Aurelian Smith
 |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page Aurelian Smith contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
| “ | My intention is not to destroy a legacy that was. My dad was great at what he did. He could be a hero. But to me, he was my monster. | „ |
| ~ Robin Smith, Aurelian's daughter, on how he sexually abused her. |
Aurelian Smith (August 1, 1932 – June 12, 2010) was an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Grizzly Smith. He was the father of professional wrestlers Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Rockin' Robin, and Sam Houston.
Smith began wrestling in 1958. After retiring in the late-1970s, he held various backstage positions with promotions including Mid-South Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and World Championship Wrestling.
Smith has been the subject of allegations of abuse from multiple people, including several of his children.
Biography edit
Smith was born in Whitesboro, Texas and grew up with a brother, who died at age nine, and two sisters. He had three children from his first marriage: two sons, Aurelian Jr. and Richard, and a daughter, Jo Lynn (who disappeared in 1979). He later had two more children, Michael and Robin, with his second wife Marsha. Three of his children went on to become professional wrestlers: Aurelian Jr. as Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Michael as Sam Houston, and Robin as Rockin' Robin. Smith briefly married again on June 22, 1992 this time to a woman named Michelle D. Hyde who was 24 years his junior. This marriage was finalized March 17, 1996.
Smith retired from wrestling and moved to Louisiana, where he shared a house with his son Michael (Sam Houston) in Metairie. Smith and Houston took on jobs performing maintenance in a cemetery near New Orleans' French Quarter. The pair lost most of their possessions in the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They were able to salvage some footwear and canned food, but flooding destroyed the remainder of their belongings. Smith's health had been deteriorating for several years, and he developed a staphylococcal infection after scraping his leg the day before the storm hit. He was not able to get medical attention and almost lost his leg as a result. Smith died of Alzheimer's disease on June 12, 2010 in Amarillo, Texas.
Smith had a strained relationship with his son Aurelian Jr. (Jake "The Snake" Roberts), which Roberts stated was partially the result of his father not informing his children of the scripted nature of professional wrestling. In an interview on Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Pick Your Poison, a video released by World Wrestling Entertainment, Roberts stated that his father convinced the family that his injuries in the ring were real and wore a neck brace at home to sell a storyline.
In Dark Side of the Ring, Jake also stated that his father was a pedophile and that, during his later career in wrestling as a backstage agent in the 70s and 80s, he would pick up teenage girls who were training to become wrestlers and rape them during road trips. Jim Cornette has also stated that, during this same time period as he was first getting involved, other wrestlers would make jokes about Aurelian's behaviors with the young female trainees.
On the same video, Roberts also stated that he was conceived when his father, who was dating Roberts' grandmother, raped her 13-year-old daughter (this was also stated in the documentary Beyond the Mat, in which Roberts was also featured). He said that the two were forced to marry against their wishes and that the resulting emotional trauma is responsible for Roberts' substance abuse and his sister Robin's mental health problems. At age 18, his sister Jo Lynn married a man 35 years older than she was; the man's ex-wife later kidnapped and killed her, though her body has never been found. Robin Smith has stated that she thinks her father might have been involved in Jo Lynn's kidnapping somehow, as a means of preventing her from exposing his history of pedophilia during the 70s and 80s.
In the DVD documentary, Old School with Rockin' Robin, Robin details how she was sexually abused by her father, beginning at age 6 or 7, and also mentions that Jo Lynn was abused in the same ways.
These allegations were the subject of the season 3 episode of Dark Side of the Ring named "In The Shadow of Grizzly Smith". In addition to Robin and Jake, his other two sons, Michael and Richard, were also interviewed.