where Johnny felt he was more than the former WWF job guy. Cornette had to change the roster down the road and Bruiser told Jim no hard feelings and he would go back to Hamilton. Jim puts over how great Johnny was and “I would have to see video tape of him blowing something up before I would have to believe it.”

-Commercials!

-After SMW, Johnny was back to doing smaller shows and he wasn’t happy with it. Tracy says his heart was broken as all he wanted to do was make it. Lance Storm thinks making it bigger in wrestling was his way away from that other life, “or that could be me, trying to make him the person I wanted him to be.” Carlos says Johnny loved the attention, but went down the wrong path. The life of a biker is one where you don’t make it big.

-Johnny would tell the cops waiting outside they were wasting tax payer dollars. Carlos told Johnny there was no need to say anything to the cops and thinking you were smarter than them by doing it was a mistake. Len and his team would use wire-taps to monitor Johnny and his gang.

-Johnny’s chapter made a relationship with the Sudbury chapter. Johnny formed a relationship with Michael Dube from that chapter. They decided to go an adult place called “The Solid Gold.” Apparently you couldn’t wear colors at this place and Johnny K-9 said to hell with that as he felt he could do whatever he wanted. The staff refused to serve them and the police are called and we get a standoff. Satan’s Choice backs down and that angered Johnny and Dube. They decide to bomb Solid Gold, but Dube decides the bomb is going to Sudbury Police Station. It was put in an alley and blew a hole in the wall of the station. Johnny was confused when he heard the news as he thought it was going to be The Solid Good.

-The police are closing in on Satan’s Choice as we get into 1997. They have them on charges of the bombing, drug charges, and extortion. They police bombed the club to be able to get inside the building. Tracy thought gangsters were coming into the house to kill them, but it was 50 SWAT team members. She breaks down a bit as she says, “it was over at that point.”

-Commercials!

-We see footage of the news story on the event. Johnny was out on bail and news spread quickly. Lance Storm was asked by his step-dad, “is this your friend? Yeah, my friend that tried to blow up a police station in Ontario.” The news caught the police tearing the Satan’s Choice sign off the building.

-Johnny talked to the police and Dube was named as the mastermind. Talking to the police when caught is a big no-no as you would expect in that type of community. When Johnny is released he was kicked out of the club and labeled as a rat. Tracy had someone yell her husband was a rat, so she decked him. She became nervous for her life and mentions the police would pull her over to tell her that her life was in danger as hits were out on her and Johnny.

-January of 2000 he was sentenced to prison for the bombing. Tracy took their 2 year old to Vancouver. She divorced him and moved on with her life. Johnny served his 33 month sentence and in 2002 followed Tracy to Vancouver after he was released. She thinks Johnny was being run out of his home and felt Vancouver was the best for him. As soon as she saw him at the airport she was in love with him and she just wanted to believe him. He wanted to open a wrestling school, but instead he went to prison again.

-Commercials!

-After only a few months in BC, he was arrested for a double murder back in Ontario that occurred in 1998. He was charged for the murder of Lynn and Fred Gilbank. Mrs. Gilbank was a lawyer and Fred was her husband. The killer entered their home and killed them with a shotgun. Fred was shot on the stairs twice and Lynn in her bed four times. They searched for a motive and went through all of Lynn’s cases. The theory was it was an attempt to intimidate law officials and criminals from ratting on The Gravelle Family. Johnny and Andre Gravelle were charged nine years later for the murders.

-Lance Storm mentions he got a message from D’Amore that asked if he heard about K-9. Storm thought was dead and when he called back, Scott told him he was charged with a double murder. Scott says he may be naïve, but that’s not the John he knew.

-Somehow he only spent 20 months in jail because the police didn’t have a strong case. Both men walked and were proclaimed innocent as there was no real prospect of conviction. Andre sued and got a settlement out of it.

-Tracy says Johnny didn’t kill them and it was a load of crap. She then decided to marry him. Johnny didn’t know what he was going to do for money, and decided to take on acting roles. He had a part on a CW show, ‘Reaper.’ Tracy admits he wasn’t a great actor, but tried his best. From there he went backwards and got involved with The Hell’s Angels which lead to joining The U.N. Gang. He would have a hundred pounds of weed in their kitchen while the kids were in school. They would spray the weed with liquor and coca-cola.

-In 2008 there was a botched hit by the gang that lead to the death of innocent man. John was arrested again for murder and Tracy was 9 months pregnant at the time. That day was the last day he would ever be free.

-Commercials!

-Next week it’s Luna Vachon!

-Johnny plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and the charge of first degree murder is stayed. He serves 4 years and gets released to a halfway house in Toronto. He was supposed to be released back to Vancouver 6 weeks later. The police show up to Tracy’s house and inform her that Ion William Croitoru (Johnny K-9) had passed away that morning. He was 53 and the cause of his death has caused great speculation. The detective says it was a heart attack and Carlos says it was a hot dose of drugs from people that wanted him dead. Tracy says it was because the guards in prison maced him and they had to scrape his lungs.

-D’Amore laughed at the headline as it read “Natural causes succeed where mob hit men and gangsters failed – Johnny K-9 is dead.” He thinks if Johnny could write his own headline about his death that would be it.

-He had a charisma that forms like a lot of folk heroes and it’s compared to what happened with Al Capone. His death didn’t bring closure as the double murder is still wide open and they lost someone who may know what happened. Two good people were killed! Tracy says if you owed him money he would smack you, but he would never kill anyone. She blames it on him getting mixed up with the wrong people and they were the ones that would kill someone. The detective disagrees with her and says Johnny is a very dangerous person. “I don’t doubt for a minute that he is involved in homicide.”

-Cornette mentions that the wrestlers will think of him as a great guy, but those who he affected obviously have different feelings. Storm breaks down a bit as he has his experiences of who Johnny was and he hoped that is who he was but he can’t say that and it hits you pretty hard. Carlos wishes he could go back and tell Johnny to go back to being a dad, husband, and wrestler.

-Storm says there are a million fans that don’t know of Johnny and there is someone who was there when he beat Savage and probably still has nightmares about how scary he was. Tracy calls him the baddest MF’R in the ring and he had a good time doing what he loved.

-Well, now I can say I know a lot more about this man, and this was a lot to take in. The consensus seems to be the boys loved him and some are still shocked he did what he was accused of doing. Then you have the police who are pretty sure he committed just heinous crimes. Overall this was well done and featured a lot of good information from the various talking heads. Nobody seemed out of place and they all brought something to the table. As far as wrestling goes, Jericho, D’Amore, Storm and Cornette were there to fill in those gaps and everyone else filled in the other life he was leading. His wife was there to get us through it all and offer her thoughts which obviously paint a different picture than what the police feel. The pain with this one was seeing the photos of the couple that was murdered and the poor innocent bystander that was killed as well. What really happened only a few people likely know and it likely will stay that way. Definitely check this one out as it provides a lot of information on a person I knew very little about. Thanks for reading!