Outside of its native Japan, sumo wrestling is seen as something of a punch line—fat men in diapers colliding for the amusement of the crowd. However, it is a sport steeped in tradition, requiring enormous skill and dedication. The world of sumo rikishi (wrestlers) is full of fascinating facts, from their ravenous appetites to dark affiliations with the Japanese mob.

10No Japanese Yokozunas

The term yokozuna denotes the highest rank in sumo. Like the colored belts in other martial arts, there are no set requirements to become a yokozuna. Rather, it is a state of athleticism and grace. For years, foreigners (or gaijin) were prevented from attaining this rank, including mega-popular wrestler Konishiki, who was born in Hawaii. Konishiki was the heaviest recorded sumo wrestler in history, carrying 287 kilograms (633 lb) on a 184 centimeter (6’1/2″) frame. However, in 1993, another massive Hawaiian-born competitor would finally become the first non-Japanese yokozuna. Chad Rowan (pictured above), who wrestled under the name “Akebono,” stood 203 centimeters (6’8″) and weighed over 227 kilograms (500 lb).

Although they make up a small percentage of the total number of wrestlers, today gaijin dominate sumo, so much so that there hasn’t been a Japanese yokozuna in over a decade. The vast majority of victories are taken by Mongolian and Eastern European wrestlers, who utilize different styles and tend to overpower Japanese competitors with sheer brute force. The three currently active yokozunas all hail from Mongolia.

9Canada’s Only Sumo Wrestler

As sports go, Canada is far better known for ice hockey than for anything else—and certainly not for sumo wrestling. However, the Great White North was home to one storied rikishi named John Tenta. Hailing from British Columbia, Tenta attended Louisiana State University, where he participated in a variety of sports including wrestling, football, and rugby. After meeting a sumo wrestler traveling in Canada, Tenta was recruited to travel to Japan and take up the sport.

He was quite successful, wrestling under the name “Kototenta” (literally “Tenta the Harp”). However, the rigors of the sumo lifestyle did not behoove Tenta. Moreover, to continue his career, he would have been forced to endure painful skin graft surgery to remove a large tiger tattoo (the mascot of his alma mater) he had on his arm. Tenta resigned from sumo but landed on his feet as a professional wrestler, eventually ending up in the WWF, where he performed under the name “Earthquake,” a villainous character who skirmished with the likes of Hulk Hogan. To provide an illustration of Earthquakes’s immensity, the above clip shows him assaulting—and not looking that small beside—Andre the Giant. Sadly, John Tenta succumbed to bladder cancer in 2006, aged just 42.

8Sumo Marathon

Anyone who has ever witnessed a marathon can attest that the first people across the finish line have a similar build—tall and willowy, with knotty muscles that allow them a tremendous endurance. Traveling 42 kilometers (26 mi) is quite a feat for an average person, never mind a sumo wrestler. But in 2011, a 180-kilogram (396 lb) rikishi named Kelly Gneiting did the impossible—he completed the LA Marathon. It was no easy task—Gneiting was able to jog the first 13 kilometers (8 mi), but then he had to walk. He took so long to finish—9 hours, 48 minutes, and 52 seconds— that the streets had reopened before he was through, and he was forced to walk on the sidewalk and wait for crossing signals.

Gneiting claimed he was “delirious” after the first 16 kilometers (10 mi), but he soldiered on despite harsh weather. The home stretch was brutal. Gneiting claimed, “I was really struggling in the last five miles, but I said to myself, ‘If I have to crawl, I will.’ ” For his accomplishment, Gneiting set the Guinness World Record as the heaviest man to complete a marathon, which had formerly belonged to a man weighing 125 kilograms (275 lb).

7Referees And Seppuku

From football to soccer to basketball, referees are without fail the most despised people on the playing field. Their enforcement of the rules is crucial to any game’s outcome. One bad call can change everything. Fortunately, instant replays have largely mitigated the effect of bad calls in most sports. However, even the worst judgment rarely has any consequence except the vitriol of fans.

But in sumo, referees (called gyoji) consider their calls a point of honor—to the extent that they carry knives on them as a symbol of their intent to commit seppuku in the instance of a mistake. Of course, no one actually commits suicide, but in the instance of a bad call, referees traditionally tender their resignations to the organization they work for.

The duties of a gyoji can also sometimes be dangerous. As a rule, these men tend to be small, to offer a stark contrast between themselves and the hulking wrestlers. In one scary incident in January 2012, seen in the above video, referee Shozaburo Kimura was forced from the ring and knocked unconscious.

6Diet

From Atkins to South Beach, most diets are focused on helping people lose weight. However, sumo wrestlers are instead determined to pack on the pounds. Unlike most other combat sports, sumo does not separate its contestants into weight classes, so the larger the competitor is, the better his advantage in pushing around smaller guys. Allowing wrestlers to gain the most weight possible is carefully plotted.

Rikishi wake at dawn and begin training without having breakfast on the assumption that this slows down the metabolism and makes it more difficult to burn calories. Around lunchtime, the wrestlers sit down to a protein-rich stew of meat, vegetables, and rice called chankonabe, along with multiple side dishes. This feasting can be quite an ordeal, as the men eat to the point of nausea. This massive repast is followed by a nice long nap, where the calories are allowed to take root. Around dinnertime, the giants awaken from their slumber to take part in yet another huge meal before retiring for the night.

5Fixing Matches

In the last few years, sumo has declined steeply in popularity. Younger people are more interested in baseball, soccer, or even golf, and the audiences at matches tend to be comprised largely of senior citizens. However, there is one rather unexpected group that has been drawn toward sumo—the yakuza, or Japanese mafia. The yakuza has been linked to extortion against the wrestlers, particularly those who enjoy sports betting, which is against the law in Japan. In 2010, popular wrestler Kotomitsuki was dismissed from the sport after admitting to betting on baseball games.

Rikishi have also been accused of match fixing in their own sport. There have been rumors of cheating in sumo for years; it was a key subject in the 2005 book Freakonomics, which exposed some ugly statistics that all but guaranteed the sport was rife with corruption. This is mostly tied to collusion—wrestlers doing each other favors. For instance, if a wrestler with a 7-7 record was facing a wrestler with an 8-6 record, the 8-6 competitor might take a fall, leaving them both with winning records intact. The 7-7 wrestler would later owe a favor and would be far likelier to take a fall in a rematch. In 2011, wrestlers finally admitted to fixing matches, arranging payouts behind the scenes, and choreographing the bouts much like “professional” wrestling, where moves are planned in advance. That year, the Japan Sumo Association canceled March’s grand tournament, the first such cancellation since 1946.

4Pavel Bojar, The Skinny Sumo

Not all sumo wrestlers are mountainous; some rely on speed and agility rather than sheer girth. Case in point: Pavel Bojar—a wrestler from the Czech Republic (where sumo is inexplicably popular)—who competed under the name “Takanoyama.” Unlike his peers, Takanoyama was unable to really pack on the pounds, carrying just 98 kilograms (216 lb) on a 185-centimeter (6’1″) frame. So desperate was Takanoyama to gain weight that he was caught using insulin in 2011, for which he received a warning.

His weight was a grievous disadvantage that Takanoyama tended to overcome using throws, which used his opponents’ weight and momentum against them. He used a variety of different throws to attain victory, including the uwatenage (overarm throw), shitatenage (underarm throw), and kakenage (hooking inner thigh throw). Despite his comparatively slight build, Takanoyama rose quickly up the ranks, making it into the makuuchi division—the top tier of professional sumo. He largely faltered against the sport’s most elite athletes and was demoted and promoted again several times before finally retiring in 2014.

3Life In The Stables

Given their physique, it might seem natural to assume that sumo wrestlers are couch potatoes. This could not be further from the truth. Their lives are as harshly regimented as those of prison inmates. The training has been described as “torturous,” hours of flinging one’s body against unyielding targets and strength training. Moreover, the sumo lifestyle is no sure route to fame and fortune—there is little profit to be had as a rikishi; wrestlers don’t even begin earning a salary until they make it into the upper ranks. Until then, they train and essentially act as servants for other members of the stable.

Living as a sumo wrestler is less a profession than a lifestyle—and an archaic one at that. Wrestlers must dress in a traditional fashion and are even prohibited from driving. And while rikishi are doubtlessly the healthiest fat guys around, carrying that much weight is certainly detrimental to a person’s health. Sumo wrestlers generally die 10 years earlier than the average man. Their health problems are manifold, including joint issues, kidney and liver troubles, and hormonal imbalances, among others.

2Hazing

Hazing in sports is nothing new. It can range from mild and good-natured to outright sinister. In 2014, horrifying news broke from Sayreville War Memorial High School in New Jersey, where freshman football players were allegedly sexually abused by upperclassmen. Sumo has also been touched by some ugly scandals. A bit of hazing in the stables is traditional; the younger, lower-rank wrestlers act as servants for their elders, doing the cooking and cleaning. There are even (possibly apocryphal) tales of young rikishi being forced to wipe the butts of high-ranking men too plump to reach into the deepest crevasses of the body.

In June 2007, a horrifying scandal rocked the world of sumo when a man died during training at the Tokitsukaze stable. The wrestler, 17-year-old Takashi Saito, was originally described as having succumbed to cardiac arrest, but an autopsy indicated that he’d been savagely beaten. Saito had not taken to the sumo lifestyle and had attempted to escape the stable several times. At the instruction of stable master Junichi Yamamoto (pictured above), Saito was bound to a pole and beaten by three other wrestlers with a beer bottle and a baseball bat as punishment for his “vague attitude.” This attack allegedly left his jaw dangling from his skull.

Yamamoto initially tried to hide his culpability by suggesting that Saito be cremated, thus destroying any evidence of what had occurred. However, the boy’s father called for an investigation. The stable master was eventually sentenced to six years in prison. The three men who beat Saito were given suspended sentences, as they had acted on orders. Yamamoto died of lung cancer on August 12, 2014.

1Women

The vast majority of professional sports are dominated by men. Even in sports with female divisions, women aren’t taken nearly as seriously. For example, LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant makes nearly three times the salary of the entire roster of the WNBA. Women are particularly verboten in the world of sumo; they are outright forbidden from even entering the dohyo, the ring where the wrestling takes place, because menstruation makes them symbolically unclean.

This issue came to a particularly ugly head in 2000. Traditionally, the governor of Osaka awarded the Osaka Governor’s Prize to the winner of the city’s sumo tournament. However, that year the governor was a woman, Fusae Ota. Instead of standing in the dohyo and presenting the prize, she was coerced to stand ringside and allow a male representative to award the prize in her stead.

Not so very long ago, female sumo wrestling was a popular attraction in Japan. However, this so-called onnazumo wasn’t a genuine sporting event but rather entertainment organized by brothels. Organizations of female sumo wrestlers still occasionally pop up, even as far away as the United States—as seen in the video above—but it is quite unlikely lady sumo will ever catch on in any major way.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

The world of professional wrestling is perhaps one of pop culture’s most intriguing and consistently befuddling mediums. A form of sports that has one foot in fiction and the other in reality, you’ll often hear a swath of insane stories surrounding the squared circle. 

From violent backstage incidents to intense legal proceedings outside of the ring (some of which are extremely fresh, and ongoing, so we will not be delving into those), pro wrestling has seen its fair share of controversies. The following entries will touch upon distressing topics such as sexual assault, suicide, and drug abuse, so reader discretion is advised.

10. Montreal Screwjob (1997)

The action we see every single week in the squared circle is predetermined but on rare occasions, it can become all too real. Our key players in this situation are then-current World Wrestling Federation Champion, Bret “The Hit Man” Hart,” and number one contender, “The Heartbreak Kid,” Shawn Michaels. Despite sharing impressive in-ring chemistry, the two did not get along very well, even coming to physical blows at one point.

By the end of 1997, due to the company’s inability to pay him a previously agreed amount, Bret intended to depart for World Championship Wrestling, the WWF’s main competition. Complicating matters was the fact that Bret could very very likely leave with the championship belt itself, even showing up on WCW television with it. So to avoid this potential PR disaster, Vince McMahon and writers Jim Cornette and Vince Russo hatched a devious plot. 

As their championship match at Survivor Series 1997 ended, Michaels hooked in the Sharpshooter, Hart’s own finishing move. Vince McMahon, revealing himself as the WWF’s chairman onscreen for the first time, ordered the bell to be rung, making Michaels the new champion! To this day it stands as one of the best examples of the staged world of pro-wrestling melding with real-life behind-the-scenes events. 

9. The Curtain Call (1996)

In the world of pro wrestling, you’ll often hear the word kayfabe passed around by everyone from the bookers to the workers. Simply put, the term is a catch-all, frequently used to describe the act of maintaining the magical and theatrical illusion that is the in-ring action. 

This proverbial fourth wall was heavily maintained in wrestling for many years, the audience mostly kept in a perpetual state of blissful ignorance. However, in 1996, one of the most infamous examples of kayfabe being shattered would occur in one of professional sports’ greatest arenas. In the mid-’90s, The Klik, a backstage group consisting of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall, had an absurd amount of sway and influence. 

However, things changed when Hall and Nash opted not to re-sign with WWF, instead jumping ship to WCW for more lucrative contracts. With their exit imminent, the quartet opted to throw caution to the wind and give their little posse a public send-off. After the conclusion of a live event at Madison Square Garden, all four men shared a prolonged hug in the middle of the ring. This confused many fans, as both Triple H and Nash were bad guys during this period, destroying any previous sense of kayfabe. 

8. Hulk Hogan’s Racial Slur Controversy (2015)

Whether it was beating the Iron Sheik in MSG or slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III, Hulkamania was the driving force of pro wrestling’s boom period. However, many fans will still opt to look back on those fond memories, while choosing to forget the Hulkster’s most infamous moment. In 2012, a sex tape filmed six years earlier, featuring Hulk Hogan and a woman named Heather Clem, leaked online causing a whole mess of issues. Snippets of this tape were then posted on Gawker, a celebrity news website, resulting in Bollea suing the site for posting what was his content.

However, his desire for legal justice may have made things worse as, eventually the tape’s entire transcript was made publicly available. This transcript included a moment when Hogan was ranting to Clem about his daughter being involved with a black man. During this pillow talk tirade, Hogan proceeded to use the n-word several times to describe him, much to the shock of many fans online. This revelation resulted in WWE temporarily parting ways with Hogan, going as far as to never show or mention him in video highlight packages. While Hogan has resumed infrequent appearances for the company, many fans to this day still would rather the Hulkster remain absent.

7. The Plane Ride from Hell (2002)

If ever there was a lethal combination, it would be already chaotic professional wrestlers and the presence of alcoholic beverages. There is no better example of this than the actions of several major WWE stars back in 2002 during an incident that’s now referred to as the Plane Ride from Hell. Following a tour and sell-out pay-per-view event in the United Kingdom, several key WWE stars were set to return home on a chartered flight.

Following their arrival, several of the present talents began overindulging in the plane’s open bar which is where the trouble began. Soon enough the talent began acting up, devolving into very meanspirited pranks, physical altercations, and sexual debauchery. This included a pull-apart fight between Brock Lesnar and “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig which almost ford open the plane’s emergency exit. Dustin Runnels AKA Goldust also opted to hop on the plane’s intercom and sing songs to Terri Runnels, his ex-wife who WWF also employed then. At the same time, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, known for his excessive alcohol indulgence, was busy exposing himself to the two flight attendants present on the flight. After returning to the United States, several talents were severely reprimanded while a few had their WWE contracts terminated. 

6. Fabulous Moolah Controversy (2018)

Regarding the history of women’s professional wrestling in the United States, the Fabulous Moolah is an integral figure of its early success. Starting her career in the 1940s, Moolah AKA Mary Lillian Ellison went on to become a multi-time Women’s World Champion. From the National Wrestling Alliance to the WWF, Moolah was widely regarded as one of the greats and frequently propped up as a celebrated figure.

However, following her death in 2007, the truth of who Moolah was behind the scenes emerged and the truth was disturbing. As the years have passed, many former female wrestlers have come forward with their own first and second-hand Moolah stories, all horrific in different ways. From Moolah pimping out unsuspecting young talent to stealing a significant percentage of her trainee’s money, it’s an eye-opening laundry list of misdeeds. Mad Maxine, a once-promising female star, went on record as calling Moolah an “evil person,” citing her money-making method of sending her trainees to be pimped out by a man in Arizona. 

What sparked a renewed interest in these allegations was WWE’s attempt in 2018 to brand a memorial battle royal after Moolah at that year’s WrestleMania. Snickers, a prominent sponsor for that year’s event, even threatened to pull out if the match wasn’t rebranded which it ultimately was. 

5. Jerry Lawler’s Legal Issues (1993)

In 1993, pro wrestler Jerry “The King ” Lawler found himself in immense legal trouble due to allegations of statutory rape. The accuser was, quite disturbingly, a 15-year-old girl who claimed that Lawler and she had been assaulted by Lawler in his hotel room. These accusations, and subsequent legal proceedings, led to Lawler being removed from WWF television ahead of the Survivor Series pay-per-view in 1993. 

Lawler completely denied all of the allegations, reaffirming his innocence throughout all of the legal proceedings. The case ultimately devolved into a deluge of “he said, she said,” with Lawler even writing a letter to his prosecutors to defame his accuser. The case went on until February 1994, when Lawler ended up copping a plea for harassing a witness, avoiding any serious legal ramifications. 

Although Lawler would avoid jail time and even ended up returning to the WWF in 1994, the damage was already done. To this day there are still a fair amount of fans who still aren’t comfortable seeing Lawler on television in any capacity. Despite the charges never being proven, the dark cloud of the allegations still follows Lawler, often resurfacing in online discussions from time to time. This includes the time that Lawler himself re-stoked the conversations by bizarrely retweeting an old newspaper clipping of his indictment.

4. The Steroid Scandal (1990s)

As recent events have more than shown us, Vince McMahon is no stranger to front-page news and negative publicity. However, this isn’t the only time that McMahon has found himself in trouble with the federal government. 

Back in the early-90s, ringside physician, Dr. George Zahorian, was indicted in 1991 for the illegal distribution of steroids to WWF talent. The subsequent investigations into steroid abuse within the locker rooms of the WWF resulted in what is now known as the Steroid Trials. These trials saw the United States Government bring no less than six changes against McMahon, though three would be thrown out before the trial began. 

On the stand was not only McMahon but also, the biggest wrestling draw of the early-90s, Terry Bollea AKA Hulk Hogan. Hogan, testifying under immunity from prosecution, said that McMahon had never once forced him to take any performance-enhancing substances, and any found in his system were for his own medical purposes. When the trial came to an end on July 23, 1994, McMahon was found not guilty by the jury due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Although he’d walk away a free man, the effect of the Steroid Trials on WWF (later WWE) would be felt for countless years after. 

3. Owen Hart’s Death (1999)

When it came to in-ring proficiency, back in the 1980s and 1990s, one needn’t look any further than Owen Hart. Whether it was fighting against his brother Bret or winning the Tag Team Titles with the British Bulldog, Owen was as dependable a worker as one could find. Not only was he an absolute technical wizard in the ring, but outside of the squared circle was was widely regarded as one of the business’s nicest people. 

Sadly, Owen’s career came to an end in tragic circumstances one fateful night in 1999 at a WWF pay-per-view ironically titled Over The Edge. At the time of the event, Owen was portraying a superhero character named the Blue Blazer, who’d make his entrance by soaring in on a zipline. Unfortunately, as Owen was set to make his aerial entrance for his match with Jeff Jarrett, tragedy struck. Due to what was later revealed to be a defective harness, Hart fell 78 feet into the ring, landing chest first on the top rope! Due to internal bleeding caused by the fall, Hart would be pronounced dead at 34 years old just a few minutes later. The fallout resulted in the Hart family suing the WWF for the lack of oversight regarding the safety of the stunt, eventually being paid 18 million dollars. 

2. The Death of Bruiser Brody (1998)

In the 1970s and 1980s, Bruiser Brody was one of pro wrestling’s most dangerous and destructive men, often leaving his opponents as bloodied, crumpled heaps. Brody, real name Frank Goodish, did much of his most memorable work in Japan and the shores of Puerto Rico, two territories known for their pervasive bloodlust. 

Due to his aggressive in-ring style and “My way or the highway” attitude backstage, Brody made just as many enemies as he did allies. One such enemy was wrestler and booker, José Huertas González, AKA Invader #2, a popular masked star in Puerto Rico. These real-life issues reached a fever pitch when Brody was set to take a position of power in Puerto Rico’s World Wrestling Council, likely putting González out of a job. 

On the night of July 16, 1988, while sitting in the locker room, González requested that Brody step into the shower area for a quick chat. A few short moments later, fellow wrestler Tony Atlas rushed in to see Brody lurched over, bleeding profusely, with a crazed González holding a bloody knife! Despite the best efforts of the nearby hospital, Brody was later pronounced dead with González claiming he’d acted in self-defense. These shady and tragic circumstances have only added to Brody’s mythical outlaw status, further propelling him into legendary status within wrestling history. 

1. The Chris Benoit Tragedy (2007)

When wrestling fans hear the name Chris Benoit, they’ll recall his stellar in-ring career, but more than likely they’ll be focused on the disturbing final days of his life. En route to WWE’s Night of Champions event in 2007, Benoit had sent some rather distressing text messages to a fellow talent, Chavo Guerrero. The texts, noting the location of his dogs in his home and punctuated with the words “I love you,” were more than a little concerning. 

Following Benoit’s no-showing of the pay-per-view, WWE opted to call the police precinct closest to Benoit’s home and ask for a wellness check. The police arrived and, after seeing Benoit’s neighbor flee the home in horror, quickly entered and were met with a nightmare. As they searched the house, they soon found both Chris’s wife, Nancy, and his son, Daniel, dead. Then, upon entering Benoit’s home gym, they discovered the 40-year-old wrestler hanging dead from one of his workout machines. 

The horrific scene was later declared a murder-suicide, with Benoit having killed his family before taking his own life. WWE, not knowing these details until after that following Monday, still went ahead with a tribute episode for the late Benoit. This episode has never been re-aired and, to this day, WWE has seen fit never to mention Benoit or his past accomplishments in any form. 

Professional wrestling might have predetermined results, but those results only matter if the wrestlers in the ring agree to actually follow the script. As you are about to learn, that isn’t always the case. Whether it ends up being a stiff shot to remind a rival wrestler about the behind the scenes pecking order, an overly enthusiastic chair shot to the head, or a downright attempt on another wrestler’s life. Anything can happen once the script goes out the window, and the results can be disastrous.

This list depicts some pretty extreme and graphic violence against both male and female wrestlers. If you are uncomfortable with that, now would be the time to look away.

10The Stardom Incident

Known as the ghastly match in Japan, Act Yasukawa vs. Yoshiko was supposed to be a main event title match for the Japanese women’s wrestling brand Stardom. Instead, it ended up making national news and costing one of the wrestler’s their career. Early on in the match the much smaller Act seemingly catches Yoshiko with a real punch to the face, to which Yoshiko then responds with a series of very serious punches to Act. Then it pretty much devolves into a horror show as Act gets her face smashed up.

When the fight was finally broken up, Act had suffered a broken cheekbone, fractured orbital bone, and a smashed nose which required immediate surgery. Her injuries ultimately forced her into retirement, and it became mandatory for medical personnel to be present at every match following it.^[1] For her role in the fight, Yoshiko was banned indefinitely from Stardom but has had virtually no issue getting work with the country’s other wrestling brands.

9Mick Foley Gets Hit in the Head with a Chair Eleven Times

In 2010 the WWE completely banned the use of direct chair shots to the head in an effort to lessen the chance of their performers receiving concussions and possible brain damage.^[2] Unfortunately for Mick Foley, he was about eleven years too early for this rule to affect him, which is kind of funny in a horrible way as that is the exact number of unprotected chair shots to the head he took in a row in a single match with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Foley had originally agreed to take five shots to the head while the two wrestlers went from one area of the arena to another, but it took eleven blows in total as the pair struggled to make it to the agreed upon spot. Mick Foley suffered a horrible gash on the top of his head that bled profusely, all while his wife and young children sat in the audience and watched on in horror. After the show, Mick Foley only needed stitches, but it was the beginning of the end for the hardcore wrestler as he started to have noticeable issues with his memory.

8Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle Nearly Gets Arm Broken

In an attempt to catch the reality TV audience that was so popular in the early 2000s, the WWE launched their Tough Enough project where a group of would-be wrestlers competed in different challenges live on TV in the hopes of getting a million dollar contract.^[3] One such challenge saw the contestants facing Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle in a shoot-style wrestling match. Unfortunately for Kurt, one of the contestants was Daniel Pruder, a trained MMA fighter.

Pruder got Kurt into a kimura lock, bending his arm painfully backward. Seeing that things clearly were not going the way they expected, and knowing they could not let their star lose on live television, WWE officials quickly called the match in Kurt’s favor, claiming he had pinned Pruder during the lock. Both wrestlers tell wildly different stories of what really happened that night, but even the official who called the pin claims that it was done to save Kurt Angle’s arm and pride.

7Big Van Vader Loses an Eye, Puts It Back In

Big Van Vader was a wrestler of massive proportions who had a tendency to strike his opponents with real punches every once in a while. It just so happened his opponent Stan Hansen was also a giant man who had a habit of doing the exact same thing. When they faced each other in 1990, the two men started out swinging at each other with all they had in them with Vader seemingly getting the upper hand until suddenly reeling back in shock and pulling off his mask, revealing to the horrified world that his eye had fallen out.

While you would assume the match would end there, Vader instead decided to push his own eye back into his head and went right back to swinging like a madman, only pausing every once in a while to push his eye back in as it kept popping out while he was being hit. This continued on for an agonizing twelve minutes until the match finally came to a natural finish. Vader required surgery to save his eye.^[4]

6Wrestler Pulls off His Mask, Nearly Gets His Neck Snapped

For some wrestlers, there is nothing more sacred than their mask. One such wrestler by the name of El Santo was so serious about his mask that he had to travel from country to country in secret and had special arraignments with different countries just to keep his coworkers from seeing his face when going through customs. Only once in his career did he remove his mask on television, and it happened just days before his death from a heart attack. With that in mind, let’s talk about Dirtbike Kid.

Facing the Great Sasuke in a loser takes off his mask match, the Dirtbike Kid decided to remove his main mask before the match even started, completely ruining any stakes the show had built up.^[5] He then refused to react to any of Sasuke’s fake attacks until finally, his already frustrated opponent began assaulting him for real. By the time Dirtbike Kid realized what was happening, Sasuke had locked him in a neck wrench choke that was so violent you can hear Dirtbike Kid screaming in pain as it was applied. Sasuke was quickly declared the winner as Dirtbike Kid faded into retirement.

5Audience Member Whips a Nine-Volt Battery at Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels may be an iconic name in wrestling nowadays, but back in the 90s he was considered a bit of a primadonna. It was the lead up to Wrestlemania 14, and Shawn Michaels was scheduled to lose the title belt to Steve Austin, a decision he did not like in the least. The showrunners were so worried that Shawn would refuse to work the match that the veteran wrestler The Undertaker was said to have been on call to “convince” him to do his job.^[6]

While Shawn did eventually agree to lose the title, it almost all came crashing down during the filming of a promotional video when a fan in the audience chucked a nine-volt battery into the ring, and it hit Shawn square on his forehead. Shawn, already upset about having to lose, simply got out of the ring and walked out of the arena leaving everyone to wonder if that was the end. When the time came to finally do the job, Shawn Michaels delivered, but a battery almost ruined a multi-million dollar budget show.

4Asuka Purposefully Has the Most Uncomfortable Match Ever

It was a mixed tag team match featuring Asuka and Naomichi going up against Meiko and Suzuki, and everything was seemingly going as planned until the female wrestler Asuka got into the ring with her longtime idol, the male wrestler Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki opened up with a horrible sounding headbutt and then immediately set to work punching and kicking Asuka in ways that did not look fake in any way. The other wrestlers in the match, including Suzuki’s partner, tried multiple times to get him to stop, but he just kept going until finally pinning Asuka to end the match.

While it all seemed pointlessly brutal and unprovoked, Asuka was actually the one who set up the beating with Suzuki in the first place. Suzuki was well known for working stiff with people, and Asuka loved his style, so much so that she incorporated his fighting style into her own when she was first starting out. Asuka personally asked him not to hold back in their match and to give it his all, no matter how bad it might have been. To Asuka’s delight, and to the horror of the viewers, he didn’t.^[7]

3Wendi Richter Gets Cheated by the Company

Wendi Richter might not be as well remembered as the likes of Hulk Hogan or the Fabulous Moolah, but back in the 1980s she was one of the top female wrestlers in the business, and as the women’s champion, she was practically assured a good pay increase during contract renewal negotiations. That was until she was booked to wrestle a match against a mysterious newcomer named the Spider Lady that she had never met or heard of previously.^[8]

Even the announcers were confused when the Spider Lady finally arrived as it was clearly the Fabulous Moolah just wearing a mask. Despite this odd scenario, Wendi Richter was told she would win the match and not to worry. To her surprise, Moolah rolled her up into a pin and was immediately declared the winner and new champion despite Wendi kicking out and trying to continue the match. Realizing what had happened, Wendi tried to keep the show going by taking the belt and refusing to hand it over. Wendi did not get her new contract. In fact, she never wrestled for the WWE again, only appearing decades later to be inducted into the WWE hall of fame.

2Katsuyori Shibata’s Life-Changing Headbutt

Nobody wins with a headbutt, and unfortunately, Katsuyori Shibata had to learn that the hard way. Like a lot of Japanese wrestlers, Shibata was a hard-hitting madman who performed his signature headbutt multiple times without issue, despite the horrible sound the hit made each time. All of that changed on the night he faced Kazuchika Okada for the NJPW promotion. As the two men hit each other with real blow after real blow, Shibata leaned back and cracked Okada with a headbutt, busting open his own head and unknowingly giving himself a subdural hematoma in the process.^[9]

As the minutes passed by and Shibata’s brain bled he slowly became paralyzed on his right side, losing the ability to walk. The match continued on as Shibata lost more motor functions and the ability to speak until Okada finally gave him one last huge hit and pinned him. Shibata, being ever the showman, attempted to walk out of the arena after his loss but collapsed before he could make it out. After multiple emergency surgeries and months of work to save his life, Shibata eventually learned to walk and speak again. He later appeared at an NJPW show to announce he was somehow still alive.

1Owen Hart Falls to His Death During Pay-Per-View

Considering the dangers that wrestlers put themselves through day in and day out for years on end, it is actually quite surprising that so few performers die while doing it. As rare as it is, unfortunately, it does happen though, and on the night of the WWE’s Over the Edge pay-per-view in 1999, Owen Hart paid the ultimate price for his career in a stunt that went horribly awry.^[10]

At the time of the incident, Owen Hart was playing a character known as the Blue Blazer, a superhero type character that was played up for laughs in his appearances. Owen was supposed to be lowered from the rafters in a harness that he would detach from so he could face plant into the ring, similar to a stunt he had pulled previously. But something went wrong, and Owen was prematurely detached from his safety equipment while still nearly 80 feet in the air.

He reportedly fell chest first into the ropes which launched him into the ring in front of everyone in attendance. He was quickly removed and rushed away by medical personnel as the show continued on without him as the audience looked on in shocked silence. It was announced shortly after to those watching that Owen had died from the fall. The Hart family sued the WWE for Owen’s death and settled out of court. The pay-per-view was not shown again until fifteen years later. It was heavily edited to remove the moments where Owen fell.

Professional wrestling is known for being staged with colorful characters and predetermined outcomes. On-screen, the wrestlers are often portrayed as larger-than-life valiant heroes or despicable villains.

However, the drama doesn’t always stop after they exit the ring. In fact, their real-life exploits can sometimes be even more fantastical than what they do in the ring.

10 Invader Stabbed Bruiser Brody And Got Away With It

Almost 30 years on and the death of Bruiser Brody at the hands of fellow wrestler Jose Gonzalez (aka Invader) still remains one of the most controversial moments in the history of pro wrestling. Although we may never know the complete truth, the story is fraught with allegations of corruption, cover-ups, and bias against American wrestlers.

In 1988, Bruiser Brody (real name Frank Goodish) traveled to Bayamon to do a show for World Wrestling Council (WWC), the biggest promotion in Puerto Rico. He was accompanied by fellow American wrestlers, such as Tony Atlas and Dutch Mantell. Before his match, Gonzalez approached Brody for a conversation. The two went into the shower for privacy, and Gonzalez stabbed Brody.

According to witnesses, it took paramedics 40 minutes to arrive. Brody later died on the operating table due to blood loss. Gonzalez was charged with murder but was acquitted in 1989. According to Gonzalez, Brody became violent during their talk and Gonzalez acted in self-defense.

Some of the guys in the locker room disagreed. They said they never heard arguing coming from the two men. Moreover, one wrestler named Chris Youngblood said he saw Invader carrying something wrapped in a towel into the showers.

Many have accused the investigators of bias toward Gonzalez, who was a big star in Puerto Rico. Both Dutch Mantell and Tony Atlas wanted to testify against Invader but received their subpoenas after the trial was over. Mantell claims to still have his subpoena which was issued on January 3, 1989, but wasn’t mailed until the January 13, 10 days later.^[1]

9 Billy Joe Travis Got Arrested On Live TV

In 1997, wrestler Gary Mize (aka Billy Joe Travis) was arrested in Memphis for unpaid child support. At first glance, this doesn’t sound like a particularly noteworthy crime, but Travis was arrested on live TV during a wrestling show.^[2]

Travis was working for Tennessee promotion United States Wrestling Alliance (USWA) under the leadership of Jerry “The King” Lawler, the wrestler best known for his rivalry with comedian Andy Kaufman. Not one to miss an opportunity, Lawler took advantage of his popularity in Memphis and convinced the officers to allow the filming of Travis being arrested.

The scene plays out with two announcers discussing the show when Travis’s manager, Luther Biggs, bursts in and starts screaming that “Billy Joe Travis is being arrested.” In the story line, his arrest was blamed on Brian Christopher, Lawler’s real-life son and the wrestler currently involved in a feud with Travis.

8 Hardbody Harrison Kept Sex Slaves

Harrison Norris Jr., known professionally as “Hardbody Harrison,” had a moderately successful career as a wrestler. He was employed by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1995 and 2001, working mainly as a jobber (someone who regularly loses matches to make his opponents look good).

When the company went under, Harrison seemingly took the same route as many other wrestlers and opened a training school. However, his operation was actually a front which enabled Hardbody and his cohorts to kidnap and force women into prostitution.^[3]

Between 2001 and 2005, Harrison enticed eight women with false promises of training them and tricked them into peonage by charging large sums of money for various expenses. The women were then forced into prostitution to repay their debts. In some cases, Hardbody’s gang dropped the wrestling training ruse completely and simply kidnapped the women if they were easy targets, such as junkies or homeless people.

The women were isolated from their friends and families and monitored at all times by Harrison or his two accomplices. Besides sex labor, the victims had to do chores and were “fined” if they broke house rules, thus increasing their debts. Some of the women managed to alert authorities in 2005. In 2007, Harrison was found guilty on 24 charges and sentenced to life in prison.

7 Ric Flair Was Sold On The Black Market As A Baby

Richard Morgan Fliehr is better known to his fans as “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Widely considered one of the greatest performers in pro wrestling history, Flair was faced with adversity from the start. He had the misfortune of being born in Memphis in 1949, the same time and place that a woman named Georgia Tann was running one of the largest child trafficking operations in US history.

Tann operated the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, an orphanage/adoption agency which was really a front for Tann selling babies to wealthy, out-of-state couples. Sometimes, she bribed nurses and doctors to turn newborns over to her and tell the parents they were stillborn.

Other times, she played the role of the helpful social worker trying to remove children from a bad environment. She usually succeeded thanks to a corrupt judge named Camille Kelley. In its 26 years of existence, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was estimated to steal over 5,000 babies. Even more disturbing, 500 of them died while in the organization’s custody due to poor care.^[4]

Ric Flair was adopted on March 18, 1949. This was shortly before the adoption agency was closed for good. His real name was most likely Fred Phillips. Seeing as how the agency destroyed or manufactured most documents, it’s unlikely that the Nature Boy will ever find out what happened to his biological parents. That isn’t a big deal to Flair, though. He admitted that he never even looked over his adoption papers until he started doing research for his autobiography.

6 Ken Patera Really Wanted McDonald’s

During the early 1980s, former Olympic weightlifter Ken Patera was enjoying a successful stint with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as part of a popular group called The Heenan Family.

This went away in 1984 following a show in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Patera and Japanese wrestler Masa Saito wanted to grab a bite to eat and headed to McDonald’s. However, it was late and the restaurant was closed so an employee turned them away. Angered by the refusal, Patera had a flashback to his high school days of shot put and lobbed a 13-kilogram (30 lb) boulder through the McDonald’s window.^[5]

Later, the situation got violent when two police officers came looking for Patera at a motel. An impromptu “tag team match” broke out, with Patera and Saito easily overpowering the two cops. It wasn’t until other officers arrived that the situation got under control.

The two wrestlers were later convicted of criminal damage to property, obstructing an officer, and multiple counts of battery to an officer. They were each sentenced to two years in jail followed by six years of probation.

5 Nick Gage Became A Terrible Bank Robber

Pro wrestlers might not be the most famous people in the world, but it is still risky to assume that nobody will recognize them. Back in 2010, 30-year-old Nicholas Wilson walked into a PNC Bank in Collingswood, New Jersey, and passed a note to the teller. The note instructed her to give him money or he would shoot her. He walked off with $3,100.

However, Wilson didn’t bother to wear a mask so police were able to release his image to the public. Wrestling fans were quick to point out that the suspect looked an awful lot like Nick Gage, a mainstay attraction of Philadelphia-based promotion Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW).^[6]

Eventually, Gage recognized his folly and turned himself in. He got a five-year prison term for bank robbery and was released in 2015.

During a prison interview, Gage admitted that he was broke and addicted to OxyContin at the time of the robbery. When told that he was recognized immediately from his surveillance photo, Gage looked on the brighter side: “I guess I didn’t realize how popular I was.”

4 Disco Inferno Organized ‘High-Stakes’ Gambling

During the 1990s, Glenn Gilbertti worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), portraying a comedy wrestler spoofing John Travolta’s character from Saturday Night Fever. His name was Disco Inferno. Fast-forward to 2007 and Gilbertti was facing felony charges for organizing high-stakes poker games at his friend’s house in Roswell, Georgia.^[7]

At the time of the arrest, Roswell authorities called it the biggest local gambling bust in decades. The operation put together by Gilbertti and Dan Tyre worked on a large scale, featuring dozens of players, staff to wait on them, and minimum $10,000 buy-ins. Besides gambling, police also found drugs and one illegal handgun.

Some of the players caught in the raid were subsequently interviewed and claimed the scope of the bust was blown out of proportion. They said it was a small game featuring “friends of a friend” which evolved out of a group of guys getting together to watch football and playing a few hands. The “high stakes” were $5 and $10 games of Texas Hold’em, and most players only brought a few hundred dollars to the table.

The truth was probably somewhere in the middle as police turned up $46,000 in cash. Gilbertti and Tyre were charged with commercial gambling and drug possession while 25 other people faced various misdemeanor charges.

3 Vader Attacked A TV Show Host On Air

Back in 1997, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was on tour in the Middle East with Kuwait being one of the stops. As was customary, some of the wrestlers did media appearances to promote the show. In this case, two performers known as The Undertaker and Big Van Vader did an interview show called Good Morning Kuwait.

During the meeting, presenter Bassam Al Othman asked the question all wrestlers hate: “Is it fake?” While The Undertaker answered diplomatically, Vader had a violent outburst. He grabbed Othman by his tie and started cursing and threatening him.

The presenter subsequently filed charges, and Vader (real name Leon White) found himself under house arrest in Kuwait. After 10 days, Vader was free to leave after paying fines amounting to roughly $150. The television station got in more trouble for the cursing on live TV, and wrestling was unofficially banned in Kuwait for 11 years.

The saga continued in an interview where Vader claimed the whole thing was staged. He was working under orders from the show’s producer who forgot to tell the host (or failed on purpose to get a better reaction). The drama took another turn in 1999 when Othman sued the WWF for $1 million, claiming the company used footage of Vader manhandling him for commercial purposes without his permission.^[8]

2 Johnny K-9 Was A More Prolific Criminal Than Wrestler

Canadian wrestlers seem to have a fondness for organized crime. World Wrestling Federation’s Dino Bravo was gunned down in his home in 1993, allegedly as mob retaliation for a shipment of smuggled cigarettes he lost to the police. However, he was still small-time compared to Johnny K-9, whose criminal career was far more fruitful than his wrestling career.

K-9 (real name Ion Croitoru) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He had a 15-year wrestling career and made appearances with various promotions, including the WWF. He also had a few small acting roles and worked as a bodyguard for several celebrities. Over the course of his life, Croitoru was involved with three major Canadian criminal organizations: the Satan’s Choice motorcycle club, the Gravelle crime family, and the United Nations gang.

Croitoru started out as a biker with Satan’s Choice. During that time, he was involved with crimes such as trafficking, assault, extortion, and bombing a police station. Eventually, Croitoru was arrested. By the time he got out, Satan’s Choice was no more.

In 1998, Croitoru advanced to murder, executing lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband in their home, allegedly for working a case against the Gravelle crime family. He was charged in 2005, but the trial didn’t proceed due to lack of evidence.

Croitoru was arrested again in 2009 for conspiring to kill notorious Vancouver gangsters the Bacon Brothers and other members of their gang, the Red Scorpions.^[9] Two years later, he faced another set of murder and attempted murder charges. He struck a deal that got him released on parole in 2016 and died in a halfway house in 2017.

1 Chris Benoit Committed Double Murder And Suicide

Back in June 2007, the WWE embarked on an ambitious story line involving the (fake) death of company owner Vince McMahon, seemingly killed in a limousine explosion. According to some pundits, the goal was to create a mystery about the identity of the perpetrator that was similar to the iconic Dallas story line, “Who Shot JR?”

It never got that far, though, because Vince was standing in the ring alive and well the following week. He was giving a heartfelt tribute to one of his performers who had just died over the weekend.

His name was Chris Benoit. On June 25, Benoit, his wife, Nancy, and his son Daniel were found dead in their Atlanta home. At first, authorities believed that they were the victims of a home invasion. But it soon became clear that Benoit had strangled his wife and son and then committed suicide. Common motives suggested for his actions included brain trauma, depression, and alcohol and steroids abuse, all leading to mental instability.

The WWE ended up turning their fake tribute show planned for Vince McMahon into a real one for Benoit. Once they found out about the true circumstances surrounding his death, they had to open their next show with an apology for the previous one.

The strangest part of the event came courtesy of Chris Benoit’s Wikipedia page. After he missed that Sunday’s pay-per-view show, someone changed his Wiki entry to say he did it due to the death of his wife, Nancy. This happened 14 hours before police found the bodies.^[10] Eventually, authorities dismissed it as a “huge coincidence” after tracing the IP to a Connecticut teenager who made random edits to several Wikipedia pages.

Pro wrestling has long had the reputation of being low-brow entertainment, something enjoyed by the uneducated and unwashed masses. Of course, to anyone who’s a fan of it, though, this couldn’t further from the truth. Yes, with its combination of athletic showmanship and soap opera storytelling, it can often be just as engrossing as anything else found on TV.

On top of that, at times, it’s also been known to get downright experimental, pushing the boundaries of what it can do and creating some truly avant-garde moments in the process. So, let’s take a look at some of the best examples of this today and see why, under the right circumstances, wrestling actually can approach the level of art.

Related: 10 Shocking Crimes From The World Of Pro Wrestling

10 Broken Matt Hardy

Broken Matt Hardy is what happens when a wrestling character takes too many shots to the head and starts to believe they’re a real-life anime supervillain.

That’s right. It was in 2016 when, after suffering a storyline injury, the Hardy brother suddenly developed a ridiculous English accent and an obsession with “deleting” his opponents.

And while it might have been jarring to see at first, it pretty quickly became a hit, with part of the reason for this being the absolutely insane Final Deletion bout he and his brother Jeff had, all of which was filmed in full cinematic style and would lead directly to…^[1]

9 The Quarantine Cinematic Matches

Yes, it may have been Matt Hardy who innovated the idea of taking a more cinematic approach to a wrestling match. Still, during the pandemic, circumstances would force it to become far more commonplace.

And that was because, with no fans being allowed in arenas, wrestling promotions such as WWE and AEW would have to get creative and think of new ways to create an exciting atmosphere.

What was the best of these? Well, they would probably be the Stadium Stampede at the latter company’s May 2020 Double or Nothing show and The Undertaker and AJ Styles’s Boneyard Match at WrestleMania 36 a few months prior. Go back and watch either and see just what a wrestling match would look like if it was done in the style of a Hollywood movie instead of a sports presentation.^[2]

8 The Invisible Man vs. Invisible Stan

One of the great things about modern wrestling is that, with everyone knowing it’s fake, fans can now get in on the whole thing too.

And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in a match that pitched the Invisible Man and his brother Invisible Stan against each other at the GCW show, Joey Janella’s Spring Break, in 2019.

Here, the fans would cheer along for every unseen move and each hidden blow, playing their part to perfection as the referee, Bryce Remsburg, stood alone in the ring and performed a one-man show worthy of Charlie Chaplin.^[3]

7 The Most Illegal Move in the History of Wrestling

Modern-day wrestling no longer has to be all about bulky giants fighting in dingy halls or cartoon supermen overcoming the odds in front of packed stadiums. No, with the rise of the independent scene, it’s given more styles the opportunity to come to the forefront.

And some of the best examples of this would come from the now defunct Chikara Pro, a comedy promotion that gave rise to a lot of memorable moments, such as an invisible hand grenade and a wrestling chipmunk.

For our money, though, the best moment of all would be the time when, in the middle of a match, Ophidian the Cobra used his snake-like charms to hypnotize not only his opponents but also everyone else backstage. And this then would lead to the entire locker room coming out to take part in a short dance routine, all before things then continued right where they’d left off.^[4]

6 Kenny Omega vs. a Little Girl

Kenny Omega is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, but even he isn’t immune to getting silly and experimental when the time calls for it.

And perhaps the most notable example of this would be when, while working for Japanese promotion DDT in 2011, he had a match with a nine-year-old girl.

Yes, you read that right. But what was his reason for this? Well, aside from having a bit of fun, it was also designed to shine a light on the performative aspects of the craft. His intent, in fact, was to show how, if it’s done right, you can get someone invested enough to where they’ll fully believe a child could beat up a grown man.^[5]

5 The Staring Match

Another one that came out of the lengthy quarantine—the now-famous staring match—would take place at a Pro Wrestling NOAH show in March 2020.

But this one wouldn’t feature any cinematic antics. No, instead, it would see Go Shiozaki and Kazuyuki Fujita spend the first thirty minutes of their bout trying to psyche each other out by doing nothing but staring bullets directly at one another.

Of course, a full thirty minutes of both men looking at each other intensely may have felt ridiculous at first, but after a while, it became strangely hypnotic and engrossing. And this made the whole thing all the much better when it finally kicked off into the inevitable brawl.^[6]

4 The DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title

No title in wrestling has as bizarre a lineage as the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title. And that’s because, unlike most belts, this one can be defended anywhere at any time. In fact, across its run, it’s been challenged for at a bus stop, as part of an auction, and even during a dream.

On top of that, it’s not always been held by a human. At various points, the champion has been a miniature Dachshund dog, a ladder, a pork bun, and the live crowd at a 2016 show.

And crazily, at one point, even the title itself became champion when the belt was placed on top of the person holding it, and the referee counted to three. Something which might hurt your brain if you start to think about it too hard.^[7]

3 Lucha Underground

Lucha Libre is a form of wrestling that originated in South America and features a far more acrobatic style than most places. And on top of this, it’s also seen a lot more telenovela-style storytelling, something that was evident in the short-lived promotion, Lucha Underground.

Yes, between 2014 and 2018, this Robert Rodriguez-produced show would bring Lucha back to American television on the El Rey network.

But what made this one more interesting was that complimenting the great matches the promotion regularly put on, there were completely crazy storylines too. Among these storylines, in fact, were ones involving murder, undercover cops, supernatural monster men, and fire-breathing dragons traveling from different dimensions.^[8]

2 Big Japan Pro Wrestling’s Romeo and Juliet

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

South Park once famously joked that pro wrestling was nothing more than community theatre with more muscular people involved. Well, back in 2009, Big Japan Pro Wrestling would take that idea and run with it when they put on their own version of Romeo and Juliet.

And this would see Shakespeare’s famous story carry itself out in the form of wrestling matches between members of the roster, with Jun Kasai, in particular, playing Romeo and Jaki Numazawa playing Juliet.

If you get the chance to see it, it really is a fascinating show to watch and one that only emphasizes the ability wrestling has to tell compelling stories when it’s at its best.^[9]

1 Brian Pillman’s Loose Cannon Character

By the mid-1990s, everybody knew wrestling was fake. Still, that didn’t stop Brian Pillman from trying to blur the lines between reality and fiction so much that even his peers weren’t sure what was going on at certain points.

How did he do this? By acting like a completely uncontrollable wild man, whether on screen or off. At one point, he even pulled out a gun on live TV, while at another time, he’d go off script and walk out in the middle of a match.

But that wasn’t even his finest hour, as it turned out. This would happen when he got his boss, WCW Chief Eric Bischoff, so confused about what was going on that he convinced him to sign off on a legitimate release from his contract in order to sell a storyline they were doing at the time. Of course, secretly playing everyone, though, Pillman would then take that release and defect over to rival promotion WWF for more money. True genius.^[10]