1. The Animal Goes Into Business For Himself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpqx2rBBtHE In 2008, Batista was finding it hard to acclimatise to the new PG-led rules prevalent in WWE, which included the absolute banishment of any wrestler shedding blood during matches. When piecing together a cage bout with Chris Jericho, The Animal elected to sneak in some blood loss, something Jericho writes in his book he asked Batista to keep to himself, and say no more about it. Going through with the blade job, Batista incurred the wrath of his boss, later being fined by Vince McMahon for daring to defy orders. Unbelievably, the fine was as much as $100,000, making it surely one of the biggest to have ever been imposed on a wrestler for bleeding. Jericho was hit with a $5,000 fine, and even though Y2J felt he had been let off the hook, Batista insisted he would pay everyone's fines, including the $5k ones also thrown at referee Mike Chioda and match agent Dean Malenko. Batista took responsibility for the incident, but remarked in a later interview that he knew on that day that things would never be the same in WWE. What other fines imposed on wrestlers do you remember? Are there any you feel should have been included on this list? Let us know down in the comments below!
Jamie Kennedy
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
See more from
Jamie