Original subtitles

♪

Dino Bravo was an icon in Quebec... He was an idol.

[Announcer] Bravo!

I'm proud of my heritage!

He was big, he was strong...

He could bench press 500 lbs.

He had the size and he had the weight.

He was really like the Hulk Hogan of Montreal.

[Announcer] Dino appears to be in great physical condition.

I mean, he could do no wrong.

[Dino] I feel at my best when I enter that squared circle.

[Announcer] Can't turn your back on Dino Bravo!

[Narrator] Dino Bravo combined relentless ambition with a

fiery intensity that made him a superstar in

Montreal, Quebec, and saw him wrestle

the biggest names in the WWF.

He did work with Hogan.

He did work with Ultimate Warrior.

[match bell] [Announcer] Oh!

Did you see that power move by Dino Bravo?

With Dino Bravo, either he liked you or he doesn't like you.

He loved to live dangerously.

He thought nothing could touch him.

For me, mafia always scared me.

The word 'mafia' scared me.

I said, "Listen, I don't know if you're doing the right thing,"

but it's not for me to judge what he did.

His world was the wrestling world.

It wasn't the organized crime world.

He screwed up!

[speaking French]

On this episode, we'll examine the

tragic consequences when a wrestling enforcer

is pushed out of the spotlight and

into a life of crime.

Let that be a lesson for everybody,

me included, that everybody's touchable.

♪

♪

On March 10th 1993,

the family of Dino Bravo came home and

discovered his dead body.

Police said he had been struck by 11 bullets.

Within days, rumors began to surface that

it was a mafia-style execution.

30 years later, Dino's unsolved murder remains

one of wrestling's darkest mysteries.

Those closest to him have never spoken openly about

what led him down such a dangerous path,

until now.

♪

[speaking French]

It's my favorite. I never want to give him kiss...

and when he give me kiss, I was always, like, swiping.

So, he said, "Okay, give me kiss with your nose."

[speaking French]

[Announcer] Weighing 230 lbs...

Dino Bravo!

[Speaking French]

My name is Patric Laprade. I'm a wrestling historian.

I first started watching wrestling when I was

6 years old and Dino was just that superhero to me.

He was big, he was strong, full of muscle.

He was really like an action figure come to life.

In the early 80s, Montreal's International Wrestling

is the leading promotion in Quebec,

and Dino Bravo is its premier star.

We had almost 2 million people watching the TV

on Sunday morning. It was very, very big.

My name is Tony Mule and, I was a wrestling promoter...

From 1971 to 1986.

During International Wrestling,

we had Rick Martel, King Tonga.

We had Raymond Rougeau, Jacques Rougeau...

and, The Giant. But listen,

Dino Bravo, he was the biggest bar here in the...

in the 80s.

Dino Bravo was very hard to get to be friends with,

but once you were, he stood by you,

he had your back.

That's what I liked about Dino.

My name is Gino Brito. I'm not wrestling now,

but I started wrestling in 1961.

So, I think I know a bit about wrestling.

Well, Dino Bravo, he was more than a friend.

He was almost family.

The other wrestlers were seeing us getting into the arena -

me, Gino, and Dino -

"Oh, here's the Italian connection."

With his two business partners by his side,

Dino isn't just International Wrestling's top draw,

he's also co-owner and match maker.

Dino was the boss here of the company in Quebec.

And we were like superstars in our own home,

in our own province, and Dino created all that.

Do you know who I am? [laughs]

I'm The Mountie!

[Announcer] The Mountie!

My name is Jacques Rougeau.

I've been wrestling for 41 years.

But, Dino Bravo, I've known him since I was 18 years old.

Dino was the booker.

It's like when you watch a, you know,

a sitcom on TV every week, they have story lines...

Well, the booker is the one who creates the story line.

Dino, how was it to have that full,

packed house right behind you during that main event?

And, he created himself.

He beat everybody when they came in and he,

he worked around his image and his future.

The fans here, obviously, solidly behind Dino Bravo.

[speaking French]

Over my shoulder, the belt emblematic of...

The International Heavy Weight Wrestling Championship.

This belt, worn so proudly, for four of the last

five years by, of course, the great Dino Bravo.

Casting himself as the main attraction doesn't always

sit well with the other wrestlers,

especially those looking to make a name for themselves.

He'd book himself the main event,

and he'd put my brother and I like a third or

fourth match before intermission.

But for me, in my head, I was a main eventer.

There wasn't always sunshine between me and Dino.

I wanted his spot. [laughs] He was the boss.

And me being unhappy,

Pat Patterson and Vince were calling me.

They said, "Jacques, would you like to join the WWF?"

And I said, "Well, I don't know.

It's a jungle out there, you know.

Do I want to go out there alone,

in that jungle?"

As part of its plan for global dominance,

the emerging World Wrestling Federation

set its sights on Montreal...

and is intent on poaching the town's top stars.

It was unheard of to have wrestlers make the kind of

money that Vince McMahon could make these people.

By the 90s, it was a new wave. It was something new.

it was, it was fun to see "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan-- "Whoa!"

And the Koko B. Ware with his birds,

and it was... "Oh, yeah," with Miss Elizabeth.

It was an era that, that came and just,

it was fun to watch.

Welcome to WrestleMania Three!

Vince is a very intelligent individual and he knew that

he needed Dino Bravo onboard if he really wanted

to draw good crowds in Montreal and, in 1985,

early 1986, there was a big match that was

teased here in Montreal. It was a dream match.

Hulk Hogan against Dino Bravo.

As a matter of fact, that would have been a match

you could have put in the Olympic Stadium and draw

at least 40,000 people, and it never materialized.

They got scared that Dino Bravo would actually be

more popular than Hulk Hogan, in Montreal.

And, at the last minute, just decided to cancel the match.

So, Dino was not happy with WWF and decided to actually

try to bring International Wrestling to a level of

popularity where they could actually compete with WWF.

He was in a mood where...

"Ah, I'm not gonna let him ruin my business."

He was fooling himself and there's nothing that he

could have done to match what WWF was coming with.

Despite Dino's blind ambition,

International Wrestling is no match for

the WWF showmanship.

He's outclassed in almost every single way.

Now, either you get out of the way,

or you compete against an elephant.

When I left to go to WWF, I did what I had to do,

and my dad and Dino, they both begged me.

I swear to god, begged me, "Don't go!

Don't go because if you go, the WWF's gonna

come in here and they're gonna kill everybody."

But it was too late: the damage was done.

The talent, they all went for Vince.

The Rougeau's worked for Vince.

Martel... Tonga, everybody went there.

Once your talent's gone, you can't eat.

And that was it.

It was a downfall that was, I think,

that you couldn't avoid.

[speaking French]

By the end of 1986,

Dino Bravo's once thriving company is on life support.

Now he must decide whether to continue to fight for

his independence or to side with the enemy.

♪

[speaking French]

[laughs] A joke... [speaking French]

Off record, please. [laughs]

In order to support his family,

Dino Bravo must decide if he can let go of his pride and

join the opposition, Vince McMahon's

World Wrestling Federation.

[speaking French]

So, of course, he was looking to

take care of his family and Vince McMahon

offered Dino money that Dino couldn't refuse.

It was something like $300,000 guaranteed,

and with everything else, he could've made over a million,

something that he could have not dreamed of doing

if he would have stayed in Montreal.

And I think Dino came to his senses and he came to WWF.

And that was funny 'cause when he walked in the room...

"Hey, how you doing, Dino? See?

You know, you did the same move we did."

But, there was never animosity.

It was almost like when Dino came, he...

he put that behind him and he says, "Okay, let's move."

[speaking French]

To make a French-Canadian strongman fit within

the cartoon world of the WWF, Dino was paired

with one of American wrestling's most iconic personalities...

Ah, my god.

The best man in the business.

Some managers took the credibility

away from their boys. Jimmy Hart was the guy

who knew how to give credibility to his wrestler.

Look at him, man. Look how strong he is.

Woo! I went into the ring, I was a baritone.

When I came out, I was a soprano.

He's the world's strongest man,

I guarantee you that. Look at me.

The wrestler was always the Cadillac.

We were kind of the hood ornament on a Cadillac.

He was in great shape, man.

He could go 30-minute matches if he had to.

He could go against Hogan.

He could go against Andre the Giant or any of them.

It was a big man's territory,

and he had the size and he had the weight.

By being with me, it kind of put a rocket on his career.

And all of a sudden,

he started moving up the card a little bit more.

And of course, when you make a lot of money,

your lifestyle goes up...

and he had the Mercedes, that big million-dollar house.

He had this, he had that.

We had our houses built at the same time.

That's how we got to be next to each other.

[speaking French]

Dino's lavish new lifestyle comes at a cost...

As Vince McMahon makes radical changes to his character.

From all-round Canadian hero,

to an anti-American bleach blond villain.

Wow! Ha-ha!

That's a question I didn't expect.

Vince likes to test the boys who stick up to him.

You don't see an Italian with blond hair...

you know, not in Quebec.

[speaking French]

Everybody thought it was funny when he came in

with the blond hair. "Ah!" And then Dino was pissed.

It was 'cause Dino's a very proud guy.

He was so embarrassed.

But he had to do it because that's what they wanted.

That's the difference in when you're in a

small-time league like International Wrestling,

you believe in yourself, you build, you create yourself.

When you go to WWF, you're a number.

You're a character, you're a...

you're just part of a show.

Competing with the WWF's all-star roster,

the French-Canadian flare that worked for Dino

back home gets lost in translation.

I think everybody looks at merchandise and looks at sales,

and looks at what they can do with you...

let's just say, Dino Bravo, he had that broken English.

You've never... [unintelligible]

Then they wonder why I hate this country!

It was hard for people to understand what he might be

saying and so, that held him back a little bit.

And I'm gonna teach you a lesson!

Dino had his routine. He had his punches,

he had his boots, he had his routine...

But he was never the kind of guy to discover something new.

I think the hardest thing for Dino was

doing jobs for guys that weren't on top.

You want to talk about getting beat?

The most important thing in wrestling

is your "valeur marchande", which means

what you are worth on the market.

And if you were a guy that we-- the fans see on TV

week after week getting beat, getting beat...

even if it's a show and it's fake,

and it's organized, people don't believe in you anymore.

He was getting older.

Gotta remember that when he was,

like, at his peak of his career...

Back in International Wrestling,

he was like in the early to the mid 30s.

Now he was late 30s, early 40s.

He still saw himself as a top guy.

When you go to WWF, if there's one thing

you don't bring there, is an ego.

All the shames and all the things you're afraid of,

it's gonna happen.

Unfortunately, Dino had bigger plans for himself

than Vince had for him.

Vince figured, you know, bring in new talent,

new face, new blood... And you're out.

By the end of 1992, Dino's days with the WWF

are over when his contract expires and is not renewed.

No, he just came and told me, "Hey, I'm leaving."

He said, "Look. I'm burnt out. I've done everything I can.

I want to spend time with my family."

We hugged and everything else,

and that was basically it.

And all of a sudden, it stops. There's no more income.

And you don't have a pension in wrestling or nothing like that.

That's where the trouble starts.

With his career over, Dino has lost

his life's passion and his livelihood...

and is left staring into an abyss.

♪

After six years on wrestling's biggest stage,

Dino Bravo's career is over.

He must look for other ways to support his family and

decadent lifestyle.

I think that once you get with the WWF and you leave,

where could you go?

You know, it's like playing professional baseball and

then dropping down to a minor league contract.

You know, as soon as you drop down,

it's like, "Oh, his career's over."

If everybody who has good times in life,

makes money, and... everybody has

bad times in life where they need money.

I've been there, done that... many times.

[speaking French]

With no professional experience outside of wrestling,

Dino has very few options.

What he does have is connections.

Everybody knew who Vic Cotroni was.

He was like the so-called father of the

mob here in Montreal.

Vic Cotroni was also a former wrestler.

He wrestled back in the 1930s

under the name of Vic Vincent.

Dino Bravo was actually related to the Cotroni's

because Vic was Dino's uncle.

♪

[speaking French]

He was like Six Million Dollars man.

He had no fear of anything and no, no consequences.

There's nothing... could happen to him.

Dino's past life as a wrestling powerhouse means

he has all the brute force a debt collector requires.

[Gino] Yeah. [Tony] Oh, temper.

Oh, no... yeah, he was a... had a hot temper.

Very, very hot temper.

Dino Bravo was a big Montreal Canadiens fan.

And, if you're a Montreal Canadiens fan,

you hated everything about the Quebec Nordiques.

I'm not gonna name you the player,

but one time in a bar in Quebec City,

there's a player that said something.

I'm 18 years old. I'm drinking, drinking, drinking,

and I'm coming down the stairs and then Dino says,

"Hey, that's a hockey player from the Nordiques."

And me, with my loud mouth, I'm drunk,

half drunk, I go, "Agh! The Nordiques!

That's all bullshit!" [laughs]

So, he backs up against the wall and he puts himself

in position, like that. And I start running

with my fist, but I'm running towards the wall

and he ducks and I hit the wall.

And he grabs me by the shirt, and I swear,

I would have probably had the beating of my life.

And, Dino took him and he side stepped and he said,

"Hey, let him go," and then he made something to Dino.

He said something about phony,

and the guy had a nice Corvette.

Dino picked him up like you'd pick up a rag doll,

and ran his head right into the Corvette.

Just out of nowhere. You know, the guy just

went down like a sack of potatoes.

He said, "You think I'm a phony, come and try me out."

Believe me, you didn't want to be around him when he got mad.

You would have put a gun to his head,

he says, "Don't point a gun at me.

Shoot me right away because I'm coming for you."

As Dino heads down his new career path,

his wife, Diane, sense trouble.

[speaking French]

[accented English]

One night, Dino calls me.

"Hey, Jacques, can you come and see me?"

I'm like, Dino's calling me to go see him?

We're not that close of friends. We respect each other,

but we're not that close of friends. And,

I said, "Okay," I said, "I can't go today, but I'll go tomorrow."

He says, "Come and see me as soon as you can."

That was his last words to me.

That night, there was a hockey game.

I called him, I said, "Dino, what are you doing?"

He says, "I'm gonna watch the hockey game."

And, the next morning I'm at the gas station.

Now I'm going to see him.

The gas thing at the pump, the guy says, "Yeah...

your friend, your buddy there, he got it, huh?"

I looked at the-- it was front page of the Montreal paper.

He got 11 bullets in the body and 7 bullets in the head.

That's a rough way to go.

♪

[speaking French]

Close to midnight on March 10th 1993,

Dino Bravo's wife, Diane, pulls into the driveway with

6-year-old Claudia sleeping in the back seat.

[speaking French]

[French news coverage]

I was the first one to know because his wife got back home

and we had the house, one beside the other one.

She rings at the bell, and I see her crying

with Claudia in her hand. They come in the house.

I said, "Why are you crying?" "Dino is dead."

I said, "What did you say?"

It's like the biggest shock I ever had in my life.

If you would have taken a 2x4 and you hit me in the

back of my head, you wouldn't have hurt me more than that.

I said, "Are you crazy?" "Yeah, he was shot."

[speaking French]

It wasn't no scuffle. His wife and family were

sent away and he was just sitting there,

like he was waiting for it to happen, you know.

And you hear all kind of different stories,

you know, about what happened.

Well, was it a robbery? Was it a break in?

Nobody-- We-- It was so sketchy on everything.

Dino had been shot 11 times:

7 bullets to the head and 4 to his body.

A pistol and a machine gun are found at the scene,

but strangely, there is no sign of forced entry,

and the door is unlocked.

[French news coverage]

The mysterious and brutal circumstances of his death

leaves Dino's family and friends in a state of shock.

I waited and...

the funeral, went to the funeral.

I don't know what to tell you.

It was the worst time of my life.

[speaking French]

To see his daughter there, and so young,

that she didn't understand exactly.

You know how sad it is.

[speaking French]

The details of Dino's murder

dominate the headlines in Montreal.

Yet, despite all the coverage pointing to a

mafia-style execution, questions surrounding

who did it and why, remain.

[speaking French]

[French news coverage]

[Claudia]

[Jacques] I honestly think that when Dino was at

the end of his days that he may have done something

that he wasn't supposed to. A lot of rumors run,

and he must have realized at one point...

you're screwed.

But the true depth of Dino's involvement in

organized crime will stun the wrestling world,

and beyond.

♪

The door must have been unlocked because

there's no forced entry. Or, he let somebody in.

I wouldn't want to go that way.

[speaking French]

Police examining the crime scene of

Dino Bravo's murder discover 17 bullet casings

from two different firearms on the living room floor.

This leads authorities to believe that

two assassins are involved,

and supports the theory that his death

is linked to organized crime.

The neighborhood he was living in, in Laval,

was in Vemont, which is like a very upscale neighborhood.

9 months earlier, mafia accountant,

Robert Caverzan, was shot in his home

just down the street from Bravo's house.

Four months later, and two streets away,

a cigarette smuggler, Ghislain Renzo,

was also killed.

The police, aware of Bravo's ties to the Cotroni family,

look for connections.

Three days after his death,

a crucial piece of evidence is uncovered.

[French news coverage]

By the early 1990s,

organized crime is flourishing in Montreal.

Alongside the mafia are warring biker gangs and

smugglers operating out of First Nation reserves.

What connects them all is the lucrative business

of contraband cigarettes.

[speaking French]

Yeah, a lot of people smoked them because

you paid half price for, for a pack.

Thousands and thousands of cases of cigarettes,

I hear, were sold. Thousands.

Yeah, well, of course I knew. Yeah, he told me.

I said-- Well, everybody, at that time...

a lot of people were into that business because

everybody smoked and everybody wanted to pay less money.

So, is it from that, I don't know?

Is it for something else, I don't know.

Because if I knew, believe me,

I was so close to him, I would like to have

that revenge for him.

The only wrestler that I know of that Dino talked to

about his organized crime life

prior to leaving wrestling, was Rick Martel.

Martel declined to be involved in this documentary.

But in 2007, he gave a rare interview revealing

conversations he had with Dino

about his life in organized crime.

Dino went to see the Indians...

and the Indians were big wrestling fans, you know.

So, when they saw Dino, "Oh, man," you know.

So, they, they started dealing strictly with Dino.

So, Dino had the monopoly with the Indians because

the Indians, you know, they have the river there.

You know, they can...

pass cigarettes like crazy, or whatever.

[speaking French]

Control over the narcotics trade is in

a constant state of flux.

Each criminal group is looking for an edge,

even if that means crossing into somebody else's turf.

The cigarettes business was doing so great

that the cocaine people, you know, are saying,

"Hey, maybe there's some money for us in there too,"

you know. So, the, the big cocaine guy

apparently went to see Dino and said,

"Look, you let me in on your cigarette deals and

I'll let you in on some cocaine deal."

So, what apparently happened, they did some,

did some kind of agreement and Dino had a

$400,000 shipment in some warehouse somewhere and

it stayed there for like three days.

And, on the third day, when the cocaine guy

went to pick it up, the RCMP or the police were there.

So, they were blaming each other.

Dino said, "Ah, you should have picked it up

the first day, never happened.

And you shouldn't let it sit there."

So, there was a lot of heat.

Dino screwed up and would have made

the organization lose tons of money.

[speaking French]

[Andre]

I did hear that the thinking was that the killer

wanted police to believe there were two shooters.

The person who killed him was a friend.

That's what I think.

Sitting on the couch with your remote control,

when there's someone in front of you.

It can't be a stranger.

It has to be someone you like and you trust.

That, for me, is the definition of mafia for me.

[speaking French]

[accented English]

♪

This is a beautiful picture. Dino Bravo in blond.

And Claudia, his little girl.

Of course, the little girl was always around him.

And here is me and Dino, walking here at the arena.

We were getting ready to work.

So, these are the best memories of my life.

I miss him every day.

What could have been? Questions with no answers.

Decades after Dino Bravo's brutal murder,

friends and family still don't know if they'll ever

find out the truth of what happened, and why.

[speaking French]

[Claudia]

[Patric] He started wrestling in 1970,

ended up in 1992. That's a 22-year career.

So, that's the only thing he knew.

That's the only thing he could do.

And, there's not a lot of jobs you can do

which will give you several hundreds of

thousands of dollars, aside from organized crime.

[Jacques] Dino Bravo always made sure that

there was harmony between the boys.

Dino knew how to create a team.

If I had to start my life again,

that would be one part I'd never change - the time that

I had business in Quebec, working for Dino Bravo.

[speaking French]

Then, there's some people who will talk about,

"Hey, I remember his wrestling."

But then, that generation's gonna go away.

But, believe me, the way things are,

people will always keep reminding 'cause

there'll always be stories that'll come out about Dino,

how he died, and did he die from the bikers?

Did he die-- That, that will stay with him,

and that's too bad. But that's the way it is.

You know, you gotta take the punch.

[speaking French]

♪

[Diane]

[Claudia]

The Quebec Police were contacted

for this documentary, but they declined to participate

as this case still remains open.

♪

You know the old saying...

Shakespeare, or somebody said,

"The evil that men do lives after them,

but the good gets interred with their bones."

It should be the other way around.

Think about the good and, you know,

the rest, try to forget it...

and try not to repeat it. That's it.

♪