10 Wrestlers Who Were ARRESTED In The Middle Of Major Storylines
These wrestlers had their plans cancelled by the long arm of the law.
If professional wrestling were real, then all of your favourites would have been arrested multiple times over. Unfortunately, even though the sport is staged, its stars have often had run-ins with the law.
Plenty of wrestlers in WWE and elsewhere have been arrested over the years, and a fair share of them actually went to jail as a result. The ones we're focusing on were all clapped in handcuffs at the peaks of their careers, when the promotions they were working for had decided to make them the main character - or even the World champion.
Some of these grapplers weren't harmed by their extracurricular activities, but others suffered greatly. Arguably, some of them were never able to regain the momentum they lost. You can decide for yourselves whether or not these WWE, TNA and AEW performers deserved to have their mugshots taken, but all of them suffered in some form or either - even if it was just some light-hearted ribbing by the rest of the locker room.
We should also point out that there is an active legal case on this list, so we are unable to provide full details at time of writing.
10. El Grande Americano
You'll never guess what the inspiration for this article was...
On May 20th 2026, Ludwig Kaiser (real name Marcel Barthel) was arrested in Orlando, Florida. According to some reports, he had gotten into a real fight with a man who had taken issue with Kaiser kissing his girlfriend, Andrea Bazarte, in a lift. However, it has also come out that the man might have made derogatory remarks towards Bazarte, to which Kaiser responded.
A few years earlier, this story wouldn't have been nearly as impactful. Kaiser was famous, sure, but he wasn't exactly a main eventer. However, against all the odds, he is now one of the biggest stars in all of Mexican wrestling.
At AAA's Noches de Los Grandes event, Kaiser's version of El Grande Americano went one-on-one with Chad Gable's original incarnation of the fake luchador in one of the best matches of the year. This mask vs. mask match had been in the works for months, which is why Kaiser's arrest caused so much panic.
Luckily, the German was able to travel down south to compete in the match, but this situation could have ended very differently.