10 most controversial moments in the history of the professional wrestling outside WWE

Controversy creates cash, and the history of pro wrestling is littered with moments where the provocative antics of the protagonists have left fans with their mouths wide open in shock. And whether it’s positive or negative, wrestling fans love controversy.

Over the years, there have been countless controversial moments in WWE, but here we will look at such moments from the world of pro wrestling outside of WWE.

The incidents discussed in this article are some of the most brutal and jaw-dropping moments in wrestling history to have happened outside WWE. Some of these moments have become infamous and are still widely talked about today amongst hardcore fans, while others are a little less well known, but no less controversial.

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#10 Bruiser Brody’s death

Bruiser Brody’s murder is one of the most infamous incidents in the history of wrestling.

Bruiser Brody was a big star during the territorial days of wrestling. He was a controversial and outspoken wrestler who often rubbed bookers the wrong way by refusing to do jobs and going back on promises.

In 1988, he was wrestling at a show in Puerto Rico when he was stabbed in the shower of the locker room by local wrestling agent Jose Gonzalez. Gonzalez had met Brody in the shower in order to talk, when wrestlers at the venue heard a scream and Brody stumbled out of the shower, with multiple stab wounds and blood all over him.

He was taken to a hospital where he passed away the next morning. Gonzalez was found ‘not guilty’ in the trial that followed, and he shamelessly recreated the incident in an angle in Japan a few years later.

#9 Shane Douglas throws down the NWA title

‘The Franchise’ Shane Douglas made history on August 27, 1994, when he threw down and disowned the NWA sanctioned Eastern Championship Wrestling title which he’d just won. He threw down the belt title his post-match promo in the ring and spoke about how the NWA was a dead organization, before unveiling the ECW championship.

Eastern Championship Wrestling changed into Extreme Championship Wrestling soon after that, and the company moved to a much more hardcore and extreme style that was frowned upon by purists and which eventually gave birth to the madness of the Attitude Era.

#8 Fritz Von Erich fakes a heart attack in the ring

Fritz Von Erich was the patriarch of the von Erich wrestling family.

It was 1987 and the legendary Fritz Von Erich was in a tag-team cage match with his sons on his side, against a group of heels. That was when the Von Erich family patriarch was savagely attacked by Iceman King Parsons, causing Fritz to clutch his chest and fall down.

Everyone thought that Fritz was having a heart attack and he was carried to the back, while the audience was shocked and in tears.

Of course, the whole situation was a tasteless piece of work. The angle was one of the lowest points in WCCW history and a desperate attempt to sell tickets to their shows.

#7 Chris Dickinson vs Kimber Lee

I’m not a fan of inter-gender matches because they’re generally booked in tasteless ways (other than Lucha Underground), and the match between Chris Dickinson and Kimber Lee at Beyond Wrestling was an excellent example of that.

Dickinson predictably pulled off the win but the horrific sequence of spots in the lead-up to a pinfall caused uproar amongst fans and critics alike. Everyone complained that at a time when Sasha Banks and the rest of the Four Horsewomen were lifting women’s wrestling to new levels, this match sent indie wrestling back to the dark ages.

Dickinson started off with a chair shot to Kimber Lee’s head and followed that up with a rough turnbuckle powerbomb. She narrowly escaped serious injury as her head almost hit the ring-post, before Dickinson dragged her and pinned her in the middle of the ring.

Lee would go on to sign for WWE NXT in 2016 but did not make much of an impact before she was released in 2018.

#6 Sandman canes Tommy Dreamer

Sandman and Tommy Dreamer were locked in a deadly feud in ECW in the summer of 1994. Things came to a head during the ‘Singapore Cane’ match between the two at Hardcore Heaven, where the loser was to be caned.

Sandman won the match and proceeded to cane a young Tommy Dreamer mercilessly. The crowd, which had been previously bloodthirsty, became silent with every shot Sandman inflicted upon Tommy Dreamer’s back.

Dreamer soon got busted open but continued getting up after every shot dealt to him, earning him a new level of respect from the fans.

#5 Wrestler yells ‘Black Lives Matter’ during match

A controversial incident occurred at a local MWMA Wrestling show in St. Louis recently when a white wrestler yelled ‘Black Lives Matter’ at his black opponent during their match. Without getting into the politics of it, the statement is very controversial, especially in the black community, even though the spot was pre-planned between the wrestlers.

With police violence against minorities seemingly on the rise in the US, the incident was like a mirror to the divisive politics dominating the country.

#4 Cactus Jack throws down the WCW Tag-Team Championship belt

Cactus Jack spat on his WCW Tag-Team Championship title and threw it down

WCW sent Cactus Jack to ECW in 1994 to have a hardcore dream match with Sabu. WCW wanted a working relationship with ECW and sent Jack over to work in ECW as a sign of good faith. At the time, Cactus Jack was one-half of the WCW Tag-Team Champions.

Cactus Jack and Sabu took each other to the limit but Sabu eventually prevailed. Jack cut a brilliant promo after the match saying that up to that point, his tag-team championship belt had been his prized possession but now that he’d lost to Sabu, that belt didn’t mean anything to him anymore.

After saying this, he spat on the belt and threw it away. Needless to say, the higher-ups at WCW weren’t very happy with Cactus Jack later.

#3 The Mass Transit incident

Mass Transit was only 17, and got on the show after lying about his age

The Mass Transit incident is one of the most controversial incidents in the history of pro wrestling and it single-handedly caused ECW to lose what would have been its first pay-per-view. The incident is so infamous that it has its own Wikipedia page.

The incident occurred at an ECW house show on November 23, 1996. The late Axl Rotten was supposed to tag with D-Von Dudley on the show against New Jack and Mustafa Saeed, but he didn’t show up, and was replaced by a young underage wrestler called Mass Transit who’d lied about his age to get on the show.

New Jack, who is considered to be one of the most infamous nut jobs in wrestling, proceeded to beat the holy hell out of the youngster. He bladed him so deep that he severed two of Mass Transit’s arteries, causing him to bleed profusely and pass out.

The incident not only caused the upcoming pay-per-view to get canceled but also led to a lawsuit from the youngster’s family.

#2 Jake The Snake inebriated

The Heroes of Wrestling show is remembered for one thing and one thing only – Jake The Snake Roberts making a drunken ass of himself during the main event against Jim Neidhart.

The show happened during a dark phase in Jake Roberts’ life, when he was dealing with various substance issues at the time. He appeared out of sorts from the opening promo itself, where he stumbled through his words on Neidhart, making little sense. More than anything else, it was sad to see Jake slur his lines and try to get a DDT chant started.

During his entrance, an inebriated Jake kept Damien on the apron before trotting back up the ramp backstage for no reason at all. He reappeared a few minutes later, at which point he grabbed the arms of a woman in the crowd and rubbed her hands all over his chest.

The match finally started when Roberts managed to stumble into the ring. But Neidhart got out and paced around as soon as the bell was rung in a bid to buy time, because Jake was barely able to stand on his own two feet by that point.

What followed were some of the most embarrassing moments in wrestling history, where Jake took out Damien, his python, and put him in between his legs and stroked his head in a very inappropriate gesture.

The match was eventually turned into a tag-team match when the promoters realized that Jake was in no condition to wrestle.

#1 Raven crucifies the Sandman

Raven and the Sandman were in the middle of a heated rivalry over the ECW Championship in 1996 when Raven started to play psychological games in order to get an advantage. He first brought in Sandman’s ex-wife as his valet, before going a step further by brainwashing Sandman’s young son, Tyler.

Things came to a head in October 1996 when Sandman and his son finally reconciled, but the celebrations were short-lived because Raven came out and attacked Sandman from behind and started to viciously beat him up.

He pile-drove Sandman through a table, at which point he was joined by his cronies, the Blue Meanie and Steven Richards. They then brought out a wooden cross from under the ring and proceeded to crucify Sandman in front of his son.

The live crowd were incensed by the angle and were on the verge of rioting when Paul Heyman sent Raven back out to apologize, before apologizing himself.

An interesting fact about this event is that Kurt Angle was in talks to appear in ECW at the time and was in attendance that night. Kurt was so horrified by the angle that he left the building immediately and told Paul Heyman to never call him again.