10 Wrestling Matches That Led To Massive Lawsuits

by Jamie Kennedy

1. The Rockers Vs. The Genius & Chuck Austin

The Rockers WWE
WWE.com

When: A dark match before the 11 December 1990 WWF Superstars taping.

Before a December 1990 taping of WWF Superstars, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty teamed up to face The Genius and jobber Chuck Austin. Minutes into the squash match, Jannetty hit his Rocker Dropper finish on Austin and left him partially paralysed on the canvas with a broken neck.

Subsequently, Austin sued the WWF and Jannetty in 1994 for negligence and was awarded $26.7 million in damages. That was later dropped to $10 million when the WWF settled with Chuck out of court (after appealing the judge's original decision).

As seen in the video above, Austin's incident was big news at the time of his lawsuit. He laid it on thick that he wasn't given proper training before his enhancement gig in the promotion, and said he was glad people saw through the "monster corporation".

-

What other specific matches led to big lawsuits? For more wrestling, check out 18 Things You Probably Missed From WWE Raw (Jan 6) and WWE Royal Rumble 2000 Roster: Where Are They Now?

Advertisement

Watch Next


In this post: 
CM Punk
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

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.