D’Lo Brown has faced some of the toughest men in wrestling history, from Ken Shamrock to The Rock, but his most terrifying encounter didn’t happen inside a ring. It happened inside a hotel room in downtown Los Angeles.
In a recent interview on “The Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val,” the Attitude Era legend and current TNA producer detailed a chilling experience at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel during a WrestleMania weekend. What started as a quiet night ended with the former European Champion fleeing his room “stone cold sober” to find safety in a crowded bar.
The “Full-Blown Fight” That Wasn’t There
The incident occurred after Brown returned to his room around 11:00 PM, intending to watch a movie on his laptop. The Biltmore, a historic landmark built in 1923, is famous for its opulent architecture, but it also carries a darker reputation as the last place Elizabeth Short—the “Black Dahlia”—was seen alive.
“All of a sudden, in the room next to me, I start hearing a full-blown fight,” Brown recalled. “It is yelling, screaming, a guy and a girl yelling and screaming. You can hear things being thrown.”
Concerned for the safety of the woman next door, Brown called the front desk to request security. “I don’t want someone to get hurt,” he told the receptionist.
The hotel staff put him on hold to check the registry. When the clerk returned to the line, she delivered news that instantly changed the tone of the night.
“She goes, ‘Sir, there’s no one registered in the room next to you,'” Brown said. “I go, ‘What?’ She goes, ‘There’s no one in the room.’ And she goes, ‘You do know the reputation of this hotel?'”.
“I Just Had a Ghost Encounter”
The realization hit him immediately. The screaming, the throwing of objects, the violence he heard clearly through the wall—it was all phantom noise.
“I throw my clothes back on. Now I’m sober. I’m stone cold sober,” Brown said. “I run back downstairs. I just had a ghost encounter in my room.”
Rather than trying to sleep it off, Brown went straight to the hotel bar. “I come down and I’m just pounding drinks because I’m like, if I’m gonna go back here and go to sleep, I’m just gonna pass out, and if the ghost wants me, then they can have me,” he joked.
A History of Hauntings
Brown’s experience aligns with decades of lore surrounding the Millennium Biltmore. The hotel is widely considered one of the most haunted locations in Los Angeles. Guests have long reported unexplained sounds, including the laughter of children on the 9th floor and disembodied voices in the halls.
Brown admitted the atmosphere of the hotel already had him on edge before the incident. “Every time I walk down that hallway to go to my room, it felt like I was in The Shining,” he said, referencing the long, empty corridors that characterize the historic building.
He wasn’t the only wrestler to experience high strangeness that weekend. Val noted that fellow wrestler Al Snow and “a couple other people” had told her “weird things happened in their room” during the same stay.
While D’Lo Brown made a career out of being the toughest guy in the room, his night at the Biltmore proved that some opponents—like the supernatural—are better left un-fought. Click below to watch him tell the story.
Click below for the full interview:
