The Definitive Wrestling Scandals Iceberg | Part 1

Subscribe to the AOW Patreon to get acess to over 2 hours of banned video: https://patreon.com/AgeOfWrestling?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

From infamous controversies that rocked the ring to the secrets lurking beneath the surface, explore the chilling iceberg of wrestling’s darkest moments. This is the Wrestling Scandals Iceberg Part 1.

00:00 Wrestling Scandals Part 1
00:37 Chris Benoit
01:40 Owen Hart Fall
03:00 Edge, Lita & Matt Hardy Love Triangle
04:04 Montreal Screwjob
05:21 Hulk Hogan
06:08 Plane Ride From Hell
07:30 Donald Trump Buys Raw
08:22 Curtain Call
09:23 CM Punk Walks Out Of WWE
10:43 Act Yasukawa vs Yoshiko Shoot
11:30 Vince McMahon Allegations
13:00 Velveteen Dream
14:22 Paige Leaks
15:32 Brian Pillman Steve Austin
16:29 Rob Van Dam
17:38 Jeff Hardy vs Sting Victory Road 2011
18:38 Chyna’s Exit From WWE
19:34 Mass Transit New Jack
20:19 Muhammad Hassan Undertaker
21:07 CM Punk All Out 2022 All In 2023
22:13 Hana Kimura
23:10 Finger Poke Of Doom
24:22 Tessa Blanchard
25:28 Joey Ryan
26:58 Dawn Marie Fired While Pregnant
27:57 Sonny Onoo WCW Lawsuit
29:10 Dragon Gate Monkey
30:33 Vince McMahon Trial 1993 & 2007
32:08 Hulk Hogan Richard Belzer
32:57 Macho Man Randy Savage Stephanie McMahon
34:12 Iyo Sky
35:26 Sting vs Hulk Hogan Starrcade 1997
36:41 Saudi Arabia & WWE Deal

#codyrhodes #AEW #WWE

Paige
AEW Dynamite, AEW, WWE, IMPACT, NJPW, TNA, RAW, SMACKDOWN, WWE RAW, WWE Smackdown, WWE Universal Champion, AEW World Champion, WWE Champion AJ Styles, Akira Tozawa,
Angelo Dawkins, Austin Theory, Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, Bronson Reed, Cedric Alexander,Chad Gable, TNT Champion, Young Bucks, The Acclaimed,
Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest, Dexter Lumis, Dolph Ziggler, Dominik Mysterio, Edge, Elias, Finn Bálor, Gable Steveson,Johnny Gargano, Karl Anderson, Kevin Owens, Logan Paul,
Luke Gallows, Matt Riddle, The Miz, Montez Ford, Mustafa Ali, MVP, Omos, Otis, Randy Orton, Robert Roode, R-Truth, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Shelton Benjamin, The New Day,
Tommaso Ciampa, Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Carmella, Dakota Kai, Dana Brooke, Doudrop, Iyo Sky, Mia Yim, Nikki Cross, Rhea Ripley
Tamina, Angel, Ashante “Thee” Adonis, Big E, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Butch, Drew McIntyre, Gunther, Humberto, Ivar, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Jinder Mahal, Karrion Kross, Kofi Kingston, LA Knight
Ludwig Kaiser, Rey Mysterio, Rick Boogs, Ricochet, Ridge Holland, Roman Reigns Leati Joseph Anoa’i WWE Champion Universal Champion(Undisputed WWE Universal Champion), Sami Zayn
Santos Escobar, Shanky, Sheamus, Shinsuke Nakamura, Solo Sikoa, Top Dolla, Xavier Woods, Ronda Rousey, Aliyah, B-Fab, Charlotte Flair, Emma, Lacey Evans, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Raquel Rodriguez
Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks, Scarlett, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Sonya Deville, Tegan Nox, Valhalla, Xia Li, Zelina Vega, A. R. Fox, Aaron Solo, Action Andretti, Adam Cole, Alex Reynolds, Andrade El Ídolo
Angelo Parker, Angélico, Anthony Bowens, Anthony Ogogo, Ari Daivari, Austin Gunn, Bandido, Bear Boulder, Bear Bronson, Big Bill, Billy Gunn, The Blade, Blake Christian, Brandon Cutler
Brian Cage, Brian Pillman Jr, Brock Anderson, Brody King, Bryan Danielson, Buddy Matthews, The Butcher, Cash Wheeler, Chris Jericho, Christian Cage, Christopher Daniels, Chuck Taylor, Claudio Castagnoli, CM Punk, Cole Karter, Colt Cabana,
Colten Gunn, Danhausen, Daniel Garcia, Dante Martin, Darby Allin, Darius Martin, Dax Harwood, Dustin Rhodes, Eddie Kingston, Ethan Page, Evil Uno,Frankie Kazarian, Fuego Del Sol, Griff Garrison
“Hangman” Adam Page, Hook, Isiah Kassidy, Jake Hager, Jay Lethal, Jeff Hardy, Jeff Jarrett, John Silver, Jon Moxley, “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry, Juice Robinson, Keith Lee
Kenny Omega, Kip Sabian, Kyle O’Reilly, Konosuke Takeshita, Lance Archer, Lee Johnson, Lee Moriarty, Luchasaurus, Malakai Black, Marq Quen, Matt Hardy, Matt Jackson, Matt Menard, Matt Sydal
Matt Taven, Max Caster, Michael Nakazawa, Mike Bennett, Miro, MJF, Nick Comoroto, Nick Jackson, Orange Cassidy, Ortiz, Pac, Parker Boudreaux, Paul Wight, Penta El Zero Miedo, Peter Avalon
Powerhouse Hobbs, Preston Vance, Q. T. Marshall, Rey Fenix, Ricky Starks, Rush, Sammy Guevara, Samoa Joe, Santana, Satnam Singh, Scorpio Sky, Serpentico, Shawn Dean, Shawn Spears

welcome wrestling Fanatics and afficionados to a deep dive into the murky Waters of the wrestling scandals Iceberg beneath the surface lies Tales of controversy deceit and sensationalism that have rocked the world of professional wrestling from Infamous backstage politics to shocking revelations of drama this Iceberg exposes the underbelly of an industry built on Larger than Life characters and scripted drama join us as we navigate through the layers of this scandalous Iceberg uncovering the stories that have both sh shocked and captivated wrestling fans for decades this is the wrestling scandals Iceberg and was starting off at the tippity top of the iceberg tier six and where else can we start other than Chris benoir Chris benoir was one of the most technically proficient wrestlers ever his illustrious career culminated in a feel-good Championship win at WrestleMania 20 but when Chris benoir no showed an event in June of 2007 his friends knew something was a miss when police arrived that beno’s home they found benoir his wife Nancy and his son Daniel dead at first authorities believed that they were victims of a home invasion but it soon became clear that benois had took the lives of his son and wife and then took his own life the incident spread like a rocket all over and a federal investigation went underway several stories and theories were made post the incident that includes CTE and steroid abuse as well as a failing marriage after learning about the full details of Chris benois and his family’s deaths WWE quickly dis themselves from Chris benoir and essentially erased him from history beno’s case is still remembered as the leading controversial and mysterious chapter in WWE history and up next we have Owen Hart falls to his death it would normally be unusual to refer to a person’s death as a scandal that stained a company but the situation involving Owen Hart and his untimely passing has remained one of the most devastating and controversial in WWE history in the prime of his life at just 34 years old har would die suddenly after a horrific accident during the 1999 over theedge pay-per-view as part of his blue blazer gimmick hard was slated to be harnessed down from the rafters and into the ring but after the quick release trigger was set off he would fall 78 ft and land chest first on the top rope despite several attempts to revive him har died in the hospital from internal bleeding due to blunt force trauma with the Sudden Impact severing his aort despite one of the company’s performers dying in the ring early in the broadcast WWE opted to go through with the event in a highly controversial decision that has been criticized ever since it happened forcing on air commentator Jim Ross to announce his tragic passing to the fans watching at home H’s family would later sue the WWE due to the dangerous nature of the stunt and were awarded $18 million Owen hot’s Widow Martha H was highly critical of WWE’s negligence that led to the accident Martha has remained critical of WWE over the years and has been reluctant to allow the promotion to use Owen’s name or likeness and instead linking up with aew to honor his contribution to the wrestling industry and up next we have the edge Lita and Matt Hardy Love Triangle one of the most infamous scandals in WWE history is the love triangle that happened between Edge Lita and Matt Hardy The Story Goes that while Matt was out dealing with an injury Lita began having a real affair with Edge after they started traveling together and grew rather fond of one another allegedly one thing led to another which then in turn led to the pair having a ton of Backstage heat understandably when Hardy found out about the affair he went ballistic sending out a series of posts on the internet in order to humiliate his colleagues the heat on Edge and Lita intensified when Matt Hardy was released from the company this saw the birth of Wei Wan Matt Chon at WWE events whenever the rated R superstar was in the ring despite the fact that there had been no acknowledgement on television as to what had happen due to the fans perseverance WWE were forced to rehire Matt before firing him out of the proverbial Cannon and into one of the most realistic WWE story lines of the modern era as the affair and its aftermath were brought into the ring it was a credit to all that they were professional enough to work a two-month angle coming out of their real life issues and up next we have the Montreal screw job the Montreal screw job is one of the most talked about scandals in wrestling history WWE Champion Brett hard was slated to take on his longtime rival Shawn Michaels in the main event of Survivor Series 1997 ending a lengthy feud in the title holders Home country of Canada however a week out from the show H in a deal with the competing promotion WCW and Vince McMahon wanted him to lose the B to Michaels as opposed to leaving the company with the coveted prize still in his possession hard refused to put over the Heartbreak Kid due to their real life animosity and also because the event was in Canada he’s home country the plan finish was agreed upon as a disqualification allowing hard to retain the championship before likely losing it prior to his departure however under the direction of McMahon select company employees put together and executed a plan which would see referee o hner call for the bow when H was locked in the Sharpshooter despite the champ not actually submitting declaring Michaels the new Champion as chaos erupted and inside the arena the unscripted moment resulted in an infuriated hot spitting at McMahon at ringside before drawing the letters wcw in the air backstage off the match an enraged H would become embroiled in a heated locker room altercation and punch McMahon H would exit WWE and on The Following episode of Raw McMahon would utter his famous words Brett screwed Brett and up next we have Hulk Hogan says the nword in 2015 a tape between Hulk Hogan and Heather clam wife of Hogan’s friend rub the Love Sponge leaked online as if that wasn’t bad enough Hogan goes on a racist tyde anger at’s daughter Brooks love life and Hogan even admits in the rant that he is racist he uses the nword multiple times throughout the rant and truly shows himself to be exactly what he said he was a racist Hogan was signed with WWE at the time and was immediately fired and stripped from the WWE Hall of Fame Hogan’s reputation was in the toilet he then apologized for the Outburst saying he was embarrassed and blamed the rough neighborhood he grew up in for using that that word so freely of all the scandals he has been through this is the one that stained Hogan’s Legacy the most and many fans have not looked at him in the same way since the incident and up next we have the plane ride from Hell one of the most scandalous moments in WWE history centered around an Infamous plane ride from England back to the United States in 2002 with a large portion of the roster traveling abroad for the Insurrection pay-per-view there were a Litany of Dramas that occurred during the course of the 7-hour journey which both the roster and management attributed to heavy consumption of alcohol on board the aircraft one of the first incidents that made the news and had major ramifications was a shoot fight between the late Kurt henck and a then rookie Brock Lesnar with a pair fighting down the isway of the plane a number of other WWE Stars including Triple H Finley and Paul Heyman ultimately had to intervene to separate them but it wasn’t enough to save henik from being released shortly after the incident other incidents on the flights included Dustin rhods allegedly serenading his ex-wife Terry while Road agent Michael Hayes and John Bradshaw lafield became embroiled in a physical confrontation that ended with the former having his mullet cut off by Shawn Waltman Scott Hall was also fired as a result of the plane ride after becoming intoxicated and reportedly making crude comments towards the flight staff before passing out but the worst incident of the trip centered around Ric Flair who is alleged to have sa two female flight attendants exposing himself to the woman and allegedly grabbing the hands to touch his private area a lawsuit was filed by both women 2 years later but WWE settled out of court with both both of them and up next we have Donald Trump buys raw in 2009 WWE Raw was fairly exciting as virtually anything and everything was bound to happen on Raw WWE promised that someone new would take the Reigns of raw from Mr McMahon on the June 15 2009 episode and sure enough fans were not left disappointed the mystery bio was revealed to be Vince’s longtime Foe and future president Donald Trump who wasted no time giving the fans what they wanted in announcing a commercial free episode of Raw for the following week it was an unprecedented move by the new owner of raw much to the dismay of McMahon this was all a work but since WWE is a public company their always ignorant investors panicked thinking the whole ordeal was real WWE’s stock began to take a hit as a result of the storyline forcing Vince McMahon to buy back Monday Night Raw on the highly rated commercial free episode just one week after Trump announced his purchase of raw and up next we have the curtain call the famous Curtain Call at Madison Square Garden was an incident that changed the wrestling world forever and would involve The Click which was Scott Hall Kevin Nash Shawn Michaels and Triple H there were a group of wrestlers in WWE who are best friends in real life but rivals in the ring and had a lot of influence which they used to benefit their careers on the last night of Nash and Hall’s contracts before leaving for WCW on May 19 1994 after a steel cage match between Michaels and Nash Hall and Triple H would enter the ring leading to a group hug between the four this was an act that broke character in front of the live crowd in MSG this incident forced major arresting promot motions to acknowledge the story lines and on-screen Persona of wrestlers that they had worked so hard to protect especially after the footage of the curtain core was leaked online they basically destroyed kayfabe Vince McMahon was furious at this incident but he couldn’t punish Hall and Nash as they were leaving to WCW and Shawn Michaels was his Golden Boy so Triple H took the brunt of all the punishment from The Curtain Call and he was booked badly after this incident and up next we have CM Punk walks out of WWE one man that can always find a way to make news is cm Punk who has had his fair share of controversy over the years both inside and outside WWE after a successful run with WWE Punk walked out in January of 2014 and refused to return leading to him receiving his termination papers on the same day that he got married to AJ Lee later that year after his non-compete ended Punk would partake in the now Infamous autor wrestling podcast alongside his former close friend C Cabana where the pair discussed his departure and the reasons behind it however in the midst of their conversation Punk would take aim at WWE Doctor Chris Aman who would sue the former world champion for defamation in 2015 the case would go to trial 3 years later and the court battle continued to air plenty of dirty laundry relating to Punk’s tenure with WWE the jury would eventually rule in favor of both Punk and Cabana but that wasn’t the end because in 2018 Cabana filed a lawsuit against his now former friend alleging breach of contract and fraud over Punk’s alleged agreement to pay legal fees Punk would then file a counter claim against Cabana before both cases was settled in 2019 without compensation despite Punk’s messy divorce from WWE he returned to the company in 2023 at Survivor series after almost a decade away earning a ria Ovation from his hometown Chicago crowd and up next we have the ACT yasukawa versus yoshiko shoot this shoot incident happened in stardom between akasawa and yoshiko in 2015 basically what happened was yoshiko was apparently jealous of the younger act’s growing popularity and this caused them to have the most brutal shoot of all time where yoshiko absolutely obliterated act despite act trying to fight back at yasukawa was left with a broken cheekbone fractured orbital bones a broken nose and a concussion she had to get surgery for these injuries and spent some time in the hospital to heal this incident also caused AK to temporarily retire from resting and she only returned to the ring 6 years later this incident caused a lot of backlash for yoshiko which caused her to get fir from Stardom but she shockingly returned to the promotion 5 years later in 2020 to a polarizing response and up next we have the Vince McMahon allegations despite being responsible for how popular wrestling is today Vince McMahon is truly one of the most despicable human beings in the history of professional wrestling throughout Vince McMahon’s long wrestling career he has been accused of a lot of heinous things from WWE’s first female referee Rita chattan accusing him of grape in 1986 to him turning a blind eye to rampant sa against children in the WWF during the early 1990s to him saing a tanning salon employee in 2006 and him doing the exact same thing in 2011 to a different tanning salon employee Tim him pressuring the now deceased Ashley masaro to keep quiet about her grape during a WWE tour to a US Army base in Kuwait to it being revealed in 2022 that he paid over $15 million to several different women for saing them repeatedly over the years all the way to 2024 with it being red reveal that Vince trafficked a former WWE employee named janal Grant using her for his own lewd gratification and passing her along to John laurenitis and a former UFC heavyweight champion hm I wonder who that could be the most recent accusation is especially damning because there’s a plethora of evidence against him all of this has caused Vince to resign from the board of directors at WWE’s parent company TKO which means that now he essentially has no power in WWE and now we’re moving down the iceberg into tier five with our first entry on tier five being the velvetine dream allegations the velvetine dream was one of the fastest rising stars in WWE in the late 2010s his infectious Swagger and magnetic Aura Enchanted fans all over the world and he was destined for big things as he had co-signs from wrestlers like John Cena he was expected to be one of the posted boys for WWE in the future but then all of that changed in 2020 when the speaking out movement reared its head in the wrestling industry velvetine dream was accused by several male miners for inappropriate Communications with them and trying to groom them he sent one of the male miners a picture of his private area and also pressured these boys to expose their body to him WWE looked into all of these accusations but they didn’t find anything wrong with what he did because all the boys he was talking to were 16 or 17 at the time and it is legal in Florida for someone who is under 23 like the velvetine dream when he was talking to them to engage in relations with someone who was 16 or 17 even though this is weird he technically didn’t do anything illegal and because of this he was allowed back on WWE TV fans didn’t like this and they started the fire velvetine dream hashtag and it spread like wildfire because of the insane backlash he was eventually released from WWE and still screams he’s innocence to this day he has since been arrested for drug possession and assault but recently he has returned to wrestling through the independence scene and up next we have the Paige leaks Paige is one of the most important women in WWE history and she was one of the women who are an integral part of WWE breaking out of the diva era however 2017 was not a good year for Paige she had a nasty drug habit and was battling alcoholism on top of that her neck was giving out on her causing her to have surgery on it she was on the cusp of getting fired by WWE and then everything got much worse for her as her private videos of her fornicating leaked the source of these videos was Paige’s ex-boyfriend Brad mtox who had taken all of these videos fornicating with Paige madx claimed that he would was hacked but Paige believed that the leaked videos were part of some sort of plot of Revenge one of her colleagues in WWE fellow wrestler Xavier Woods was in one of the x-rated videos where he and another unidentified man were taking turns fornicating with Paige all of this completely destroyed Paige as her hair started falling out due to stress she developed anorexia and she fell into a deep depression causing her to even contemplate taking her own life Luckily everything turned out fine for Paige but those x-rated videos are still up and will forever hater because you can’t delete something from the internet and up next we have pillman’s got a gun on the November 4 1996 episode of WWE Roar Brian pilman was involved in an Infamous angle with his former tag team partner Stone Cold Steve Austin at first he acted as Austin’s manager until he started favoring his Nemesis Brad har which eventually led to Austin turning on pilman after several weeks of feuding Austin decided to take matters into his own hands and head to an injured pillman’s home while he was being interviewed live on television off subduing his friends who are outside Austin broke into pillman’s house where pilman would instantly grab his gun and pointed at Austin the screen then cut out and it returned to see Austin being forcefully removed by pillman’s friends as pilman pointed the gun at him and threatened to kill him the angle was described as too real and dramatic for TV the USA Network was furious at this and they were ready to pull Roar from its programming and cancel the flagship show after profusely apologizing and agreeing to never pull that stunt again USA decided to give WWE another chance and up next we have RVD gets arrested in 2006 Rob vanam was on fire and at ecw’s one night stand RVD pinned John Cena and won the WWE Championship one week later Paul Heyman awarded RVD the ECW title as well and so he became double Champion WWE had big plans for Rob vanam as his popularity was at an all-time high but unfortunately this big push came to a screeching halt when vanam himself got in trouble with the law avvid and Sabu were driving from VG Virginia to Philadelphia an RVD was driving well above the speed limit vanam was then pulled over by the police in normal circumstances you get a speeding ticket or a warning and you drive off however the police officer then caught the smell of pot and he searched the vehicle the officer found 18 G of marijuana painkillers and a few other drugs Sabu and RVD were then arrested and it came at the worst possible time for the latter Vince McMahon was furious with this and within weeks RVD lost the WWE Championship to Edge and on the very next day he lost the ECW Championship to the Big Show he was also handed a 30-day suspension he returned after the suspension was over but he never came close to the main event scene ever again and up next we have Jeff Hardy versus sting at Victory Road 2011 sting and Jeff Hardy’s match at Victory Road 2011 was a major blow to TNA’s already shaky reputation additionally the fans who bought the pay-per-view as well as those actually in attendance were completely ripped off and deprived of a proper Main Event the story is well known by now Hardy showed up in in no condition to wrestle as Hardy was in a drug adult state but was sent out to work a match anyway heel authority figure Eric Bishop got ins stin face prior to the opening bell actually in order to relay information about the new finish of the match and things got underway with hardi barely being able to stand after a few seconds of posturing Jeff was finally able to lock up with the veteran who almost immediately hit him with a scorpion death drop and held his shoulders down for a three count and amid chance of BS by the fans sting very audibly yelled I agree to a group of fans in the front row it was an incredibly unprofessional situation almost a relic of wrestling Shady Carnival Past and something completely Unthinkable in the modern era and up next we have China’s exit from WWE when talking about one of the most destructive forces in WWE history one can point to Degeneration X with a team of Triple H Shawn Michaels Road dog xar Billy Gun and China China was especially a sight to behold and she was undoubtedly one of the top women’s wrestlers ever pushed in WWE China’s run was going great in WWE however things went imperfect for her when her then boyfriend at the time Triple H allegedly cheated on her with Vince McMahon’s only daughter Stephanie McMahon in an interview China’s sister said that Triple H and China disagreed about having children as Triple H wanted children and China did not and her addictions and mental health problems also contributed to their breakup China allegedly tried to confront Vince McMahon on the matter however he turned his heels and told China not to make a big fuss about it Vince McMahon then decided not to renegotiate China’s contract due to the controversy regarding his daughter stealing her boyfriend she was then unceremoniously released from WWE and up next we have the mass transer incident Eric kulas a 17-year-old wrestling fan convinced ECW owner Paul Heyman to let him be the last minute replacement for a tag team match that night after lying about his age and experience he said that he was 23 years old and that he was trained by retired professional wrestler Killer Kowalski which were vouched for by his father and a wrestler who kulas had met earlier prior to his match he asked new Jack of all people if he could blade him but knowing new Jack he would C him too deeply and kulas was escorted out of the arena and rushed to a hospital after the incident ECW was forced to postpone a pay-per-view that they had been planning for a while and kul’s family filed a lawsuit against ECW and new Jack however ECW and new Jack were acquitted after the fan turned wrestlers lies came to light and up next we have Muhammad Hassan towards the end of 2004 WWE introduced a new wrestler to their roster who went by the ring name Muhammad Hassan his gimmick was that of an arab-american wanting relief from the prejudices caused by the 9/11 attacks throughout the first half of 2005 Hassan had some big feuds and was slowly rising up the ranks in WWE due to his promo skills and ability to draw heat from the crowd there was even talk about getting him a wall Title reign what of that changed on the July 4 taping off Smackdown when Assan along with five Moss men would attack and choke out the Undertaker as part of their Feud this was tasteless but just 3 days later the London subway bombing terrorist attack made this entire story story line seem even in worse taste and ass’s character was ultimately scrapped what’s ironic about the situation is that Hassan was actually Italian American and up next we have the allout and Allin brawls CM Punk made his anticipated return to wrestling after seven long years away when he debuted in aw in 2021 despite things initially going well for him crap started to hit the fan starting at aw’s all out 2022 at the postow media scrum CM Punk proceeded to bury cult Cabana hangman Adam page and the elite following CM Punk’s intense words from the media scrum the elite opted to confront Punk on his words in the locker room a brutal fight broke out between the parties that shocked the wrestling world Tony Khan responded to the braw out at all out by suspending both Punk and the elite and also by stripping Punk of the aw world championship and the elite of the trio championships that they had both won on the same night CM Punk and the elite eventually returned to aw and soon enough aw threw all in at Wembley Stadium in front of over 70,000 fans at this pay-per-view and before CM Punk’s match with Samoa Joe a backstage fight took place between CM Punk and Jack Perry allegedly according to Tony Khan Punk also physically threatened KH to the point where Khan feared for his life because of all of this Punk was fired from aew and up next you have the death of hanuk kumura hanuk kumura was a young bride Prospect in the Japanese wrestling scene wrestling for the woman’s wrestling promotion St him where she was a big deal she was so popular in fact that she joined the Japanese reality TV show Terrace House which was broadcast to Millions on Netflix on this reality TV show there was a scene in which fans found her distasteful so they sent a slew of online hate towards her telling her to take her own life and much more this affected her mental health greatly Tera house ignored her deteriorating mental health and actually painted her more as a villain to the public which caused the online hate to worsen hona couldn’t take the nasty stream of messages and caved into the Hate by taking her own life at just 22 years old in 2020 three men were arrested for bullying her on line and ended up getting fines for their actions but the fines were nowhere near enough with the lowest fine being a measly $80 to this day hana’s mother kyoku Kamura continues to seek Justice for Hana and up next we have the fingerpoke of Doom just one week off The Goldberg streak was ended by Kevin Nash and a cattle prod WCW put on one of the worst matches in wrestling history they also decided to end any interest in an intra NWO rivalry between the NWO wolf pack and the NWO Hollywood WCW World Heavyweight Champion Kevin Nash booked himself in a match defending his title against Hollywood Hogan this could have been a huge pay-per-view main event that saw two sides of the same faction alive and a storyline that could have given the company months and months of Storytelling opportunity instead the pair got into the ring and stood face to face Hogan then simply poked Nash in the chest causing the 7 foot tall Champion to throw himself to the ground and allow himself to get pinned this moment was so ridiculous and damaging and to make matters worse on the orders of Eric bishof announcer Tony Shani revealed that mankind would be winning the WWE Championship on the taped edition of Monday Night Roar airing simultaneously on the USA Network the plan was intended to dissuade viewers from changing the channel but it backfired immensely with nearly a million wrestling fans switching from WCW Monday night row to Monday Night Raw to watch the universally loved mck Foley become a world champion for the first time and up next you have Tessa Blanchard’s racism Tessa Blanchard was one of the most promising young talents in the wrestling industry in the late 2010s she seemed destined for greatness and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before aew or WWE would sign her she was making a name for herself in intergender matches in TNA Impact Wrestling and was on course to become the first ever woman to hold the Men’s World Championship of a major US wrestling promotion but then just one day before she faced off against Sammy Callahan at sary for the title she tweeted something that will alter her career forever blanched posted a tweet urging women to support each other this triggered a wave of backlash and accusatory tweets from prominent female voices in the wrestling industry there were multiple accusations of bullying but the most notable accusation was when Tessa was accused of spitting in a black woman’s face in Japan and using racial slurs against her many other resers who were in Japan and saw this incident corroborated the story Blancher denied these accusations and no concrete evidence was presented against her however the damage was done and her resing career started to decline Tessa blanch had managed to overcome the storm and achieve a historic milestone in woman’s wrestling by defeating Sammy Callahan to win the Men’s World Championship however her Triumph was shortlived as the pandemic struck causing a global shutdown despite being the reigning Champion blancha did not make appearances on impact TV during this time on top of not being able to appear on TV she failed to submit her promos for a tape segment and TNA lost confidence in her and requested that she relinquish the title however Tesla refused to do this and consequently in June of 2020 TNA decided to terminate blanchett’s contract and she has not returned to a major US promotion since and now we’re moving down the iceberg into tier 4 with our first entry on tier 4 being Jo Ryan allegations Joey Ryan was one of the most popular and controversial wresters from Impact TNA and the independence his time and impact would end quickly during the speaking out movement in 2020 Joy Ryan had 18 different accusations against his name from 16 different women and two men for things like sa grape and harassment one of these accusations were him flirting with a minor and later on Joey himself confirmed that that accusation was true after these allegations came out he posted an hourong explanation going through each accusation and he denied almost every single accusation toward him because of these allegations impact fired him but joy responded to his firing by suing impact for $10 million for breach of contract this lawsuit ended up going nowhere though as Joey dropped the lawsuit and he retired from professional wrestling he actually got a job at Disneyland but was fired when fans told Disney about his past and up next we have Dawn Marie fired while pregnant the changes to WWE throughout the years have seen some positive growth when it comes to their worst moments in the past like when former ECW and WWE star Dawn Marie witnessed the worst side of the wrestling business when she was released during her pregnancy in 2005 WWE has always used the independent contractor Clause to their advantage but this was a new low Vince mcmah showed zero employee loyalty or compassion to Marie for not being able to perform in the ring and it led to her release this was considered to be one of the most controversial firings in wrestling history leading to public outrage and many wrestlers outside of WWE spoke up for Marie since she was a beloved figure in the industry and was being treated unfairly because of her unceremonious release Dawn Marie decided to take WWE to court after they fired her WWE and Marie did reach a settlement agreement outside of court with Vince McMahon reportedly paying a very heavy price for releasing her while she was pregnant and up next we have wcw’s racism lawsuit in 2001 Sunny Ono Rick Reeves and a bunch of other non-white performers in WCW filed the lawsuit against WCW alleging racial discrimination and offensive remarks made by high-ups revealing a bias against African-American wrestlers and other non-white wrestlers wcw’s training facility the WCW power plant was accused of discriminatory practices the lawsuit claims that Bishop used the n-word on several occasions when referencing black wrestlers according to the lawsuit bishof also stated that the reason why WCW didn’t have many black wrestlers was because wrestling was a quote unquote white man’s sport Vince Russo was also accused of being racist according to the lawsuit Russo displayed much of the same Prejudice as Bishoff did during his tenure with the company he also allegedly used the n-word on multiple occasions he would also make outrageous statements including quote unquote whites rule wrestling and quote unquote black folks don’t buy wrestling tickets wrestling fans are white this lawsuit was settled out of court with WCW paying several millions of dollars to various wrestlers for racial discrimination over the years and up next we have the Dragon Gate monkey Dragon Gate is a Japanese wrestling promotion that Rose to prominence in the early 2000s and became a cult favorite because of its hybrid style of wrestling and wacky characters at the height of dragon Gate’s popularity however there came a scandal that rocked the promotion and led to the expulsion of one of its wrestlers Dragon Gate wrestlers kept blogs that could be accessed via the company’s official website unlike WWE they were nonced and non-m moderated essentially the resters were allowed to post whatever they want concern grew when Dragon Gate rookie rioma began posting pictures that appeared to show the abuse of a monkey that lived in the dojo the monkey a makco named Kora lived in the dojo for around a decade before the pictures were posted Roma had started a Blog detailing the abuse from the monkeyy perspective including posting graphic pictures that won won’t be shown here but you could look them up if you want Dragon Gate officials found out about it and they immediately took down all of these images but the word was already out and the Damage had been done fans were outraged and disgusted by the abuse which included choking burning and punching the monkey amongst other shameful acts like getting the monkey drunk on sake Romo was fired from the promotion and others who had been involved in the abuse like former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion shingo Takagi were forced to issue an apology and shave their heads as punishment as well as being fined heav thankfully Kora was transferred to a foster home and there were no more reported incidents of abuse and up next we have the Roy trial of 1993 and 2007 in 1993 the chairman of WWE Vince McMahon was in big trouble the US attorney for the eastern district of New York had charged McMahon for violating federal laws regulating roids in 1993 reports claimed that Vince McMahon was accused of Distributing and encouraging Roy use for his performers to improve their muscles if Vince McMahon was found guilty and they gave him the maximum sentence he was facing 11 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine Vince McMahon was put on trial with numerous wrestlers called to testify including Hulk Hogan and Vince himself during the trial Hogan admitted that he had never seen Vince McMahon give wrestlers any roids however one wrestler named Nails who had wrestled for the company in 1992 testified that McMahon had ordered him to use roids Vince McMahon was later acquitted of similar charges but the damage was done and the WWE went in a slump for the next few years years this was not the last time that WWE would be involved in legal trouble relating to roids in 2007 after the tragedy of Chris benoir taking the life of his wife and son there was a lot of public scrutiny of roid abuse in WWE and this crossed over to the law because of all of this the US Congress had asked the WWE to present documents about the roid policy by a certain deadline the company was complying but in the wake of the tragedy of Chris beno’s family police came after the pharmacy that benois had used ultimately the law couldn’t prosecute WWE for any wrongdoings but this whole incident led to Vince McMahon creating the wellness policy and from that point on the PG era was launched to try and begin the March towards a familyfriendly company and up next we have Hulk Hogan chokes out a TV host in the buildup for the first ever WrestleMania just 5 days before the event Hulk Hogan and Mr T made an appearance on a talk show hosted by Richard Bower called hot properties Bower a comedian by Nature was insistent that Hulk and Mr T show him a wrestling move B’s attitude was that wrestling was fake which which was a definite no no back in those kayfabe heavy days Hogan and Mr T resisted at first but Bowser didn’t let it go and finally Hogan acquest Hogan was not about to expose the business on live TV so at Great encouragement from bza and the live audience he put bza in a front chin lock Hogan legitimately choked out bowza and then dropped his limp body to the floor Bowser then sued Hulk Hogan for $5 million in Damages for personal injury the lawsuit was settled out of court and the story has gone on to become legend in the wrestling industry and up next we have of the Macho Man Randy Savage and Stephanie McMahon conspiracy the Macho Man was a two-time WWF Champion and one of the most popular figures in WWE history however at the end of 1994 on an episode of Monday Night Raw Vince McMahon abruptly announced that Randy Savage had left the company the Macho Man jumped shipped to WCW but he never returned to WWE even after the closure of WCW and was barely acknowledged on WWE television at all until he passed away in 2011 and Savage’s WWE Hall of Fame induction came 4 years later in 2015 there was clearly some bad blood between Vince McMahon and Randy Savage and many people attribute it to Vince McMahon taking it personally when Savage left for WCW however there’s a conspiracy theory out there that says that the real reason for Savage’s exit from WWE and the subsequent Fallout with Vince was due to Savage having a not safe for work affair with Vince’s daughter Stephanie when she was only 17 years old this was after Savage had divorced from Miss Elizabeth the marcho man and Stephanie’s alleged Affair lines up perfectly with the timing of Savage’s departure from WWE what added more fuel to the fire was when Triple H made disparaging comments about the Macho Man in 2004 and Savage responded by threatening to steal the game’s goal Stephanie this Theory persists as one of the longest standing conspiracy theories in oil of wrestling and up next we have IOS Sky smuggles weed into Japan EOS sky is one of the greatest women’s wrestlers of all time and she is currently in WWE where she has become a multi-time women’s champion iosa used to wrestle in the Japanese promotion stardom and things always went so Rosy for her as in 200 12 she faced an incident that could have ended her career at this time she was dating the wrestler in osawa and while they were wrestling in Mexico a fan gifted them two portraits which they brought back to Japan but at the Japanese Airport Customs found marijuana was hidden inside these paintings and they were arrested Yos Sky spent a few weeks in jail and after she was released from jail she did a press conference where she maintained her innocence and she also revealed her breakup with no Sawa the public Prosecutor’s Office later decided not to press charges against her as just a few days of the io’s press conference a wrestler named takas Sugi made a confession that he was actually the one who planted marijuana on iO and her then boyfriend naawa takyo sui said that he did this hoping to get a contract extension from Triple A as promised by Masahiro Hayashi who booked Japanese talents in Triple A Hayashi hated io’s then boyfriend NASA for some reason so he asked takasugi to plant the weed on iO and her boyfriend takos sui was black bored from the wrestling industry and io’s reputation was restored and up next we have sting versus Hogan at starcade 1997 one of the hottest feuds in pro wrestling history was Sting during his Crow phase taking on the NWO he focused on the figurehead of the NWO Hollywood Hogan and for many months WCW teased a confrontation between the two the bot finally took place at Stockade 1997 where Hogan would put the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on the line sting and Hogan faced each other and what turned out to be a fairly straightforward wrestling match until something went wrong Hogan had Sting with his trademark mov move and went for the pinfall according to the WCW referee Nick Patrick he was supposed to make a lightning fast three count however when Patrick counted sting shoulders to the mat he went at a normal speed the result was Hogan cleanly pinning the hero sting on National live television the announced team would assert that the count was Lightning Fast even though fans could clearly see it was not Patrick was then replaced by the interim referee Brett Hart who declared Sting the winner after Hogan Tapped Out to the Scorpion death lock a year of build was ruined and the Mystique of the Stinger was gone in an instant brart also looked like a complete tool it made the good guys look like idiots and just serve to put Hogan over even more it also caused huge damage to wcw’s reputation and up next we have WWE and Saudi Arabia dealings Vince McMahon created a strategic partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the Saudi Arabia deal has been in effect since 2014 and is currently slated to continue through 2027 and is worth a lot of money despite this deal bringing in a lot of revenue for WWE it has faced significant criticism over Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record including suppression of women’s and LGBT rights allegations of sportswashing and the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal kogi some WWE performers have declined or were restricted from participating in the shows due to government policies like members of WWE’s women’s division were barred from performing until Crown Jewel in 2019 however this same 2019 Crown Jewel event was very controversial as nearly 200 wrestlers and crew were held hostage by Saudi Arabia as they tried to leave the country this happened because the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman was Furious that WWE boss Vince McMahon had pulled the plug on live feed of Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia because WWE was owed up to $500 million for two shows in Saudi Arabia in 2018 this resulted in the nearly 200 wrestlers and crew being held hostage and told to sit on the tarmac for 6 hours what made the situation even worse was that Vince McMahon got on his own private jet and left Saudi Arabia leaving the nearly 200 wrestlers and crew to be held hostage by the Saudi Crown Prince this just showed the disregard that Vince McMahon had for the safety of his talent