10 Crazy Wrestling Scandals You've Never Heard Of
1. The WWE Developmental Scandals, Various
The contrast between WWE's glamorous big stage and the feeder system over which it presided for years and years is staggering. It is almost impossible to comprehend that one arm of the company was overseen by the other.
As WWE operated an enormous monopoly, prior to the launch of NXT - and after an experimental soft launch in Memphis - WWE formalised its talent development operations in Ohio Valley Wrestling. There, in addition to the Jim Cornette slapping Santino Marella about story you've likely heard of, Cornette once threatened to shoot Brock Lesnar for, it is alleged, clamping down on his wife's new clitoris piercing when lifting her up for a press slam.
Full-blown scandals swamped both the Deep South Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling feeder groups deeper into the 2000s.
Deep South - a sh*tshow and a horrorshow, all at the same time - was literally shuttered overnight in a clandestine operation when it emerged that owner Jody Hamilton lied about putting on house shows and effectively left the operation in a state of neglect. Former WWE referee Nick Patrick claims that Jody arrived on the scene, armed with a gun, to ensure that none of his personal property was taken when WWE backed up the trucks. Before WWE got wise to it all, Luke Gallows once gave a "stinkface" to both Zack Ryder and Melissa Coates, with only a jelly donut separating their faces from his bare ass, to get out of training that was considered Power Plant-level intense.
WWE: burying WCW on about 500 documentaries, and using its exact developmental model, all at the same time!
FCW meanwhile did book house shows, but in bars a lot of the time, and a major party culture developed as a result - with, mercifully, zero lethal consequences. The multiple DUI arrests of the FCW roster could have ended tragically.