WWE has never been a perfect place to work – numerous scandals have broken out in the company throughout its existence ranging from sexual harassment and racial discrimination to poor health practises and exploitation.
Even before Bret Hart accused Shawn Michaels of ‘screwing with his family’ following his ‘Sunny Days’ remark and the Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy love triangle, WWE was never away from bad publicity.
The latest scandal arose a couple of years ago when Alberto Del Rio was fired for assaulting a WWE employee who had made racist remarks at him. Del Rio was rehired earlier this year, but the scars remain.
This list takes a look at five scandals that have rocked the WWE.
1.The steroid scandal
A huge controversy hit the WWE in the early 90s as it was alleged that Vince McMahon was encouraging his wrestlers to take anabolic steroids to get in better shape. Dubbed unflatteringly as the ‘land of the giants’, WWE was notorious for pushing only giant-sized wrestlers.
McMahon was put on trial by the Federal Government for supplying drugs to his wrestlers in a trial that seemed destined to put the WWE out of business. But McMahon was acquitted of all charges and the WWE survived.
Another scandal would hit the WWE in the 2000s when a pharmaceutical company was found to have supplied several WWE superstars with steroids, but the WWE escaped sanctions again.
In the mid-2000s, wrestler Eddie Guerrero passed away from heart failure, allegedly brought about by consuming steroids. All this led to the WWE strictly enforcing the Wellness Policy to prevent wrestlers from taking drugs.
2.The Benoit tragedy
The biggest scandal to hit the WWE in the 21st century has been the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family. Benoit, a widely respected superstar, murdered his wife and son and then hang himself at his home.
The postmortem analysis revealed that Benoit was under severe depression and that his brain was similar to that of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient. Theories soon surfaced that the multiple concussions that Benoit had suffered throughout his career might have led the former champion to lose his sanity.
This led to the WWE taking a closer look at concussions occurring in the ring and has banned several moves that have a high tendency to inflict concussions including chair shots to the head.
3.The plane ride from hell
‘The Plane ride from Hell’ that occurred on a trip back from the UK pretty much summed up how the WWE had transitioned itself from the old school days.
In the eighties and nineties, the wrestlers used to really unwind in between shows and ribbing and fights were commonplace, but when it came to 2002 – things had definitely changed.
It did not stop industry veterans like Curt Hennig and Sean Waltman from wreaking havoc on that plane ride, though. It all began with another veteran Bradshaw knocking out an irritable Michael Hayes and Waltman proceeded to chop off Hayes’ ponytail while he was out.
Scott Hall was doing what he does best – getting drunk and acting like a fool, but the biggest folly was committed by WWE legend Mr.Perfect aka Curt Hennig. Hennig challenged a still green Brock Lesnar to an amateur wrestling match on the plane.
Lesnar initially ignored the challenge, but decided to take Hennig up on the challenge after Paul Heyman told him that the locker room wouldn’t take kindly to him getting punked out by Hennig.
Lesnar and Hennig proceeded to fight throughout the plane and almost knocked each other out through the plane door, putting the lives of passengers at risk.
Needless to say, Hennig, Waltman and Hall were all fired from the WWE in no time.
4.ECW Crucifixion
ECW had built its reputation on being a no-holds-barred promotion in the nineties and was widely perceived as more legitimate compared to WWE and WCW – so much so that a 1996 amateur wrestling Olympic gold medallist named Kurt Angle was seriously contemplating joining the promotion for his transition to pro-wrestling.
Angle was invited to attend an ECW show in 1996 where the main event had Sandman battle Raven in the culmination of an epic rivalry. Raven would win the match and then proceeded to crucify Sandman in the ring.
An outraged Angle walked out of the show and threatened to sue the company if his name was involved with the show. He would end up joining the WWF soon.
5.All the affairs
WE Superstars have a grueling schedule, travelling up to 300 days a year and spending lots of time with colleagues rather than family. So it is not hard to imagine the exhausted WWE Superstars and Divas ending up having affairs.
Many such affairs (alleged and otherwise) have rocked the WWE over the years. The most prominent one was the Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy love triangle. Hardy and Lita had been dating for a long time and an injury to Matt saw Lita travelling with mutual friend Edge.
Lita and Edge ended up having an affair behind Matt’s back and an outraged Hardy leaked the news to the media when he found out about it. It caused legitimate heat to both Edge and Lita, led to Hardy getting fired and then brought back and the three getting involved in an on-screen rivalry based on real life events.
Other scandals include Batista – a self-proclaimed sex addict – sleeping with John Morrison’s girlfriend Melina, the alleged affairs between Dawn Marie and Kurt Angle as well as John Cena and Mickie James, not to mention the $110 million sexual harrassment suit filed by Sable against the WWE.
A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE
