10 Shocking Moments When Wrestlers Risked Losing Their Jobs
Written Warnings.
At Sunday's TNA/Impact Wrestling/Global Force Wrestling/Anthem Entertainment's Slammiversary XV 2017 event, Alberto El Patron defeated Bobby Lashley to become the Unified World Heavyweight Champion and celebrated with his father and brother as the show went off the air.
Unseen by television cameras but visible on countless phones was a third relative. Sporting an identical mask to Dos Caras and El Hijo de Dos Caras, Paige sat in the front row wearing an El Patron t-shirt to toast her successful fiancé.
As inconsequential as TNA (now GFW) has become in the past several years, it was a ballsy decision to station herself so close to cameras on a rival organisation's second biggest show of the year.
Despite spending the last year on hiatus thanks to injuries and Wellness Policy violations, Paige still remains attached to the company, with the organisation presumably keen to feature her in a prominent role when WWE Films' 'Fighting With My Family' biopic is eventually released.
A flagrant disregard for the company's tight controls over contracted performers could test Vince McMahon's patience, regardless of the marketing implications or her potential future value to his organisation.
However, there are those that have survived his wrath in the past, as well as those who have pushed other promoters to the limit but just about remained on the books. In an industry where job security is scarce, these performers almost pushed their luck too far.
10. Steiner Shoots
Scott Steiner's reputation as a sh*t-kicking maniac was fostered long before he traded the mullet for a bleached trim and Rick Steiner for some sex-crazed 'freaks', but it wasn't until his 1998 'Big Poppa Pump' televised reinvention that fans got to know the extent of his rage.
By 2000, WCW was in complete freefall, but Scott Steiner was only two years into his portrayal as the unhinged 'Big Bad Booty Daddy' and in the middle of a major push as a member of the latest New World Order reboot.
Turning his fury on Ric Flair during the February 7th edition of Monday Nitro, Steiner eviscerated the 'Nature Boy' with a blistering diatribe that took the entire company down with Flair himself.
Letting loose, the lines blurred between fantasy and reality as the 'Genetic Freak' got progressively angrier. First referring to 'Slick Ric' as 'a 53-year-old man with more loose skin than a Shar Pei puppy', he then suggested that Flair should have used the money he spent on limousines and lear jets to 'fix (his) crooked yellow teeth'.
Steiner wasn't finished. After shouting about fans turning over to watch Steve Austin rather than suffer more Flair, he concluded by calling the 16-time World Heavyweight Champion an 'a** kissing butt sucking b*stard' who 'belonged in WCW, because WCW sucks'.
Amazingly, he faced no recriminations for the speech.