10 Most Controversial Wrestling People Of 2018
Angels or demons?
As Eric Bischoff was keen to remind us all at his crushingly dull, utterly anodyne TedX (note the 'X') talk recently, he once wrote a book called 'Controversy Creates Cash' (or more accurately, 'Ca$h'). In fact, the whole takeaway from his glorified after-dinner speaking engagement was that - *gasp!* - the mainstream media adapt wrestling's time-honoured tactic of stirring the pot to get eyeballs on their channels.
Who knew?
Oh, that's right: everybody.
Except we're gradually inching towards a time where controversy doesn't necessarily fill the coffers, but can in actual fact empty then. For example, a ludicrously misguided - or more likely, purposefully incendiary - decision to name, say, a supposedly progressive Battle Royal in commemoration of a problematic person from the past might get lips flapping on the internet - but not to any great effect. As soon as your major sponsor gets wind and expresses their stern disapproval, the game's up. In such a case, controversy creates censure.
Then again, perhaps it doesn't really matter if that controversy is being bank-rolled by a Middle Eastern prince with pockets deeper than an Immanuel Kant lecture at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It migh not create the cash - but it's so worth it.
10. Angel O Demonio
After apparently receiving a string of stiff chair shots from opponent Cuervo during a match in Mexico's Lucha Memes/Lucha Libre Boom crossover show, Angel o Demonio delivered a brutal receipt - in the shape of a bloody brick.
As Cuervo was pottering around on the outside, Demonio hurled a cinder block at his rival's head. It smashed in two, smashing Cuervo's head in the process. The Puerto Rican was quickly rushed to hospital with a fractured skull.
The Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Committee immediately acted to suspend Demonio indefinitely, whilst promoters Hector Herrera and Juan Meija faced a hearing over how such an extreme match could take place in a state explicitly forbidding them. 'Death match' or not, this was a straight up criminal assault. Anything but a complete blackballing from the industry for Demonio would be an outrage.