A Tayside wrestling cash row could be thrust into the centre of a reinvestigation into the death of wrestling legend Chyna.
Chyna was found dead at her home in Southern California at the age of 46 in April – just months after a headline appearance in Dundee at Scottish Wrestling Entertainment’s (SWE) Hell for Lycra XII.
However, just weeks later Chyna’s manager Anthony Anzaldo accused the Tayside company of failing to pay the former Playboy model her “significant” appearance fee and said she’d been left thousands of dollars out of pocket.
The management of SWE denied any wrongdoing and were left “disappointed” and “bewildered” after years of successful dealings with US stars.
It has now emerged that Chyna’s mother Jan LaQue this week asked police to reinvestigate her daughter’s death and said emails sent from her daughter suggest the former WWE star had fired Anzaldo in the weeks before her death because he stole money from her.
The revelations didn’t come as a surprise to Blairgowrie-based SWE owner David Low who said he believes Anzaldo stole the Dundee money and tried to use him as a scapegoat.
“We always had question marks about the guy because he wouldn’t let Chyna out of his sight,” he said.
“Everything was money orientated with Anthony and he even increased the prices for the fans to get autographs with Chyna.
“We paid on arrival and we paid the rest of the balance after the show and he was over the moon and there were plans to bring her back.
“Chyna wasn’t involved in any of the money transactions.”
Mr Low – who wrestles as Bravehart – said he was shocked when Anzaldo emailed to say Chyna hadn’t been paid.
“It now looks like he was trying to use me as a scapegoat,” he said.
“He said we wouldn’t be able to book a puppet show until we paid up but we knew we had no case to answer.
“The negative publicity didn’t do our business any good but the only way we could prove this was to continue to book people.
“Since last year’s Hell for Lycra we’ve brought a whole list of big stars here like Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ricochet, Drew Galloway and EC3.”
Mr Low said that Anzaldo was the only person the company has ever had a problem with.
“My hope would be that the family can now get some closure,” he added.
Chyna’s official cause of death is still pending further investigation and police said they’d have to wait for the official toxicology report to come back before they can make any further investigative decisions.
Anzaldo has denied the allegations made by Chyna’s mother.
He said: “I never stole from Chyna and I certainly wasn’t fired.
“I didn’t work for her, I don’t work for anyone.
“We were partners.
“I will be releasing a statement in the near future.”