Every Wrestling DEATH Ranked By Stupidity
20. Hawk Gets Pushed Off The Titantron (WWF)
Bringing real-life substance abuse issues into the kayfabe realm has been an alarming trait for major companies like WWE and WCW over the decades, and it never ends well. Nobody needed to see Scott Hall stumbling around drunk on episodes of Nitro, for example, and the same could be said for hearing Road Warrior Hawk slur his speech on Raw around about the same time.
In late-1998, LOD's finest admitted to fans live on air that he was going through some serious stuff off camera. People surely wished him well, but no-one needed that sort of private business to become part of the on screen product. By November, Hawk was climbing the titantron and threatening to jump off.
Droz, who had been drafted in as part of LOD 2000 earlier in the year, scaled the big screen and tried to talk some sense into one of his mentors. Then, he sort of/kind of/almost pushed Hawk down to his doom. It was a shocking scene, one made even worse by the announce team suggesting that Hawk might've perished...and that Drozdov killed him.
Of course, he didn't. Hawk survived this massive fall and showed back up years later for a short cameo stint. That was in 2003 though, which means Hawk technically died in storyline back in 1998. The WWF went on to reveal that Droz had been secretly encouraging Hawk's alcoholism to try and off him so he could become Animal's new full time partner.
As you do, right? This unsavoury plot was too much even for the wild 'Attitude Era'.