WWE Hall Of Famer Abdullah The Butcher can’t read or write as he only got to the second grade according to his live-in carer.
Wrestling legend Abdullah The Butcher had quite a career in the squared circle, making a name for himself in both the United States and Japan with his grizzly, hardcore style. His exploits as a wrestler saw him inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2011 but his life has not been without controversy.
In 2014 a Canadian court ruled that Abdullah The Butcher had infected Devon Nicholson with Hepatitis C during a bout in 2007. As a result, Nicholson was awarded $2.3 million in damages.
Now Abby’s live-in carer and assistant Malikah discussed Abdullah The Butcher’s struggles in recent years with AEW star Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho. She revealed that the WWE Hall Of Famer has never learned to read or write:
“Abdullah went as far as the second grade. That’s one of the things that Ab and I plan on doing is bringing attention to the people. He’s only been up to the second grade, he doesn’t really read and write. So, what happened, I’ve been his assistant.”
“I am his live-in caretaker, and I am his assistant, and I handle all his business. When I first moved in, he had a stack of mail, probably about one hundred pieces of mail unopened. I moved it because he would fall, he had a bad hip.”
“When I moved in, he lives on one side of the house and he would yell and scream because he was in excruciating pain, and he couldn’t live alone. So, that’s why I moved in to help him. He would ask me from time to time to open his mail, and I would get a little irritated because I was only here because he couldn’t live alone.”
“For years when all of us would go out to eat, I would ask him, ‘what is it that you want on the menu?’ I would give him the menu, and each time he would say, ‘I want what you want,’ or whoever was with us, ‘I want what you want.’ I would say, ‘no, eat what you want,’ but he always just said, ‘get what you want.’ I think it was his pride, he didn’t want to tell me. One day when we finally got home, he sat me down and said, with tears in his eyes, ‘I don’t read or write.’”
According to Malikah, it was Abdullah The Butcher’s illiteracy that led to him losing the case brought by Nicholson as he couldn’t respond to the letters he was sent:
“When his sister called to tell him, ‘you know you lost the case, Abdullah,’ Abdullah was shocked. She sent us a clipping of the news in Canada because she said it was all over the news. We looked at it, Ab let me see it, and they said that he won the case by default because Ab didn’t answer the motions, and they think that Ab was just ignoring them, but he only went to second grade, so how is he meant to answer? He’s not even a lawyer.”