The Evil History Of Wrestling: Buck Zumhofe

[Content warning: the following article makes references to sexual assault and suicide].

In 1992, WWE was in deep trouble.

In addition to the steroids scandal, as a result of which McMahon narrowly escaped a federal indictment, the promotion was accused of allowing the systemic molestation of young males - the “ring boys” - tasked with setting up and taking down the ring. Two of the boys, lured from broken homes under the promise of meeting their wrestling heroes, accused former ring announcer and ring crew boss Mel Phillips of rubbing their feet against his crotch in incidents dating back to 1986.

In 1988, Mel Philips was fired by Vince McMahon, as detailed in phone calls to New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer, because the then-owner of WWE suspected Phillips held a relationship with various minors that “seemed peculiar and unnatural”.

Phillips was allowed back into what was then named the World Wrestling Federation under the proviso that he stayed away from the ring boys. The allegations state that he did not. Phillips, who was never arrested nor convicted, vanished after he resigned in 1992. One accuser, Tom Cole, died by suicide in February 2021.

The story resurfaced when five survivors, accusing negligence, filed a lawsuit against WWE, TKO Group Holdings, and Vince and Linda McMahon in Maryland Circuit Court last year. Vince’s lawyer, Jessica Rosenberg, issued a statement to POST Wrestling in October 2024:

“More than 30 years ago, the columnist Phil Mushnick tried to make headlines with these same false claims. Those allegations were never proven and ultimately became the subject of a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Mushnick*.

“The negligence claims against Mr. McMahon that were asserted today rely on these same absurd, defamatory and utterly meritless statements by Mr. Mushnick. We will vigorously defend Mr. McMahon and are confident the court will find that these same claims are untrue and unfounded.”

*The statement neglects to mention that Mushnick was never found guilty of any wrongdoing.

The WWF did, however, contract a convicted paedophile in the 1990s: Eugene Otto Zumhofe. Eugene performed as a wrestler under the moniker ‘Buck Zumhofe’.

The promotion either did not care, or did not know. The latter, to editorialise briefly, is far less likely: his crimes were a matter of public record, and if that somehow escaped the WWF’s attention, locker rooms subsist on gossip. The man’s reputation was well known within the business. Almost everybody’s business is.

On YouTube, there’s blooper footage of an old AWA interview with Jesse Ventura, who was set for a showdown with Zumhofe. In it, Ventura refers to Zumhofe as “Peter Pan”, a fictional character who kidnapped children. A corpsing Gene Okerlund laughs as a smirking Jesse exits the frame, saying “he was out of line there”.

Zumhofe was a popular wrestler with a low ceiling in the American Wrestling Association before the WWF caught fire and rendered it all but obsolete. He was among the first to enter the ring backed by music and carried around a boom box - hence his nickname ‘Rock N’ Roll’. He played a goofy, intrepid guy who was valuable in a spot designed to heat up the top heels. He was even awarded titles.

Zumhofe was put behind bars twice in the 1980s. After his first stint in jail, in 1986, the AWA brought him back in like nothing had happened. After his second 36 month stretch, for fourth degree sexual misconduct with a minor, Zumhofe received work as a WWF enhancement talent. Incredibly, Zumhofe was most active as an enhancement talent throughout 1992: the year in which the ring boys scandal broke.

Zumhofe is the subject of two trivia notes.

Zumhofe was the first jobber that the Undertaker enclosed in his gimmicked body bag. After a 1991 squash win, ‘Taker carried Zumhofe out of the ring over his shoulder in a year partly defined by the Federation’s experiments in traumatising its youthful audience.

Zumhofe (billed as Buck Zumhoff) was also the opponent for what is considered Triple H’s canonical WWE debut. Broadcast on April 30, 1995, on Wrestling Challenge, the wrestler then known as ‘Hunter Hearst Helmsley’ took two minutes and 14 seconds to put Zumhofe away with the cutter he quickly abandoned at the urging of Diamond Dallas Page.

On commentary, in a small mercy, Gorilla Monsoon resisted the urge to crack a joke in the “Terry Garvin school of self-defence” vein, which he’d use to pop the boy’s club. (WWF booking assistant Terry Garvin was also implicated in the ring boys scandal and resigned as a result of it. Gorilla’s oft-said gag was code for those who’d endured advances from Garvin.)

It’s probably too much of a reach to infer that Monsoon’s line “[Zumhofe] doesn’t need to take a backseat to anybody!” was a reference to Zumhofe’s arrests.

Although, presenting Zumhofe as Hunter Hearst Helmsley’s first opponent - when Jim Ross echoed the character’s stated mission of “bringing civility and class to the World Wrestling Federation” - was rather icky, optics-wise.

In quite the irony, Monsoon bristled at the idea that Helmsley intended to “bring class here”. “I’ve got news for you Hunter,” Monsoon said, as, of all people, Buck Zumhofe sold damage in the ring: “It’s always been here!”

Zumhofe did sporadic jobs well into the ‘New Generation’ era, last working for WWE, according to Cagematch records, on June 29, 1996. He lost within minutes to the British Bulldog.

Confined to the indies thereafter, Buck also operated his own promotion: Rock n’ Roll Wrestling. There’s very little data on Cagematch pertaining to it. Incomplete, of the four cards listed, Buck wrestled twice on each six-match show. It seemed like little more than a vanity project to fund his lifestyle and allow him to relive whatever passed for his glory days.

Zumhofe was arrested on May 27, 2013. He was charged with twelve felony counts of criminal sexual misconduct and was convicted of all counts on March 5, 2014. Buck was imprisoned for 25 years for sexually abusing his own biological daughter. He did so between June 1999 and June 2011, though the counts only related to the offences committed when his daughter was under the age of seventeen. Zumhofe began this horrific bout of incestuous abuse when his daughter was just 15 years old.

The following description has (hopefully) been worded carefully, with the intention of striking a balance between the gravity of his wrongdoing and the reader's experience.

Nonetheless, the details are ghastly, and you should proceed with caution.

Zumhofe did not know his daughter until she was 13; by the time she was 15, Zumhofe had persuaded her to move into his home. The abuse was initiated instantly; within a fortnight, he had raped her. Three of the twelve counts related to coerced oral sex; the remaining nine related to rape and other sexual acts. The abuse began even before the predatory Zumhofe lured his daughter into the home; under the pretext of an intended, wholesome family reunion, Zumhofe invited her to stay with him for spring break in 1998. In reality, he spent this period earning her trust; on her 15th birthday a year later, a month before she agreed to move in, Zumhofe molested her under her two-piece bathing suit because he “didn’t want her to get a funny tan line”.

The severity and frequency of the abuse intensified to an extent so vile that his daughter was never given time to heal between the assaults. Without delving into the exact specifics, it once took her eight weeks to recover physically.

Evil to the bone, Zumhofe was also shameless. Zumhofe, per various witnesses, would dance provocatively with and kiss his daughter in public. People within wrestling who orbited him on the convention circuit and his promotion knew of the crimes, county attorney Jennifer Fischer revealed, but nobody did anything about it. Zumhofe threatened to kill himself whenever he suspected that his daughter was willing to flee.

Zumhofe himself tried to flee during the verdict, breaking free from officers in the hallway, but was tackled and taken back into custody.

You’ll find the odd talking head on YouTube condemning Zumhofe, but never in great detail. Otherwise, not much is known about him, other than his unspeakably evil public record, because any wrestler associated with him, understandably, wants to disassociate from him.

Which makes a certain 2010 interview with the man all the more notable. It is also horrible; conducted by the late Marshall Ward for Slam Wrestling, before Zumhofe’s 2013 arrest, it’s essentially a profile piece, a sort of ‘Where Are They Now?’

It’s also loaded with awful subtext.

Buck booked his own daughter as a wrestler, as he proudly puts over. In a grotesque irony, she was nicknamed ‘The Virgin’. “Boy, people call for her all the time,” Zumhofe told Ward, “because they want to see the Virgin.”

The Virgin was a heel. The bit was that she’d berate the men in the audience for not measuring up to her standards. Nobody would ever get to have her. What a despicable, cruel fiction.

One can only speculate as to why Zumhofe, an old pro who was never a star but knew what he was doing, was given the gigs. A story as horrific as Zumhofe’s can only lead one to arrive at that conclusion cynically: it doesn’t matter who else you hurt, but if you can safeguard one of the boys, you’re alright.

This is a grim read, but there’s a tiny glimmer of light to the ending.

In that 2013 interview, a totally deluded Zumhofe - expressing his belief that he could walk into WWE in his sixties and cut great promos - tells his stories. He speaks of the time he was put in that body bag. “I’m the first guy to be put in a body bag,” he beamed. “And it scared me a little because I can’t even stand being in a real small bathroom - I’m claustrophobic.”

It would seem that Zumhofe, more than most people, would hate rotting away in a prison cell.