10 Biggest Wrestling Scandals Of The 1980s
8. John Stossel Assaulted
Though not what it once was, kayfabe was still very much alive in the 1980s. Wrestlers would go to extreme lengths to protect the business, none more so that David Schultz.
The man known as ‘Dr. D’ was a journeyman performer who was an upper midcard heel in the early 80s. His most famous rival wasn’t a wrestler, but rather a journalist named John Stossel. A reporter for the magazine show 20/20, Stossel interviewed Schultz on December 28th 1984 for a feature on pro wrestling. As part of his investigation, Stossel declared that he thought wrestling was “fake”, to which his subject did not take kindly.
Schultz snapped, knocking Stossel down to the floor with two blows to the head. With each strike, he asked “You think it’s fake?” as the poor civilian lay in a heap. The assault quickly became national news. Stossel took WWE to court in a case that was eventually settled for $425,000.
The claim from Schultz has always been that Vince McMahon himself told him to carry out the attack. Nevertheless, he was fired from the company and eventually found a new career as a bounty hunter.