A very large part of me, the “pseudo-off-and-on-local-wrestling-journalist” inside of me, wanted to dig deeper into the story of the depravity and crimes of Scott Weinbloom, “popularly” known to local Upstate NY independent wrestling fans as In Your Face Wrestling’s promoter, “The Millennium Millionaire” Scott Scarsdale.
He was a man that, in a business replete with carnies, crooks and scoundrels, was as selfish, scornful, and petty as they come. From reportedly barring wrestlers in his promotion from sharing youtube videos of their matches in IYFW, to actively seeking to shut down rival promoters by slandering them to the owners of building's they were trying to book and sending complaints in to the New York State Athletic Commission, to posting incendiary claims about those same rival's values on social media… This was not a man with a “live and let live” mentality, people. It seems that apparent mean-spiritedness and evilness didn't end with threatening legal action and defaming people left and right. As foul a man as he seemed to be, he was somehow worse.
Wanna hear me say more nice things about him?
He was also outwardly a notorious hypocrite. For a man with Jewish heritage who prided himself on the relentless defense of that oft-oppressed people… to book himself as tag team champion alongside a character named “Al-Jihad”, whose character was that of an overt, violent, radical Muslim terrorist... That feels pretty damn anti-Semitic, no?
No offense, “Al”, if you’re reading this.
As for his crimes on record — the crimes he has plead guilty to — they are absolutely horrific and incredibly unsettling. Multiple images of dead, hanging children on his thumb drive? 1300 photos? 1500 videos? Fucking terrible. The information is out there, and I have and will continue to share what I have been able to glean from the public record.
Initially, I was eager to reach out to his past confidants and source their opinions on this sickening turn of events. A few even reached out to me in the weeks and months since his plea agreement. As I shared the sordid details of his misdeeds, many of which few if any in his circle were aware of, two individuals with a combined forty-plus year history with Scarsdale separately reached out to me with further insight into some subtle clues and kernels of his perversion and degeneracy they’d innocently written off decades ago as misunderstandings.
I’m not going to repeat those tales here because, for one thing, I’m not convinced they are my stories to tell. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, as Scott Scarsdale is sentenced to prison… I am eager to throw the key away with him, to move beyond this vile era in local wrestling.
I’ve reported the facts on public record… and am not sure how much I want to delve deeper into the muck than I already have.
I hope my readers can respect that.
When the news of his arrest first broke in May of 2022, like many I was shocked. More than that, I was sad. Sad for the promise of professional wrestling, broken. The pact between performer and fan, shattered. The innocence, lost. It's in many ways why I didn't hop right on this site at the time and get to gabbing about it; because it wasn't "fun" news, you know?
Wrestling doesn’t need more real life villains. There are enough horrible stories about shitty people in this business. We didn’t need our own “local legend”. But today, we have one.
Tomorrow, I hope that “legend” just fades away.
Say what you want about Scott Scarsdale, lord knows I have, but IYFW did do something positive for the sport in our area. Their wrestling school, thanks to Drake Evans and others, helped churn out some fun talent, some of which have gone on to greater success. Their shows at the Ballston Area Community Center over a decade ago absolutely rekindled my wrestling fandom and were the very impetus for me to start this very page. I’ve met some brilliant people and made some incredible connections I otherwise would not have. It lead to a podcast (excuse me... BLOGCAST) that would give me and one of the greatest people I have known in Will Cena an excuse to get together, drink, and shoot the shit every week or so. It was a blast.
For everything I abhor and detest about that man… I have to be thankful for that.
But for whatever it was that he gave, he took away more.
Good riddance, Scott Scarsdale.
In your face.
According to the latest public filing, I'm expecting him to be sentenced this week in Utica, NY. We will see.
My hope is that you'll see one more post from me on this topic. The plan is to share the sentencing details. And then, holy shit, we won't ever have to "go there" ever again, will we?
Finally… My hat is off to the US Dept of Justice & FBI Taskforce that took him down. My heart breaks for the exploited & abused children all over the world who he and other scum prey upon. For more information on Project Safe Childhood and their efforts to protect kids around the world and incarcerate the people who do them harm, check out this link.
