wrestling / TV Reports

411’s The Dark Side of the Ring Report: ‘The Assassination of Dino Bravo’

April 22, 2020 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Dark Side of the Ring Dino Bravo

411’s The Dark Side of the Ring Report: ‘The Assassination of Dino Bravo’

-Welcome back as we continue through season 2 of Dark Side of the Ring. This time the show will be focusing on Dino Bravo and the details surrounding his murder. I’ve been looking forward to this one as I don’t know much about this story. Let’s get to it!

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

-The intro goes over Dino’s feats of strength including bench pressing 500 lbs and one talking heads calls him the Hulk Hogan of Montreal. He wrestled the biggest stars in the WWF including Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. He lived dangerously at times and got mixed up with organized crime which lead to his murder.

-March 10, 1993: The family of Dino Bravo found him dead and the police said he was shot 11 times. Rumors began that it was a mafia style execution and it’s still an unsolved crime. His family hasn’t spoken about the tragedy until now.

-We first meet his daughter, Claudia Bresciano, who is looking at pictures of Dino in a photo album. She is speaking French so subtitles for this one. She talks about her dad taking her into the locker room as a child and she loved the costumes and masks.

-Dino Bravo was his wrestling name, but his real name was Adolfo Bresciano and we meet Diane Rivest, his wife. She met Dino in a bar and fell in love with him. She was 19 at the time and he offered to drive her home and that’s how their story started.

-Patric Laprade, Wrestling Historian, is next and he says Dino was a superhero to him. He was like an action figure come to life. Dino was the star of International Wrestling based out of Montreal. It was the leading promotion in Quebec with 2 million people tuning in each week to watch the show. They had The Rogueaus, Andre, and Rick Martel but Dino was the biggest star they had. Tony Mule was the promoter for the company from 1971-1986.

-Gino Brito was another one of the promoters and he says Dino was more than a friend. He was like family. Dino is the top draw and with the promoters by his side he was also part owner and the match maker.

-Jacques Rogeau is next and he says that we know who he is. “I’m The Mountie.” Awesome! He says he has known Dino since he was 18 years old and covers that Dino was the booker. He says Dino created himself and worked around his image and his future.

-His daughter brings up that her dad just wanted to be more and more famous. As you expect Dino booking himself as the top star didn’t sit well with everyone and Jacques admits he felt he should have been in the Main Event. He took a phone call from Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson and wasn’t sure if he wanted to make the jump yet.

-The cover the WWF expansion in the 80s and how they wanted to take over Montreal. They needed Dino to get in on the territory and they teased a Hogan/Bravo match. They discuss that it was a dream match and could have sold out Olympic Stadium, but the match didn’t happen as they claim the WWF was afraid the fans would cheer Bravo.

-This upset Bravo and he decided that he wanted to make his promotion competition to the WWF. He had no chance obviously and had to make the decision to get out of the way or compete against a giant. Jacques says his family begged him not to go to the WWF, but he knew the damage was done and that the smart thing was to join. By the end of 1986 Dino’s company is on life support and he has to decide if he wants to continue to fight or join the WWF.

-Commercials!

-Back with his daughter as she continues to look at photos and posters of her father. In order to support his family he opts to join the WWF as he was offered $300,000 guaranteed and had a chance to make up to a million. Jacques mentions there was no animosity when Dino joined as it was a smart move for all involved. Claudia tells a story about meeting Jake Roberts and being scared of the snake.

-Dino was paired with Jimmy Hart and Jacques calls him the best as he knew how to get his guys over. Jimmy is here and says that managers were the hood ornaments on the Cadillac. The pairing was great for both of them and Dino moved up the card. That brought lots of money and we get talk about the cars that were bought and homes that were built. He bought a car for his daughter when she was only 4 years old and they think he just liked to show off what his career was doing for him.

-Jacques is asked to describe Vince McMahon for someone that doesn’t know him. He laughs and says he wasn’t prepared for this question. Dino was given the gimmick of a bleach blonde anti-American heel. Jacques jokes about how many blonde Italians do you know. Dino hated it but that was the price to pay for working for a big company instead of having your own.

-Jimmy talks about Dino’s broken English and how fans had a hard time understanding him at times. Dino also didn’t like doing jobs and they discuss how getting beat week after week takes away from you even if the results are predetermined. It hurts your value. Jacques mentions that you have to check your ego at the door to work for the WWE and you know that new talent will come to take your place.

-Dino was getting older and younger guys were coming in and by 1992, his days were over when his contract expired. He told Jimmy Hart that he was burnt out and wanted to spend time with family. Unfortunately, there is no pension and now there was no income coming in and Dino had to deal with losing his career.

-Commercials!

-Dino’s career was over and he started looking for other ways to support his family and lifestyle. Jacques brings up that everyone has good times when they make money and then bad times when you need money. Diane mentions he was in survival mode because pro-wrestling had been his life and he didn’t have anything to fall back on.

-Andre Cedilot tells us of the Mafia Family in Quebec and the Father of the mob was Vic Cotroni. He was the leader of the first Mafia in Quebec and he was a former wrestler in the 1930s. Vic was actually Dino’s uncle and that was his connection.

-Claude Poirier, is a crime reporter in Montreal, and tells us that just because you are seen with certain people doesn’t mean you are involved. The Cotroni Clan was powerful and involved in cigarette and alcohol smuggling. He talks about Dino being physically imposing and naive, but was used as an enforcer. He was the strong arm that wasn’t afraid of anything. He felt nothing could happen to him.

-They all discuss Dino having a temper and that he was a massive Habs fan. He hated the Nordiques and Jacques tells a story of them getting into a fight with a player from the Nordiques because he called them phony. Canadians with their hockey and wrestling!

-His wife admits that she didn’t have good feeling about what he was doing and didn’t think of the people around him as friends. It was dangerous because if you didn’t know the rules, you were in trouble. Dino called Jacques to come see him as soon as he can and those were the last words he ever said to him. Jacques went the next morning to see him and at a gas station was told Dino got it. He checked a paper and saw he had been murdered with 11 shots to the body and 7 to the head.

-Commercials!

-His wife is asked if there are any details she would like to share about that final day. She says she would rather not talk too much as the emotions are still difficult. I don’t blame her! Jericho narrates that it was around midnight when Diane came home with 6 year old Claudia. They found Dino dead in his chair.

-Tony says he was one of the first to know as he lived next door and Diane ran over with her daughter crying that Dino was dead. The details were sketchy and Jericho clears up that he was shot 11 times with 7 to the head and 4 to the body. The gun was left by his body and there was no sign of a break in. The door was also left unlocked. From those facts they feel that he knew his attacker(s) and that it looked like a job done by professionals.

-They show pictures from the funeral and everyone talks about the sadness. Claudia talks about drawing a picture of him, her mom, and herself and putting it at his tomb. She starts to break down and this is getting tough to watch. She goes into detail about holding his crossed hands while he was laying in the casket. She was only 6 years old and they explained to her that he had gone to haven with the stars and wouldn’t see him anymore. Just so sad!

-The details dominate the headlines in Montreal, but there are still no answers as to who did it and why. They show a news report where someone stated Dino was scared for his life. Jacques thinks he did something he wasn’t supposed to and knew he was screwed.

-Commercials!

-We come back to Jacques speculating that someone just walked in because the door was unlocked or Dino let them in and he says he wouldn’t want to go that way. Police discover 17 bullet casings from 2 different firearms and this leads them to believe there were 2 assassins. They tie this to organized crime and we are told 2 people who lived near Dino were killed 9 months and 4 months before his murder. They had ties to the Mafia and cigarette smuggling.

-A sum of $55,000 and contraband cigarettes were found in the house 3 days after his death. The investigators feel the death was over this money and that is more than enough for someone to kill someone over.

-This leads to talk about cigarette smuggling in the area and how it was run through The Natives (Indians). His daughter thought they were just friends of her father. The cigarettes were sold by the case load as they were half priced. Most of the talking heads knew he was in the smuggling business because everyone wanted to smoke and wanted to only pay half price.

-We are told Rick Martel was the only wrestler that Bravo talked to about his role in organized crime. Martel declined to take part in this series, but we are shown a previous interview in 2007 he did about the subject. He says Dino went to see the Indians who were big wrestling fans and Dino had a monopoly with them. They were able to pass cigarettes because they had the river on lock down. The cigarette business was so great that the cocaine people were trying to get involved to get a piece of the action. Martel says Dino hooked up the cocaine guys and had a $400,000 shipment somewhere. When the cocaine guy went to pick it up the RCMP intercepted and seized the product. Now the blame game is being thrown around and $400,000 is reason enough to kill someone in that world.

-His wife says the police made inquiries and searched but there were no leads. One of the talking heads says the Mafia is classier when they kill people. Jacques thinks it was a friend because Dino was sitting on his couch with a remote. One person thinks it was the motorcycle gangs as that was more their style as he never heard of The Natives killing someone. He does wonder if the The Natives hired the motorcycle gang to complete the hit, but nobody will ever know.

-Commercials!

-Next week David Schultz!

-Back with more pictures of Dino with his daughter. Decades after his murder family and friends still don’t know if they will ever get answers. His wife talks about raising their daughter while being a widow at 28. Damn! Claudia mentions that her mom got rid of everything after Dino’s death. She gave it away to friends and family and that was her way of grieving.

-Dino wrestled for over 20 years and without wrestling the Mafia was the only thing he could find to supplement that loss of income. Claudia says her dad was a volcano and as much as he could be nice, he could be just as mean when he was in character. She wants him to be remembered for his passion. His loss has created an enormous void for her and she says everyone is still saddened by it. She lives her life by the idea that you reap what you sew and she hopes that the person that killed her father got what they deserved.

-His wife wants him to be remembered as a proud man that was proud to represent Quebec in wrestling. She also wants him to be remembered as a good husband and father. Claudia breaks down as she says she forgave him for making bad decisions. She talks about her son and how much he looks like her dad. Oh man, this sucks!

-The Quebec Police were contacted, but couldn’t comment because the case is still open. They flash a graphic with the number for the tip-line as this episode closes.

-As expected this was another heavy episode to sit through. I will need to watch this one a few times as the subtitles made it hard for me to type and watch while trying to read. As always they were able to find a ton of talking heads and covered when they couldn’t get comments from others. The toughest parts were obviously listening to his daughter and his wife. My heart broke several times for his daughter as the poor girl lost her dad at the age of six. Both of them and all of Dino’s friends have also had to live with this without any closure. I will say that as someone who grew up on 80s WWE this documentary did give me more information on Bravo as I had no clue he was that big of a star in Canada. To me he was just the strong bad guy that lost a lot when I was a kid. This was another fine episode in this series and I do appreciate they are finding as many people as they can for these. I am curious what makes the cutting room floor and perhaps they will give us extended cuts one day. As always thanks for reading!