10 Most Controversial Wrestling People Of 2018

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.

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.