Ion Croitoru
Ion William Croitoru was a Canadian professional wrestler and outlaw biker, known to wrestling fans by his ring names Johnny K-9, Taras Bulba and Bruiser Bedlam. Croitoru worked in several Canadian wrestling promotions, including Stampede Wrestling, and later wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation. He wrestled as a jobber in the WWF but was booked to win titles in several other promotions.
Croitoru was notorious for his long history of legal problems. As a member of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club, an outlaw biker gang, he was convicted of assault, trafficking cocaine and bombing a police station. In 2005, Croitoru was arrested for the murder of lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred; the charges were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence. Croitoru was then arrested in May 2009 for conspiracy to murder the Bacon Brothers, resulting in the killing of Jonathan Barber. He pleaded guilty in July 2013 to conspiracy in exchange for a stay of proceedings on the murder charge.
Croitoru was the focus of a third season episode of the Vice TV documentary series Dark Side of the Ring.
Early life
Ion William Croitoru was born to Romanian parents in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in the working class district of East Hamilton and as a teenager exercised at a local gym known as Bad Boy's. Before entering professional wrestling, Croitoru claimed that he played junior hockey for the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League. According to the journalist Paul Legall of The Hamilton Spectator, Croitoru only played very briefly for the Rangers, going on to write: "But a coach-who didn't like his bruising style-bounced him and squelched any dreams he had of professional hockey." However, no record of Croitoru's time with the Rangers can be found. He was an accomplished weightlifter and once bench pressed 625 pounds.Professional wrestling career
Early career (1984–1994)
Sometime in the early 1980s, Croitoru, then working a bouncer in a Hamilton bar, was recruited into professional wrestling after being observed by a patron who happened to be a wrestler. He trained with Nick DeCarlo and Victor Rosettani Sr. before debuting in Stampede Wrestling in 1984. Bruce Hart gave Croitoru the ring name Orhan Turgedan, the Terrible Turk, a name he only wrestled under for a short time after leaving the promotion. Croitoru continued to wrestle in independent promotions across Canada, such as Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritimes and Superstars of Wrestling in Windsor, Ontario.In 1985, Croitoru entered the United States wrestling scene and joined the American Wrestling Association, where he received a push and was given a reign as AWA Southern Heavyweight champion. He defeated Jerry Lawler to win the belt on August 16, but dropped it back to Lawler in a rematch on September 6. The following month, Croitoru joined the World Wrestling Federation as Johnny K-9, where he competed until 1989. Croitoru claimed that he decided on this name while being arrested after a fight; he saw "K-9" written on a paddywagon and decided on the ring name.
Croitoru's signature moves were the Stomach Claw and the Flying Headbutt. Standing six feet tall, shaved completely bald and sporting a Fu Manchu moustache, he was typecast as a heel who excelled in generating heat by his exploits in the ring. Croitoru usually showed up in the ring wearing black tights and a collar around his neck, and proceeded to generate heat from the audiences before his matches started. One television commentator stated that Croitoru's fighting style was "like an animal or a dog." Canadian journalist Adrian Humphreys called him a "hugely entertaining and dirty fighter" whose antics made him natural as a heel. Croitoru liked his "bad boy" image, once telling a reporter he was the "baddest of the bad," going on to say, "You can print that. I want everyone to know."
Croitoru worked as a jobber to the stars, putting over such wrestlers as Pedro Morales, Tito Santana and Paul Orndorff. He wrestled in many tag team matches and formed a short-lived team with Barry O in 1986, but his biggest match in the WWF was a televised bout against Hulk Hogan.
In his hometown of Hamilton, Croitoru was considered a celebrity and was generally known as "Johnny K-9." Croitoru himself usually used that name when signing documents, and was even able to open up a bank account under the moniker. However, he was only a jobber, which journalist Jerry Langton noted was "a hard way to make a living, even by Hamilton standards."
Hamilton was once known as "Steeltown," being a largely working-class city made up of immigrants from the British Isles, Italy and Eastern Europe, who were attracted by the high wages offered in the steel industry. At its height of its prosperity, three-quarters of all the steel produced in Canada came from Hamilton. With the decline of the steel industry, however, Hamilton went into a steep economic downturn, becoming a Canadian version of American Rust Belt cities. This decline ensured that anyone from Hamilton who was successful at anything, even as a wresting jobber, was bound to become well-known. The mere fact that Croitoru had wrestled Hulk Hogan made him famous, all the more so as many of the blue-collar citizens of Hamilton were fans of professional wrestling. Langton wrote that at the height of his fame, Croitoru "...could barely walk a block in downtown Hamilton without someone offering to buy him a beer."
After leaving the WWF, Croitoru wrestled on a tour of Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling; he later returned to Japan to compete for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and Wrestle Association R. In the late 1980s, Croitoru also worked as a promoter along with Mike Kelly and Bob Clarke, operating the short-lived Canadian International Championship Wrestling in Hamilton. During his wrestling career, Croitoru's persona changed from that of Middle Eastern or Eastern European heels such as the Terrible Turk and Taras Bulba to working class babyfaces such as Bruiser Bedlam.
In 1989, Croitoru was convicted of drug possession. At trial he stated that the lengthy road trips required by his wrestling career had led him to abuse cocaine to ease the tedium of his existence. Croitoru also admitted to his weakness for the "fast life," saying he liked expensive cars and staying out late at nightclubs. In 1993, Croitoru opened up a gym called Bad Boy's in Burlington, named after the gym he had patronized in his youth. In September 1993, Croitoru was convicted of forgery, being fined CA$500 and placed on probation.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1994)
Croitoru joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1994, where he was given the ring name Bruiser Bedlam. According to the storyline, he was brought in by manager Jim Cornette to help settle Cornette's feud with Bob Armstrong.Cornette later explained his reasons for the Bruiser Bedlam moniker as: "He was 6’0" tall, 270 lbs, built like a fireplug, bald-headed, barrel-chested with tattoos and a legitimate 600 lbs bench presser with a mean look. I was always looking for heels to take back to Smoky Mountain, and Johnny K-9 was not a name that thrilled me. I was a big Dick the Bruiser fan when I was a kid, and this guy had the big bruiser, Brock Lesnar type look to him. Bruiser Bedlam Wrestling was the clip compilation show Bruiser's WWA ended on in the early ’80s. And Bedlam was a famous mental institution in England in the olden days, so Bruiser Bedlam became his new name." Cornette stated that Croitoru never moved to Tennessee during his time in SMW, and instead drove down from Hamilton every weekend for his matches.
Croitoru and Cornette combined for a victory in a two-on-one handicap match over Armstrong at SMW's Blue Grass Brawl II show on April 1, 1994. As the year continued, Croitoru wrestled many tag team and six-man matches while teaming with Cornette. One observer, Edward Pardue, recalled: "A 'newcomer' debuted in SMW in the spring of 1994 named Bruiser Bedlam. Looking at this man on television, I got the impression he wasn't one to be trifled with. Jim Cornette had found the man to beat Bob Armstrong and beat him he did. Johnny 'Bruiser Bedlam' K-9 even got a pinfall victory over Randy Savage. There was no stopping Bruiser Bedlam in SMW...he left in pursuit of other territories to conquer. All I know is, if I ever had to fight Tyson in a street fight, that is one guy I would want to back me up!"
Cornette later stated that he was aware that Croitoru was involved in crime during his time in SMW, but maintained that he was only a petty criminal who liked to exaggerate his importance in the underworld. Cornette declared: "That was some people telling him-and I'm not trying to excuse this guy's crimes-but people were telling him, ‘You take this suitcase, and you take it to these people at this place and get the money they give you and bring it back.’ He was the guy nobody was going to fuck with on either side of that transaction. It wasn't like he was the kingpin from Colombia, El Guapo . So he went to prison, and he was always in prison for conspiracy, and unfortunately, a lot has been heavily overstated because he was with these people and did what they told him to do. But I'd be greatly surprised if he ever killed anybody."
Croitoru was booked for one title reign with the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship during his stint in SMW. The kayfabe rules behind the title state that any wrestler winning five consecutive matches as champion would win $5,000 but be forced to vacate the title. Croitoru won a match against Mike Furnas on April 4 to win the title, and he defended it over the following month. He won his fifth match on May 2 with a victory over Anthony Michaels, and the storyline saw him forced to give up the title. On May 20, Croitoru defeated Randy Savage with help from Dory Funk Jr. He went on to feud with Tracy Smothers, and the two wrestled in a lengthy series of matches, including several Coalminer's glove matches, in which a glove is available for the wrestlers to use as a weapon. Later that in 1994, Croitoru wrestled several matches against Tony Anthony. The series consisted of several steel cage matches in which Croitoru put Anthony over, as well as tag team matches where Croitoru teamed with Cornette and Anthony teamed with Ron Wright.