6. Hulk Hogan Chokes Out Richard Belzer
This is the only entry on the list that didn't take place during a wrestling match, or at least at a wrestling event, but it's still memorable, and still very unusual. In 1985, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T were guests on Hot Properties, a show hosted by Richard Belzer (known to most as Detective John Munch on the NBC dramas Homicide: Life On The Street and then Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). Belzer wanted Hogan to show him how to perform different wrestling moves, and Hogan, thinking it would make for fun television based on Belzer's negative opinions on wrestling, as a whole, went along with it. Hogan placed Belzer in a front chin lock, and ended up squeezing down on his throat. A few seconds later, Belzer completely passed out, and he smacked his head on the ground as Hogan let him go. Bleeding from the back of the head, Belzer would eventually get back up (after being smacked awake by Hogan a few times) and, not knowing where the hell he was at the time, would try to send the show to a commercial break. It all ended with Belzer suing the WWF and Hogan for $5 million (they would eventually settle out of court for an undisclosed amount, although Belzer himself would later go on to say the sum was less than $500,000). You can understand if and why Hogan decided to add a little "relish" to the hold, as Belzer was pretty much making fun of him and his profession for the entire show, but perhaps it wasn't the smartest of ideas to do something like that on television, especially letting him smack his head on the ground, which could have ended up making the entire thing
much worse than it turned out.