As seen on last night’s episode of Vice’s “Dark Side of the Ring” that was titled “The Assassination of Dino Bravo”, the producers of the successful TV series reached out to Old School WWF Legend “The Model” Rick Martel to have him participate in the episode and give his inside information about what happened that led to Dino Bravo’s death.
Rick Martel was a close personal friend of Bravo, so he would’ve actually been able to contribute a lot on this subject, because of his knowledge.
Unfortunately though, Martel – for whatever reason – refused to be a part of the show, so they only showed a short clip of his 2007 RF Video shoot interview, where Rick talks about the cigarette smuggling business in Canada, but not much about Dino himself.
Now we present to you, “The Model” Rick Martel telling it all, giving his inside view on the circumstances and what happened that led to the unfortunate incident in 1993 that got Old School WWF veteran Dino Bravo killed by the Mafia.
Here’s the story Rick Martel told several years ago:
“Dino tried to stay in the [WWF] but he just couldn’t…Vince didn’t wanna have him back. I remember I called Pat Patterson and I suggested that I team up with Dino – because I liked Dino.
I said, ‘I’ll take the bumps and [do] all the moving around and he can do the strong stuff…I’m sure we can make it work, you know?’ He said, ‘No, no…we just think that Dino doesn’t fit anymore in our plans…’
Dino had kind of painted himself in a corner. Dino liked the high lifestyle…he had a sports Mercedes, he had a big home, you know…and [suddenly] wrestling was over. Dino couldn’t be a 9 to 5 guy…he didn’t have any business experience of any kind.
Wrestling was his whole life. And back then, WWF was the only game in town. So if he couldn’t do it for the WWF, what could he do? His uncle [by marriage] was the head of the mafia in Montreal. And he was always saying, ‘Dino, come work for me…’
I remember we were in Europe and he confided in me. ‘Rick…I know I could go into crime and do really good money…but I don’t wanna go that route…I know myself and I know what kind of guy I am…’
Dino was the kind of guy who [always wanted] more and more [but not when to stop]. He knew himself and he knew his demons. But then his [debts] and lifestyle got too much…and all of a sudden the revenue [wasn’t] coming in.
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