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WWE has always tried hard to blur the lines between fantasy and reality and worked for decades to give fans the best of entertainment. The longest-running shows on television come from the hard work of all the men and women involved in the product backstage and in the ring, and they deserve to get credit for what they do on a daily basis.
While WWE Superstars are compensated well for the services they provide to the company and the fans, it’s not always smooth sailing for them as the fans or other stakeholders can get out of hand at times and threaten them.
Over the years, we’ve heard on countless occasions about WWE Superstars receiving death threats from fans or fellow wrestlers purely because of their work, success, or the character they are given to portray inside the ring.
While many of these factors are beyond their control, people tend to forget that and try to take the extreme step to cause harm to the in-ring entertainers.
With that in mind, we have come up with a list of 10 WWE Superstars who have been the unfortunate victims of death threats during their wrestling careers.
#10 Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin is a controversial figure in WWE today, as fans believe he has been given unfair opportunities.
He is regarded as one of the safest workers in the ring today, and that has allowed him to rub shoulders with some of the biggest legends of the sport including Kurt Angle.
That’s not all, as WWE handed him a big spot at WWE Extreme Rules 2019 that made the crowd go wild and allowed him to get a lot more heat during his heel rung.
A big spot led to the WWE Superstar receiving a lot of heat and threats
During a Mixed Tag Team Match against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, Corbin was handed the biggest spot of the night as he was allowed to hit his finisher, known as The End of Days, to Lynch. While the spot received a pop from the crowd, Corbin revealed to Sam Roberts of Notsam Wrestling Podcast that he received death threats from fans following the move.
While things did not get too serious, it seems like fans of The Man took The Lone Wolf’s actions in the ring a bit too seriously!
#9 Ariya Daivari
Billed from Tehran, Iran, Ariya Daivari entered WWE in 2016, following in the footsteps of his elder brother Shawn Daivari, who first appeared for WWE in 2004.
Just like his brother, Ariya has been made to play several villainous characters on-screen to help other babyfaces get over, and that is what he continues to do on 205 Live today where he’s a major part of the Cruiserweight Division.
Ariya and Shawn landed in trouble following the WWE Greatest Royal Rumble
In 2018, both brothers got a chance to appear together in the WWE ring for the first time during the Greatest Royal Rumble pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia. However, their portrayal at the event was met with a negative reaction from the crowd who forgot that the characters played in the ring are handed to the Superstars by the WWE itself.
Ariya Daivari took to social media to apologize for his role at the Greatest Royal Rumble event and claimed that he had received death threats due to the way his character was portrayed at the Saudia Arabian pay-per-view.
Thankfully, no harm was done and Ariya has been doing a good job at 205 Live.
#8 Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio will go down in history as one of the purest and best babyfaces of all time. Throughout the time he’s competed for WWE, he has treated fans to some fresh rivalries in which he always portrays the babyface underdog and gives his heel opponents a good chance to polish their characters.
The three-time World Champion walked into WWE in 2002 after a short time with WCW. He’s had a few successful runs with the company and won many top titles in the process.
The threats to Mysterio's life came when he wasn't signed to WWE
While he’s always had a good time in WWE, he went through a tough phase in 2015 while competing for the Mexican promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). During a tag team match featuring Mysterio, Xtreme Tiger, and his tag team partner Manik, he delivered a dropkick to Hijo Del Perro Aguayo who got badly injured.
Tragically, Perro Aguayo suffered a cervical spine trauma that led to a cardiac arrest caused by the cervical stroke. Aguayo was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead by the doctors later that night.
This did not go down well with several fans who did not realize that Aguayo’s death was not Mysterio’s fault.
Mysterio was bullied by fans who even made death threats to the babyface as they were unhappy with what had happened in the ring. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and Mysterio was not harmed by any of the fans after medical information came to light days after the tragic incident.
#7 William Regal
William Regal is one of the most accomplished and well-respected individuals to have signed with WWE. The former Superstar won the WWE Intercontinental Championship, WWE Hardcore Championship, and WWE European Championship during his illustrious career.
Regarded as the perfect heel on television, Regal gave fans some of the best matches where he truly made his opponents look like underdogs even though he wasn’t a large man himself. Today, he leads WWE NXT as the General Manager and has continuously given us some of the best bookings on the brand.
The former WWE Hardcore Champion has received several death threats!
However, he is one man who has always been the victim of keyboard-warriors and is known to have received several death threats over social media. In fact, Regal once replied to a Twitter fan that he receives at least one death threat a day from keyboard warriors.
Things took a bitter turn when he received a phone call from an anonymous person in 2015 who threatened him and his entire family.
The WWE veteran vented his frustration on social media and likely took some extra precautions to safeguard his family. We hope that things have gotten better for King Regal in recent years.
#6 Bobby Lashley
Bobby Lashley is among the top tough men WWE has ever seen. Whether it’s fighting against the best high-flyers or the biggest and heaviest men, Lashley seems to do the job perfectly in the ring.
However, his recent return to the company hasn’t been as successful as he’d have liked, and he is still waiting for that one match against Brock Lesnar.
While waiting for the big match, WWE has used Lashley in several different storylines, many of which have been extremely bizarre. While Lashley’s rivalry against Sami Zayn was a new low for the Superstar, WWE threw him in a relationship with Lana which did not work well with the fans.
The WWE Universe did not seem too happy with his storyline with Lana and Rusev
The WWE Universe wanted to see Lashley and Rusev compete in different big matches and not get involved in a random love triangle. They vented their frustration by targeting Lashley on social media and during meet and greets which led to him maintaining a low profile for some time.
Lashley said the following about the reaction of the fans:
“I get very, very bad comments, ones I don't want to say on camera right now. Vulgar, death threats, there's a lot of things—but, ya know, I'm not a hard person to find and if anybody has anything to say about me, they can just come and see me. Not saying I'm going to fight every fan that disapproves of what we're doing, but I'm not going to back down to stupidity,”
All we can hope is that no one takes this on-screen relationship too seriously and that The All Mighty gets into some meaningful feuds by the end of the year.
#5 Lana
Bobby Lashley isn’t the only WWE Superstar who suffered at the hands of the fans during his relationship storyline with Lana, as the Ravishing Russian too got a lot of hate.
Since debuting as the Russian manager of Rusev, Lana has always been under the WWE Universe’s radar for several reasons. The Superstar has gotten used to receiving hate from fans for illogical reasons as they don’t like the characters that she is given even though she tries to play them to perfection.
Lana has been targeted by fans several times, even for her real-life relationship with Rusev, but the hate she received during her storyline with Lashley was extraordinary.
Whether it was a job extremely well done that sparked the fans due to her heel character, or just general hate from the fans, Lana was taking it all well before things got out of hand for her.
Lana has regularly come under fire from the WWE Universe
During the storyline, Lana revealed that she was approached by WWE officials and even the FBI! The reasons for that were explained by her as quoted below:
“I mean, people are mean, mean, mean. They’re bullies. Today, I open my email account and I had this death threat on my email and you know, you can go see it on into my Instagram story, but it was just like the names that people call are just absolutely appalling.”
We’re glad that Lana is one of the strongest women in WWE today and has learned to take all the negativity she gets and turns that into positivity.
#4 Carmella
Carmella has been a decent Superstar in WWE's women’s division and has proven her worth. The former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion and 24/7 Champion has had several big rivalries and matches which have seen her become one of the top women Superstars in WWE in recent years.
Carmella has usually been a fan favorite even though WWE has preferred to push her as a heel, but her recent lengthy partnership with R-Truth gave her a new direction to work in which helped develop both Superstars.
The WWE Superstar was blamed for all the wrong reasons
However, her personal life got her in trouble with online trolls in 2019 after it was revealed that she was in a relationship with WWE announcer Corey Graves. Carmella explained during an episode of Total Divas aired on the E Network that she received death threats after being wrongly accused of breaking up Graves' marriage.
During the episode, Carmella was seen exclaiming the following:
"Why the f--k would she go on social media and put that out there? I'm not kidding. This is not ok, - I'm not ok right now. Literally, I'm getting death threats."
In an episode that followed, Carmella cleared the air and said that she started dating Graves only after he and his wife were working on their divorce and he had moved out. However, fans on social media continued to personally attack and threaten Carmella to this day even though she has revealed all the facts to the public.
#3 Sgt. Slaughter
Sgt. Slaughter joined WWE back in 1980 and was last seen for the company in attendance at the February 5, 2020 episode of NXT. That shows exactly how long his association with the company has been, and even though WWE and he have had their differences, it seems like neither can live with one another.
The former World Heavyweight Champion had several top rivalries and matches during his career, and his work in and out of the ring resulted in him being added to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, where he was inducted by Pat Patterson.
His gimmick in WWE landed him in trouble with a section of the fans
However, it was his gimmick back in the day that landed him in trouble with some of the patriots in his native land. Slaughter was set to take on Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 7 and headline the event.
Fans saw Hogan as the true American patriot, while Slaughter was under the gimmick of an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War at the time. This led to Slaughter receiving several death threats, and WWE was forced to move the event from the huge Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to the much smaller Los Angeles Sports Arena.
While many believe the change in venue came as a result of limited ticket sales, the security at the event and the fact that Sgt. Slaughter wore a bulletproof vest in public gave away the fact that something was wrong.
Slaughter has revealed that he has received several death threats throughout his career due to the character he portrayed.
#2 Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan is by far one of the biggest faces of WWE. He helped WWE reach new heights in the 80s, and IGN has named him as "the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 1980s".
With so much fame, it’s impossible to keep Hogan out of the spotlight even at this point in his life when he has hung up his boots and only makes sporadic appearances for the company.
Along the way, the Hulkster has made several friends and countless enemies on his road to success. While many have appreciated what he did for the wrestling industry, others have always been envious of his fame and fortune.
Other WWE Superstars have always been jealous of the Hulkster
One person who was never fond of Hogan is former WWE Superstar, Scott Steiner. Steiner and Hulkster had a rift dating back to their time in WCW, and we have seen Steiner rant about Hogan more than once.
However, Steiner crossed the line in 2015 when he approached Hogan’s wife at an airport during WrestleMania 31 week and threatened to “kill” Hogan. A police report was filed and Steiner was investigated for "felony terrorist threats."
This has got to go down as one of the many craziest things Steiner has done.
#1 Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon is currently the most powerful figure in all of sports entertainment for several very good reasons. The man who made WWE the biggest wrestling promotion in the world also took over several other smaller and rival promotions to ensure that he didn’t have to jump over too many hurdles during his success.
His time in and out of the ring has been instrumental to where WWE stands today, and that is one of the many reasons why the company has managed to make it so big and venture into other territories.
Countless people have been jealous of how successful WWE has been
However, with so much power and success, it is impossible to think that there won’t be many people out there who would be jealous of the Chairman of WWE. In 2003’s WWE Unscripted book (page 32), Jim Ross wrote that he was in a territory meeting where the bosses pitched the ridiculous idea of killing Vince McMahon to get themselves over. He wrote about how he believed they were just lazy and did not have the brains to outthink or outdo Vince.
That’s not all, as Stephanie McMahon has also revealed that the WWE Chairman received death threats from a "notorious gangster" after he took over WWE from his father Vincent J McMahon in 1982. We’re glad that these were all empty threats and Vince McMahon is still healthy and well enough to lead the company.
