Harvey Wippleman / joey marella death

I thought Harvey still worked for the WWE. His name is Bruno I believe. He was on a few WWE documentaries like 5 or 6 years ago.

If he doesn't work for them now, he was working for them then at least.

And my guess is that Harvey was just pissed off. I read about that story in Bret Hart's book too. Maybe Harvey was mad that he almost died?? Or that Joey did die?? I mean they had to be close to ride together, I would think. I doubt people rode with each other that hated each other, or had a disliking for one another. Maybe Harvey is just dealing with the death in a weird, f*cked up way??

here are a couple tid bits I saw online. seems he was/is bitter about the medical expenses he got as a result:
Downtown Bruno was in the car with him when it happened & dedicated a chapter in his book about it. He basically said Joey was a waste of space & he kindly gave Joey a lift as everybody else had left but didn't want to & Joey wanted to drive so Bruno said ok he would sleep but told Joey not to nod off-which he did & he result was his death.

Bruno came off so badly-like it was a huge inconvenience that the car was a write-off & he had to pay some money for it, as if a colleague dying was nothing & money was far more important. Guess he must have kept his mouth shut about it there though.

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I think a lot of what Lauer (wippleman) has to say about Joey I put down to a big heaping helping of survivor's guilt that he's never worked through. It seems like he digged at Joey on every other page without ever really getting to why he disliked him so much.

Scott told me how much I'd love that book when I bought it off him at CAC, but honestly, Lauer's harping on Joey really hurt my appreciation of the book; it was a continuing line of vitriol that never really resolved -- or really explained -- itself.

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Marella, a referee and son of legendary wrestler Gorilla Monsoon, was behind the wheel during a horrific 1994 car crash in New Jersey that claimed his life and severely injured Lauer. The incident spans several pages, and Lauer is unsparing his criticism of an accident that brought him to the brink of mortality and cost him $10,000 in medical expenses. "Joey was a loser, and not only was it a miracle that he didn't kill me, it would a miracle that he didn't kill himself or someone else sooner than he did."

I really liked Joey Marella. Every time he came to Chicago I would talk to him from ringside and he was always very nice and more times he would look for me in the crowd. Back in the good days of wrestling in Chicago you could get great seats for 12 bucks for house shows. They would come to the Rosemont Horizon every month or 6 weeks. So me and my father would always be around the same area and he would seek us out and wave from the ring. A class act.

As for Bruno? If that's the way he feels then that's something he needs to deal with.

Bruno was also one of the worst managers in the history of the WWE too. Where as Joey was one of the greatest referees in the history of the WWE.

So whatever, Bruno can say what he wants, but I think more people would know who Joey is before Bruno.

If Harvey doesn't expand on it, maybe one can ask Brooklyn Brawler. Those guys were agents and worked closely together.

You didn't know he was gorilla's son? I used to love how Jesse would put little digs in to Gorilla about how bad Joey was doing calling matches.

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I honestly did not know that was Gorilla's son, in 1995. But yes, Jesse's commentary has made more since upon learning that bit of info.