Tammy and Chris' story is everything.
It was a love story, it was a cautionary tale.
It was a success story. It was a failure story.
[narrator] High school sweethearts,
Chris Candito and Tammy Sytch,
soared to wrestling stardom, fuelled by their talent,
ambition, and devotion to one another.
Anybody who met Chris loved Chris.
You couldn't help it.
From the first time that I saw Chris in the ring,
I knew he had exceptional talent.
He was a natural, and he loved wrestling.
I went from seeing Chris and Tammy backstage to
seeing them as two of the biggest stars.
But as Tammy's star rose higher and brighter
than Chris', the bond between the young lovers
was put to the test.
Tammy was the first female internet sensation
in professional wrestling.
And, when she came onto the scene...
she took all of the attention away from him.
Until a series of devastating injuries and ill-fated
choices sent them hurtling towards disaster.
There was substance abuse.
There was alcohol abuse.
There were rumours of infidelity.
If you are fucking around with a top guy,
have enough decorum to shut your fucking mouth.
They were the two cleanest kids that
you could possibly imagine.
What has happened?
What's happened to these two?
I know my son loved her.
Loved her.
As addicted to opioids as Chris became,
his biggest addiction was to Tammy.
Tammy's legacy in wrestling is both
a meteoric rise and a meteoric fall.
What happened was bound to happen.
You don't live like that and not go away
without paying the piper.
♪
If you would've came down to 13-year-old Chris Candito
and said, "Listen, you're gonna die at 33,
but you're gonna be a WWF champion..."
[Indistinct shouting] Phineas, wait a minute!
"You're gonna have more belts than you can count.
You're not gonna have kids or get married,
but you'll be a wrestling star who's gonna be
remembered by the people and by other wrestlers."
And I'll win one for Candito, baby!
"Do you accept?" He would say, "Yes."
You know, like he took what came.
I'm Johnny Rae, also known as Johnny Candito.
I'm Chris Candito's younger brother.
♪
This is the office.
This is where he concocted all of the, ah...
his wrestling ideas and stuff.
My brother hung this fan,
that's why I haven't taken it down.
He's got all the old pictures.
I mean, just, there's stuff everywhere.
And, in Chris' spare time,
he would draw wrestling in here.
Wish there was a date on this.
This is probably before I was even born.
'Cook', is what me, my family,
everybody in the neighbourhood calls him, Cook.
When I was a, when I was a baby,
I couldn't say Chris. I called him Cook.
It kind of stuck.
So, he started the Eastern Kids Wrestling Federation.
He took this platter...
that was, that was left behind at somebody's wedding.
And, yeah, so he just made this out of a weight belt.
It looks like a legit wrestling belt,
and he made it when he was 13.
Like, how the fuck do you make that at 13, right?
Him and his friend, Scott, would say-
Chris would say, "I'm sleeping at Scott's house."
Scott would tell his mom he's sleeping over here.
And the two of them, they were 13,
they'd get on a bus, go to Brooklyn,
and they would wrestle at the Galaxian Bar.
You know, then they would take a bus back home
the next morning and, you know,
wash off their gig marks and
come back home like they were just at a regular sleep over.
Like, that's how determined he was.
Oh, way behind my back.
I had no clue he was doing that.
I wouldn't have allowed it.
It was not my dream or wish for him at all.
Hi, my name is Peggy Rae,
and I'm Chris Candito's mom.
He was confident that he was gonna be a wrestler.
It was what he wanted for his future,
that's what he wanted to do.
He was in a wrestling match at
Madison Regional High School.
And, I went to watch the match that night.
I think he was working with Johnny Hotbody.
And, Johnny Hotbody had him in a headlock,
and he's like, "Hey, dude, you know,
check out the blonde in the front."
♪
I actually saw Tammy
while I was sitting in the bleachers.
And I said to him, "Oh, my God,
I saw this girl and she was all dressed in white,
and she looked so heavenly."
And, he told me that,
"Yeah, Mom, I met that girl too.
Actually, we all went back to her house."
The 'Girl In White' was Tamara Lynn Sytch,
a bright high school student preparing for college,
unaware that her life was about to take a sharp turn.
When Chris and Tammy started dating,
they were very into each other.
Together all the time.
And he would say, "Mom, Tammy's coming.
Please be nice." I was always pleasant.
That relationship was his other obsession.
He actually had a prom date. She was just-
Tammy was just an acquaintance at that time,
but he left the prom with the girl,
and she was sitting there in her convertible.
♪
And, he left the date, and got in the car with her.
♪
Which I didn't think was very nice.
[Laughing]
♪
I thought, in the very beginning,
that she was lovely.
♪
After graduating from high school,
Chris does everything in his power to establish himself
in the wrestling business.
My brother was constantly on the phone
trying to get booked, driving to shows.
Even if he's not booked, he's still gonna
drive there and see if he can get on.
And, he wanted to go to Smoky Mountain,
he was calling Jim Cornette.
He started sending me VHS tapes of all of
his matches on the independent circuit.
I saw a lot of natural talent in Chris Candito.
I'm Jim Cornette.
I was the promoter of Smoky Mountain Wrestling,
and I'm the one who brought Chris Candito and
Tammy Sytch to mainstream wrestling.
The drawback for me bringing Chris Candito to
Smoky Mountain Wrestling was that I couldn't pay
him enough to justify asking this kid...
to move from New Jersey to east Tennessee for
75 bucks a night, 4 times a week or whatever.
At the same time,
Tammy had never been involved in wrestling.
She was Chris' girlfriend.
She would go and do some ringside photography or
just support him.
But I was looking at her, I said,
"There's something about her,
she's got charisma. She's a very pretty girl,
but she seems quick and intelligent."
Finally, I got an idea.
What if Tammy was a manager?
What if she could talk? I don't know, can she?
I'm not sure, she's never done it before.
But if she can talk,
then I could pay them both a little bit.
So, I called him and pitched him the idea.
And I said, "You're not gonna leave school."
So, he applied to the University of Tennessee
and got accepted.
And I said, "Well, that's great.
Yeah, you can take that little road trip.
And, go see Mr. Cornette,
as long as you go to school."
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be temporary.
Of course, he had to wear a baby bonnet.
[Off-screen] [Laughing] What?
[Laughing]
[Announcer] And he gets that baby bonnet, count of 2-
And no! Ah, can't...
Like, wrestling just makes me so crazy.
They make up these stories so,
there was Christopher walking around in
a baby bonnet and a diaper.
[Announcer] The Suicide Blonde, Chris Candito!
I guess it makes sense to some people.
It made no sense at all to me.
Oh, Chris was such a student of the game,
and he understood that it took more than great
moves or a great match to get 'over'.
He realized he had to be a character.
My name is Mick Foley.
I am a three-time WWE champion.
I'm known as the 'Hardcore Legend'.
And I was a colleague of Chris and Tammy's.
It's just more fun to be a bad guy.
Bad guys have more fun.
He embraced the heel mannerisms.
He liked to be a jerk.
He was one of the best jerks I've seen in our business.
Though Chris relishes playing the bad guy,
it's Tammy who is destined to be the ultimate villain.
We were in east Tennessee in the early 90s,
and it was a highly republican area.
Everybody hated the Clintons.
He's president.
Hillary has tons of heat with all the republicans.
I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and
had teas, but what I decided to do was to
fulfill my profession, which is-
I saw an opportunity to basically piss off every
republican and every hillbilly in east Tennessee
and surrounding states.
This young lady is Tammy Fytch.
Now, the Smoky Mountain Wrestling attorneys have
advised us to let her have her say here on the program.
And I gave her notes.
I said, "Here, this is the story we'd like you
to tell on your first interview.
Put it in your own words, make it sound natural."
Tammy?
My name is Tammy Fytch, of the New England Fytchs.
I'm sure you've heard of us.
One take. One take, she did.
Mrs. Clinton has proven that a woman
can do anything she wants.
Here is this woman who idolizes the person
that they all can't stand.
And she was coming to Smoky Mountain Wrestling
because she demanded equal opportunity.
At any rate, the reason I'm here today is because
I have filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit
against Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
And the people hated that shit.
[Booing & shouting]
She leaned into the idea that
she could make people hate her.
She wasn't scared of it at all.
I'm ready to become the first lady of
Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
Hi, This is Tammy Fytch,
and I'm here with Tammy's Tips.
You'll be amazed at how I can make Margie
into an acceptable human being.
Tune in next week for more of Tammy's Tips.
I'll make something out of you yet.
As soon as she was on screen...
she lit it up, you know,
like she just popped onscreen.
And Jim Cornette put her in a perfect spot
because she was that.
She wasn't playing a part either.
That was Tammy.
My name is Dr. Tom Prichard,
and I was Chris Candito's tag team partner in WWE.
It's time to get down to business.
Chris with stars in his eyes and,
this love for this one woman that he's gonna
spend the rest of his life with.
Why wouldn't you want to be with your partner?
From the time they first came to Tennessee,
they were inseparable. They rode together,
they lived together, obviously.
They seemed to be the most
romantic, loving couple.
You know, Tammy had no idea that wrestling
was going to pan out for her.
She thought it was something that Chris was gonna do.
And then, actually, it made it all the more surprising
when she got over quicker than he did.
They're obviously insecure about their masculinity.
In early 1995,
Tammy's charisma and Chris' dynamic
wrestling style catch the attention of the WWF.
Signing with the company,
the pair finally achieve their ultimate dream.
My relationship with Chris and Tammy was,
obviously, as a mentor, as well as a boss.
But I genuinely believed in both of their talents,
and I wanted to see them succeed,
even past my promotion.
He said, "Yeah, I'm gonna go wrestle for the WWF,"
which I thought was, well, okay, so you did make it.
That means you're dropping out of school,
but I guess you did make it.
His ultimate dream was get into the WWF...
and being a top talent.
He attained his goal.
And, a lot of people just never attain their goal.
And he did it without any encouragement from me.
Tammy, from the beginning,
was ready to conquer the world.
And didn't care who knew it,
didn't care what anybody thought about her.
Yes, I do think with the success, her,
her head grew...
her head grew pretty big.
But the transformation that she was undergoing,
personally, inside and underneath all that
was even more...
remarkable, and honestly, much more dangerous.
-Hi, I'm Skip. -And I'm Sunny.
And we're The Body Donnas.
At that time, a lot of people in WWE were vocations.
They were Mounties, they were IRS agents,
they were repo men.
I love my job! Ha!
They made them fitness gurus.
The Body Donnas.
Chris was the young, jacked guy that would work out,
and she was the pretty girl
that would exercise along with him.
Come on, get up and work, work, work, work, work!
He would have been much more comfortable being himself,
but he, I think he just thought of it
as a rite of passage.
See where it goes, and it went...
I mean, they won the tag titles.
[Indistinct shouting] No, no, no, no!
-What is this? -Look at this!
Did you see- did you just see what Phineas-
Wait a minute! Three, no!
When they added the tag partner and they made
Tom Prichard who had, you know, long, curly hair,
that he was a big fan of, shave his head, and I'm like,
they should have just called me.
It's like, I had the hair already.
Hi, I'm Lance Storm, a professional wrestler
who worked with Chris and Tammy
in Smoky Mountain Wrestling,
as well as Extreme Championship Wrestling.
[Crowd chatter]
I could have been Zip, yeah.
Although, in hindsight being 20/20, I mean,
thank God they didn't.
It sucked! It was horrible!
It was the worst God damn time of my life!
Shit!
Just, it was rotten- it was a rotten gimmick.
And, that's what Chris Candito off on
the wrong foot with the fans in the WWF is
they saw this as preliminary foolishness.
And, they weren't mad at Tammy anymore because
she wasn't this bitchy heel manager.
She was this girl doing jumping jacks and
she's pretty, so they started loving her.
She was amazing on the mike.
She was amazing as a manager.
She was amazing at any damn thing in the business
that you could possibly ask of her.
I am Terri Runnels.
Former diva, manager, wrestler.
Oh!
She was, back in the day,
the most downloaded female on AOL.
And if you don't know what AOL is, well...
[Laughing] It was back in the day, like way-
like, back when Christ was born, we had AOL.
Anyway! She was gorgeous.
She just, she had it all.
Viewer discretion is advised.
She went from a 19-year-old kid...
to a 24-year-old sex symbol.
I think it timed well with, you know,
the explosion of the internet,
and all of a sudden, it's you know,
everyone's downloading sexy pictures of attractive women.
Hit it, boys!
And, Tammy was just hitting at the right time as this new
sex symbol character on wrestling television.
And, there was a lot of teenage or younger boys that
thought that was a pretty damn good thing.
In the beginning, a lot of people liked Tammy because
she could come across as very charming.
But once you got to know her, you understood that was...
just a front.
And Tammy was all about Tammy.
I had heard Tammy was divisive.
I always liked Tammy.
I understood she was ambitious, like...
that's not a negative.
But it can be if you're a women, in a man's business.
So, there was one time on television before they had
taken her off the road as The Body Donnas manager.
Henry and Phineas Godwinn, the pig farmers.
They carried a slop bucket around and,
they would dump the slop over the head of their opponents
and people would cheer, and they just loved it.
Henry's got the slop!
On a particular night,
I remember the Godwinns coming in,
putting the bucket down in the locker room, said,
"Guys, the bucket is going on Tammy tonight,
so don't anybody do anything in this bucket."
And you can imagine.
[Indistinct shouting] Oh, no, no!
[Indistinct shouting]
And there must have been DNA from
20 different people in there.
Tammy seemed to have heat in the dressing room.
I don't know why.
If cockiness was a penalty,
then we wouldn't have much of a business.
[Screaming & shouting]
Everybody needs to have the performer's ego.
Yes, you must have an ego, no doubt,
and Tammy didn't lack...
an ego. But, she went off the rails because
she didn't know how to control it.
Tammy skyrockets to fame as one of the first
female megastars in the WWF.
But her rise to the top is plagued by
a culture of drugs and alcohol.
Soon, she's caught up in the hard, partying lifestyle.
Well, at the time that Tammy and
Shawn Michaels started their...
liaison, ah, I didn't know about it originally.
Most people didn't. Then,
the rumours started circulating, and then
it started to become more of an out in the open thing.
[Announcer] She's mesmerized by Shawn Michaels!
Will she come into the ring?
In the mid 90s, Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid,
was the top star in the WWF.
He was the champion.
He defeated Bret Hart in 1996 at WrestleMania and
carried the belt through the end of 1997.
I think Michaels did it 'cause he could,
and he could get away with it.
You know, I'm feeling awfully randy, you know that?
Can you feel it?
Oh, yeah, I can, I can feel it.
Did Chris find out about Shawn and Tammy?
I don't know if he, if he actually caught 'em
red-handed, but how could you not know, is my point.
Of course he knew. Everybody knew!
I, I really- I have to believe that he knew it,
and just could not accept it.
[Announcer] Oh, my goodness!
She was a little girl that just wanted to be loved and,
you know, being loved by the top guy...
felt a whole lot better than being loved by, you know,
her boyfriend that was down here, I assume.
If Shawn Michaels hadn't been Shawn Michaels...
and, he got sideways with Chris Candito,
Chris Candito would've broke him in 15 pieces and
shoved him up his own ass.
But, Chris wasn't gonna do that because Michaels is
a big star, this is Chris' dream to work for
the biggest promotion.
He took it, and he internalized it, I think.
My brother and Tammy had an altercation in a hotel.
It was too much, I, I...
I couldn't watch my brother get treated like that so,
I grabbed him, I threw him out of the room
into the hallway...
He's trying to fight to get back in,
I'm not letting him. I'm like, "Dude,
let's get in the car and let's get the fuck out of here."
And he's like, "I can't do that, dude."
He's like, "Dude, I brought her into this business.
It's my responsibility to take care of her."
I'm like, "That's bullshit, dude." Like,
"Let's get the fuck out of here."
And, he's like, "I can't do it."
Chris Candito's undeniable talent isn't enough to
make him a top star in the eyes of the company.
After falling down the ranks of the WWF,
a serious injury makes his prospects even worse.
It was in Madison Square Garden.
And, he came back to the dressing room...
He said, "I got a hurt neck."
Well, they found out that it was more than hurt,
it was broke.
And this kid's going out there busting his ass.
You know, having a broken neck, aching back...
everything else in life.
Somebody says, "Here, try this."
Well, if one's good, six must be even better.
My brother never touched a drink,
a drug, anything, until he was in WWF.
And it was out of necessity.
He was in pain. He was hurt, he broke his neck.
I was surprised when I heard that
Chris had fallen into that trap.
Because he'd always been so clean.
Didn't even drink.
[Johnny ] It started for pain, obviously.
But then it became he could use it
to just go to sleep and forget about it.
And I think he used it for his emotions at times, yes.
While Tammy Sytch revels in the fame and
excitement of being on top in the WWF,
Chris Candito finds himself squeezed out and
even bullied by the toxic culture of the locker room.
He wasn't well liked by...
a few key people in the locker room.
And life can be really tough for somebody who's not
well-liked by the key people in the locker room.
Battling injuries and frustration with
his mid-card status, Chris leaves the WWF
in search of the main event spotlight,
and joins the hardcore and controversial,
Extreme Championship Wrestling.
Paul Heyman was in charge of ECW.
Chris knew he would be well utilized there.
And he was.
♪
The thing that the fans liked about Chris was that
he was a throwback to an old-time wrestler.
He was exciting and fast and strong,
and he could talk, and he looked good.
That in-ring portrayal was the best thing that
Chris Candito ever did.
[Shouting & cheering]
Here's the Blonde Bomb from the top!
It's like, and people think- and we were insane,
but it's like, in ECW when we were working,
it's like his finisher was the Blonde Bombshell.
The Powerbomb off the top rope.
And depending on which one of us won,
we would give the other one the Powerbomb
off the top rope every night.
There it is, the Blonde Bombshell!
And he had injuries from these Bombs.
I remember there was one time,
in the middle of the night, his back was bothering him
so much they caved in and took him to the hospital.
And when they went in and first looked at his back,
the doctor looked and said, "Well, I need
to see the accident report." And Chris was like,
"What do you mean?" He's like,
"Well, you were in a car accident, right?"
He's like, "No." They're like,
"Well, how did your back end up this messed up?"
He's like, "Um, I wrestle professionally."
[Jim] The fans for that 90s grunge era
loved that kind of shit.
And as a result, all those guys crippled themselves.
Had to face the reality of breaking my neck twice!
And that fed the drug use that most of the people
involved on the ECW roster were
already heavily involved with.
Somas were a drug of choice for a lot of wrestlers,
especially in the 90s and 2000s.
It's a muscle relaxer, heavy duty muscle relaxer.
They're really great for back pain.
The intended use for Somas is,
take one or two with food.
However, if you take 6, 7, chew 'em up,
swallow 'em, and it's like- [Snaps]- insta...
I was gonna say, "insta drunk,"
but it's not drunk, it's like...
it's like a euphoric state, is pretty much what it is.
It seems to me like people can be addicted with
one prescription with 30 pills, by the time...
that week is up, you can be an addict.
Tammy, she didn't have any of that problem.
It was the jackoffs that she was going out and
partying with, they're all drinking,
they're all doing Somas.
She didn't have any of those issues,
she just started doing it socially.
Tammy's meteoric rise in the WWF hits a sudden obstacle
with the arrival of Sable, a new diva who quickly
outshines Tammy in the eyes of both
the company and the fans.
Shut up, I'm reading.
In the hopes of revitalizing her career,
Tammy joins Chris at ECW as his onscreen manager,
but her struggles with substance abuse continue,
affecting her performance in the ring.
She would, walking on her high heels,
her ankles would be vibrating and shaking,
and she'd be stumbling.
And the audience noticed that on her entrance.
As Chris and Tammy's drug use spirals out of control,
it becomes impossible to ignore,
both for audiences and for ECW owner, Paul Heyman.
We tell a few jokes, we get on the floor
and do the Curly Shuffle. There's no more jokes now.
It's no more fun and games, no more joking around.
To keep their jobs in ECW, Tammy agrees to film a
provocative tell-all video as directed by Paul Heyman.
My first drink was at home.
When there were no more pills to make you go to sleep.
It was disheartening.
As their friend, I'm watching it, sitting there, going,
"This is not productive.
This is not gonna help these kids in any way."
I was hoping I wouldn't wake up the next morning.
[Paul] Tell me about that. Describe that for me.
The worst feeling in the world.
I was mad at Heyman, for a long time- actually, I still,
I could work up getting mad at him now for doing that.
But it was all 'cause Paul thought people
will watch this, it'll get ratings.
Well, they'll watch two dogs fucking on
the side of the road, too, Paul,
but I wouldn't put it on my television.
I don't think it did anyone any favours.
Now, the right answer would have been that,
their time off, they had gone to rehab and
got everything worked out and...
we had the...
the triumphant story on the return, but...
that's not what happened.
As their alcoholism and Soma addictions grow more severe,
Chris and Tammy's domestic problems escalate to
a whole new level of intensity.
I would see something really crazy.
Just crazy insanity.
Like, she's pulling knives out of the butcher block.
He's, he's running away and...
then she's locked in the car, and then,
he picks me up from high school the next day,
and he's like, "Oh, dude, ah, ah,
Tammy's waiting for you to put together
your bedroom set." And he's like wondering
why I'm not stoked to go put together
a bedroom set.
And we just never talked about it.
We just slipped it under the rug and that was it.
♪
Chris would be in the ring, wrestling.
And, Tammy would be somewhere else
with somebody else, in the back.
While he's in the ring.
While he's in the ring!
You have to want to stop.
You have to want to get better.
And, I don't think- [Laughing]-
I don't think either one of them knew how to live
any other way at that time.
While serving their suspension from ECW,
Paul Heyman keeps Chris and Tammy on the payroll by
assigning them office jobs, including arranging
travel plans for other wrestlers on the road.
My brother had this American Express card,
and he would book the boys' flights and hotel rooms,
and then get reimbursed with cash.
He'd do it, get reimbursed with cash.
And then, he stopped getting reimbursed with cash.
What Chris and Tammy don't know is that ECW
is struggling with crippling debt.
As the promotion crumbles,
the couple is stuck with a massive bill for
tens of thousands of dollars in
unreimbursed ECW expenses.
So, they ended up in huge, huge debt.
And, ultimately, ended up losing their home.
So, that was a horrible time for them.
His drug use was probably as bad as it ever was.
We knew of pharmacies that were corrupted,
and we could go there and get...
120 Somas every other day, you know.
So, we were at this pharmacy and,
we were waiting, waiting, waiting.
And all of a sudden, he goes, "Oh, no."
And he has a seizure, and he bites his tongue,
and he's coughing up blood.
And I'm holding him, trying to get his eyes
to like look at me, you know.
So, they call an ambulance.
And, when you come out of a seizure,
you don't know what you're saying.
They're like, they're like, "Sir, sir! What day is it?
Sir, what day is it?" I'm like, "Move out of the way.
Ask him something he knows." I'm like, "Cook,
how many times did Ric Flair win the NWA title?"
He's like, "Ah, 16." I'm like, "Alright, he's alive."
Then we had to go to the hospital and he would,
you know, be like, "Where am I?"
I'm like, "You're in the hospital."
Then he'd be like, "I'm in the hospital?
Get the fuck out of here."
He'd rip the things out of his arm and we'd go.
After years of uncertainty, Chris and Tammy receive
an invitation to join an independent wrestling
promotion in Puerto Rico,
with the hope of revitalizing their careers.
However, things quickly take a turn for the worse.
[Johnny] The access in Puerto Rico to Somas
was very easy, you know.
It was well known where you could go
to get Somas just like that.
I heard Chris was struggling.
Ah, man, I, I heard it was bad.
He would just say, you know, "Dude,
if I go out, I want to, I want to leave a,
leave a good-looking corpse,
you know, blonde, tanned, and...
you know, I want to like live fast, die young."
I'm like, "Dude, don't fucking say that shit."
He needed a change.
I think he even knew, you know, that,
that he needed to change, and it's not time to
throw in the towel and just...
you know, stay there and fucking die.
♪
One day, you know, we were sitting there...
having our lunch, and...
he's like, "Man, you know, the guys on the indies
right now fucking," you know, he's like,
"they really get under my skin." He's like, "You know,
they don't look like professional athletes."
He's like, "You know, when I was 17, 18,
I was, I was already big, muscular.
I was, I was going to Smoky Mountain,
I was making moves. I was doing all this stuff."
I'm like, "Yeah, dude,
that's why you were a standout.
That's why you made it, numb nuts."
And he's like...
He's like, "Man, I really...
I really fucked everything up."
And I was like, "Dude, no, you didn't."
Like, "You're, you're, you're 32. 31.
Let's get back on fucking track."
And he's like, "Yeah, dude. Fuck it."
It was at that point that his love for wrestling
overcame his addiction to the Somas.
Chris gets clean and undergoes intense training
to regain his fighting form.
With Tammy by his side, he returns to
the mainland to join a new wrestling promotion
called Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
Back on television, he's determined to work
his way to the top of the industry.
What I noticed when Chris got sober,
is being reinvigorated.
Getting that drive back, and you could see it in his eyes.
You- I could see it in his work.
He was as happy as he was
when he first got signed to WWF.
Like, he had that same happiness, like, like,
dude, he was like glowing, you know.
The thing he just said, he's like, "Dude, like, I'm,
I'm really sorry for all the stuff you saw at
such a young age, you know. I apologize."
He's like, "I shouldn't have, like,
you know, put you in that situation."
I would just be like, "Dude, you were a baby too,
you know. You were 23, 24."
I had heard at that point he had cleaned up,
and he certainly seemed...
like Smoky Mountain Chris Candito again.
There was a camera in the ring,
and he tried to bump to get away from it.
And that got his boot hung up a little bit in the canvas
when he was trying to bump it, and...
his shin broke.
And, right away, he, he wanted to stand up,
but he couldn't.
He got out of the ring, and they, they took him...
to the hospital, and I'm...
fucking freaking out. I'm here, you know.
I call his phone, and he's just like, he's like,
"Dude, I can't believe I left the ring." He's like,
"I just couldn't stand up," you know.
He's like, "I'm just like fucking embarrassed that
I left the ring." Like, "I shouldn't have done that."
♪
I talked to him on Monday.
And he said, "Hey, I'm about to go in to the doctor.
I'll call you back."
After undergoing extensive ankle surgery,
Chris makes a surprise appearance at a
TNA event just two days later.
He then boards a flight home,
unaware of the tragedy that awaits.
Everybody saw the horrendous injury that
I sustained in lockdown.
On Wednesday, he flew home,
and he called me Wednesday night.
And he's like...
"Oh, Mom, I, I just don't feel good." I said,
"Well, Chris, you probably shouldn't have flown home.
You just, you just need to go to bed."
And, that was the last time I talked to him.
All I know is he, he was fine on the phone, talking to me.
You know, the two of us were chatting.
You know, last thing we said to each other was,
"Hey, love you, Bro." "Love you too."
It was the next morning that
I get a call that Cook's in the hospital.
I go in there, and I see him like laid on...
a hospital bed.
And, I get on top of him like I've done a million times,
I'm like, "Cook, Cook, Cook!" You know- [Clearing throat]-
I'm like, "Yo, wake up, wake up."
And, you know,
I'm trying to like open his eyes and shit.
And then, when I...
I was trying to grab, once I grabbed his hand...
I realized he passed away because the
blood stopped flowing, and I was like...
Holy shit, like, it was fucking, like I...
It was the worst experience of my entire life.
♪
I just go walking, and I found a church and
I went and said a couple prayers.
And then...
yo...
sorry, hold on.
The last interaction I had with Chris...
Sorry.
[Sniffling & sighing]
Everything was off. Everything, dude.
You know, just fucked.
And...
I got home, and Tommy Dreamer called me.
He said, "Chris is dead." I said, "Chris who?"
Couldn't have been Candito, I just talked to him Monday.
He said, "Candito," and he started crying.
I said, "Oh, my God." Then I hung up,
he hung up, and I started crying.
[Sighing]
♪
[Sighing] Yeah, dude, I don't know-
really break up, you know, but...
that, that image is, is frigging stuck with me.
♪
By the time I got to the hospital,
he was already gone.
Yeah, I let, I let him down.
Because if I knew, I-
Maybe I could have helped him.
Maybe I could have saved him. Maybe, ah...
I should have been there, I shouldn't have
let him gone through surgery by himself.
You know, you think back on things, and you say,
"Maybe if I was there, things would be different."
♪
[Stammering] I miss him, I...
I miss him all the time.
And, I just feel sad that...
he didn't get the opportunity to
enjoy a lot more life
'cause he had a lot, a lot more life to live.
[Indistinct speaking off-screen]
Okay, bye.
♪
You know, here's the thing about this whole deal...
is that this kid never did anything wrong to anybody.
And he finally- he has all those problems,
and then he finally is getting straightened out.
And just when he gets...
his, his last chance...
it was because he was so dedicated to the
wrestling business that he died.
He could have sat at home, and they would've paid him.
But after he had that surgery,
he had to get on a plane and go somewhere.
And, you shouldn't fly after surgery.
You can get blood clots, and the altitude and
the pressure, whatever...
and that's what happened.
A God damn broken ankle killed him.
[Sniffling]
I need a minute.
-Sure. -I'm sorry, it just...
That's, with Chris, I don't get...
[Sighing] ...sentimental about many people.
[Exhaling sharply]
[Bell chiming]
[Cheering]
If Chis Candito was around today,
he'd be one of the biggest stars in wrestling because
the style has changed.
And they like smaller, younger, faster guys.
The road that Chris helped pave
is now the road most traveled.
And I think because of that, he's left a bigger legacy,
even though she was by far the bigger star at her peak.
Tammy was that bridge to... divas.
The road she paved at the time is
a road almost no longer traveled.
I once heard her say she has no regrets.
None, zero, zilch.
I don't know if you are a living,
breathing human being...
that you can truly utter those words and
mean them because...
mistakes are regrets, in my opinion.
I think she'd just gotten out of jail.
Real quick, what's your last name?
Sytch. S-Y-T-C-H.
-What's your first name? -Tamara.
Okay, what's your middle name?
Lynn.
You could still always hold out hope that
she'd straighten up and get her shit together.
People do.
And then, we got the news and it- at this point,
it's never surprising, but still it's like, oh, boy,
you know, she's done it now.
[News] 49-year-old, Tamara Sytch,
a former WWE wrestler, crashed into the
back of a car, killing its 75-year-old driver.
She's drunk, she has no license...
with the multiple DUIs.
She has no business being anywhere behind the wheel.
And is now charged with DUI manslaughter,
up to 20-something years in prison.
She's denying it, and denying it, and denying it.
And, when you can't be honest with yourself,
you're not gonna be honest with anybody else, so...
I just don't think she's...
coming out.
I hope she doesn't.
Don't want her doing any more damage.
It was surprising, the way that
everything turned out, to see...
both of 'em as young people, and then especially
to see what happened with Tammy.
Tammy changed. Tammy...
lost track of what was going on,
and Tammy lost control of her life.
I wouldn't have seen that coming...
from the girl I first met.
Chris Candito, the real world heavyweight champion.
[Jim] Chris...
the last 15 years, I, I don't think
if he'd have lived if he would have been
a significantly different person.
Today, Chris would be one of the biggest stars in the
business, because the business is more accepting of
what Chris offered and what he brought.
His legacy...
I think if you're happy doing what you're doing...
you should just do it.
Just do it.
If you have a dream, dream it.
Live your dream, live your life to the fullest.
He did more in 33 years than I've done in 73.
So, he's been everywhere, he's seen so many things.
He's had so many life experiences.
He was, he was special.
He was my... special kid.
He was special to a lot of people.
And I'm thankful for that.
♪