Wrestler

In a memorable scene from "Boardwalk Empire," HBO's epic drama about Prohibition-era Atlantic City, N.J., bootlegger Nucky Thompson visits the childhood home where he suffered the abuse of his father, and after taking a grim last look, douses it with gasoline and sets it ablaze. "It's symbolic of the way he has remade himself by tearing down his past," says Steve Buscemi, the well-known character actor who's been unconventionally cast in a leading role as Thompson, a civic leader who leads a double life as a ruthless crime boss.

  The Joey Davis Story continues to unfold in the world of collegiate wrestling. Davis, a sophomore who grew up in Compton and attended Santa Fe High School, is 72-0 in collegiate wrestling and won his second consecutive NCAA Division II championship last month wrestling for Notre Dame College. He won the 174-pound division and helped Notre Dame win the Division II championship. Above is a video story from his 2013 season.   Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. WWE wrestler Darren Young became the first active pro wrestling star in a major organization to announce that he is gay. Young arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday for this weekend's SummerSlam pay-per-view event at Staples Center and was being interviewed by a TMZ cameraman while walking to his car at LAX. The cameraman asked Young if he thought a gay wrestler could be successful in...

The Russian coach did not want to talk about troops on the Crimean peninsula or any other aspect of his country's conflict with Ukraine. Speaking through an interpreter, Christakis Alexandridis preferred to focus on his wrestlers and their chances in an international championship at the Forum this weekend. “Our politics is wrestling,” he said. But current events cannot help but intrude on the 42nd FILA Freestyle World Cup, not with a Saturday schedule featuring two politically charged matches.

A 20-year-old college student collapsed during a wrestling tournament at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday and later died, officials said. Jesus Cruz, a student at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, was on the mat with an opponent when he collapsed. He was treated by a Mt. San Antonio athletic trainer and paramedics and taken to San Dimas Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement released by Rio Hondo President Ted Martinez Jr. The remainder of the all-day tournament was canceled.

  Shawn Daivari, who has worked for WWE and TNA, brought the scripted world of pro wrestling into the real world when he choked out a man threatening to kill another passenger on a Minnesota train. Daivari was on a light-rail train on his way to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport when Levin Blair, allegedly drunk, started swearing at a passenger who asked Blair to move so he could put his bike in the bike rack. Blair allegedly began cursing at the man, and when another person on the train asked him to sit down and be quiet, Blair made threats of violence toward the passenger.

Tony Okada of Savanna High School was one of 13 wrestlers named to Wrestling USA Magazine's High School All-American Dream Team, Savanna wrestling Coach Tom Caspari said. Okada, a 135-pound senior, will also participate in the Junior Greco-Roman Wrestling World Championships, July 26-28, in Barcelona, Spain, Caspari said.

LONDON - It's not bragging if you can do it. Jordan Burroughs, 24-year-old wrestler from Sicklerville, N.J., has a Twitter account and a tattoo. On Twitter, he's @alliseeisgold. The tattoo on his chest says, "Dream It, Do It. " Burroughs was quicker and stronger than everybody Friday, and in the gold-medal 163-pound wrestling match, he made good on all his multilayered confidence when he beat Iran's Sadegh Goudarzi 1-0, 1-0 in a best-of-three-periods match at the ExCeL Centre. PHOTOS: London Olympics, Day 14 Besides the gold medal, Burroughs also earned $250,000 from a program begun in 2009 for wrestlers called "Living the Dream Medal Fund," designed to offer prize money to Olympic medalists.

It's things like this that make it difficult to be a fan of professional wrestling. Independent pro wrestler Eric Hartsburg, who I'm assume wrestles under the name The Ultimate Idiot, auctioned off tattoo advertising space on his face for $15,000 on EBay . The winner, who has yet to be named, chose the logo of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Hartsburg had the tattoo placed on his right temple. But get this: Not wanting to settle for just $15,000, he plans to auction off tattoo space on his forehead next.

When New Jersey teenager Alex Shaffer told his parents he wanted to audition for a part as a high school wrestler in Tom McCarthy's "Win Win," they said he couldn't go ? but not because they were against him becoming an actor. At first, Mike Shaffer recalled, "both my wife and I said the same thing. 'Sure, let's go.' And then, unfortunately, we realized Alex couldn't take the day off" because the teen had an actual high school wrestling meet the same day. Instead, the sophomore sent in a packet of wrestling press clips to the casting agent whose name appeared on an ad in a local paper.

WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young, whose goal was to compete in a pro wrestling match on her 100th birthday, died Tuesday night at the age of 90 in Columbia, S.C. "There will never be another Mae Young," WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Vince McMahon said. "Her longevity in sports entertainment may never be matched, and I will forever be grateful for all of her contributions to the industry. On behalf of WWE, I extend our sincerest condolences to her family and friends. " Young had been a pro wrestler since 1939, but found her greatest claim to fame when appearing in WWE when she was in her 70s and 80s, including being power-bombed through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley, which you can see in the video above.

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. WWE wrestler Darren Young became the first active pro wrestling star in a major organization to announce that he is gay. Young arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday for this weekend's SummerSlam pay-per-view event at Staples Center and was being interviewed by a TMZ cameraman while walking to his car at LAX. The cameraman asked Young if he thought a gay wrestler could be successful in...

On Valentine's Day, a young woman wearing a button-down shirt, bicycle shorts and a Soviet-era Budenovka hat, along with an adhesive mustache, stood on the stage of the Bootleg Theater. Her name was Russky Business. Her father's Fabergé egg had been stolen, so she was doing arm-wrestling bouts to make money for the repurchase of the egg, always hoping that the right people would see her skills and she would earn that arm-wrestling scholarship to the prestigious Moscow State University.

Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, former major leaguer Gary Matthews and former USC running back Anthony Davis are among the greatest athletes in the 117-year history of San Fernando High. Now Jonny Parada has earned a special place in Tigers lore. The 17-year-old junior pulled off an athletic feat last weekend that no one in City Section history had achieved. He won the 126-pound wrestling title at the CIF state championships in Bakersfield. Since the inception of the event in 1973, hundreds of City Section wrestlers had competed but never left as a champion.

To say U.S. wrestlers are unhappy about the IOC's decision to drop their sport from the Olympics is an understatement. “I don't think I've really accepted it yet,” said Cael Sanderson, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Games. “I'll absolutely do everything in my power to make sure that the decision doesn't go through and it isn't finalized in the fall. This is a big deal. You're talking about your kids having that dream of winning a gold medal. It inspires you to be better, to work hard, to set goals.” International Olympic Committee leaders dropped wrestling from the Summer Games on Tuesday.

Now that is one great submission maneuver. A high school wrestler in Madison, S.D., was competing in a match on Friday night when a light fixture fell from the ceiling and hit him. You can watch it all in the video above. The really amazing thing: His injuries required only a few stitches in his head. All that was missing was The Shield or CM Punk to emerge from the shadows as the mastermind behind the dastardly deed. The wrestler, Michael McComish of Madison High, later tweeted that he was OK. "Just letting everyone know I'm fine!

WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young, whose goal was to compete in a pro wrestling match on her 100th birthday, died Tuesday night at the age of 90 in Columbia, S.C. "There will never be another Mae Young," WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Vince McMahon said. "Her longevity in sports entertainment may never be matched, and I will forever be grateful for all of her contributions to the industry. On behalf of WWE, I extend our sincerest condolences to her family and friends. " Young had been a pro wrestler since 1939, but found her greatest claim to fame when appearing in WWE when she was in her 70s and 80s, including being power-bombed through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley, which you can see in the video above.

Aww. Hulk Hogan was so adorable on the "Today" show Tuesday, we kind of feel bad for watching that excerpt of his sex tape. 'Cause the dude's super bummed it was released. Bummed in a big, cuddly, former-wrestler-who's-gonna-tear-apart-whoever-did-it way. Turns out the tape, which surfaced in March and went public - at least a part of it - last week, was made six years ago at a time when Hogan said he was at a "very, very low point" in his life. He said he didn't know there was a camera in the room and that he's working with authorities to track down the person or people who made and released the tape.

Eric Hartsburg, the pro wrestler who got the Mitt Romney logo tattooed on his face for $15,000, has decided to have the tattoo removed. "I had a little change of heart," he said Friday. Hartsburg went on to say that Romney's recent comment that President Obama was re-elected because he gave "gifts" to women, minorities and college students made him change his mind. "I could deal with being a part of a losing campaign, but to still stand behind Gov. Romney with the positions he's taken post-election with the blame game instead," Hartsburg said.

Remember the pro wrestler who offered, on EBay, to tattoo anything on his face to the highest bidder? He was paid $15,000 to tattoo Mitt Romney's campaign logo on his face. How does he feel about that now, seeing the election is over and Romney lost? "Wait, did the election already happen? Did Romney lose?” Eric Hartsburg told ABC News, who caught up with him on Monday. He was kidding. At least I hope he was kidding. “I am college educated, and I am not an idiot,” Hartsburg said.