10 Wrestlers Who Couldn’t Legally Wrestle!
Ric Flair, Bret Hart and others fought the law - and the law won.
Wrestling has had a problematic and troublesome relationship with the law over the years.
A large portion of WWE’s biggest talents, like The Ultimate Warrior, Bruno Sammartino and Brock Lesnar have at one time or another commenced legal proceedings and sued WWE over money, trademarks and slander. The federal government indicted the Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon after the steroid scandal hit the promotion and took him to court, before he was acquitted on all charges.
Current acts like Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair were arrested for incidents before they signed contracts with WWE, and Jeff Hardy and Jimmy Uso have been arrested while working for WWE, with all their mug shots being on full display online. After all the cases he’s litigated over the years, WWE’s longtime lawyer Jerry McDevitt can fully attest that wrestling and the law can get very complex and entangled. CM Punk, too, knows this, given the lengthy and costly and stressful lawsuit he had to suffer through with WWE ringside physician Chris Amann.
When necessary, the law gets involved in wrestling. Whilst it’s well known injuries prevent wrestlers from performing, sometimes the law prevents them too.
Lawsuits and settlements stop talent from actively competing, sometimes when they’re even 100% healthy...
10. Road Warrior Animal
The Lloyd’s of London insurance policies have caused a lot of stress for performers and promotions over the years.
They were policies taken out by wrestlers in the early ‘90s that stipulated talent would be compensated financially if they suffered a career-ending injury whilst wrestling. Lloyd’s of London most likely thought the chances of this happening were small, what with wrestling being predetermined and all. One of the wrestlers that took advantage of the policy on offer was Road Warrior Animal.
After SummerSlam 1992, his longtime tag partner Hawk walked out of the WWF as well as the Legion of Doom, leaving Animal to fend for himself. Animal represented the LOD solo and often competed in handicap matches on live events. It was during one of these handicap matches with The Beverley Brothers that Animal legitimately injured his back. This would force him to stay out of the ring for three years. Animal collected pay cheques from Lloyd’s of London in that time, on the condition he couldn’t compete in any ring.
When he could no longer prove the injury was career-ending, Animal resumed wrestling for WCW in 1996, reuniting the Road Warriors with Hawk.