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A blacklist (or black list) is a register of entities or people who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle.
The term blacklisting may be used in a pejorative sense, implying that a person has been prevented from having legitimate access to something due to inappropriate covert actions of those who control the access. Blacklisting can and has been accomplished informally by consensus of authority figures, and does not necessarily require a physical list or overwritten order. For a variety of reasons, many companies have or maintain a blacklist and the World Wrestling Federation is no different.
Over the years, many WWE Superstars and Divas were blacklisted, owing to a variety of reasons. However, there have been some instances when a blacklisted superstar’s record has been revoked, but otherwise it remains a permanent scar on the wrestler’s career. Already wondering who are the wrestlers who made the cut? Let us have a look:
Ultimate Warrior
The only wrestler in this list who was blacklisted but was later revoked. The Warrior’s issues with the WWE are legendary. Between 1996 and 1998, both Warrior and WWF were engaged in a series of lawsuits and legal action regarding the ownership of the characters Warrior and Ultimate Warrior, under both contract and copyright law which the court ruled it in favour of Warrior.
On September 27, 2005, the WWE released a DVD titled “The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior” which soured their relations further. The DVD featured clips of his most notable feuds and matches along with commentary from WWE stars past or present (most of which was unflattering) and was a complete character assassination of The Ultimate Warrior.
Although the Warrior’s relation with the WWE was strained at times, more recently the WWE has recognised him as one of the legends of the company thus inducting him into the WWE Hall Of Fame last year on the night before Wrestlemania XXX. To commemorate the event, on April 1, 2014 WWE released Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Collection, a 3-DVD, 540-minute compilation of matches and stories that portrayed the Warrior far more positively.
Warrior made his final appearance on April 7th on Raw, the day before his death. Warrior collapsed while walking to his car and was declared dead.
Juventud Guerrera
The Juice is pretty much banned from working in any US based promotion. He was known to have a reputation for being late to shows, being disruptive, unreliable and carrying an unbearable backstage presence since his arrival into the company in late 2005.
The Juice was also known to be egoistic and delusional, referring to himself always in third person and thought himself to be at the same level with the likes of Steve Austin and The Undertaker. He also believed The Rock’s gimmick to be truly his, so much so he referred to himself as “The Rock Of Mexico”.
On January 2006, WWE announced that Juventud has been released from the company. His final match aired that evening on SmackDown, a Cruiserweight Title rematch against Kid Kash, which Guerrera lost. When he was being told that he was going to lose, he attempted to take a number of key moves out of the match so that Kash wouldn’t kick out of them.
He also gave Kidd a few stiff shots despite the WWE telling its cruiserweights to tone down on dangerous aerial moves and the 450-degree splash, the later being banned by the WWE for an earlier match with Paul London where he botched the move, resulting in London suffering several fractured bones in his face.
Nailz
In 1992, Wacholz debuted in the WWF as Nailz, an ex-convict who, in a series of promos, alleged he was abused by former prison guard Big Boss Man during his incarceration. He also claimed to be innocent of his (unspecified) crimes. Following Big Boss Man's squash of Dave Roulette on the May 30 episode, Nailz (dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit) attacked Boss Man, handcuffing him to the top rope and repeatedly hitting and choking him with his own nightstick.
Nailz easily defeated numerous jobbers en route to defeating Boss Man's ally Virgil at Summerslam. He continued to feud with Boss Man, who had recovered from Nailz's beating. The feud came to its climax when Big Boss Man defeated Nailz in a nightstick match at Survivor Series.
Before Nailz finished the feud with Boss Man, he began another feud, this time with The Undertaker. The two had a stare down on the October 24 episode of Superstars, a photo of which was used as the cover of the January 1993 issue of WWF Magazine.
However, Wacholz was released from his WWF contract in December 1992, after he allegedly attacked Vince McMahon in his office over a financial dispute. Bret Hart recalled in his autobiography that Wacholz "cornered Vince in his office and screamed at him for fifteen minutes". Hart claims he was just down the hall from the office when he heard a loud crash, which was Wacholz "knocking Vince over in his chair, choking him violently".
The incident led to a series of lawsuits between Wacholz and the WWF. Wacholz alleged McMahon had given him steroids on a number of occasions; McMahon denied the claim. Wacholz then filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. The WWF filed a counterclaim against Wacholz, but both suits were later dropped.
In 1994, Wacholz testified against McMahon during his trial on charges of supplying steroids to WWF wrestlers. He claimed McMahon had told him to take steroids. According to the 2003 book WrestleCrap, his testimony included the comment "I hate Vince McMahon's guts."
Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett was the Founder and Former President of Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling. He left the company right after Vince Russo resigned from the company in 1999 only to join the WCW. Jarrett contract expired on October 1999, which was just a day before his Intercontinental Title defense against Chyna at No Mercy. Though Jarrett lost, Chyna later alleged that Jarrett and Russo had colluded in order to delay Jarrett’s title defense until after Jarrett’s contract had expired.
It is also alleged that Jarrett extorted around $300,000 from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to wrestle at No Mercy and defend the title without a contract. After WCW was purchased by WWF, the company failed to acquire his contract being uninterested in him, leaving Jarrett without a job.
Jarrett was seen on the last Nitro while McMahon watched the show. He was fired on-air by the WWE Chairman mocking his trademark taunt of distinctly spelling out his name by saying that he would now be known as "Capital G Double-O Double-N Double-E".
Macho Man Randy Savage
It is the biggest wrestling urban legend around and considering the lack of coverage in major wrestling sites/magazines, the rumour is widely known and discussed among wrestling fans. The story goes that in late 1993 a relationship developed between a 17-year old Stephanie McMahon and a 40-year old Randy Savage.
The rumour states that Savage and Stephanie were involved through late 1993, and this is the reason Savage left the company abruptly in 1994, since Vince found out and was livid.
Also another rumour states that Savage has promised Vince that he would not leave the WWF for the WCW, but that is exactly what he did. Since Savage left the WWE completely blackballed him which further gives credence to the stories above.
Chris Benoit
The Crippler with his Toothless Aggression was one of the best wrestlers of all time but will forever be blacklisted by the WWE owing to his final days of his life. June 24, 2007 was the date of WWE pay-per-view Vengeance: Night of Champions.
Benoit was slated to face CM Punk for the vacant ECW World Championship, but he legitimately didn’t show up. Later, details emerged that weekend that Benoit had committed a double murder of his wife and 3-year-old son, before hanging himself.
When the details of the incident emerged, Vince McMahon addressed the WWE audience stating that Mr Benoit’s name would not be used in WWE programming ever.
Teddy Hart
Teddy Hart became the youngest person in wrestling history to be signed by the WWE developmental contract in 1998 and was sent to train with Dory Funk Jr at the “Funkin Conservatory”. However owing to his alleged attitude problems, he was released by the WWE. He also wrestled in TNA and ROH promotions but was released from both the companies due to the same.
One of the most infamous Teddy Hart stories comes from when he competed at Ring of Honor in a Scramble Cage match in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 2003. After losing the match, he began to perform moonsaults and executed a shooting star press from the top of the cage rather than selling the moves he had taken.
Hart then vomited in the ring, and kicked it toward ringside.His actions attracted the ire of many wrestlers, as he endangered some wrestlers by performing moves on them which they were not anticipating. He attributes his actions to a concussion suffered during the match. CM Punk who was involved in the match made his displeasure known through his old Live Journal account and this is what he wrote:
“No worries though, if it gets you anywhere, I’d bet my life and 100 dollars that you’d find a way to ruin it for yourself with your out of control ego as well as your piss poor attitude. There is no conspiracy, nobody is trying to blackball you. We’re just looking out for our friends’ safety as well as ours. We’re just looking out for the product we all believe in, because it’s US that want to give the fans a good show. We’re just policing our locker room from a cancer that has no business in a business that he acts like he knows all about, but knows so little. We’re just protecting our business.”
Chyna
Joanie Laurer, better known by her ringname Chyna was the most dominant female wrestler to have ever graced the squared circle. Chyna during her wrestling career had many first’s attached to her name.
She was the only female wrestler to enter the Royal Rumble, was the first female wrestler to qualify for the King of the Ring, was the first female wrestler to be the #1 contender for the WWF Championship. She later became the first female wrestler to hold the Intercontinental Title when she defeated Jeff Jarrett. After having such a distinguished career one wonders why is she on this list.
In 2012, she posted a detailed explanation on why she left the WWE via her Twitter account. She explained that during the time of McMahon-Helmsley takeover, she was engaged to Triple H. Six months down the line she claimed to have found a love letter written by Stephanie McMahon professing her love for him and this led to fighting between the couple.
She called up Vince to inform him of the situation, who told her that a jig was up. Next day when she arrived for Monday Night Raw, she was whisked away to Vince’s office where he and Stephanie were waiting for her. Stephanie basically told her that Hunter was hers and she(Laurer) will have to deal with it.
Laurer claimed to have told Stephanie that she was lucky her father was there otherwise she would have ripped her face off. Vince told her to go home and take some time off and they would deal with it.
He later sent her a fax saying she was not needed anymore. Jim Ross claims that she was not fired, but rather chose to leave for personal reasons. She also did herself no favours if she was looking to reconcile with the WWE by appearing in a few adult films with Sean Waltman aka X Pac.
CM Punk
On an episode of his good friend Colt Cabana's podcast in November 2014, Punk broke his silence regarding his exit from WWE. In a detailed interview, Punk said that he was suspended for two months after walking out on the company in January.
After the suspension ended, nobody from WWE contacted him according to him. He told that when finally reached out to them for unpaid royalties, he was given a run-around by the company executives until he was handed his termination paper and was fired by WWE on his wedding day in June 2014.
The manner of firing was the last straw for Punk, stating that he would never return to WWE and that following a legal settlement with WWE, there would be no further working relationship between them.
Punk cited his health as the main reason he left WWE, describing that in his final months in the company, he had been working through an untreated and potentially fatal MRSA infection, broken ribs, injured knees, and multiple concussions including one at the Royal Rumble. Punk felt that WWE was pressuring and rushing him to wrestle before he had fully recovered.
According to him, he found a lump on his back in November 2013 and it was diagnosed as a fatty deposit by Dr. Chris Amann, who refused to remove it out despite Punk's requests. Several weeks after Punk left WWE, his wife (then girlfriend) AJ Lee convinced him to get the infection checked by her doctor, who diagnosed it as a full-blown staph infection.
Madusa
In December 1995. the WWE decided to release the wrestler formerly known as Alundra Blayze for the financial troubles the company was incurring. To make matters worse, Blayze was still the WWE Women’s Champion at the time of her release.
For reasons unknown, the WWE didn’t take back her title so she still had it with her while negotiating with the WCW. Eric Bischoff had a brainwave of her appearing on live WCW television with the belt and have her dump the belt in a trash can on an episode of Monday Nitro.
According to Madusa, she wasn’t keen into trashing the championship but gave way into Bischoff’s coercing. Following that she was stripped of her title and was blacklisted by the WWE for a period of 20 years. It was later revoked and she was inducted into WWE Hall of Fame earlier this year.
