Ion Croitoru

Ion William Croitoru (December 7, 1963 – February 21, 2017) was a Canadian professional wrestler.

He was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

To wrestling fans, he is better known by his ring names, Johnny K-9, Taras Bulba, and Bruiser Bedlam.

He worked in several Canadian wrestling promotions, including Stampede Wrestling, and later wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

He wrestled as a jobber in the WWF, but he was booked to win titles in several other promotions.

Croitoru was also known for his history of legal problems.

He was a member of Satan's Choice, a biker gang.

He was convicted of assault, trafficking cocaine, and bombing a police station.

Croitoru trained with Nick DeCarlo and Victor Rosettani Sr. before debuting in Stampede Wrestling in 1984.

Bruce Hart gave Croitoru the ring name Orhan Turgedan, The Terrible Turk, a name Croitoru only wrestled under for a short time after leaving the promotion.

He continued to wrestle in Canadian independent promotions, such as Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritimes and Superstars of Wrestling in Windsor, Ontario.

In 1985, Croitoru wrestled for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), where he received a push and was given a reign as AWA Southern Heavyweight champion.

He defeated Jerry Lawler to win the belt on August 16, but dropped it back to Lawler in a rematch on September 6.

He wrestled in many tag team matches and formed a short-lived team with Barry O in 1986, but his biggest match in the WWF was a televised match against Hulk Hogan.

In his hometown of Hamilton, Croitoru was considered to be a celebrity and he was generally known as "Johnny K-9".

Croitoru himself usually used that name when signing documents, and was even able to open up a bank account under his "Johnny K-9" moniker.

Croitoru was only a jobber, which the journalist Jerry Langton noted was "a hard way to make a living, even by Hamilton standards".

The following month, Croitoru joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as Johnny K-9, where he competed until 1989.

Croitoru claimed that he decided on this name while being arrested after a fight.

He saw "K-9" written on a paddywagon and decided on the ring name.

Croitoru's signature moves were the Stomach Claw and the Flying Headbutt.

Croitoru stood six feet tall and was billed as weighing about 300 pounds.

Sporting a Fu Manchu moustache and with his head shaved completely bald, he was typecast as a villain, who excelled in generating heat (fan anger) by his exploits in the ring.

Croitoru usually showed up in the ring wearing black tights and a collar around his neck, and proceeded to generate "heat" from the audiences before his matches started.

One television commentator stated that his fighting style was "like an animal or a dog".

The Canadian journalist Adrian Humphreys called him a "hugely entertaining and dirty fighter" whose antics made him natural as a "heel".

Croitoru liked his "bad boy" image, once telling a reporter he was the "baddest of the bad", going on to say "You can print that. I want everyone to know".

He worked as a jobber to the stars, putting over such wrestlers as Pedro Morales, Tito Santana, and Paul Orndorff.

In 2005, he was arrested for the murder of lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred.

After a lengthy investigation, the charges were dropped in June 2006 because of insufficient evidence.

He worked as a security guard in Vancouver, British Columbia, until being arrested in May 2009 for conspiracy to murder the Bacon Brothers.

Jonathan Barber was killed when the plan went awry, and Croitoru was charged with first-degree murder.

He pleaded guilty in July 2013 to conspiracy in exchange for a stay of proceedings on the murder charge.

He was the focus for episode 11 of the third season of the Vice TV documentary series Dark Side of the Ring.

Croitoru was born to Romanian parents in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Croitoru grew up in the working class district of east Hamilton and as a teenager liked to work out at a local gym known as Bad Boy's. Before entering professional wrestling, Croitoru claimed that he played junior hockey for the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League.

According to the journalist Paul Legall of The Hamilton Spectator, Croitoru played very briefly for the Kitchener Rangers, going on to write: "But a coach-who didn't like his bruising style-bounced him and squelched any dreams he had of professional hockey."

However, no record of his time with the Rangers can be found.

He was an accomplished weightlifter and once bench pressed 625 pounds.

He started work as a bouncer in a Hamilton bar, and was recruited into wrestling after a wrestler who come there to drink saw him in the bar.