2. Jim Cornette Was Fired For Slapping Him Repeatedly
WWE.comSantino started in WWE in the summer of 2005. He was only there for a few weeks when Jim Cornette was running Ohio Valley Wrestling, which was WWE's developmental territory at the time. In a famous moment, The Boogeyman appeared in an angle where he was supposed to scare people and instead of being scared as audience member, Santino apparently started laughing. When they went backstage, Cornette freaked out on him because he wasn't supposed to be laughing during the segment. Cornette ended up slapping him in the face about a dozen times. When WWE found out about it, they ended up firing Cornette. Keep in mind that Cornette worked for WWE on and off for about 12 years up to that point so it's not like he had a short run there. Here's how Santino described the slaps in an interview with
Wrestling101: "I was sitting in the area where the OVW students sit. I had only been there for a few weeks and didnt know anything about wrestling, The Boogeyman was trying to get out of an exit which was behind me and I had no idea the exit was behind me because he was going out of an emergency exit." "I didnt move out of the way and was enjoying the show as an audience member, so the fact that I didnt move out of the way and play along showing I was terrified of this monster tipped Jim over the edge. He was already upset because The Boogeyman had a bit of a costume malfunction and the fact that I didnt jump out of the way kind of made him snap and he gave me a couple of slaps backstage." It was a pretty big deal at the time and it's not something WWE has ever really talked about.