8 Wrestlers Who Purposefully Sabotaged Matches

One of wrestlings truly great mad men, Bruiser Brody was famed for his bloody, arena-wild brawls and completely off-the-wall behaviour. People were genuinely scared of the giant, including the boys in the back. Indeed, Brody had a reputation for being somewhat uncooperative, something that a young Lex Luger found out firsthand in a 1986 cage match.

During the bout, it's obvious that the two aren't on the same wave length. Fighting babyface Luger tried in vain to get some offense on Brody but 'The Intelligent Monster' (as he was known in Japan) wasn't having it, only halfway selling the blows or otherwise brushing them off. Then, after an awkward spot with the cage, Luger unleashed a barrage of punches on the big man.

Brody didn't even register them, leaving the less experienced Lex at a loss as to what to do. At one point he even asked referee Bill Alfonso just what the hell he should do in there. He goes back to trying to work, but Brody wasn't playing that game anymore. Brody took him down with a single-leg and shoots for the front facelock - a tell that a wrestler is often looking to wrap a match for real. 

After a brief confab with Alfonso, Luger went into business for himself and pushed the referee down, resulting in a disqualification (yes, in a cage match). He didn't even wait for the door to be opened, instead jumping over the top of the steel structure and legging it out of there. The whole thing is totally bizarre and Brody's motivation for the sabotage still isn't quite clear.

Supposedly, he didn't feel like making the blonde-haired, musclebound Luger look like the hero that night. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has posited that Luger may have refused to lose, irritating a man whose aversion to doing jobs was legendary. Luger, for his part, has brushed the incident off as minor, saying that he and Brody were fine after the match and that Brody was simply annoyed that the promoter had failed to pay him what they agreed.