Ex-WWE star Marty Jannetty confesses to murdering a gay man

Former pro-wrestler Marty Jannetty has claimed in a Facebook post to have murdered a gay man while growing up in his native Columbus, Georgia.

Jannetty, now 60-years-old, rose to fame in the late 1980s, teaming with wrestler Shawn Michaels to form a tag team called The Rockers. The two played together until 1992 when a falling out forced Jannetty into a solo career. He continued to wrestle until 2011, when he began a career as a trainer. Throughout his professional era, Jannetty also had well-documented problems with the law and substance abuse, which often forced him into temporary retirement from wrestling.

Now The Winnipeg Sun reports that Jannetty posted the story early on August 5, though the initial post has since been deleted. Screenshots of the post continue to circulate on social media.

Related: Pro wrestler Darren Young reflects on being the first openly gay WWE performer

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In his recollection, Jannetty worked at a bowling alley along the Chattahoochee River at age 13. At the time, a local gay man served as his drug dealer, selling him marijuana. According to Jannetty, their relationship took a very dark turn.

“I never told no one this, even my brother Geno,” Jannetty wrote in the post. “I was 13, working at Victory Lanes bowling alley, buying weed from a f*g that worked there.. and he put his hands on me.. he dragged me around to the back of the building.. you already know what he was gonna try to do..”

“That was the very first time I made a man disappear,” Jannetty continued. “They never found him.. they shoulda [sic] looked in the Chattahoochie [sic] River.”

“I promised myself way back then, nobody would ever hurt me again,” he added.

Jannetty has not identified the man by name, or gone into the specifics of the implied sexual assault. The Winnipeg Sun has, however, confirmed the existence of the bowling alley in question, Victory Lanes, and that it sat along the Chattahoochee River during the time period in question.

TMZ reports that Columbus police have opened an investigation into Jannetty’s claim. “The first step will be seeing if we have any missing persons or unidentified remains cases that match the limited information in the post,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. At present, law enforcement is looking through possible disappearances in the year 1973, when Jannetty would have been the age in question.