Series / Dark Side of the Ring

"Why did this happen? How did this happen?"

"In the world of professional wrestling, it's still the only sport where its characters live in two different worlds... where fantasy bleeds into reality."

— Mick Foley

Dark Side of the Ring is a television documentary series produced by Vice and Crave that focuses on controversial subjects within the world of professional wrestling. It premiered in April 2019.

The series has covered individual wrestlers, wrestling shows, and the backstage nature of the professional wrestling industry. Namely, about how kayfabe is nothing compared to the backstage politics, drama, and tragedy among the world of professional wrestling.

Narrators for the series include Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, and "Dirty" Dutch Mantell (WWE's Zeb Colter).

The success of the show has resulted in Vice approving several spinoff series: Dark Side of Football, Dark Side of the 90's, Dark Side of Comedy, Dark Side of the 2000's and Tales From The Territories. It also provided much of the footage used for the Vice TV documentary; "The 9 Lives of Vince McMahon".

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Dark Side of the Ring uses the following tropes:

#-D

• 10-Minute Retirement: Atsushi Onita had to be brought back less than a year after his retirement since his successor, ring announcer Shoichi Arai, seemingly had no idea on how to capitalize the initial boom that Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling had as they started to lose their audience.
• The Ace:
  • From the very moment he made up his mind to become a professional wrestler, John Tenta proved he was made up to the task. By the time he reached 22,Tenta was already Canadian Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, scouted by twelve major universities in the States and won three consecutive Sumo Tournaments in Japan. Making it big in the same country, now as a pro wrestler, he went to WWF and right off the bat was placed as first contender for Hulk Hogan's World Championship.
  • Considered a prodigy even since his career's start, Terry Gordy debuted at fourteen years old. By the time he could have a driver's licence he was already a professional. Not only his in-ring abilities were remarkable, Gordy was also a charismatic 300 pounder who cut promos as mighty few could. After blowing up an opportunity to join to the WWF ranks, he found an enormous resurgence in Japan where he went over as singles and Tag Team competitor, being the first American pro wrestler to win the country's coveted Triple Crown. Testament to this is the fact that even after the incident that diminished his capacities, he was still able to work a slow-paced match.
• Acrofatic:
  • Adrian Adonis was always a bulky constitution guy with undefined muscle tissue, but back in his day possesed an incredible swiftness of foot and as described by Greg Gagne, he was nimble enough to perform all kinds of flying maneuvers such as top-rope crossbodies, missile drop kicks, knee drops and turnbuckle flips just like a "dancing bear".
  • The ultimate example of this trope was undoubtfully Bam Bam Bigelow, it should be impossible for someone over 6 ft 2 in / 350 lb to perform mid-air back flips, enzuigiris and the full amount of flying maneuvers, drops and attacks the way he did. Even described by Shane Douglas as akin to a "ballet dancer".
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Justified in the case of Bruiser Brody in the episode focusing on his murder. He is portrayed in a notably positive light, with the worst thing said about him being about how he only cared for himself. His constant screwing over promoters (and, by extension, fellow wrestlers) including his fallout with Vince McMahon Sr., which led to him being banned from every continental states promotion^note ...with the notable exception being the Von Erichs' WCCW, Paul Boesch's Houston territory and Dick the Bruiser's WWA. may have been conveniently left out, but the episode makes it clear that absolutely nothing Brody did justifies his senseless murder.
• Adoptive Peer Parent: Due to Grizzly Smith's predilection for underage girls, Jake Roberts' stepmother Marcia was only a few years older than him.
• Affectionate Parody: The many interviewees impersonating Randy Savage's voice include Bruce Prichard, Jake Roberts, Linda Bollea, Eric Bischoff, Jimmy Hart, Scott Hall and even his brother, Lanny.
• The Alcoholic: On his drive home from work, Eddie Graham would buy a bottle of wine, chug it down as he drove and chuck the bottle into a field of grass that he passed by. One day, the liquor store he frequented closed early and he desperately searched the field for the old bottles he had thrown away to slurp whatever dregs remained inside.
  • Later on, his own son Mike would be spiraling down the same ravine, to the point of getting two separate driver's licenses, one under his legal name (Michael Gossett) and other under his wrestling persona in the eventuality of getting caught and arrested for DUI.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: A large factor in the Plane Ride From Hell. During a seven-hour delay, the bored wrestlers not only began indulging in drugs, they drank three entire carts worth of liquor. Needless to say, elevated blood alcohol levels led to bad behavior. Some of the offenders claimed that they don't even remember the plane ride due to blacking out.
• All Animals Are Dogs: A supplemental video had "Dirty" Dutch Mantell depicting how he befriended a wrestling (female) bear he had to wrestle with back in east Tennessee. Noticing some of his peers were such pricks that they were poking at the poor locked-up animal in the dead of the summer, Dutch shooed'em since they both were having their match in a couple of hours time, feeling sympathy for her, he passed the bear some cool drinks and treats she consumed promptly and with gusto. They ended up working their matches like a dream, so by the end of that week, it was booked a battle royal starring Dutch, the bear AND her bullies... and hilarity ensued!
• All for Nothing:
  • After The Killing of Bruiser Brody the government of Puerto Rico held a brief and poorly handled show trial that the witnesses didn't even know was happening until after it was over. As a result, his murderer was set free, despite having killed Brody in front of at least a dozen people, two of whom were ready and willing to testify to put him behind bars.
  • Dino Bravo was A Hero to His Hometown, the main protagonist and promoter in Lutte Internationale. When that promotion was bought by WWE, he wound up sinking into the mid-card and then sent to "future endeavors".
  • David Schultz's attempts to protect kayfabe eventually led him to being blackballed from the business, only for Vince McMahon to destroy kayfabe himself a decade later.
  • After pulling an impossibly brilliant plan to see his fame and earnings increase exponentially, Brian Pillman suffered a near-fatal car accident, putting a screeching halt to his whole career since now he was seen as a "damaged good".
  • The "coming out" segment of Chris Kanyon impersonating Boy George, only to be soundly and painfully beaten by The Undertaker at WWE, was the beginning of the end for him at the promotion. Later on, his aspirations to be the first openly homosexual wrestler ended up being granted to Orlando Jordan.
  • Two cases on "Blood & Wire: Onita's FMW":
    • With Onita back in his promotion, Arai hired Hiromichi Fuyuki to give the venue a new direction, thus stepping away from the famous Death Matches they were famed for. As Ricky Fuji recalled, a rift between them occurred and a board meeting later, the whole roster respectfully asked Onita to leave.
    • Shell (Arai's daughter) confessed that, after her father sadly committed suicide, his life insurance payout was still not enough to cover his debts, so she and her mother were kicked out of their home and made to pay the yakuza for years afterwards.
  • In her second stint at WWF, Luna Vachon was almost immediately positioned as a valet, rarely allowing to show her true talents in the ring. Not only was she unable to obtain the highly coveted WWF Women's Championship, but she had to watch it go the the non-wrestler Sable.
  • The whole purpose of XPW was to take some of the most controversial aspects of ECW and go even further with them. Despite its initial success, promoter Rob Black became more concerned with using the federation to settle personal scores, ultimately daring the US Government to take him to trial on obscenity charges for the controversial pornography he was making using XPW funds. Ultimately, the government called his bluff and sent him to federal prison, bankrupting both his wrestling and pornography companies.
  • The Steroid Trials were based upon the assumption Vince McMahon had turned into a drug pusher to his own talent. After a lengthy investigation and untold sums of money spent on bringing McMahon to trial, the prosecution was unable to prove Vince's involvement beyond being a user himself and probably having given some steroids to his closest acquaintances, versus his being a large-scale dealer. Echoing the similar John DeLorean's case, the jury found him not guilty.
  • The Career-Ending Injury Magnum T.A. sustained onboard his coveted 911 Turbo Porsche shut down forever his meteoric rise to stardom and his World Heavyweight Championship shot. This was a devastating blow not just for himself, his family and his increasingly growing fandom, but for the whole promotion that cemented their hopes and future on him.
  • After living large and get himself a very profitable and successful career, Abdullah the Butcher now lives surrounded by legal problems and financial setbacks, all of his own doing as he admitted.
  • Bam Bam Bigelow is portrayed by his widow and children as a sensitive, caring man who preferred to spend time with them than the whole fame and fortune he attained at the business. But having no more career options available and having to provide for them winded up hooking him into addictions he was unable to run away from, ultimately having his family and career running away from him.
  • WCW was The Rival promotion to the bigger, wealthier WWE, even beating them in ratings for a while during the Monday Night War. But along came Bash at the Beach 2000, the last nail in the promotion's coffin, with WCW never recovering from the fiasco and being ultimately bought by McMahon for the laughably small sum of $4.3 million.
  • A couple of cases on The Ballad of "Earthquake" John Tenta, referring to both parts of "The Natural Disasters" and the awful time they had courtesy of WCW and WWF booking teams:
    • After the massive push he got on the early nineties WWF, Tenta wanted to take a hiatus and embarked to a new tour in Japan, only for the crushing schedule to take him even further from his beloved family. His financial situation wasn't improving either, so he decided to move from Canada to Florida and try his hand on WCW, where he was given terrible gimmicks. He rebelled by going back to the WWF where he was given another lackluster character to play: "Golga". Out of the business attempted to open a wrestling school that went broke in less than a year and once one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation ended up working in a mall's retail store men's department, and then as a freight driver.
    • With his Tag Team partner away, Fred Ottman continued to perform on WWF as a singles competitor while tending bars in Key West. One night, his brother-in-law Randy attempted to stop a barfight when one of those involved produced a gun, shooting and killing Randy. Seeing no other option to support his family, Ottman took a chance working for WCW where he got the role of The Shockmaster, who's infamously botched entrance resulted in one of the most embarrassing moments in wrestling history, stalling his career out for good.
  • To add injury to the many insults he suffered during his career, Brutus Beefcake's money manager stole everything from him, leading this to get him divorced and ending up as toll collector for Boston's Metrobus transport authority and being arrested for triggering a panic on his station when a security guard mistook a bag of coke he left astray with anthrax.
  • With his in-ring career over and after several setbacks that lead him to alcoholism, Harley Race family life went sour for he became abusive with his wife, who lived in constant fear of threats against her well-being. This ended up in a nasty divorce battle where everything he worked over twenty years for was gone overnight.
  • Chris Adams' bad temper always kept putting him in serious troubles, even serving time for assaulting a flight attendant and a co-pilot on the same flight and then destroying his second marriage for viciously beating his wife after a petty argument. This played a mayor factor on his career decline and the closing of his own wrestling school. After ripping one of his peers' wig off in a GWF match causing profuse bleeding and having a mayor career setback at WCW playing second fiddle to many young up-comers, Chris was fired after being arrested for DUI.
• Ambiguous Situation: The climax of The World According to Marty Jannetty is centered around a story breaking out in the 2010s where he claimed to have "made a man disappear" when he was 14 for an Attempted Rape against him from a co-worker who sold him weed. While Marty ultimately came forward and admitted that was part of a potential wrestling storyline, he takes the time to talk about how it hypothetically might have happened, up to and including taking the filming crew out to the parking lot where it might have happened. Compounding the situation is the fact that the police found no evidence (missing persons, cold cases etc) to support his story.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Jim Cornette and Vince Russo have no love lost for each other. This is touched upon in the Montreal Screwjob episode, where Cornette says that it's his life goal to outlive Russo so he can piss on Russo's grave. Part of this animosity comes from the fact that Russo came up with the Brawl for All, which caused major injuries to the competitors (some of whom never worked for WWF ever again), ruined kayfabe by being presented as "real fighting", and sabotaged the WWF career of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams before it really began. And all of it was just because Russo wanted to get back at John "Bradshaw" Layfield, because Russo didn't personally like him. Despite that, Layfield was the only one to come out of the event without any serious consequence to his career. Cornette, who personifies Serious Business when it comes to wrestling, hates Russo for this (among many other reasons).
  • Bret Hart's Real Life animosity with Shawn Michaels would lead to events that resulted in the Montreal Screwjob. Hart and Michaels had a notoriously rocky relationship backstage, and the Screwjob was the point where they both refused to lose to the other.
  • The Real Life animosity of Invader #1 (a.k.a. José Huerta González) towards Bruiser Brody ultimately leads to the former stabbing the latter.
  • Brittany Pillman still holds anger towards her stepmother Melanie, for her father and she used their wealth to get her sole custody from her mother Rochelle more out of spite than any parenting issue. Melanie gave harsh words to Rochelle on the phone, the last straw that led to her suicide. For her part, Melanie is fully aware of Brittany's anger and knows there is nothing she can do to make it up to her.
  • The list on Ultimate Warrior's case is everything, but short.
    • Jake "The Snake" Roberts maintained a longstanding grudge against him for costing The Snake what could have been his first shot for the WWF Heavyweight Championship.
    • Cornette, Bischoff and Jim Ross expressed unanimously that he was the very worst and most under-developed wrestler they had to deal with in the business. Ross even mockingly said that Hellwig had it all to be a wrestling superstar except for in-mat chops or talent, and that to convey your ideas to him was a complete waste of time.
    • And of course, at the very top, there was Hulk Hogan.
  • On Mr. Vincent Kennedy McMahon's case, it very well goes up to eleven:
    • Owen Hart's widow and children understandably feel this way about him.
    • One of the strongest cases is that of "Dr. D" David Schultz, who still sees Vince as an Ungrateful Bastard.
    • Vince and New York Post sports writer Phil Mushnick, who both Vince and his attorney Jerry McDevitt partially blame for the steroid trials thanks to Mushnick publishing a series of articles about steroid abuse in the WWE and demanding the government investigate. For his part, Mushnick maintains he was only reporting the obvious and is incredulous to how poorly the feds handled the case.
    • Journalist John Arizzi is not one who pulls words in to express what he feels were all of Vince's misdoings.
    • Although some cases have been solved as years went by, those of Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Vince Russo and Jim Cornette may count up too.
    • ...and yet again, at the very top, you will find one Hulk Hogan.
  • On Russo's end, there's a lot of names besides Cornette that call to attention:
    • Dave Meltzer (Never stated near to be a Hulkamaniac himself) expressed that Russo did more harm than good to the entire business. And the legend that Russo helped to improve WCW ratings is an overestimation.
    • Bischoff on the other hand, stated that in his vying to beat WWE by getting the best of that promotion's talent into his, had to endure Russo's lack of creativity and business vision first-hand.
    • Lance Storm stated the idea Russo came out with of turning him Bischoff's (kayfabe) illegitimate son told him nothing redeemable about his creative talent.
    • ...and as if we were applying a Rule of Three, yes, Hulk Hogan!
  • The very legit and physical backstage altercations between Dynamite Kid and Jacques Rougeau.
  • The XPW episode provided two examples:
    • The bitter rivalry between New Jack and Vic Grimes, the latter of whom botched a fall that resulted in the former losing an eye and suffering permanent brain damage. The pair feuded across two promotions, ending in what could be seen as either a botched stunt or an attempted murder after New Jack shot Grimes with a stun gun and threw him off a scaffold; by Jack's own admission, he was aiming for the concrete floor rather than the ring, which theoretically would've resulted in Grimes' death.
    • The Real Life animosity between Rob Black and Messiah after the latter had an affair with the former's wife. The interviewees in the XPW episode unanimously agree that Black is probably the person who hired the home invaders that cut off Messiah's thumb, although none of them can offer any proof.
  • For whatever the reason, "Maniac" Matt Borne, the man later known as the original Doink the Clown, took it against several of his peers due his increasing addiction to hard drugs. B. Brian Blair and the man described by Mick Foley (...and wrestling fandom in general) as impossible to hate "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan told separate first-hand experiences on their bouts against the unstable performer.
  • Abdullah the Butcher is this in his former pupil and fellow wrestler Devon "The Hannibal" Nicholson's mind for infecting the latter with hepatitis C after blading him in a match without his consent.
  • Koji Kitao, a legit former Sumo Grand Champion, wasn't very pleased to see his former schoolmate John Tenta getting over in his country and even less on him. According to historian Sumi Saito and Haku, Kitao started to shoot on the Canadian juggernaut during a match who responded in kind to the attack. Abandoning the ring, the former went on to reveal kayfabe and also stated a tirade of insults against the latter, who vented his frustration by demolishing the locker rooms once he got in there.
  • After WCW was bought by WWE. Buff Bagwell had a training session with Shane "Hurricane" Helms who despised him. After a heated argument, Buff threatened Helms with physical harm and proceeded to slap Helms, once the latter came back to his senses he smacked an iced bottle of water on Buff's head, causing profuse bleeding. Buff had to be stitched up and also had to work a match with Booker T that night.
• Archnemesis Dad: New Jack's, Jake Roberts' and Chris Colt's fathers rose up high above as glaring examples of infamy.
• Armored Closet Gay: Father James Mitchell talks about how Chris Kanyon would make many disparaging remarks about gay people in front of others in order to conceal his own homosexuality.
• Artistic License – Medicine: Dr. George Zahorian, the WWF and Pennsylvania's Athletic commission's ringside physician who ran a steroids distribution ring within the company, and maybe the whole industry, was merely a urologist, which made him unfit to prescribe anabolics or 'roids except in cases where the patient requires them for infertility.
• Artistic License – Physics: Curt Hennig is presented as nearly killing everyone on board the Plane Ride from Hell when he tried to open the emergency exit's door when the plane was thirty thousand feet in the air. At that altitude, the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the plane is so strong that opening the emergency exit is outright impossible. The plane's exit door would need about 24,000 pounds of pressure to open at that altitude; by comparison, only a few human beings in history have ever lifted over a thousand pounds. So even if Hennig was the strongest man in human history, he still wouldn't have even come close to opening the door.
• Asshole Victim: Quite a few:
  • Eddy Mansfield warned John Stossel that, if he would go on in his exposé on pro wrestling, and focused on WWF, he should specifically avoid "Dr. D." David Schultz. Stossel not only went ahead with the expose but went out of his way to meet Schultz.
  • Adult performer and XPW owner's wife Lizzy Borden grew attached to the promotion's top star William "Messiah" Welch, for he was her shoulder to lean on in times her marriage suffered any kind of setback. This devolved into a fling that would later produce one of the darkest episodes in the promotion's history.
  • Pretty much every wrestler whose career was ruined following the Plane Ride from Hell. Curt Hennig — who died within months of his termination — stands out above the rest for nearly killing everyone on board when he almost opened the emergency exit at 30,000 feet of altitude (but see "Artistic License – Physics" above).
  • Matt Borne chose to have a bunkhouse brawl with the wrong guy in the person of B. Brian Blair who beat him to a pulp not once but twice the same night. All because the former thought the latter was picking up on his then girlfriend who for starters wasn't even present in that bar at the moment.
  • Adrian Adonis was a notorious stiff^note The kind of wrestler who mauls people for real. performer and legit tough guy through and through. During his second match against "Dangerous" Dan Spivey ^note An ex-arm wrestler and ex-bill collector turned wrestler known for not taking crap from no-one that one time beat the everlovin' crap out of Road Warrior Hawk, leaving him unconscious on the canvas for the very same reason., Adrian kicked Dan so hard that the latter was left with no other option but to stiff the former badly too. Once it all finished and now in the locker rooms, the kerfuffle raged on still, Spivey struck Adonis so viciously that he was left knocked out in a pool of his own blood with his left cheekbone protruding out of his face.
  • After Harley Race rebuffed Vince McMahon's offer to make him jump ship to WWF, the latter attacked the seasoned veteran who payed the courtesy by sweeping the floor clean with the promoter's sorry rear end.
  • After flamboyant performer Chris Colt joined in a Six-man Tag team with a then novice Bill Anderson and notorious rough performer, Viet-Nam vet, former world judo champion and full-time stoner Mike "The California Hippie" Boyette, he found the hard way why making the latter angry was a terrible idea, one he barely escaped alive from since Boyette was about to utter killing Colt once he went out of control and attacked both partners out of the blue.
• Ax-Crazy : Several Sanity Slippage examples can be found but one highlighted among the rest, that of Dr. Jerry Graham (the man Eddie got his wrestling name after and his kayfabe brother working together as a tag team). Dr. Jerry was a full-time alcoholic who had his kicks maiming fellow wrestlers and civilians alike, fearing no man nor consequences. He was so distraught over his mother's death that he stormed the hospital she was lying in with a 12 gauge shotgun, a .380 ACP pistol and an 8-inch blade hunting knife to steal her dead body only for personal burial.
• Baby Factory: In The Fabulous Moolah's episode, there are depictions of several forms of abuse suffered by her proteges. However, one case stood above the rest: "Sweet" Georgia Brown, a gifted and, by all accounts, very attractive female performer, who was forced first to alcoholism to then be basically Buddy Lee's Sex Slave. Brown ended up delivering a new baby at the end of each working tour, having to support up to five kids whose fathers were completely unbeknownst to her.
• Badass Creed:
  • The words Kevin Von Erich gave to his father at gunpoint:
    "Dad, it takes guts to live, not guts to die!''
  • Herb Abrams' personal motto that's engraved in his gravestone qualifies too:
    "We deal, we cope, we go on."
  • WWE's lawyer Jerry McDevitt has his own in a plate on his office's desk:
    "Its our wits what make us men."
  • An old and well-known one was provided by Eddie to his son Mike Graham as an up-and-coming wrestling newbie about how he didn't need to worry about the size of an opponent:
    "The bigger they are, the harder they'll fall."
  • Definitely and as uttered by Junkyard Dog's nephew Jarvis Woodburn Jr. the one he lived by, taught by his mom is as well-meaning as cool, Super Hero worthy:
    "Family first, treat all people equally."
  • After the crushing loss of his twin brother, Mike Kelly provided this gem:
    "You gotta stay strong. And that's they way I lived my life after my brother have passed, and I just keep going... we do the best we can, and it's all we can do."
  • Referring to the Shockmaster incident, Fred Ottman showed not just his character and cool demeanor, but how a huge, great sport he is:
    "You can turn a negative into a positive. It's been good to me!."
  • Craving for a career on wrestling, Sherri Martel went asking for a chance to Butch Moore's school in Memphis. To put her resolve to the test he slapped her as hard as he could, her response was not just a Wham Line, but a statement of how resolved she was to succeed.
    "Is that all you've got?."

• Bad Boss:
  • Vince McMahon is accused of being this in several episodes. In one particular case, Jake Roberts remembered how McMahon decided not to give him a promised push because his intended opponent, The Ultimate Warrior, was fired from the company; instead of pairing Roberts with another opponent, McMahon instead decided to renege, telling him he had "...the worst luck in the world."
  • Said verbatim by Terry Funk in regards to Atsushi Onita, whom Funk accuses of having "Sticky Fingers"^note The kind of promoter who had a tendency to pay less than promised to his performers.
  • Rob Black, a very obscene pornographer and XPW promoter-owner, demanded his wrestlers perform increasingly dangerous, unprotected stunts and flew into massive fits of violent rage when defied in any way. When his wife cheated on him with one of his wrestlers, the Messiah, he arranged to have the man's thumbs cut off by a pair of hired goons, and then brushed the entire incident off by filming a bizarre promotional video in which he sees The Messiah ascend into Heaven. He also filmed his female adult performers giving him fellatio under the pretense that it would be used in one of his productions, when in fact he only kept it for his own private viewing. Ultimately, he ruined his own federation and got all of his own wrestlers laid off by needlessly provoking the U.S. government into investigating his porn operations when they previously didn't know or care who he was, leading to his going to federal prison.
  • Paul Heyman made Tammy Sytch and Chris Candido film shameless and tasteless vignettes about their substance abuse issues to avoid being fired from ECW. Later on and after serving their in-ring suspension, Paul gave them backstage roles, making them book and pay for wrestlers' travel expenses out of their own pocket with Heyman reimbursing them later. As ECW began to collapse, Paul stopped honoring his side of the deal and left them saddled with the company's debt, resulting in the couple losing their home.
  • All of his quirks and personal demons aside, Eddie Graham was a very well esteemed and respected boss who nevertheless ran his territory like a mobster. He would fire any wrestler, regardless of their drawing power, who lost a fight to a civilian or not protecting the business or just for not injuring performers he didn't like.
• Bash Brothers: Several Tag Team partners stories were often seen in the show.
  • A literal case was that of The Von Erich Boys, doubling up as a Five-Man Band:
    • Kevin, the eldest . Incredibly fit and nimble as The Leader.
    • David, imposing and the most technically gifted of the bunch was The Big Guy
    • Kerry, insanely rip and having the most outstanding career was The Hero.
    • Mike, more production and technical affairs oriented in the business was The Smart Guy.
    • Chris, the youngest and most eager to be partake on the business was The Heart.
    • ...and there was Lance, their Tag Along Kid.
  • "Gentleman" Chris Adams and "Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez formed "The Dynamic Duo", possibly the best heel faction in WCCW's history.
  • The Road Warriors, at least before Hawk's hard-partying lifestyle got out of hand.
  • Ted DiBiase, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Matt Borne as "The Rat Pack" in Mid-South Wrestling. Remembered by "Doc" Tom Prichard as one of the best heel Power Stables ever created.
  • Both of The Rockers, for sure.
  • Earthquake and Typhoon, "The Natural Disasters".
  • Buff Bagwell was part of several on WCW, with 2 Cold Scorpio, The Patriot and Scotty Riggs.
  • Terry Gordy was part of two historically noteworthy Power Stables:
    • "The Fabulous Freebirds" with "Pure Sexy" Michael Hayes and "Playboy" Buddy Roberts. According to former alumni "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and many others, one of the greatest heel six-man Tag Teams in the old southern territories.
    • "The Miracle Violence Connection" with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, a revered gaijin Tag Team in Japan.
  • Brutus Beefcake was more famous for being part of Tag Teams included those with Hulk Hogan and Greg Valentine.
  • Harley Race started to compete professionally as Larry "The Ax" Hennig partner.
• Bathos:
  • Inverted. B. Brian Blair's epitaph for Herb Abrams should have been funny, but the fact that it's both literally true and that Blair is on the verge of tears when he says it makes the moment weirdly poignant.
  "All I know for sure is Herb died doing what he loved... cocaine and hookers."
  • McMahon's wearing an orthopedic collar during the whole steroid trails verily qualifies.
• Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: As told by Jim Ross and Teddy Long, Junkyard Dog made the decision to leave Mid-South Wrestling was him using an office restroom when Cowboy Bill Watts and Grizzly Smith entered and talked about the offers the former was getting. Watts dismissed them, not knowing he was in the room, by saying "That *** ain't going nowhere." JYD signed with McMahon soon afterwards. Watts nevertheless, contacted the show's production and declared that wasn't truth.
• Batman Gambit: Staring at the decline of a stalling career and having a wife and five kids to support, Brian Pillman saw no better option than manipulate none other than Bischoff, Heyman, McMahon and the "smart" wrestling fans to attain better paychecks turning into "The Loose Cannon" persona, and make them believe it all was real. The timing couldn't be more perfect, it was the beginning of the Monday Night Wars.
  • All of a sudden, started to rough up people like Kevin Sullivan and Bobby Heenan live on TV so he could have a word with Bischoff.
  • Confronting the perspective he would never get it on WCW, persuaded Easy E to release him from his contract in a secret agreement under the premise he will be acting from then on as a "free agent".
  • Then made his way to ECW to promote his new gimmick with increasingly disturbing vignettes.
  • And then convinced Vinny Mac he was a property as hot as he claimed to be, getting in the end what he wanted.
• Battle Couple: Chris Colt was part of "The Dupree Brothers" first and "California Hell's Angels" later with mentor, best friend and domestic partner Ron Dupree until the latter got a heart attack and could not perform anymore. A few years later Chris had to grieve for Ron after the latter got another heart attack while announcing a match, passing away in-route to the hospital.
• Bears Are Bad News: Dave "The Bearman" McKigney was a journeyman wrestler and promoter whose gimmick was that he trained bears and wrestled them. Mike Kelly refused to get anywhere near them during his time in McKigney's employ, acutely aware of how easily they could kill him. McKigney's girlfriend would end up being mauled to death by one of his bears in the shower after it snuck into their home, though this wouldn't stop him from continuing working with the animals.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • As told by Sonny Onoo, Antonio Inoki had to intervene with the North Korean government on behalf of Scott Norton after the latter was arrested for speaking ill of the country during a phone call to his wife in the U.S.
  • Goldust coming to the aid of flight attendant Heidi Doyle during the Plane Ride from Hell, preventing Ric Flair from potentially going further after cornering her in the galley and forcing her to touch his genitals.
  • Mike Awesome witnessed how some yakuza goons were giving Sabu an awful beating for being sent flying to their reserved area during a FMW match. Mike swept the floor with them, making the save for his mate.
  • According to several journalists covering the event as Wade Keller, John Arezzi and even Dave Meltzer, Hulk Hogan came to McMahon's aid during the steroid trials, albeit Vince's opinion on the subject was one diametrically opposed to their own.
  • Journalist Bill Apter and peer wrestlers "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and Nikita Koloff were this to Magnum T.A. in his moment of need. The former by covering every aspect of his brave recovery story and not letting fans forget his name and fame. Both the latter ones for devising a way to help out with his medical treatment and to sustain his family by creating a special fund backed by his stable mates on Jim Crockett Promotions including his boss.
  • The Junkyard Dog cemented his mythic Working-Class Hero status being this for kids, especially to those in need. He was a very active advocate for lending a helping hand and he did it by example, by sharing as much as he could of his own time and resources with them.
  • It was Ivan Koloff who ended the Matt Borne / B. Brian Blair's strife by kicking the former in the chest as hard as he could for he was going for the latter's eyeballs.
  • As incredible as it might sound, Abdullah is this to every member of his family; both siblings Josephine and Ralph told how given their parents were stuck on menial jobs and having no better future perspectives, was the reason Larry Shrieve started to work in whatever he could as young as 11. He has been this also to his now caregiver Jocelyn Malikah's son and to herself after meeting the real person^note Who liked to provide food to the homeless behind the feared gimmick.
  • Brutus Beefcake was in both ends:
    • It was B. Brian Blair the one taking him to the hospital after the parasailing accident that almost kills Beefcake.
    • Missy Hyatt stated that in her worst of times during her WCW stint, was Brutus who stopped and confort her since she was willing to harm herself.
  • Harley Race career was saved by promoter Gus Karras, who stopped the doctors willing to amputate his leg after the car accident that killed his first wife.
• Big Eater: As told by Jerry Saggs, "The Natural Disasters" preferred distraction; contrary to the rest of their peers back in the day, was to spend all the time together in their hotel room having prodigal, hearty meals, training, playing cards and telling dumb jokes about everything under the sun until late at night.
• Big Fun: The way each and every interviewee remembers Herb Abrams, Chris Kanyon, Johnny K-9, The Junkyard Dog, Adrian Adonis, John Tenta and Sensational Sherri in their respective episodes.
• Binge Montage: Several across the show, but those on The Mysterious Death of Gorgeous Gino, Cocaine & Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story, The Last Ride of The Road Warriors, In the Shadow of Grizzly Smith, The Plane Ride from Hell, The Steroid Trials, Breaking the Cycle: The Graham Dynasty, The Tragic Fall of Adrian Adonis, Chris Adams, The Gentleman and The Demon, and Sensational Sherri wound-up as Ur-Example.
• Bittersweet Ending: Owing to the nature of the series, almost every episode that isn't a Downer Ending qualifies.
  • With "Macho Man" Randy Savage career passed and after years of being retired from the business, he found solace outside taking care of his aging parents and rekindling the flame with a high school sweetheart, marrying her. He had a quiet, whole, fulfilling life until the day he died of a massive heart attack while driving his Jeep.
  • Bruiser Brody passed away while grasping his son's photograph because he was about to ask Tony Atlas to draw the boy's portrait. Once the news arrived to Japan, his myriad of dueling peers and fans within the country celebrated his life and career in a very emotive ceremony. Although his murderer José Huertas González got off scot-free, his career was another story; in particular, he was locked out of the wrestling mecca of Japan because the Yakuza threatened to send him back to Puerto Rico in a body bag if he so much as set foot on Japanese soil.
  • Kevin Von Erich loses his four surviving brothers (another one having died in a childhood accident when Kevin was a year old) and his father within ten years, but learns to accept and make peace with it. He now lives in Hawaii as the patriarch of his own family, with his two wrestler sons carrying the legacy of the Von Erich name with them.
  • In Brawl for All, Bart Gunn's WWF career was destroyed after being squashed by Butterbean, but he had a successful career in Japan afterwards based on him being the one who defeated "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (a highly successful wrestler with the badass cred to prove it). On After Dark, Bart even said that he wouldn't change a thing.
    • Not too long after the event, Darren Drozdov's wrestling career would end tragically via an in-ring accident during his match with D'Lo Brown that left him paralyzed. He lived on for decades with a positive outlook on life, as he was still able to do the things he enjoyed such as hunting despite his handicap, and held no ill will towards D'Lo at all.
  • In "The Plane Ride from Hell", several wrestlers are fired for their actions and Heidi Doyle and another flight attendant are given large cash settlements from WWF. However, the worst offender, Ric Flair, gets away with sexual assault because he's too powerful in the wrestling world, Doyle is stigmatized by the wrestling community, and Doyle herself says she wanted accountability and a change in wrestling culture versus money.
  • Two instances on David Schultz & The Slap Heard Round the World:
    • Schultz's wrestling career was ruined for protecting kayfabe at all cost against even his better judgment, but he had a successful career as a Bounty Hunter afterwards.
    • Invoked by Eddy Mansfield himself, who stated that after working with John Stossel on his exposé on Pro Wrestling, it ruined his career. But ultimately says that he's in a better place now than he would've been had he still been wrestling, even stating that the aftermath did him a favor.
  • Herb Abrams dies relatively young under bizarre circumstances involving cocaine, prostitutes, and the police, and his dreams of challenging Vince McMahon as a promoter are never realized. He goes on to become a legendary figure in wrestling lore, though, and rumors of his having faked his own death begin to swirl to the point that his legacy achieves near mythic status, which his closest friends believe he'd have cherished even more than financial success.
  • Mike Hegstrand (a.k.a. Road Warrior Hawk) dies of a heart attack at 46, but, prior to that, he finally manages to beat drug and alcohol addiction, finds inner peace after meeting Jesus, and marries the love of his life. Even though his death came so soon after turning his life around, those closest to him were happy that he passed away sober and in a stable place rather than as the result of his addictions, and believe Hegstrand would feel the same way.
  • Owen Hart's family never really got justice over his fatal accident, but despite that, they continue to live their lives nobly to honor his memory. Owen's legacy is also remembered fondly by his colleagues.
  • The Ultimate Warrior dies in his fifties, just like his father and grandfather, thus fulfilling his own prophecy of an early demise; in the final 72 hours of his life, though, he makes amends with many of the people he alienated through his bizarre and destructive behavior, gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and makes a final, heartfelt speech that even wins over some of his last remaining enemies.
  • The children of wrestler Grizzly Smith endured a childhood of horrific physical and sexual abuse, the death of their youngest sister and adult lives characterized by spirals into addictions of alcohol and drugs, but each of them gain sobriety and, with the death of their abusive father, hope that they can become as close as siblings should be.
  • Magnum T.A. was one of the NWA's most popular stars and almost certain to be a future world champion until a car accident resulted in a career-ending back injury. Despite this, he goes on to have a fairly successful career as a commentator and manager before taking a role at WCW's back office through the mid-1990s.
  • Eight years after the incident that affected his mental capabilities and with a waning career, Terry Gordy could at least recover all the time he lost on the road to spend it with his loving children. After an indy match, he was found frothing by the mouth and not breathing at his home by his nephew and fellow wrestler Richard Aslinger who attempted to perform CPR on him. Despite all of the efforts to save him, he passed away due a congestive heart failure at only 40 years old.
• Blasphemous Boast:
  • When it seemed Mike Von Erich couldn't make it due to severe toxic shock syndrome contracted after a surgery, as told by his elder brother Kevin and booker/referee David Manning, Gary Holder in his WCCW chaplain capacity slammed a Bible against a table in rage saying:
  "Lord, there is your word.... keep your word!"
  • Luna Vachon's promos were overloaded with this.
• Blessed with Suck: Long and Ross wondered if JYD's 100% Adoration Rating and "golden ticket" offered to him first by Watts and then by McMahon didn't wind up being more of a curse than a blessing.
• Blood Knight:
  • How about three promotions centered around whole rosters being this? Puerto Rico's WWC on Brody's episode, Onita's own, FMW and of course, Rob Black's XPW.
    • Respect to Brody, his long standing rivalry with Abdullah the Butcher stood up high on a promotion already infamous for being that violently graphic and brutal.
  • Also Nick Gage and by extension, every performer involved in the subculture of "Death Match Wrestling".
  • Johnny K-9 fancied to end all of his matches getting as much color on himself as possible.
  • The Grahams were also notorious for their penchant to wear the crimson mask full-time. To the point that Nicole Gossett (Eddie's granddaughter) remembers how Mike, her dad, started up every Monday morning smelling like a rubbing alcohol bottle left open and having his head wrapped up in blood soaked bandages.
• Body Horror:
  • Kerry Von Erich forced himself into the ring right after having a pretty serious motorcycle accident, not giving enough time for his wounds to heal, ultimately losing his right foot and then pushing himself further into competition.
  • After a near-fatal car accident, Brian Pillman's face had to be reconstructed. But the main damage he suffered was to his left foot who had to be fused to a walking position leaving him unable to run, let alone wrestle ever again. It went so bad that he had to reconnect himself to his IV line every time the cameras went off.
  • Mick Foley remembered when after taking a fireball too close in FMW, Megumi Kudo's plastic fabric bodysuit started to melt down over her skin. As he prepared to walk down the aisle, Foley recalls the almost inhuman screams of pain as Kudo was treated.
  • Two cases in the XPW episode:
    • Someone thought to use charcoal-laced fluid instead of lighter fluid for a stunt. The effect wasn't the one expected so they added more and more liquid. By the time Supreme crashed through that table, his clothes were completely soaked in flaming fuel. Supreme ran around the ring screaming in pain just for Kaos to arrive and helped extinguish him, noting nevertheless that his uncle's epidermis was sticking to his arms.
    • Though not proven, Rob Black is believed to have sent a couple of hitmen to Messiah's home for retribution after finding that his wife was having an affair with his former top star. After several attempts to take down the now seasoned pro wrestler, they successfully amputated his right thumb off with gardening clippers and brutalized him severely. Despite this, Messiah defended himself by applying an arm bar to one of his assailants, breaking the man's arm and making the already exhausted hitmen run away in fear.
• Book Ends:
  • The first (two) and last episodes of Season 2 are about the high-profile controversial deaths of renowned Canadian wrestlers.
  • The first (two) and last episodes of Season 3 Part 1 concern wrestlers who changed the industry, but whose careers and lives were ultimately cut short by the damage done to their bodies over time.
  • The first and last episodes of Season 3 Part 2 cover scandals involving WWF's high-profile talents and upper brass (the Plane Ride from Hell and the Steroid Trials).
  • The first and last episodes of Season 4 show how the rise to superstardom for one of the halves in famous wrestling teams, tends to mean the downfall of the former partner.
• Born in the Wrong Century:
  • Several interviewees ponder how Bruiser Brody's utter brutality shown in his matches, even those performed in front of the toughest, rowdiest audiences The '80s could provide, might as well had find a perfect place on promotions such as ECW or FMW.
  • It's left in the air, after society's opening to gay people, what could have been of Kanyon's life and career if he had entered to the business five to ten years later.
  • Jim Cornette posits that Chris Candido would have thrived in professional wrestling had he debuted at the 2010s–2020s, as the industry isn't Prejudiced For Pecs as it was back in The '90s.
• Breather Episode:
  • Bash At The Beach 2000 during Season 4. While the rest of the series deals with grim topics like death, sexual assault and substance abuse issues, Bash At The Beach 2000 shines a light on the oversized egos and petty backstage politics during the last days of WCW, playing out more like a Black Comedy compared to the typically depressing tone of other episodes.
  • Brutus Beefcake´s on Season 5 may count as this, too.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Chris Benoit rose to the top as one of the most gifted wrestlers of his generation. He was involved in several of the greatest main event angles in the Attitude Era and one of the most all-around revered performers ever. All of his achievements and accolades ended up becoming mere footnotes in lieu of the events that led him and his family to their ultimate fate.
  • Jimmy Snuka was Vince McMahon eye's apple in 1983, building a solid, promising career in the promotion among the greatest names of his generation like Bob Backlund and André the Giant. Nevertheless, his crippling addiction to coke took away the best of him. After the events related to Nancy Argentino's death he went spiraling down to smaller territories, never attaining the same levels of popularity again.
  • Wrestler Sam Houston (born Michael Smith) grew up idolizing his father Grizzly Smith, comparing him to Superman. This stopped when the details of his predatory nature emerged after his death.
  • The legacy of Tom Billington, better known as Dynamite Kid, as one of the greatest performers ever in the squared circle is left to debate due to the increasingly volatile behavior he started to show after his injuries took their toll, according to Mick Foley, Dave Meltzer, and many others. Outside of the industry, Billington's youngest daughter Amaris, born after his first wife left him, grew up idolizing her absent father. Amaris' idealized view of him was shattered when her mother revealed his Domestic Abuse of her while pregnant with Amaris.
  • Luna Vachon revered her adoptive aunt Vivian, considered back in her day as one of the best female wrestlers ever. Along the way, something happened and although she never told the whole story about it, her former husband Gangrel and former co-workers Mad Maxine and Penelope Paradise stated that she confessed to them that Vivian abused her.
• Canon Discontinuity: Discussed, due to the nature of the business.
  • The name of The Fabulous Moolah was erased from WWE's good graces after revealing how much she manipulated things behind the scenes to remain on top, and how terribly she was treating her wrestling students.
  • Chris Benoit was Exiled from Continuity. He's mentioned in title reigns and match results on the company's website, but that's all. Jim Ross is of the opinion that Benoit will "never, ever, ever" go into the WWE Hall of Fame, regardless of how good of a wrestler he was. Ross compared Benoit's situation with that of Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL player convicted of murder: it doesn't matter how good of an athlete he was, no one in their right mind is going to honor a murderer.invoked
  • David Schultz was given one of the greatest heel pushes in history up to the incident with Stossel. Then McMahon tried to make him sign a document stating that he acted on his own accord, despite telling him to attack the reporter in-character. When Schultz didn't sign, he ended up being blackballed from the whole industry under the threat that WWF would not do business with any promotion signing Dr. D in.
  • XPW in a broader sense. After gaining some notoriety and a cult fanbase, a federal investigation led to the eventual closure and seizure of every one of Black's businesses and assets, with Black himself doing time for a huge charge on obscenity, which was the final chapter in his adult film-wrestling promotion.
• Career-Ending Injury: The cases of Droz, Dynamite Kid, Brian Pillman, Hayabusa and Magnum T.A.
• Child by Rape: Jake Roberts was conceived when his father raped the thirteen year old daughter of a girlfriend he was seeing.
• Children Are Innocent: Bam Bam Bigelow's daughter Ricci, describing the incident where he nearly passed out while driving with her. The police were asking her questions, which she couldn't answer considering she was just three years old at the time.
• Cheap Heat:
  • One of the greatest examples in the business' history. "The crushing of Damien". According to Jake Roberts, originally it was meant to be done behind The Snake's back. So he advised Tenta for "Shock value" to get it done ''while he was watching and unable to do nothing to stop it'. This added to Jake's Oscar-grade performance and the subsequent "Damien-burgers" promo shot Earthquake's already meteoric push to a whole new level.
  • Not one of the first most controverted angles in the business' history, but Chris Colt was the first pro wrestler to burn an american flag in front of an audience in 1968.
• Chemical Messiah: Steroids amongst late '80s / early 90's wrestlers within American promotions. Its distribution and use was so normal and being a must to to stay in the business that they were even called candies by them as stated by B. Brian Blair, Dave Meltzer and Terry "Warlord" Szopinski.
• Coming-Out Story: Kanyon, a devoted Catholic, was told by a priest as a child that homosexuality was sinful, having to struggle with his own sexuality and choosing a hyper-masculine profession where people like him were often portrayed as depraved homosexuals didn't help at all. He finally chose to come out at an independent show in 2006, being fully accepted by wrestling fandom, but his already fractured mental condition led to his tragic ultimate fate.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror:
  • In the Plane Ride from Hell episode, Terri Runnels admits to having endured countless instances of sexual harassment during her career and was taught to simply "not sell it" by not complaining about or reporting it, and Rob Van Dam very casually admits to having witnessed multiple instances of wrestlers drugging women's drinks in order to rape them after they lost consciousness.
  • James Mitchell, as Chris Kanyon's manager, had to endure his constant fits of unrestricted anger and frustration, to the point he passed out from actually being strangled by the latter once for the retiring of Mortis due to the new reality-based angles WCW began with.
  • As innovative and incredibly dangerous FMW's matches were (extended but not limited to: electrified barbed wire for ropes, a floating ring, an exploding one and even setting a whole ring ablaze), its full stable praises Onita's forward-looking and creative mind for devising shows so unique.
  • Johnny K-9 grew up in conditions so tough he was left no other option but to get himself into a life of crime.
  • As vividly described by Luna's stepfather Butcher Vachon, one night he woke up after hearing a loud gunshot at the motel he was staying in. Moments later, the venue owner's wife was knocking at his door crying out for help as it was soon known that her husband had just committed suicide. All of this was witnessed by their 4-year-old daughter Gertie. Butcher befriended and eventually married that woman, becoming the only father the girl really ever knew.
  • Eddie and Mike Graham would regularly come home bruised and bloody after their matches. Nicole Gossett recalls that every morning before school she would cheerfully say goodbye to her father as he laid visibly injured in bed from the previous night in the ring.
    • Also and by her own admission, she is no psychiatrist but believes firmly that her grandfather Eddie Graham's decision to take his own life rather than taking on personal problems and inner demons, made suicide feel a true, legitimate option to his grandson first, and then to his son a little later.
  • According to his own niece and great-nephew, Chris Colt was born and raised in a loving environment where he got everything he needed, all of the sudden his father started to drink copiously every weekend, there more often. When he was ten, he found his mother sitting in a couch with blood pouring from her face because his father had pummeled her with a pistol. Chris attempted to find safety for both and his sister inside the family's car when his dad started to threaten and then shoot at them. With his sister at the wheel, they were able to escape.
• Cool Aunt:
  • Linda Pillman, Brian Pillman's sister, was a surrogate mother to her brother's children who made sure they had a stable roof over their heads and were still in contact with one another. Brittany even mentions that she's the closest thing she has to a mother.
  • Nancy Benoit's sister Sandra loves her nephews dearly and was heartbroken over being cut off from David after the murders. The episode ends with her reuniting with David for the first time in years and the two of them spending time together.
• Cool House:
  • The Ultimate Warrior built two awesome homes in Arizona, with one he had to leave to his former wife and another one valued at a million bucks at the time of his passing.
  • According to James Mitchell, once Chris Kanyon got a certain status in the wrestling business, he turned his Jersey home into a beach bar... pool, palm huts, sand and all!
• Cosmic Plaything: Marty Jannetty claims he is a "G.A.T.", God's Amusement Toy, someone He decides to pick on when bored with the other horrors going on in the world.
• Courtroom Episode: The Steroid Trials.
• Cooldown Hug: Chavo and Sandra gave one to David Benoit when he is breaking down towards the end of his interview.
• Credit Card Plot: Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch get heavily into debt when they book travel and hotels for fellow ECW talent on their personal cards when the expected compensation from the money-leaking company stops coming in.
• Crossover: In a very unusual twist. Terry Gordy required a double knee surgery after his 1984' tour in Japan. Somehow he found relief and the help he needed in the teachings of the famous fitness guru Richard Simmons.
• Daddy's Girl: Claudia Bresciano and Ricci Bigelow, the daughters of Dino Bravo and Bam Bam respectively.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The Puerto Rican promotion WWC is depicted this way in Bruiser Brody's episode. Many interviewees state that its fandom was second to none in rowdiness and bloodlust. They tended to throw everything at the performers, ranging from trash to feces, even stones, and weren't satisfied if at least one wrestler wasn't rolled out of the ring on a stretcher.
  • The infamous Plane Ride from Hell was an open secret for years, although most of the information that got out to the public portrayed it as an out of control but ultimately benign experience akin to a really wild frat party. As a result, the event took on near-mythic proportions, with many fans and even some wrestlers expressing a desire to have been on board. When the episode aired, the airline employees and even some former WWE personnel were able to share their perspective for the first time, revealing that, as opposed to the popular conception of the incident, it was in fact a terrifying eight-hour ordeal during which multiple people nearly died and at least one woman was sexually assaulted.
  • Rob Black hopes to make the XPW the darker and edgier version of the already dark and edgy ECW. He briefly succeeds, but the mentality carries over into his porn company, with his darker and edgier videos (including simulated rape and murder) attracting the attention of the federal government.
• Darkest Hour:
  • Once Gino Hernandez, Herb Abrams and Luna Vachon's addictions to coke got out of control, they started suffering perpetual paranoia, believing they were observed all the time.
    • Gino got himself a gun in order to "defend himself from people wanting to whack him".
    • Herb tended to rip furniture apart out of a fear that someone had planted surveillance devices inside.
    • Luna simply erupted into Penelope Paradise's home one night, running amok with a loaded pistol in her hand.
  • The first episode on Chris Benoit focuses partly on his longtime friend Eddie Guerrero. After he'd been fired from WWE for drug use, Eddie's wife Vickie saw it as a good thing, because it might convince him to clean up his act. Vickie recalled Eddie passing out from an overdose at home once, but Vickie was so fed up and frustrated with Eddie's drug use that just ignored him to take their kids to school. On her way out the door, Vickie prayed to God to "take him now" if this was going to be what she had to put up with.
  • After a two-day binge on muscle relaxers and blow at the beach back when The Road Warriors had left WWE and made an Australian tour, Animal went to get Hawk for their scheduled match, only to find out that the latter was suffering complications of cardiomyopathy and wasn't in any condition to wrestle. That was all Animal could take, so he made up his mind to hit the road on his own.
  • It came to Nick Gage in the form of a foolish bank robbery attempt and two stints in prison for that crime (the second for violating his parole).
  • Due to his own bad choices, Johnny K-9 served three stints in prison. In the last one, he pled guilty and served four years because an Innocent Bystander was killed during one of his illegal activities due to a misfired shot during a shoot-out between Johnny's cronies and a rival gang.
  • After being fired from WWE for a fight with a co-worker, Buff Bagwell ended up working for independent promotions for eleven years, during that time, to make meets end and accustomed to a lavish life style, he had to resource to basically turn into a women's escort. Then he was contacted as a "mentor" for the raunchy Reality show Gigolos, where he proceeded to finish an intercourse with a client on camera, a thing the production told him it wasn't supposed to happen, finishing this his third marriage. Hooked in prescription drugs he had various DUI resulting in accidents, being one of them severe enough to leave him bed-ridden for a while.
• Dartboard of Hate: A variant: it was said that after The Rockers broke up, Marty Jannetty had placed up a picture of Shawn Michaels on his wall and had thrown darts at it.
• Deadly Prank: Potentially.
  • Tom Billington and his cousin Davey Boy Smith were possibly the most infamous "ribbers"^note Pranksters backstage. One of their favorites was to drop sleeping pills on someone else's drink^note A deadly combo in its own right. just to pull practical jokes such as defecating on their victim's belongings or turning his hotel room upside-down.
  • Another instance of this was pulled off by Sean Waltman on Michael "P.S." Hayes just to cut off the latter's ponytail in that infamous flight from the UK.
  • Downplayed in Curt Hennig and Brock Lesnar's case. Not the prank per se, but the resulting skirmish took both men to slam each other against an emergency door in a plane on flight.
• Death by Falling Over: Owen Hart's tragic fate at WWE's Over the Edge '99 on May 23, 1999. His colleagues are still disturbed by it.
• Death by Irony: Though it doesn't excuse his controlling actions, Miss Elizabeth escapes the overprotective jealousy of Randy Savage so that she can finally party with the wrestlers that he'd warned her about and kept her away from — a decision that ends up killing her when she dies by an overdose.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: The children of the dead wrestlers covered speak fondly of them.
  • Kevin Von Erich, despite of the events that unfolded themselves later, even named his father (portrayed in Kayfabe as the nastiest performer ever) as the best wrestler he ever saw and the best dad he could ask for.
  • David Benoit says in an interview that still loves his father, despite what the latter did.
  • Dino Bravo's daughter Claudia happily recalls her dad purchasing a new car and promising it to her when she turned 16 and how he remains her hero over two decades after his death.
  • All three of Brian Pillman's children, while acknowledging his flaws, call him a great dad who always provided and sacrificed for his family. Brian Jr. in particular tends to go into Hero Worship.
  • Wrestler Matt Borne's daughter speaks highly of her father, even as she acknowledges his severe issues with addiction that led to some incidents of domestic abuse towards her mother.
  • Bam Bam's surviving family talks very fondly about him and the much they enjoyed spending time with him, or even just staying at home.
• Defeating the Undefeatable:
  • On a Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV show, Johnny K-9 (now rebranded as Bruiser Bedlam) had unceremoniously beaten the southern legend "Bullet" Bob Armstrong.
  • Downplayed. According to Tony Atlas, truth be told, it wasn't necessary to defeat Abdullah on a match, but just to face him on his own game was enough to make of a mid-carder or newbie an overnight sensation.
  • Right off the bat and after a successful career on AWA, Sherri Martel went to win WWF's Women's Championship defeating The Fabulous Moolah, the woman who dismissed the former from her own training camp for being too free-spirited and that happened to be the World Women's Champion for almost three decades.
• Dented Iron:
  • In a 1984 Tag Team match, one of Princess Victoria's opponents stumbled and fell seated on her head, breaking her neck and halting her wrestling career for good.
  • The progressive punishment Chris Benoit submitted himself for years to end that turned up in the severe brain damage that most likely caused the fatal events he's now sadly — and infamously — remembered for.
  • New Jack's fall from a twenty-some-foot tall scaffold due to a botched throw by Vic Grimes resulted in the latter falling seated on Jack's head. The fall alone caused Jack a skull fracture, a broken leg, permanent loss of his right eye's sight, permanent insomnia and 6 months of recovery turned into just two so Jack could return to generate earnings for himself and his very much required treatments.
  • By 1988, Dynamite Kid's body was already torn to shreds and in one of his last WWF matches, he had to be literally carried down the aisle by Smith just to get into the ring. Billington's "comeback" match in 1996 was a complete flop, as it was painfully obvious he was in no condition to compete in-ring on a regular basis anymore.
  • Atsushi Onita cemented a career as one of Japan's most daring high-fliers. After finishing a match, he simply couldn't stand, not realizing by then his right knee was completely shattered and a bone was protruding out of his skin. He was told by the medics his career was over, but proving Heart Is an Awesome Power, he changed his wrestling style and was back in the ring less than a year later.
  • Magnum T.A suffers a Career-Ending Injury after a traumatic car accident that damages his spine. Despite being told he would most likely would be left a quadriplegic for the rest of his life, Magnum walked down the aisle after an urgent surgical procedure and several months of hard therapies later, no longer an in-ring performer but as commentator and manager.
  • The constant strain Bam Bam Bigelow subjected his body to took a hefty toll on his shoulders and knees, this being the reason he fell so hard into prescription drug use.
  • The high-flying style of The Rockers eventually left Marty Jannetty wheelchair-bound and with constant pain in his ankle.
  • In a reel played on his episode, Harley Race talked about a couple of rods in his back, artificial hip, four screws in his left leg and two bracers in his left forearm. Despite of all of this, the man kept on competition for a long time.
• The Determinator: This can be said about Harley Race and the legacy he left in the industry, not only he had his first professional match before he could even learn to drive a car, but he honed his skills and sharpened his teeth with the toughest among the tough back in his day. His career could have ended very early due a near-fatal car crash that left him as a young widower. Then a group of doctors told him they most likely had to amputate his left leg and he would never be able to walk again. As told by Jim Cornette, in a land of tough guys, he was "The King", a man simply impossible to be hurt.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • After the Montreal Screwjob went down, Jim Cornette didn't think that Bret Hart would go on TV and state that he was screwed out of the title, as that would be exposing the business. But that was exactly what Hart did.
    • Vince McMahon thought he would be seen as someone who did what he had to do by doing a sit-down interview justifying what he did to Bret Hart, but it backfired. To his credit, McMahon used this as an opportunity to become the biggest heel in the WWF.
  • Played for Laughs. New Jack recalled how his Tag Team partner as "The Gangstas" Mustafa Saed used to smoke pencil shavings. Once he got it so bad that ended up fighting against some policemen, getting himself submitted and arrested, to Jack's amusement.
  • Eddy Mansfield decided to work with John Stossel's exposé on wrestling in order to target Ole Anderson (and by proxy the NWA) out of revenge for being blacklisted from wrestling. Yet, the thought that Stossel would go after the biggest, most well-known wrestling company never came to his mind.
  • Despite repeated warnings, David Arquette agrees to a death match with Nick Gage. It doesn't go well for him and he admits he should have backed out.
  • Jim Ross by his own admission said that renting a luxury 757 chock-full-o-booze charter for the WWF's roster wasn't the brightest idea they've ever had.
  • After watching a WWC match where the ring ropes were set on fire, Onita had an idea for a tag team match between him and Tarzan Goto against Sabu and the then 66-year-old Original Sheik. The match started out as expected, but in due time, the quartet soon realized that the oxygen inside the ring was running short and the heat was so intense that the FMW logo at the canvas' center had stuck to their palms. Realizing the serious danger at hand, Onita called the match off, leading to the wrestlers escaping out of the ring as soon as possible.
  • The Ultimate Warrior sent Vince McMahon a scathing letter demanding higher pay and better perks or else he would no-show his advertised match at SummerSlam 1991. It seemingly didn't occur to him that such an action would immediately put him at the top of Vince's shit list or that he had nothing to hold McMahon to his word. Sure enough, Vince agreed to Warrior's terms only to hand him his pink slip the second his SummerSlam match was over.
  • After deciding to bomb a strip club, Johnny K-9 left the task to some of his more overzealous followers, who decided to take matters into their own hands and bomb a police station instead.
  • The XPW episode showed this trope in two instances:
    • William "Messiah" Welch denied sleeping with his volatile former boss Rob Black's wife, but, after he parted ways with the promotion, he decided to admit to it in a vulgar promo during a live show while working for a rival company, likely resulting in the violent home invasion he suffered shortly thereafter. Messiah certainly regrets his actions and believes admitting to the affair in such a public and obscene way led to the attack.
    • Black himself agreed to appear on an episode of Nightline, drawing national attention to his pornography empire and its disturbing output (including simulated rape/murder videos and videos in which flat-chested adult actresses portray minors) when he and his organization were on the fringes of society. He later doubled down by challenging the U.S. Government to come after him. They took him up on his offer, bringing him up on federal charges and sending him to prison for one year, resulting in the bankruptcy of both his porn company and the XPW.
  • The U.S. Government thought it would be a proverbial piece of cake to convict Vince McMahon on steroid distribution charges in the WWF. But it didn't take into consideration several things, which ended with McMahon and his company getting off scot-free.
    • Steroids were legal during the time period in question. Due to the Grandfather Clause in American law, if something was legal at the time it was done, you can't be prosecuted for it.
    • Steroids were widely used in all wrestling organizations, not just the WWF. That meant the scope of its case should have been far larger than it was.
    • The summoned witness wrestlers wouldn't be cooperative, especially Hulk Hogan, since their livelihoods were tied to the WWF.
    • The one wrestler who cooperated, Kevin "Nailz" Wacholz, would not only give uncorroborated testimony about being ordered to use steroids by McMahon, he also wrestled in a full prison uniform that hid his physique.
    • Most stunningly of all, the government didn't double-check the dates. They accused Vince of giving Hogan steroids on Long Island, on a date the WWF wasn't in the area.
  • Chris Candido's Finishing Move, "The blond bombshell", took a major toll on his backbone, to the point doctors analyzing his x-rays asked him "where was the car crash he was involved."
  • Matt Borne's spiral into harder, heavier drugs (extended but not limited to 'roids, oxy's, coke and crack) going out of control cost him dearly as he saw two of his families and his career going down the drain. The loss of his coveted WWE spot haunted him for the rest of his life.
  • When Junkyard Dog left Mid-South, "Cowboy" Bill Watts naturally tried to find a new star to replace him. Tested numerous black wrestlers, not realizing that JYD's popularity transcended race. Jake Roberts and Jim Ross noted that they weren't necessarily bad (Including noteworthy names as big as California's favorite heel Brickhouse Brown or Butch Reed to name a few). According to Koko B. Ware, Ted DiBiase and Roberts, you couldn't stick another wrestler in JYD's spot just because they shared his same race.
  • The cause of the many, many incidences that got Marty Jannetty deported from various countries and multiple stints in jail.
  • The Shockmaster's fiasco happened, according to its unfortunate receiving end Fred Ottman, due the WCW production crew provided him with the now infamous "Imperial Stormtrooper" mask all cover in glitter, same that was entering on the little pinholes he needed to see through. Furthermore, his "spectacular" entrance had to be done bashing through not a prop fake but through plain drywall. This resulting in Ottman falling and losing comically the gimmick's mask, making impossible to his partners in the spot to avoid corpsing.
  • Showing what it means to be A Friend in Need, long time Buff Bagwell's buddy, wrestling referee Slick Johnson has been there for him through thick and thin. He described several instances on his life with Buff, but one in particular stands out. When Buff got calf implants, Slick had to carry him to unleash his bowels in the restroom and then put him back on his favorite seat for weeks to end because Bagwell was unable to move his legs. He had to take them out because it caused him so many problems he was in danger of loosing both legs.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Chavo Guerrero Jr. reveals in "Benoit: Part One" that this happened to his uncle Eddie. According to Chavo, he found Eddie on his bathroom floor, barely clinging to life. Though Chavo tried to get help, Eddie ultimately passed away in Chavo's arms. Chavo tears up upon recalling it.
  "I haven't been to this place in a long time."
• Dirty Old Man:
  • Buddy Lee, a former wrestler turned promoter and The Fabulous Moolah's husband, was portrayed as a notorious abuser, pimping out his girl protegees and even extorting them for sexual favours in exchange of better booking, schedules and prestige.
  • Grizzly Smith, to put it mildly. He was a notorious pedophile (son Jake Roberts was conceived when he raped his mother when she was thirteen) who routinely preyed on girls as young as nine, including his daughters Robin and Jo Lynn, and took them on the road with him. It was such an open secret that Jim Cornette heard jokes in the wrestlers' locker room about it.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Butterbean, a dangerous professional boxer, was brought in to bury via brutal beating Bart Gunn as punishment for the latter beating "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and thus ruining the WWF's plan for a potential feud between "Dr. Death" and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. All the worse because it was hardly Bart's fault that he'd won a legit fight they'd themselves booked! If anything it's their own fault (see Nice Job Breaking It, Hero).
  • Cornette views Russo creating Brawl for All simply to see Bradshaw get knocked out for being a braggart and a bully as this, thus considering the injuries the competitors suffered and the many careers the event finished.
  • David Schultz and his supporters believe his stalled push and eventual release for taking Vince's orders too literally and slapping 20/20 reporter John Stossel was this.
  • The awful beating Billington gave to Jacques Rougeau backstage because (in his mind) the latter made him look bad and for never really "earning" the spot given to the latter by WWF's booking team. Ironically, Billington's wife believed that Rougeau giving her husband his well-deserved potato in retaliation for the aforementioned event is this.
  • A failed attempt to make a "proof" porn tape with a female sexual worker Kanyon didn't show up to drove James Mitchell to defend himself, pulling out a pistol due to the former physically attacking the latter. The Sinister Minister had to admit on camera that he was willing to shoot Chris if the whole matter went south much further.
  • When a strip club denied service to the "Satan's Choice" members due to a regulation forbidding gangs to wear colors on the premises, Johnny K-9 simply wanted to blow the place up.
  • When Luke Hawx raised his hand to protect himself from a chair shot, Rob Black had him during the next show handcuffed and repeatedly hit in the head with a chair by Supreme, all of this without telling Hawx beforehand.
    • Black also almost certainly had Messiah beaten and maimed after the latter slept with his wife.
  • Harley Race's legend was cemented on this:
    • He stood up for a woman being mistreated by her man once, not knowing the latter had a friend with a knife right behind Harley who proceed to stab him three times in the back. As told by Trevor Murdoch, once Race had his wounds treated, he found out where the guy lived and passed by on his car, spraying the place with a machine gun.
    • After his confrontation with Vince McMahon, Race discovered the WWF was having an incoming event in Kansas City, His hometown, so he proceeded to storm the place Hulk Hogan was with a gun, since he couldn't find the World Heavyweight Champion, Race had to settle up with set the ring ablaze.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Invoked. This was Junkyard Dog's advice to his nephew after he once caught him snorting some powder, warning him not to be caught by him doing drugs or else. A lesson the latter learned quite well, as stated by himself.
• Do Wrong, Right:
  • When recounting how he almost murdered Vic Grimes in their scaffold match at XPW, New Jack fully admitted he wanted him to land on the floor, but didn't throw him hard enough, which really says a lot given how he still could've died regardless given how he bounced off the table and into the ropes.
  • According to Foley and Cornette, to portray salty, over-paid of themselves Jerks came natural to Chris Candido, but Tammy Sytch was the one who Surpassed the Teacher.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Jacques Rougeau showed to The Dynamite Kid this very trope in action about how you can only abuse of someone a certain number of times before the aforementioned person bites back and with a vengeance!
  • B. Brian Blair showed to Matt Borne the literal consequences of screwing around and finding out while picking up fights out of misunderstandings or accusing someone with no evidence of the misdoing.
  • Adrian Adonis enjoyed roughing up his opponents and was well known to work brutally stiff during his matches. However, when he tried doing it with Dan Spivey he found himself on the wrong side of a severe pummeling in the ring for all to see. When Adonis tried to attack him in the locker room afterwards, Spivey uppercutted him so hard his cheekbone poked out of his face.
• Double Standard:
  • The Gorgeous George gimmick has being a staple in classic pro wrestling, up to the Turn of the Millennium it was perfectly fine to portray characters with homosexual traits (As "Adorable" Adrian Adonis and Goldust had proven) but being one openly was a complete no-no. This turned up playing against Chris Kanyon making him impossible to be his own character and possibly switching on the many mental issues he had to endure for the rest of his life as Father James Mitchell observed.
  • According to several talking heads, Tammy Lynn Sytch was hazed by the people in the locker room due to her 'cockiness' at being WWE's first Diva.
    • Mick Foley is of the opinion that her cockiness was only a problem because she was 'a woman in a [predominantly] man's business.'
    • Terri Runnels on the other hand, thinks Tammy ended up as she did for not honoring her relationship with Chris and screwing with as many main-eventers as she could, gaining crippling addictions nurtured by these same acquaintances.
  • As cold and bluntly stated by both, Tony Atlas and "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd taking a quote from "Lightningbolt" Patterson given the times and era Junkyard Dog was a rising Super Star first on Mid-South and then on WWE:
  "....you just can't do what the white man do and keep your job."
• Downer Ending:
  • After fleeing from an overbearing husband to wind-up in a relationship with a married man, Miss Elizabeth died by overdose. Several people theorized that the cause was her addictions spiraling out of control since she was dosing herself at the same level of men three times her size.
  • Bruiser Brody was murdered in the locker room by fellow wrestler Invader #1 during a WWC show in Puerto Rico, who is eventually acquitted of the murder in no small part due to the corruption of the police involved, and has continued to live his life, a bitter pill that Brody's widow, son, peers and fans worldwide had to swallow for years.
    • Tony Atlas, the one wrestler who was willing to come forward and accuse Invader #1, was never contacted to appear in the trial.
    • "Dirty" Dutch Mantell's subpoena to appear in court arrived to him after the verdict had reached the news stands.
  • The deaths of both Gino Hernandez and Dino Bravo remain as cold cases to this day, leaving a family (In Bravo's case) without any closure.
  • It was told how Eddie Guerrero got clean from drugs, his WWE's job back, turned to God for comfort, restored his family's faith in him, and eventually became WWE World Heavyweight Champion. However, this made his sudden death in 2005 from heart failure all the more tragic.
  • Less than two years later, Chris killed his wife, his son, and then himself. It broke Benoit and his wife's families apart, WWE retroactively erased him from programming, and surviving family member David Benoit was left with very few people to turn to in his time of need.
  • Jimmy Snuka is deemed unfit to stand trial for the death of Nancy Argentino due to failing physical and mental health, and would be dead less than a year later. And any answers as to exactly what happened to Nancy died with the Fijian performer.
  • Herb Abrams died so far from anyone who loved or cared about him that no one even knows exactly what happened to him, destroyed by a lifetime of bad choices and substance abuse.
  • Never able to perform in-ring competition again, Brian Pillman had no other choice but to join in the WWF as a by-side character, after the kick-start of a hot angle involving him and his former Tag Team, partner Steve Austin, he no-showed for a shooting for he was lying dead on his hotel room from a sudden painkiller induced heart attack being only 35.
  • The high-flying/fast-paced style known as "Hi-Impact" Dynamite Kid pioneered to make up for being a 'small guy' resulted in unfathomable wear and tear on his body. He eventually ended up in a wheelchair in his forties, because doctors couldn't operate on his spine due to the scar tissue that had built up. By the time of his death at 60, he was a shell of himself and a pariah in the wrestling industry, with his in-ring legacy clouded by his personal life.
  • Chris Kanyon, an innovative, versatile, very well-esteemed performer by fans and a witty, dear friend to his peers who according to Diamond Dallas Page was one of the very few people in the business no one had a bad thing to say and how much he liked to work with him, passed away in 2010, being only 40 years old.
  • Hayabusa, Onita's protegee and FMW's top ace suffered a horrific accident whilst performing his trademark Moonsault, breaking his neck and being left paralyzed. Over time, he regained some of his ability to walk, albeit with the assistance of crutches. Sadly, complications due his condition would end up killing him at the age of 47.
  • Ion William Croitoru, the man known as Johnny K-9, passed away in prison at the age 53 due to a lifetime of bad choices and worse acquaintances.
  • Luna Vachon devoted most of her life to wrestling, spent solid 15 years building herself a strong name and reputation, battled sexism and exploitation in her quest to find in-ring fame and have women's wrestling become just as respected as men's own. After losing the career she loved, which soon led to her becoming a waitress and a tow truck driver later, passed away via an accidental drug overdose at the age of 48.
  • Chris Candido kicks his drug addiction, gets back in shape and returns to national television as part of the upstart Total Nonstop Action promotion. Then he breaks his right leg in a freak in-ring accident and dies of a blood clot caused by flying too soon after surgery at age 33. Tammy gets deeper into substance abuse, is arrested multiple times and as of the time the episode first aired, remains in a Florida jail on DUI Manslaughter charges that could keep her in prison for over two decades.
  • Junkyard Dog drove many hours for his daughter's High School graduation, missing it, spent some time with his relatives, then decided to get home on time. He Fell Asleep Driving, getting in a one car accident that took his life. Thirteen years later, his only child died abruptly at 31 from a ruptured heart valve.
  • After making up his mind he had to trim his frame back to normal, attempting to kick a crippling coke addiction out and having sucsessful stints on AWA and NJPW, Adrian Adonis parted to a trip for a match in Newfoundland, Canada on a van with fellow wrestlers Dave "Bearman" McKigney, and The Kelly Twins. As told by Ricky "Soulman" Johnson^note Brother to Rocky Johnson and Dwayne Johnson's uncle. who was 10-15 minutes behind them, a few miles to get into the township with Ted Kelly at the wheel, he got blinded by the sunlight shinning straight into his eyes while attempting to swerve to avoid hitting a moose. They all fell from a bridge into a creek several feet below, Mike sustained critical injuries on his legs but the rest of the entourage was killed in the incident. To make tragedy even worse, a pair of McKigney's road aides ransaked the place searching for valuable stuff before any emergency service could be contacted.
  • Despite of the tremendous push WWE gave him and the meteoric rising to stardom that made him a full-time main-eventer in just three years, Bam Bam Bigelow never quite reached his full potential as wrestler. As time went on, he became addicted to oxycontin and other drugs, loosing his family after nearly crashing his car with his then-three year old daughter by sleeping at the wheel and being pulled out by state troopers. Eventually he would die alone from a drug overdose at 45 years old.
  • Noting blood clots on his urine and keeping his illness secret to his family, doctors gave a grim prognosis to John Tenta. Leaving a tumor on his bladder to grow the size of a baseball, his possibilities of survival even with treatment were short. Battling this ailment as much as he could he elongated his life span, he even cold make it to his eldest son's wedding. But unable to get rid of a malady that spread across his all body, he passed away only two weeks shy of being 43, unnoticed by people within the industry except for a few friends and of course, his loving, grieving family.
  • After his chaotic lifestyle drove him out of the business and making a living on gay pornography, Chris Colt would end up contracting HIV, dying alone with a needle in his arm at a Seattle's back alley where he was found two days after his demise at 48 years old.
  • In a situation that could have been avoided, broke and with his career over, Chris Adams was introduced to "Booray" Partnell, a fan who ended up acting as his caretaker, only for Chris to accidentally kill his then girlfriend at Booray's home by overdose and then brutally assault the latter on a separate occasion, forcing Partnell to defend himself with a pistol he promptly used against the former, killing him at only 46 years old.
  • With her career demolished due raging drug abuse and estranged from her son for a new relationship to a man only seeking advantage of her now defunct celebrity, Sherri Martel was inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame some years after her forced retirement. After confessing to her closest and best friend she was about to be given a most required back surgery and a chance as female performers trainer, she collapsed while sitting in a rocking chair at her mom's porch. After a police investigation, the autopsy revealed she died from accidental overdose at 49.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • Scott Hall was convinced that the Montreal Screwjob was a work and everyone involved was aware, including Hart. According to Hall, this would never had been on TV any other way.
  • Pillman's son Brian Jr., upon learning of his father's death, believed that it was all a work, especially while observing his family crying and hugging one another. This is justified due to him being four-years-old at the time and seeing his father on television while also doing segments in the home as well, this was all he knew.
  • Tommy Dreamer, when asked about the incident in which Ric Flair drunkenly sexually assaulted an airplane hostess during the "Plane Ride From Hell", brushes it off as a "joke" that Flair did all the time to "entertain the boys", before comparing people having an issue with it to people having an issue with his double ponytail.
• Drowning My Sorrows: According to everyone who was interviewed during the episode about his tragic family legacy, the cause Eddie Graham ended up taking his own life by shooting himself twice after dealing with a life of alcoholism and several financial setbacks, was he couldn't bear the fact his father and younger brother took both the same option some years earlier. A trait his son Mike shared too to deal with Eddie's own demise and later on, his son Steve's own.
• Dysfunction Junction:
  • The way Moolah's students such as Wendi Richter and Princess Victoria recalled her training camp. Ranging from putting her most advanced students to beat the rookies to a pulp to secretly founding her personal extortion, swindle and even solicitation ring.
  • In the Shadow of Grizzly Smith shows the twisted, sadistic dynamics Aurelian Smith Sr. submitted his children to. Youngest brother Richard, who was adopted out by Grizzly as a toddler, considers himself 'the lucky one of the bunch.'
  • What ensued from multiple WWE wrestlers and talent being stuck on an airplane for 7+ hours, at a time when drugging a coworker or a random woman was a scarily common "prank".
  • The utter mess that Bash at the Beach 2000 winded up being was a full-platter of distrust, envy and power struggles between Bischoff, Russo, Hogan and a few others involved.
  • Buff and the Bagwells includes Buff's family tree: his father Steve, his mother Judy, and two elder brothers. They were loaded and living large but financial setbacks brought their lavish life style to a halt, owning up to three bank loans they attempted to honor but couldn't, causing the entire family to fracture in violent ways. His father once unloaded a machine gun' after losing big in a card game, and another time he and Marcus shot each other the night Judy threatened to leave.

E-H

• Empty Shell:
  • After miraculously survive to a life-threatening fever for staph infection, Mike Von Erich wasn't the same anymore, as if nothing was left of him after the terrible ordeal.
  • Exhausted and perpetually homesick, Terry Gordy started to quench his sadness and ailments with halcyon. Already having suffered a severe overdose, in a fateful flight back to Japan in 1993, he spent unresponsive over thirty minutes and started to suffocate before landing. When the country's emergency services could be called into action it was too late, after two days in coma, his response time, speech capacities and motor skills were severely affected. While physically he fully recovered enough to continue wrestling, mentally his personality was gone, reducing the bombastic Freebird to a slow talking, impaired shade of his former self.
• The End... Or Is It?: In regards of Gino Hernandez's death. The supposed culprit, a man by the name John Royal^note Probably an alias (formerly a powerful Texan drug dealer now serving 30 years for multiple crimes), stated on a recorded phone call to Gino's mother than he never had a hand on the issue, remembering how he even afforded Hernandez's lavish funeral and how close as friends they always used to be. Some people interviewed during the episode stated that the most likely cause could be that Gino took on a strain of "bad coke"^note A not-properly downgraded product which if consumed is potentially lethal.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Jim Cornette is introduced tearing a photo of Vince Russo in half, and throughout the episode, he's wearing a shirt with a picture depicting him pissing on Russo's grave.
  • Vince Russo is introduced starting his podcast stating that he's up to talk about anything other than wrestling. Why? Because he hates wrestling. This establishes his "outsider" status in regards to wrestling in comparison to someone like Jim Cornette.
  • Bart Gunn is introduced talking about an injury he sustained from a bar fight, establishing him as a badass who would go on to win the tournament.
  • Joe Laurinaitis described his first real meeting with Mike Hegstrand: He was doing inclines at the gym before he felt a hard slap on his chest, followed by Hegstrand shouting "Laurinaitis, you ain't right! You should be lifting more than me!"
  • On 1989, a member of the audience was invited to the ring by Dino Bravo in the middle of his "push-up challenge" against Ultimate Warrior. The idea was to sit the gargantuan attendant on The Warrior's back to test the wrestler's strength, when all of the sudden the stranger crushes deliberately Warrior, and that was the way the world was introduced to "Canadian Earthquake".
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Jim Cornette of all people (see Oblivious to His Own Description below), in regards to the struggles The Von Erichs faced in the business to the point of multiple suicides, said this:
  "I loved the wrestling business all my life, but it's not that important."
  • During the "Plane Ride from Hell," Goldust drunkenly commandeers the plane's intercom to perform an impromptu serenade to his ex-wife, also a passenger on the plane; despite refusing to relinquish the intercom to a flight attendant, he's the sole person to come to her aid when Ric Flair corners and sexually assaults her in the galley, preventing the incident from potentially escalating to full-blown rape. It's notable that even Heidi Doyle, the flight attendant in question and victim of much of the worst of the debauchery of the flight, when interviewed for the piece, stated she didn't get as upset with him as she did everybody else, and even felt some amount of sympathy for him since it was clear he was heartbroken and hurting (it also probably helped that, compared to the rest of the chaos that took place on the plane, grabbing the intercom to drunkenly sing out of key is probably the least horrific thing she was subjected to.)
  • New Jack, who gleefully admits to being a violent, unstable thug who intentionally injures opponents who wrong him, leaves an angry voice message for Rob Black chastising him for hiring two goons to attack and mutilate Messiah in his home.
• Evil Matriarch: According to fellow wrestler and close friend for almost four decades "Mean" Mike Moran and Jannetty himself, his dad was very caring and supportive, but his mom fit this trope on the dramatic variant.
• Evil Pays Better:
  • Dino Bravo, after having developed extravagant tastes during his time in the WWF, found himself unable and unwilling to do any kind of lower paying job after being released from the company. This led him getting involved in an organized crime family as an enforcer and narcotics smuggler in order to maintain his expensive lifestyle.
  • Johnny K-9 actually did some good money as a wrestler, but he was pulling in a small fortune as an organized crime enforcer. His widow claimed that he could easily obtain $20,000 dollars with just a phone call. Lance Storm believes that Johnny's attempts to make it big as a wrestler was a vain attempt to give himself a reason to leave his lucrative criminal life behind him.
  • Dr. George Zahorian and former weight lifting coach Bill Dunn ended up running a steroids ring within the industry. The prosecution was able to press charges against Zahorian for his clients weren't actually his patients.
• Extreme Doormat: Chris Candido gained a reputation as one due to his girlfriend Tammy Sytch openly cheating on him with Shawn Michaels. He wouldn't risk his job by confronting up Michaels and he couldn't bring himself to break up with Tammy over her infidelity.
• Eye Scream: On a mid-match altercation at the aisle on Mid-South having Jim Duggan and an enraged fan in a legit brawl Hacksaw got solved immediately, Matt Borne kicked the other guy's head so hard that popped one of the hapless fan's eye out.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin wasn't too excited in having to team up with Brian Pillman as the former had wanted to focus on his own singles career, but after their time together as the Hollywood Blondes tag team, they eventually became close friends.
  • Several instances on "The Double Life of Chris Kanyon", highlighting DDP, executive Rafael Morffi (who was also a friend to him since childhood) and James "The Sinister Minister" Mitchell.
  • Gangrel candidly said that's how he and Luna started their Fire Forged Marriage.
• Flanderization:
  • The Montreal Screwjob becoming pretty much the be-all and end-all of Bret Hart's entire career, as if everything he had ever accomplished before that didn't happen or doesn't matter.
  • John Stossel states that even up to this day, despite his long career as a journalist, he is mostly known as the guy David Schultz slapped, even mentioning that it is the second most watched video of him on Youtube.
  • Precisely Fuyuki's "new direction" result in FMW.
  • Luna Vachon was an accomplished professional wreslter who could and did go toe-to-toe with her male colleagues and other female wrestlers in the 80s and early 90s. However, most fans of the Attitude Era only know of her as one of the less remarkable valets who was ordered to lose at WrestleMania XIV to a professional model at a time when the women's "wrestling" division was a glorified bra-and-panty show.
• Flipping the Bird: Done by Terry Funk in regards of Atsushi Onita, but stating he remembers him fondly.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Adrian Adonis based his "Adorable" gimmick straight up after Gorgeous George.
  • By his own admission, Abdullah did the same after The (Original) Sheik.
  • "The Fabulous Freebirds" were one of the few and earliest examples in american pro wrestling to include an entrance theme, back in their day.
  • On the bullet above topic Chris Colt also did it using Alice Cooper's Welcome to my nightmare and not just that. According to Cornette, long-time friend historian Tom Burke and fellow performer "Moondog" Ed Moretti, Colt improved several aspects we take for granted on Extreme Wrestling nowadays.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: A common occurrence among wrestlers featured on the show.
  • A young and naive Magnum T.A. was offered by veteran Buzz Sawyer a spot for a brilliant career on wrestling but having to pay a wrestling license costing U.S. $10,000. An amount that was swindled by Sawyer to Magnum's grandfather because, as revealed later, such licenses are only available on states with athletic commissions in them and they cost no more than U.S. $25.
  • As explained by Tony Atlas, many highly paid wrestlers tend to live extravagantly rather than save or invest their earnings under the belief that the good times will never end only to find themselves destitute once careers take a downturn.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Tony Atlas mentioned, as they were taking him to the hospital after receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Brusier Brody in their match, José Huerta González turned to SD Jones and said:
    "One day I'm gonna kill that man."
  • The Badass Boast provided by Jacques Rougeau unbeknownst after having his satisfaction on Tom Billington:
    "The next time... I'm going to put you on a fuckin´ wheelchair!"
  • James Mitchell recalled that during his last visit to Kanyon, the latter could spend up to six days lying in his bed and after saying good-bye to his friend, the former felt that Chris had already made up his mind into taking his own life. Mitchell's worst fears came to pass for when he tried to contact Chris up to seven times a day, his calls were never returned.
• Forgiveness:
  • The Ultimate Warrior achieved maybe the most difficult feat during his lifetime at his WWE Hall of Fame inception, by talking things out with all of his past sworn enemies. Reportedly, Jake "The Snake" Roberts talked about how he was planning on beating up the Warrior with a fistful of a roll of quarters. But Warrior tapped Jake on the shoulder and apologised for all of his behavior in the past in a conversation, making Jake unwilling to go through with it.
  • 2 Cold Scorpio and Road Warrior Hawk got into a confrontation that escalated to the point where the former had wanted to stab the latter with a makeshift shank. Everything was going to be decided in an elevator at the end of Collision in Korea, but the right words were soon said and both wrestlers ended the dispute with a handshake.
  • Coinciding in a tour in Japan, Adrian Adonis and Dan Spivey could bury the hatchet for good while grabbing some cold ones.
• Formerly Fit: Both the Junkyard Dog and Adrian Adonis become overweight and out of shape as their cocaine addictions spiral out of control.
• Fun with Acronyms: Herb Abrams had the UWF Television Championship belt designed with the letters "UWF" placed on both sides of the gold plate so when the belt was focused on camera or folded, the "F" on the left and "U" on the right would be shown. Three guesses what the letters meant and who it was directed towards.
• Functional Addict: Subverted. Sherri Martel suffered of a severe recreational drug addiction since a very young age, enough even before she went professional^note Extended but not limited to booze, weed, coke, uppers, downers, quaaludes and somas. Remembered as one of the most gifted female performers and managers ever, this wasn't always the case. As Rockin' Robin recalls, on one of their matches, Martel threw an errant kick to Robin's throat that left the latter unable to breath. She realized what had happened and went on to apologize to Robin in the locker rooms. This can be seen as an isolated incident, nevertheless shows how Martel's problem just went so subtly out of control that even she couldn't notice it. To the point her own son can't remember a single incident when he saw her sober and the reason she was ousted from WWF and WCW was she came out as positive on a drug test too many.
• Funeral Banishment: In the Brian Pillman episode, Jim Ross briefly attended his funeral, as did a camera crew. While the crew tried to record his funeral as part of a Vince McMahon mandated storyline, Brian's older sister Linda specifically barred them from entering the ceremony. While Ross was able to say his private goodbyes, the cameras were not allowed.
• Goodbye, Cruel World!: On occasion.
  • This can be said about three of the Von Erich boys.
    • Mike flipped his car over and was arrested for DUI, the night after he was released from prison left a note and went camping to have a binge on alcohol and sleeping pills.
    • Chris wasn't fit for in-ring competition due his small and frail frame due a medical condition related to asthma. His note was found by Fritz at their ranch after Kevin left Chris in a spot where the latter liked to spend time in the woods. Kevin tried his best but when he got back it was too late, for Chris had put a bullet in his own head.
    • ...and Kerry doing just the same, his painkillers addiction, his wife telling him she wouldn't wait for him to get out of prison, and possibly Survivor Guilt combo led him to shot himself in the heart with his dad's gun, not leaving a note but stating over and over again he admired Chris' guts to take his own life.
  • Chris Benoit apparently left something akin to a suicide note in a Bible before he killed himself, as recounted by the journalist who covered his case, Matthew Randazzo V.
  • Sam Houston (Jake Roberts' brother) attempted to take his own life while he was put in prison after one too many DUI's and Grizzly wasn't there anymore to make the saving. The sole reason he's still among us to tell was because the string he used to hang himself broke.
  • James Mitchell recalled that the last time he saw Kanyon, he was injured because he had throw himself in front of a moving car. Chris would be taking his own life by an antidepressants overdose a few weeks later.
  • Shoichi Arai, due the waning attendance FMW drew by then, started to pay up his stable with money borrowed by loan sharks. With his wife deserting him, a deadline coming soon and not being able to honor his word with the moneylenders, he saw no other choice but to take his own life by hanging from a tree.
  • The Graham Wrestling Family suffered from a series of suicides over the course of five generations. Wrestler and NWA Chairman Eddie lost his grandfather, his father and younger brother to suicide, he committed suicide, his grandson also lost his battle to mental issues, and finally his son Mike shot himself wearing Steven's boots out of grief over losing both his father and his son.
• Government Drug Enforcement: In what McDevitt's case rested. Considering they were on trial for using a drug the same government considered to be safe & legal up to the time the prohibition was set merely a few months ago in and the fact that most of WWF's talent was already using it before they were recruited by the promotion.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Vince McMahon is often portrayed as having a hand in a lot of the more shady practices of the WWE.
    • Going through with the Montreal Screwjob was Vince's call, even if Jim Cornette offhandedly suggested the idea in a booking meeting.
    • It's implied that the reason that Jimmy Snuka's rumors of killing Nancy Argentino went away was because of a meeting between Snuka, McMahon, and the Allentown police investigating the crime. There's also no transcript or recording of that meeting.
    • Butterbean states that Vince brought him in to squash Bart Gunn as punishment for the latter beating "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in the Brawl for All. Not helping matter is that on After Dark, Bart Gunn would reveal that the rules to Brawl for All were changed to be more in Butterbean's favor.
    • Once "Dr. D" David Schultz was sent to Japan on Vince's suggestion, he was being talked into attacking a local reporter to build up a reputation of being a "loose cannon". All to absolve WWF of any wrongdoing in John Stossel's lawsuit.
    • Vince's booking team had capitalize on Road Warrior Hawk's drug problems and turned it into an angle involving Droz and obviously Animal, who was very dissatisfied with not just the fact, but also with the outcome as well.
    • Owen's family blames his death on Vince's negligence, as the harness that was being used to lower him from the rafters to the ring was not fit for that purpose.
    • After promising Melanie Pillman that he wouldn't bring up drug abuse in his interview with her, he proceeded to do just that. Not to mention the scumminess of having a grieving widow do a live interview on TV less than two days after Brian Pillman had been found dead.
    • The "coming out" angle he gave to Kanyon is seen now as a "Hatchet job" that ended up burying Chris' career in bigger promotions.
    • By 1993, WWE's own Women's Division was almost shut down since their management didn't know what to do with their female talent. That's why Luna Vachon forced herself to stay in the undercard for the rest of her first stint in the promotion, only to then be sent to rehab and being fired herself later on.
    • At least in the eyes of the prosecution, Vince was accused of pushing 'roids to his talent back at the time when the steroid trials begun.
    • Vince attempted to buy the then NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Harley Race in order to stink Starrcade '83 as part of his plan for national expansion.
  • Organized crime is featured prominently in several episodes.
    • Gino Hernandez is, barring a completely innocent overdose, theorized by his family to have been killed by one of his drug connections.
    • Dino Bravo gets into the cigarette smuggling business and is likely killed in a hit.
    • A biker gang linked to a powerful Canadian outfit allowed Johnny K-9 to indulge in some of his darker impulses, including bombing a police station and quite possibly being an accessory for two murder charges.
  • Mental illnesses and the industry's reluctance to address them have also factored in on many episodes.
    • Chris Kanyon's bipolar disorder coupled with his being gay in a largely unsupporting industry lead him to commit suicide at a young age.
    • Eddie Graham, his son Mike, and his grandson Steven all struggled with mental health issues and wound up killing themselves.
• Green-Eyed Monster: According to Foley, this was the catalyst for Tammy being fired from WWE, after Sable was brought in and became even more of a sensation that she was, even given the moniker of 'WWE's first Diva' though Tammy arguably held that title. Her snide backstage comments coupled with her growing ego and substance problems, all led to her and Chris Candido being fired.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: The WCW crew were initially and absolutely thrilled at the massive crowd size the event drew, but it quickly became clear that the attendees were only there because they were made to come by the government and the only time they came alive was when Antonio Inoki, already popular in North Korea, defeated the American Ric Flair.
• He Knows Too Much:
  • The morning after Brody's death, Tony Atlas was called by Savio Vega, who had gathered his belongings from the hotel and told him not go back there as "they're looking" for him, due to the fact that Atlas himself was the only one speaking out.
  • One of the many reasons Dino Bravo was slain by the mob he ended-up working for. According to his widow and his former manager, his connections with that outfit may had came from certain family ties, for one of their bosses was Dino's uncle.
  • A few of Grizzly Smith's children believe that he arranged for their youngest sister Jo Lynn to be kidnapped and murdered. Robin believes that Jo Lynn was about to expose Grizzly for being a pedophile who sexually abused both his daughters and countless other girls, citing the last conversation they had when Jo Lynn asked certain questions. Richard mentions that Grizzly refused to let his surviving children go to the trial of the woman who confessed to the kidnapping, showed no emotion when authorities gave up on the search for Jo Lynn's body, and forbade him from contacting Unsolved Mysteries to help with the case.
• Heel Realization:
  • New Jack's unrepentant biography is a hell of an example. Dealing with his rough childhood to then being the main protagonist in several of the most controversial angles (and even attempted capital crimes while doing so) in pro wrestling ever.
  • Not long after setting his life back on the track and having a new family of his own, Ultimate Warrior made peace with most of his former peers, admitting his past mistakes.
  • In his final years, Dynamite Kid seemingly had accepted that he alone had been the ultimate architect of his downfall. A life-time of pushing his body to the limit and a combination of substance abuse, malicious bullying, and domestic abuse towards his ex-wife overshadowed any of his accomplishments. According to his daughter Bronwyne, he broke down when she came to visit and apologized for everything he'd put his family through. And a week before he died, as fellow wrestler Scott McGhee recalls, his younger daughter (whom he never met in life) told him that she loved him. Tom's response was a dry "Why?"
  • Onita by his own admission, stating that once the fame and prestige came, he began to behave as an absolute "Big Head".
  • Certainly 'roids peddlers Dr. Zahorian and Bill Dunn at the very beginning of the steroids trials got one of these.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Benoit is presented this way following Guerrero's death. As Chris Jericho puts it, Benoit essentially became a hermit after Eddie died, breaking into random bouts of crying and becoming very withdrawn. And since Benoit already had a reputation for being quiet and stoic, this was seen as particularly discomforting.
  • Owen Hart's colleagues who were present during his fatal accident all recounted the event with obvious traumatic looks (e.g. D'Lo Brown and Jim Ross). While he's not interviewed, you can also see Jerry Lawler have this reaction in the aftermath, looking like he'd seen a ghost.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • Johnny K-9 was at both ends of this trope:
    • It was THE "Macho Man" Randy Savage who agreed to put the former Jobber, now upcoming SMW top heel over.
    • When Jim Cornette couldn't find a place to put him in due to Executive Meddling, K-9 simply left the promotion with a handshake and a smile, saying he had a great time there.
  • The same thing goes for Luna Vachon as well:
    • Alundra Blayze was willing to put her over by surrendering the Women's Championship to her without WWE's upper brass' blessing. During their match, Luna didn't go for the pin so that Alundra wouldn't loose face or being fired.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Frank Goodish was a complete different character than the man we knew as Bruiser Brody, a responsible Family Man and aspiring entrepreneur. To the point his own son recalled how uncomfortable he used to feel when his dad's fans recounted his matches and career to him.
    • A similar case could be made out of that of Adrian Adonis, a responsible, caring husband and father of two girls Bret Hart described as no less than a true gentleman.
  • Florida's Thunder Wrestling Federation promoter and former wrestler MWW stated that New Jack was in his heart (if you really get to know him well) a born comedian. Oh, and a great cook too!
  • The reason behind Rikidozan's assassination was that the Yakuza found out that the most revered Japanese wrestler of that generation was in fact North Korean.
  • Johnny K-9, both a feared opponent and a dear friend to his peers was a terrific drummer.
  • All of her problems and quirks aside, Luna Vachon was depicted by everyone who knew her well as the Shrinking Violet archetype.
  • Tammy Sytch in both her personal and professional life. A stunning blonde bombshell, who defied being the Dumb Blond and was accepted into Pre-Med with the goal of being a plastic surgeon. Despite having no desire to be a performer, she proves to be a natural and within a few years is a top attraction in the WWF and the most downloaded woman on AOL.
  • For a man who had everything he could wish for and getting it lost in a twist of fate, Magnum T.A.'s main concerns weren't about himself after his terrible accident, but to the promotion putting him over into an apparently unstoppable rising to be the next american Pro wrestling legend, showing caracter traits of a truly Humble Hero.
  • Eddie Graham, the most revered (and feared) promoter of his own generation, considered a booking genius, a terrific in-ring performer and a full-fledged Super Villain professionally, was a caring, loving father and husband. He also was an avid donor to several noble causes favouring children and poor in need's welfare.
  • Matt Borne was a full-fledged pro on his craft, having great credentials under his belt for being Portland's legend "Tough" Tony Borne son and trainee. He even was Ricky Steamboat's opponent in the very first Wrestlemania.
  • Turned out John Tenta was a tremendous singer according to his widow and three children, for one of his favorite things was to perform at the karaoke.
  • Harley Race's former wife told first hand how a fun loving guy and good father he was despite of his feared reputation as the toughest guy in the industry.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Eric Bischoff at least in two instances:
  • He stated that during the time where he had interviewed Lex Luger on his podcast, he still had resentment towards him as he held him responsible for Miss Elizabeth's death, believing that he had manipulated and exploited the vulnerable woman with drugs.
  • The main reason Brutus Beefcake career went south in WCW was, to say it as it is, Easy E had not the slightest ghost of an interest at all into promote the guy.
• His Own Worst Enemy: The biggest obstacle in Marty Jannety's life is Jannety himself. Among many other examples, he managed to screw things up with WWE three times. He and Shawn Michaels got so crazy at a bar after their first show, they got fired. He got arrested just as he was getting his singles push after the Rockers breakup. Years later, his one-off Rockers reunion with Shawn Michaels was so well received he got offered a new contract only to get arrested again and the offer rescinded.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Played for Drama. Several cases depicted on the show involved organized crime.
  • The most standing theories point out that Gino Hernandez and Dino Bravo, given their connections, may have ended up involved in deals Gone Horribly Wrong.
  • After funding his own chapter of a biker gang known as "Satan's Choice" in his native Hamilton, Ontario with extortion money that produced him up to $30,000 in a single day, Johnny K-9 decided to bomb a strip club out of spite. One of his associates decided to blow up the police station instead. The resulting investigation led to his capture where he accepted to cooperate via making a deal to serve for 33 months. Once his cronies learned of this, they deemed him as a rat and ordered a contract on both him and his wife.
• Honor Before Reason: Chris Candido stayed with Tammy despite her infidelities and her mistreatment of him because he felt some misplaced sense of personal responsibility for her as the one who introduced her to the wrestling business.
• Honorary Uncle: David Benoit describes both Chris Jericho and Chavo Guerrero as such, as the two are the only friends of his late father who looked after him following the 2007 tragedy.
• Hookers and Blow: What Herb Abrams spent his free time on. His last moments of life were spent naked (or only in his underwear) with two prostitutes and a mountain of cocaine. He even used this trope as a recruiting tool for manager Marty Yesberg, whom he ended up hiring.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: "Earthquake" John Tenta stood at 6ft 4in and weighed close to 400 pounds, while his wife is 5ft 2.

I-L

• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • The reason why Abdullah had to do everything in his grasp to protect his spot and own brand, even having to Become The Mask performing acts like eating a raw chicken and beef liver on camera as stated by former manager Hugo Savinovich and Mick Foley.
  • Expressed by many on The Life & Legends of Harley Race, his story is this trope personified and not only professionally speaking. Brought up into a very rough childhood and going into competition from a very young age.
  • With a dream to accomplish and a carefree look on life, a former stripper had to desert her family and went to become one of the most revered female performers and personalities in the business' history, "Sensational" Sherri Martel.
• If I Can't Have You…: Jim Cornette accused Eddy Mansfield of being a non-romantic example as the reason why he worked with John Stossel. If he wasn't able to be successful in the wrestling business, then no one could be successful. Mansfield responds by saying that in every organization Cornette worked in, the ratings used to plummet.
• Ignored Epiphany: While working with Stossel, Mansfield was concerned that the reporter was focused on exposing the business while he was trying to save it, but continued to work with him regardless. In hindsight, he says that he should've just left.
  "The deal feels bad, the deal is bad."
• Improvised Training: Since his parents were very supportive of his decision, but unable to provide him with a proper gymnasium equipment, John Tenta had to create ingenuous methods of training as lifting park benches.
• In Memoriam: XPW's episode was dedicated to the recently deceased Jerome "New Jack" Young.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Vince Russo states that while they might have been able to do something with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, the fact that he came to the WWF past his prime meant that he probably wouldn't last long in the WWF anyway as his best days were behind him.
  • Jim Cornette states that if the David Schultz slapping John Stossel incident didn't occur, there would've been a conflict between Schultz and Vince McMahon in regards to the direction of the WWF, which would've led to Schultz's departure anyway.
  • Transporting his stuff in a U-Haul, one of Kanyon's cousins tipped a box full of gay porn off, thus revealing that Chris was gay. The whole matter had frightened Kanyon, not wanting to come out in a time that homosexuality was a taboo in the wrestling business, so Chris had to say that it was a Mitchell's "rib" on him so he could save face, with Mitchell agreeing to help cover him up.
  • Magnum T.A., considered to be one of the biggest what-ifs in american pro-wrestling history, revealed that if his accident hadn't happened, then he intended to retire from the ring before he was thirty and use his fame to become a NASCAR driver, although the number of wrestlers who have said similar plans and could see them came to fruition can be counted on one hand.
• Irony:
  • Savage's kayfabe marriage to Miss Elizabeth in 1991 came at a time when their real-life marriage was falling apart.
  • It was Abdullah the Butcher, The Rival of Bruiser Brody on numerous matches the one reciving, informing his now widow the situation and comforting her upon her arrival to Puerto Rico.
  • The Godfather, a pimp wrestler, was portrayed by Charles Wright, who has stated that he hates pimps. Admitting nevertheless that it was his favorite gimmick.
  • The claim that the Brawl for All failed to create new stars when Bart Gunn was arguably that star, but was punished due to being the "wrong guy" who won. The only person apologizing to Gunn for failing to capitalize on his win was Vince Russo himself.
    • Furthermore: John "Bradshaw" Layfield, the man who inspired Vince Russo to create Brawl for All just to see him knocked out, would be the one to have the most success after the event ended compared to the other competitors. To add further to the irony: Had he waited ten years, Joey Styles would have eventually given him what he wanted.
    • Invoked by Droz himself in regards to the match with D'Lo Brown which left him paralyzed as he mentioned that he was supposed to win that match.
  • The reason the "Road Warriors" changed their name to the "Legion of Doom" in the WWF was because The Ultimate Warrior and the "Modern Day Warrior" Kerry Von Erich were already there, but the latter would soon be renamed "The Texas Tornado."
  • Lance Storm invokes this when talking about the legacies of both Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch.
    • At the peak of their careers, Tammy was the breakout star and essentially made the blueprint for WWE's Divas. Later on, she was essentially blacklisted from the industry due to her numerous legal issues and her blueprint is no longer followed, as women in the industry are expected now to be wrestlers instead of valets.
    • Candido was largely an afterthought because he was a smaller wrestler. Decades on, Chris is considered one of the best wrestlers of his generation, who would have reached legendary status if he had lived.
  • Ted DiBiase and Junkyard Dog, seething enemies on the squared circle and the best friends outside, to the point the latter was the former's wedding best man.
  • Adrian Adonis had a diametrically opposed background to his most famous gimmick. As told by close childhood friend Anthony Gugino, Dave Meltzer, "Jumping" Jim Brunzell and confirmed by no less than The Hitman himself, Keith Franke, hailing from west Buffalo was a notorious frat boy that turned on into one of the most respected street fighters his hometown had ever seen, so wrestling was a natural career choice for him, to the point he got his spot on Terry Funk's promotion having fights to anybody who could stand against him for ten minutes under the promise of earning ten grand. Nobody could collect the prize.
  • The only career that wasn't affected in a single bit after the disastrous Bash at the Beach 2000 was Hulk Hogan's one. If he wasn't able to prove libel against Russo for the promo and the latter's decision to ignore an script they already have agreed with that made the former to quit the promotion, it did granted him a sweet setlement that Bischoff stated was over the seven figures.
  • Harley Race in-ring career was finished by Hulk Hogan, the man he was looking for to settle a score with a few years prior by accident. After a spot where he had to perform his flying headbutt to a table outside the ring, the iron bar sustaining the piece of forniture´s frame caused a bowel rupture that required several surgeries to correct.
• It's All About Me:
  • Stated by many interviewees about The Fabulos Moolah.
    Princess Victoria: "She was a great professional wrestler, but she didn't know when to stop."
  • Cornette and Schultz's attitude towards Eddy Mansfield, as they believed that him helping Stossel exposé on wrestling was this more in retaliation to Ole Andreson for being blackballed from the industry than any legit concern for "the boys."
  • The opinion of MANY of the Ultimate Warrior's coworkers who did not have the same attitudes towards money that he did once he reached superstardom.
    Jim Ross: "For Hogan to do what Hogan did for The Ultimate Warrior... is a miracle. He carried The Warrior to immortality in WrestleMania VI, and he did it live what it makes it more astonishing!"
    Jake "The Snake" Roberts: "...so I went to his private dressing room, knocked on the door a couple of times —- ...he got right in my face and said `Listen... I don't care anything about your family, I don't care anything about you...I don't care ANYTHING ABOUT WRESTLING! I just wanna do my shit... here's the deal: you better don't miss a show 'cause if you miss a show you're messing with MY MONEY! ...and if you mess with my money I'm gonna get'cha... end of the story, GET OUT!´ I walked out and I was in shock, for this jackass coming at me like that, just like pissing in my mouth!"
  • On recorded interviews, Tammy Lynn Sytch is heard saying she just "got the itch" after a 7 years relationship with Chris, getting both stranged although they were still together, unable to tell if he just kept around out of real love since he wasn't around anymore to ask him about.
  • The incident on WCW Bash at the Beach 2000 has two readings in the end:
    • Hulk Hogan exercising his contract creative clause literally an hour before the show, requiring a rewrite on the fly. Jeff Jarrett stated that Hulk's decision made him look the veteran wrestler under a very different light from that moment on.
    • In previous WCW creative staff meetings it was stated the annointed new champ should be Booker T, everyone agreed except for Russo, because he wanted to keep Jarrett as champion while devising a long-term arc pitting Millionaires' Club against New Blood in a téte-a-téte, culminating focebly in the Jarret-Hogan match. Everything that was put on TV was agreed, staged and set on Hogan's trailer, what it was not was Russo cutting later on the vicious rant he's sadly and infamously remembered for, announcing the match giving Booker T his first championship overwriting his own arc in the end.
  • According to Iceman King Parsons and his own former wife and daughter, after having successful stints first in Britain and then on California, once having a foot set at the old Dallas territory, Chris Adams cared about nothing but to be one of their top contenders. With the money, prestige and attention this came with even his young beautiful family took a second place on his priorities.
• It's the Principle of the Thing: John Stossel's motivation for writing his exposé on professional wrestling was that, being a wrestler himself in high school, he couldn't stand seeing people being fooled into believing pro wrestling was real. Stossel's motivation for the lawsuit against WWF was that he felt WWF needed to be taught a lesson in regards to having their wrestlers attack reporters.
• Jekyll & Hyde: Expressed by many during Chris Adams, The Gentleman and The Demon about the aforementioned performer. Whenever he loose his temper, Chris was willing to straight out hurt people for real fearing no consequences. After Gino Hernandez's demise, his alcohol and drugs consumption worsened, so his temper too.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Vince Russo was on both ends of this trope:
  • In regard to Brawl for All, while he takes most (if not all) of the blame for the event and everything that came as a result, he mentioned that Vince McMahon could've stopped it at any time, but didn't. Also, while mentioning that they might've been able to do something with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, the fact that he came to the WWF broken down and past his prime meant that he probably wouldn't last long anyway even if the event never happened.
  • The reason stated why he jumped to WCW was he wasn't there to watch his kids grow and leaving his wife alone with the task, wanting to move closely to his wife's family for that reason. McMahon replied that Russo was doing quite a good amount of money under his wing as to hire someone, thus solving the issue. Something Russo didn't take kindly, nevertheless it was a very logical solution.
• Jerkass to One:
  • Grizzly Smith was an absolute blueprint of the Abusive Parent, but he was especially cruel to Jake compared how he treated his siblings. Smith said to Jake on his graduation, "You're gutless, I'm ashamed of you, and you'll never amount to anything." When Jake became a wrestler, Grizzly would even get involved and cancel his bookings.
  • In XPW, Rob Black ordered to publicly bash Luke Hawx head with chairshots for he covered one as he should and most likely also to maim (or maybe even worse) his former Super Star Messiah for having an affair with his wife.
  • Eddie Graham devised cruel and inusual punishments to trainees and wrestlers for exposing kayfabe or just because he didn't like'em.
• Just a Flesh Wound:
  • Nick Gage's general reaction to severe injuries. In 2009, he cut his right arm so severely that the match was stopped, but he demanded the nurse to tape it up so he could continue. He lost so much blood he legally died. Years later he sliced David Arquette on head and neck. Arquette was particularly angry about the neck wound, but Gage dismisses it as a small cut, ignoring the fact he could have hit the carotid artery.
  • Tom Billington's disposition to compete besides the fact he was on constant and intense pain due a lifetime of stiff bumps is now viewed as a cautionary tale.
  • After being beaten and having his thumb cut off, Messiah incorporated his maiming into his in-ring promos, gloating that he can still open beers and play video games.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Tommy Dreamer defends Ric Flair's behavior during the Plane Ride From Hell by saying his habit of walking around nearly naked was just him "being funny for the boys" and believes that Heidi Doyle was overreacting when Flair cornered her and forced her touch his genitals against her will.
• Karma Houdini:
  • José Huerta González was never convicted for his murder of Bruiser Brody.
  • Invoked on David Schultz & The Slap Heard Round the World looking at his case compared to Hulk Hogan getting away scot-free with choking out Richard Belzer months later on the latter's show Hot Properties. Though as Cornette noted, The Hulkster could've shot Belzer in the head and still wouldn't be fired as he was the "Golden Child."
  • Jacques Rougeau getting away with his revenge by knocking Dynamite Kid out cold. He attained this having Dino Bravo (who was suspected to have ties to The Mafia even then) passing a piece of paper to Billington, implying someone had out a contract on him and knew where he lived. Jacques indeed just made up a fake name, but the news chilled Tom so much that he and his family sold their house, fleeing in fear.
  • Invoked in the "Plane Ride from Hell" episode.
    • Rob Van Dam casually admits that wrestlers would routinely drug women with the medication Halcyon in order to rape them, with zero consequences.
    • Jim Ross admits that Ric Flair was this. A drunken, naked "Naitch" cornered and sexually assaulted a flight attendant by forcing her to touch his penis; though other wrestlers were fired for lesser behavior and Ross seems visibly disturbed, he admits that Flair was a "made man" who suffered zero consequences for his actions. Zig-zagged following the broadcast of the episode, which resulted in Flair's image being pulled from WWE promotional materials.
    • Keep in mind that it cost Curt Hennig and Scott Hall what it would be their careers' closing in WWE for their own misconducts.
  • If Rob Black was behind the brutal assault on Messiah, he certainly qualifies as he was never charged with anything related to the crime. Regardless of his culpability, the goons who carried out the attack definitely qualify; not only were they never charged, they were never identified, despite national attention being brought to the case thanks to it being profiled on America's Most Wanted.
  • The whole wrestling business was seen as this up to 1990 when the trials begun, seeing the adverse general public opinion on pro athletes cheating by using certain substances that, for starters, were created with the FDA's blessings with the sole purpose of being athletic enhancers.
  • Subverted in Vince McMahon's regard on the streoid trails in 1994. While it's pretty much agreed that McMahon was ordering his performers to use steroids, the government had a very weak case and commited several mistakes, so it's small wonder that McMahon managed to beat the charges.
• Kayfabe: Discussed. Owing to the nature of pro wrestling as being predetermined, wrestlers are expected to keep storylines as consistent as possible, even in real life. However, Dark Side focuses on the real-life backstage politics and drama, which leads to some things spilling over into the ring anyways.
  • The Montreal Screwjob happened because Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels legitimately hated each other, resulting in both men refusing to lose at Survivor Series 1997. This put Vince McMahon between the proverbial rock and a hard place, resulting in McMahon actually screwing Hart out of the title to get the belt off of Hart, since Hart was about to leave for WCW and McMahon didn't want Hart to disrespect the WWF title. Hart even went on news shows after the incident to complain about how he actually got screwed.
  • This would end up working in José Huerta González's favor after he had killed Bruiser Brody. His lawyer was able to use Brody's in-ring persona to convince the jury in court that Brody was a violent, dangerous man and that González killed him in self-defense.
  • Brawl for All got out of control as it did because of backstage politics and motivations. Then, when the "wrong guy" won the whole thing, got punished for it.
  • David Schultz was a firm believer in this, his own Fatal Flaw. His promos were loaded of his gimmick being that rebellious, mistreating his (on-camera) wife and son and even letting a live round go from a loaded rifle on-set, that legitimate policemen contacted McMahon in order to find out Schultz's whereabouts in order to have a word or two with him.
    • When Vince McMahon asked him to confront Stossel, he did so in-character. When Stossel asked him point-blank if wrestling was fake, Schultz responded the way his alter-ego would; by smacking him down... twice.
    • A little time later and in order to draw some Cheap Heat from the audience by attacking Mr. T, Schultz was submitted and arrested by four cops at shotgun point and escorted outside the venue.
    • Right after this he was sent to Japan where he repeated his actions with then another reporter in order to build tension for his matches there.
  • Eddy Mansfield, of course, would view this as, in his words, "a load of crap."
  • For his master plan to come into fruition, Brian Pillman spent much of his career taking advantage of people's growing awareness to Kayfabe, then presented himself as a loony who was the one guy refusing to stick to the regulations some fans had realized were there. This may have worked a little too well, as the second half of his episode has people admit they questioned whether things like him getting into an awful car wreck or even dying were a part of this strategy.
  • Grizzly Smith would use kayfabe to terrorize his children growing up, acting like his opponents were real life enemies relentlessly forcing him to fight. Jake Roberts said he would often cry himself to sleep at night, scared that his father would be killed.
  • Junkyard Dog was "left blind" by the Freebirds during a match as part of his most sucessfull long term angle, even using the incoming birth of his baby girl to add drama. One story that JYD liked to tell, though others have claimed it to be untrue, was that during another match he sat at ringside pretending to be unable to see and the Freebirds came over to mock him, only for one of his loyal fans to pop up beside him and aim a veritable Hand Cannon at his rivals. JYD was conflicted on whether expose the business and stop the fan or keep kayfabe and let the Freebirds get killed. Thankfully, security quickly arrived and handled the situation before it Went Horribly Wrong.
  • Two notable cases at Bash at the Beach 2000
    • Pretty much The End of this trope was set in motion. Russo pointed out that they agreed upon a storyline calling for Hogan to win the strap^note Something Russo was adamantly against from day one in shady circumstances, vanish and come back by Halloween Havoc under the idea he would be challenging the winner of a tournament for the Ten pounds o' gold being the legitimate champ in a reunification match.
    • Cleverly used again by Russo to get Hulk Hogan's libel lawsuit against him dismissed. The former cut a brutal promo on the latter, calling him a bald piece of shit^note Something The Hulkster is very insecure about. Russo, Hogan's on-screen rival authority figure, was merely playing his part. Even two judges agreed, as did an appeals court.
  • Possibly the major attack against this very trope was provided by Harley Race as consultant and interviewee on 1998's TV special Exposed! Pro Wrestling's greatest secrets.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery:
  • Johnny K-9's wife Tracy remembered the time after she was found by one of her husband's associates, with him saying to her face that he was a rat, she stood for her man by simply smacking the guy right in the kisser as payment for the reminder.
  • Not only did Luna Vachon beat Stevie Richards to become the first woman to ever defeat a man in ECW, she did it in a cage match and two years before Chyna won her WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Kissing the Ground: Done by Flair after Collision in Korea. Scott Norton said the first thing Naitch' did as they landed back in Japan was get down on the tarmac - expensive suit and all - and kiss the ground in rapturous gratitude, all while shouting how much he loved Japan. Hilarious, but also understandable considering the ordeal everyone went through whilst in North Korea.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Rob Black didn't know the slightest thing about Hardcore Wrestling aside from it had to be very violent. Notably, he became enraged when Luke Hawx protected himself during a perfectly executed chair shot spot.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again:
  • This was said almost verbatim by Carlos Colon referring to Brody's case on a podcast interview, since he found the whole matter too sad. He and Invader #1 were actually contacted by the show's production crew so they could convey their point of view, but they declined.
  • Rick Martel also declined to participate in the show, but in a 2007 podcast related to Bravo's death, he shared that at the time cigarettes smuggling was so a sweet business for the Quebec mob that even people involved in coke wanted to participate. So he theorized that maybe an arrangement was made with them having Dino participating unbeknownst, it failed somehow so somebody ordered a contract on him.
  • Played for drama. After Benoit's murder-suicide in 2007, he was almost completely erased from WWE history. There was an unspoken rule that WWE personnel were not to talk about him in any way, shape, or form. It certainly didn't help that WWE had aired a tribute to Benoit before learning the facts of how he had died, forcing McMahon to effectively Un-person him in a prepared statement the night after.
  • Invoked by Bart Gunn at the end of the Brawl for All episode. He agreed with Bruce Prichard's statement that the event was the absolute worst idea in the history of the business, before ultimately stating that it should never be done again and it was best left as a memory long forgotten.
  • While Jim Ross has been a frequent collaborator with the show, talking candidly about some of the most tragic moments in the industry he was witness to, his tone and body language in the Plane Ride From Hell episode lets you know he is just done recounting this story.
    J.R.: (If) I never talk about the fucking Plane Ride from Hell again in my life, I would be very happy.
• Line-of-Sight Name: According to Jim Cornette, Chris Colt got his ring name from Colt Men, an underground gay publication.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Two instances during the Benoit two parter:
  • Eddie Guerrero is painted this way for Chris Benoit. After Guerrero's untimely death in 2005, Benoit was never the same. It's generally agreed upon that Eddie's death is a big part of why Benoit committed the murder-suicide of his family in 2007, with Benoit's own journals confirming it. How much Eddie's death factors in when coupled with the multitude of Benoit's injuries, drug abuse, and deaths of other friends is something we'll never really know. However, Eddie's death certainly couldn't have helped.
  • Vickie Guerrero describes Nancy Benoit this way. After Eddie's death, Vickie was understandably an emotional wreck, with Nancy stepping up to take care of things for Vickie. After about a week of this, Vickie describes Nancy almost literally throwing her into a shower, getting Vickie's kids ready, and taking her to lunch in an attempt to get Vickie out of her funk. Vickie clearly appreciates the effort, saying Nancy was her "guardian angel" during that time.
  • James Mitchell was this in spades to Kanyon, repeatedly finding himself at the mercy of Kanyon's unstable behavior and paranoia, as well as his desperate need for companionship. Fortunately, Mitchell was gracious and selfless with Kanyon, such as arranging a porn shoot with an actress to "prove" that Kanyon was straight, then taking over the starring role himself when Kanyon failed to show up, so it wouldn't be a waste.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Bruce Prichard was not happy that he was this in regards to the Montreal Screwjob as he asked Vince why he was. Vince told him that it was necessary as he was too close to the wrestlers and that if he knew about the screwjob, all trust from them would've been lost.
  • During the Collison in Korea episode, Eric Bischoff is asked about the conflict between 2 Cold Scorpio and Hawk that occurred during the trip, and how Scorpio almost murdered him outright. Bischoff then proceeds to admit that, prior to being asked then and there, he was unaware of this.
• Long Runner:
  • Abdullah The Butcher was an active in-ring performer for 53 years.
    • Same goes to Kevin Sullivan, over 50 years and counting.
    • And getting really close Haku, with over forty.
  • Jerry McDevitt has been Vinny Mack's lawyer for over 30 years.
  • Dave Meltzer and Bill Apter have been on wrestling news for over 5 decades.
• Lost in Character:
  • One may say it made a sort of sense in Randy Savage's case dealing on how he restrained Miss Elizabeth's freedom of motion while working together, to the point he locked her backstage so no other man could have any kind of interaction with her.
  • Invoked by D'Lo Brown and The Sandman when they were questioned who they thought Jerome Young really was.
  • The Ultimate Warrior's ex-wife Shari explains that as he reached superstardom, Jim Hellwig left home one day, but the one coming back for good was his wrestling alter-ego.
  • At a certain point when her career was blasting off, Luna Vachon's mental issues and a severe addiction to drugs transformed her into her own wrestling character from that very moment. As declared by the many interviewees during the episode dedicated to her, it was the only thing she aspired to become since she broke into the business.
• Love at First Note: John "Earthquake" Tenta first met his wife Josephine while she was performing as singer on a Japanese nightclub. Both were hooked from the very start.
• Loved by All:
  • The Junkyard Dog was so adored that heels confronting him on the old Louisiana territory could find their cars smashed by fans if they just dared to rough him up (As the Freebirds found out the hard way). Heels scheduled to be his opponents needed to be escorted inside and outside the arena by armed state troopers so JYD's fans couldn't beat them up or worse.
  • Though not the focus of the episode, Mick Foley notes everyone likes "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan during the episode on Doink The Clown. He's completely flummoxed that Matt Borne found any issue with him.
    Mick: You have to make a real attempt at not liking Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

M-P

• Mama Bear: Former wrestler Robin Smith got an unexpected visit from her father, Grizzly Smith, accompanied by a little girl who Robin quickly guesses is being groomed just like she was. When Grizzly attempts to leave with the child, Robin tells him in no uncertain terms that the girl is not leaving with him.
• Manly Tears: Considering the topics covered, expect to see male wrestlers, personalities, and relatives getting really emotional.
  • Jim Cornette has four moments:
    • Recalling the uncanny chain of misfortune Kevin Von Erich had to endure from a very young age.
    • Recalling the horrific accident that left Droz on a wheelchair for life.
    • Recalling the final days of Chris Candido's life (as do Lance Storm and Tom Pritchard).
    • Recalling that Owen Hart's last words were asking about the welfare of anyone he may have fallen on.
  • Subverted in Jim Ross' case on the Owen Hart incident (he likely can't cry due to his advanced Bell's Palsy), admitting that Owen's death is possibly the worst moment that has ever happened in his life.^note Keep in mind, Jim lost his beloved wife in a car accident after being married to her for nearly 25 years.
  • The Hegstrand brothers when recalling a couple of family tragedies, notably the sad passing of their mother at a very young age and that of their famous brother Mike, better known as Road Warrior Hawk.
  • Several interviewees in regards of "Mr. Electricity" Herb Abrams, but noticeably wrestlers B. Brian Blair, Steve "The Wild Thing" Ray, and UWF's general manager/close friend Lenny Duge.
  • Each and every interviewee ends up shedding some tears after recalling a happy memory with Chris Kanyon, and ultimately when his fate was discussed.
  • Lance Storm after recalling the man he knew compared to the choices he made in "Bikers, Bombs & Bedlam: Johnny K9".
  • Atsushi Onita made this part of his ring persona; he would completely break down at the end of every match, as a way of expressing gratitude to his fans.
  • As described by Koko B. Ware, he actually could see "Cowboy" Bill Watts shedding some the moment he knew The Junkyard Dog left for WWE.
  • Mike Kelly and Ricky Johnson while recalling the shocking tragedy surrounding Adrian Adonis and his fatal car accident.
  • Diamond Dallas Page remembering the day he was told about Bam Bam's passing.
  • Haku, Fred Ottman and his children shed some after remembering John Tenta's tragic demise.
• Megaton Punch:
  • The way Stossel sold Dr. D's slaps.
  • The Dynamite Kid was in both ends of the subject:
    • Mick Foley recalls how he received one on his second match at WWE by way of a stiff errant clothesline from the Kid that dislocated his jaw.
    • Jacques Rougeau packed a roll of coins to perpetrate his backstage payback on the Kid, hitting the latter so hard that he popped out four of his teeth.
  • Kanyon's constant tantrums and outbursts for small things given his condition ^note due to his thick New York accent making it next to impossible to make a decent promo made him kick Mitchell's car door open in a single blow, to proceed to demolish the rest of the car just with his feet.
  • The way southpaw Dan Spivey disposed of Adrian Adonis on their legendary confrontation, lifting the over 280 lbs. scrapper up in the air in a single blow.
• The Mentor:
  • The reason behind the entire Collision in Korea fiasco was, in a sense, a way for Inoki to pay tribute to his late revered instructor, Rikidozan.
  • Kanyon was this to people like The Young Bucks, Brian Cage, Luke Hawx and even David Arquette.
  • Onita declared Terry Funk is this to him.
  • Eddie Graham's territory, Championship Wrestling from Florida, was considered a Mecca for aspiring newbies trying to make themselves a name in the business. It counted not just with a solid fandom, but with the most revered trainers around the U.S. from early The '60s to well into The '80s.
  • Marty Jannetty recounted how in Mid-South he was put in charge of a young newcomer by the name Shawn Michaels.
  • If it is true that Brutus Beefcake had some background in the business once he got to WWF, it was Greg Valentine who truly made him a better performer when he took Brutus under his wing.
  • Not just that, Harley Race also innovated wrestling with maneuvers as his patented flying headbutt and running knee. After his long standing career was over, he became this to many newcomers to the business.
• Miscarriage of Justice:
  • Invader #1 being acquitted of killing Bruiser Brody is one of the worst examples exhibited in the show.
  • Johnny K-9 and one of his cronies were charged with the murder of a lawyer and her husband. They spent twenty months in prision on flimsy charges, and because of that they had to be released. Johnny's pal in fact won a suit for malicious prosecution for a hefty sum afterwards.
  • After the evidence presented during the case within the show, that's the opinion of many interwiewees about Vince McMahon's trial for 'roids distribution, when he was at worst "getting high on his own supply."
• Mistaken for Cheating: The Ultimate Warrior and his first wife met again in a gym and their feelings rekindled, but had to break off contact abruptly for they both had been remarried by then to other people.
• Momma's Boy: Buff Bagwell's mom went tremendous lengths to protect and administer her boy's career.
  • A particular disturbing case was when he was caught naked by his best friend all in four as being assisted by Judy for shaving.
  • Then after he got his neck broken by a botched aerial maneuver performed by Ricky Steiner, he went back to WCW three months later, putting Judy in a new angle, turning this into his gimmick.
• Muscle Angst: Tier 1 in every case:
  • Despite their incredible strength and resilience, Chris Benoit and the Dynamite Kid were "small" wrestlers in comparison to the bigger names of their generation, so they were in an eternal struggle to battle injuries while trying to develop mass and out-perform their peers, in a league that dismissed them as "inferior".
  • Most likely one of the main reasons the Ultimate Warrior ended up as he did—he used to be a scrawny, insecure little kid who by the time he reached high-school weighed barely 140 lbs.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Eddy Mansfield's reaction to seeing John Stossel's exposé on wrestling, believing that he was tricked by Stossel. Others such as Jim Cornette and David Schultz are far less than sympathetic towards Mansfield, believing that he helped Stossel out of revenge for being blackballed from the industry.
  • Melanie Pillman states that she and Brian Pillman had this reaction when they learned that Brittany's biological mother Rochelle had committed suicide, believing that pursuing sole custody of Brittany (and some very cruel parting words from Melanie to Rochelle the day she killed herself) had pushed her over the edge.
  • Exactly what crossed Bischoff's mind the very moment his assigned military attache reminded him that he was barely the seventh American to set foot in North Korea to not either be put in jail or executed.
  • After the episode described in "Conditioned to Accept Horror", this was Kanyon's reaction to what he forced James Mitchell to endure.
  • Junkyard Dog left his top spot in Mid-South Wrestling to work at the WWF. Once there, he enjoyed much more fortune and fame than ever before but as his momentum began to wane he soon realized that Vince McMahon had no intention on pushing him up to main events and was left to languish in the mid-card. This allegedly caused him to suffer severe depression and worsened his already strong addiction to speed, as he felt he let down Bill Watts and all of his adoring fans at Mid-South.
• My Greatest Second Chance:
  • After Dino Bravo's promotion was bought by Vince McMahon around '86, he was salvaged along with many Quebecker performers by the WWF, but his career was finished when Vince found no place where to accomodate "Canada's strongest man". Having no other way to sustain the lavish lifestyle he accustomed his family to, he chose to get into a treacherous and risky new line of work.
  • Ultimately subverted with Bart Gunn with regards to a rematch with Butterbean. When the two of them entered into MMA, Bart noted that he beat an opponent of Butterbean's faster than he did, but when he was unable to get enough time to train for the potential rematch, he decided not to go through it.
  • By the time Bill Watts ran WCW, one of the greatest surprises he got was to take the Junkyard Dog back in. Unfortunately, speed, weed, coke and crack had taken their toll on the Dog and it was painfully evident he wasn't the same performer anymore.
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • As stated above, one of Ric Flair's favorite backstage antics involved him walking around wearing nothing but his unfastened robe as he performed "The Helicopter" to the amusement of his fellow wrestlers and to the horror of any strangers who happened to be in the room at the time.
  • As told by Johnny K-9's widow Tracy Edwards, one day he ordered pizza and went to pay up the delivery boy just with his birthday suit on.
• Nausea Fuel: Due to the heat she was getting backstage, Pritchard reveals that during a segment where Tammy Sytch was supposed to get dunked with a bucket of slop from some hillbilly wrestlers, about twenty people's DNA made up the contents of the bucket. It's never revealed exactly what she was covered in.
• Neck Lift: When the news broke that Scott D'Amore had been paid a few bucks short by the promoter after their match, Johnny K-9 showed the man his favorite method to collect debts.
• Never Found the Body: Jo Lynn Smith, youngest sister of Jake Roberts, was kidnapped from her home and her whereabouts remain unknown.
• Never Learned to Read: Abdullah the Butcher and his family claim that this was true for him, which surprised Mick Foley (who had at least seen him seemingly understand menus enough to order food) and former manager Hugo Savonovich, who thought that his success in the ring and in the business meant that he had to have been somewhat literate.
• Never My Fault:
  • Jim Ross and Jim Cornette state that Brawl for All failed to create new stars when in reality the two of them just didn't want do anything with the winner due to him being a lower-card performer, which (in theory) defeats the purpose of the event in the first place. Ironically, the only person who doesn't have this attitude is Vince Russo, who apologized to Bart Gunn for failing to capitalize on his win.
  • Several accounts on Jannetty's case, too.
    • Despite warnings from several of his closest friends like "Mean" Mike Moran and Al Snow, most state the outcome from his debaucherous way of life is all of his fault and nobody else's.
    • Pat Tanaka remembers how during a huge party he fell asleep and Marty woke him up unloading several shots from his gun. He later blamed Pat for the damage the shots had done to his windows under the premise that if Tanaka hadn't gone to sleep, he wouldn't have had to fire the gun.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead:
  • The reason why supporters of The Fabulous Moolah speak up regarding the controversy, stating she's no longer around to defend herself. Even Moolah's critics apply this, as they went out of their way to contain their anger.
  • Said verbatim by Onita in regards of Asai's sad and troubled passing, stating nevertheless that his fate was of his own doing.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Had Shawn Michaels not told Bret Hart to his face that he would never put him over just as the Hitman was trying to make amends, the latter would probably not have had an issue putting over the Heartbreak Kid, and the Montreal Screwjob could probably have been avoided. And even then, the only issue Hart would have putting Michaels over is that Michaels needed to put him over first.
  • It's arguable that due to the mockery of the idea of him knocking out "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (even to his face) from people such as Bruce Prichard and Pat Patterson, Bart Gunn was extra motivated to defeat him. Gunn himself even described this as "poking the bear".
• No Holds Barred Beat Down:
  • Tony Atlas depicted how during their match, Bruiser Brody gave such massive one to Invader #1 that the latter's head ended up looking like a Halloween pumpkin.
  • Two cases on Onita's FMW episode: after refusing to lose against an upcoming rival Onita deemed as unprepared in Dominican Republic, he was the receiving end of a savage round-up by that promotion's stable.
  • That described above by Sabu in the hands of no less than Yakuza mooks.
  • The XPW stable suffered a rather horrific one. After pulling a stunt by taking all of his top stars to an ECW event held in Los Angeles (feeling this was an invasion on his "territory"), Rob Black's entourage was taken out of the venue by a literal tide of security guards. All of them were held captive by the ECW crew backstage for trying to spoil their show.
  • Adrian Adonis found out first-hand why it's a terrible idea to piss off a man whose nickname is "Dangerous".
  • Bam Bam Bigelow's fast track to stardom was put to a sudden halt in the hands of no less than André the Giant during a match. All because in the eyes of the well-seasoned veteran, the promising newbie hadn't "paid his dues" just yet.
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • The biggest factor in the death of Owen Hart. When the regular stunt harness took too long to unhook for his Fall-On-His-Face entrance in rehearsal, Hart was given a different harness with no backup line. Even worse, the release clip was designed for sailboats, and only required five pounds of pressure to release. Owen's widow Martha demonstrates this by locking and releasing the clip with just her thumb.
  • As declared by XPW's producer Mike Hartsfield, the scaffold build up for the now-infamous "Payback" match between New Jack and Vic Grimes not only didn't fit the required regulations, but it was achieved by forging the insurance company's documents from a previous stunt done by the promotion.
• No Sympathy:
  • Jim Cornette and David Schultz maintain this view towards Eddy Mansfield over his role in John Stossel's exposé on wrestling. No matter how much he claimed that he was doing it for the sake of the wrestlers, they were the ones who would've suffered the most as it would've directly affected their livelihood.
  • Tommy Dreamer towards Heidi Doyle, the stewardess Ric Flair sexually assaulted during the "Plane Ride from Hell." After initially dismissing Flair's forcing Doyle to touch his penis as a joke, Dreamer goes on to paint her as a hypocrite for accepting a monetary settlement from Vince McMahon rather than pressing criminal charges^note ignoring that Doyle was pressured by her husband and employers not to take the case to court, then trivializes the entire incident by comparing people's outrage at sexual assault to "outrage" over his own double ponytail.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood:
  • Don Muraco and The Tonga Kid's attitude towards Superfly.
  • Most of the interviewees with regards to Johnny K-9, especially his widow, to the point they reconnected and got married again after she had to leave him when a hit was put out on them and he was doing time.
  • Tegan and Michelle, Matt Borne's daughter and former wife, depicted him this same way, stating it wasn't that he was really a bad person, but the drugs taking the best of him away caused the many troubles and hardships he and both his families had to endure.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Cornette states that Bret Hart took wrestling business too seriously to the point of his own detriment. This coming from a guy who threatened to kill Vince Russo for making terrible booking decisions (and vowed to piss on his grave) and rages against any hint of wrestling involving comedy.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Chavo Guerrero got a phone call from Chris Benoit the night before Benoit committed the murder-suicide, with Benoit lying to Chavo that his wife and son were sick and he needed to be at home. However, just before hanging up, Benoit gave Chavo a Platonic Declaration of Love, which Chavo noted was really strange for Benoit to do. It was one reason why a welfare check was issued the following day.
• The Oldest Profession:
  • Running women's wrestling as an operation exclusively of her own for years and taught by her husband, The Fabulous Moolah's side business was a solicitation ring her young pupils were fully aware they were part of.
  • Confirmed by his ex-wife and Missy Hyatt who got him discovered and offered a try-out to be a pro wrestler, Buff Bagwell turned into a male stripper and then a women's escort after his wrestling career was over as a solution for his financial problems.
  • After escaping from a father who simply loose it and in order to sustain his mother and sister, Chris Colt had to turn into hustling while he was learning the ropes to become a pro wrestler. Later in life and with his wrestling career over, he would turn on gay adult entertainment.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • The Killing of Bruiser Brody by Invader #1. Although the latter's career waned to the point of being almost non-existent to the wrestling world at large, no one will ever forgive nor forget the act he did.
  • Several incidents involving New Jack, first for vocally supporting (in Kayfabe) O. J. Simpson's actions in front of an all-white audience, then the Mass Transit Incident, then the attempt to drop Vic Grimes head-first from a scaffold... and so on!
  • David Schultz recounts how his career suffered due to not living down the slapping incident, and Vince McMahon essentially forcing Schultz to be blackballed from the wrestling industry.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • The reason why the Road Warriors' name was changed to the Legion of Doom in the WWF, because there was already The Ultimate Warrior and "The Modern-Day Warrior" Kerry Von Erich.^note Though he would later be renamed "The Texas Tornado."
  • Averted. Buff Bagwell's mom and third wife shared the "Judy Bagwell" name.
  • A rare case within the series having two wrestlers by the "Bam Bam" moniker, Bigelow and Terry Gordy.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • The Von Erich Family episode discusses how Fritz had to deal with losing five of his six sons.
  • Gino Hernandez's surviving mother is shown still grieving for him.
  • After Chris Benoit's Pater Familicide, his father Michael had his brain checked for CTE.
  • Nancy Argentino's parents are wry on the very shady circumstances surrounding her death.
  • Owen Hart was the youngest of the Hart family, and clips of his funeral shows his elderly parents attending.
  • Butcher Vachon survived his also-famous stepdaughter, stating that our duty is to understand our loved ones while they're still here.
  • Michael Graham lost his son Steven to suicide. Sadly, Michael himself would commit suicide less than two years after Steven's death.
• Overcrank: Several interspersed segments with actors are deliberately played in slow motion. They're also very blurry, with heavy light/dark contrasts in them.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Ultimate Warrior's dad left home when he was around twelve, since the man was cheating on his wife with one of the neighbors, causing him several issues during his life.
  • Granted, Luna Vachon's wrestling career was a full-time matter, having to sacrifice even the few hours left to her in order to spend them with her beloved children so she could have the fame and prestige she craved for in the business.
  • Matt Borne was abandoned by his mother at only age 10, being this theorized as the main cause why he ended up as he did.
  • As her former husband Leroy Gonzalez recalled, Sensational Sherri craved for a career on wrestling more than anything, so to fulfill her goals she had to desert her recently formed family when their son Jarred was just about three months old. Also interviewed, Jarred stated she kept him away from the business as the best choice on his behalf. She kept as close to him as she could and he expressed no complaints against her, but he's nevertheless still resented about how the whole matter turned out to be.
• Parting-Words Regret: Sadly invoked in the Bam Bam Bigelow episode. Eldest son Stephen had flown to Florida, hoping to catch up with his father (who had been divorced from his wife and lived alone in a spiral of drug abuse). When Bam failed to show up and called to apologize, Stephen "laid into him" about how angry and disappointed he was. Not three weeks later, he got the phone call that his father was dead. Stephen looks guilt-ridden and haunted as he recounts the last time he spoke to his father.
• Papa Wolf: In the episode centering around Bam Bam Bigelow, his youngest son Scott describes an incident where he—then ten years old—got punched in the face by a drunken fan in an ECW match. According to Tazz, Bam Bam had the man brought backstage and spent minutes beating the unholy tar out of him for doing that to his kid.
• Parental Incest: Robin Smith, the sister of Jake Roberts, was sexually abused by their father Grizzly Smith. She also suspected that their youngest sister Jo Lynn was abused in the same way. Jake himself alleges that Grizzly's wife (Robin's mother) would sexually abuse him.
• Phrase Catcher: Three episodes highlighting.
  • Make yourself one question:
    "Who's better than Kanyon?"
  • ECW fandom wasn't one to mince words about their honest opinion on Tammy Sytch:
    "She's-a-crack-whore!" (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
  • The thundering chant the universally-loved Sylvester Ritter received from fans back in the day:
    "Who-dat... who-dat... who-dat-gonna-beat-The-Junk-Yard-Dog?"
• Point of Divergence:
  • Across two separate episodes^note "The Life and Crimes of New Jack" and "Extreme & Obscene: Rob Black's XPW", it is made explicitly clear that the only reason Vic Grimes didn't die as a result of the scaffold match was essentially because God was on his side.^note And, of course, it's worth pointing out that the reason this match happened at all, and why New Jack was willing to try and murder the guy was because back in ECW, the pair had a match that saw the two of them falling from a metal structure... whereupon Vic accidentally landed on New Jack's head, and almost killed him outright.
    • In the former episode, D'Lo Brown reveals Vic was a foot away from hitting the concrete, something New Jack explains was because he didn't throw him hard enough.
    • In the latter, Mike Hartsfield further clarifies that Vic only wound up landing in the ring because, when he hit the ropes on his way down, he hit them with his legs, causing him to swing around; had he landed on his butt, he would've kept going down to the floor.
  • A seven hour weather delay led to heavy drinking from the WWE wrestlers waiting to return to the United States from Europe. The flight to Europe went off without incident, and the consensus from the interviewed subjects (Referee Mike Chioda and Justin Credible especially) was that the long wait while stuck on the tarmac was the catalyst for what happened.
• Porn Stash:
  • As New Jack tells it, having his choice of porn from the XPW warehouse was a major incentive for working for the promotion. Jack would wrangle a forklift to pick up the stuff, and estimates he owned over a thousand DVDs at the time.
  • James Mitchell recalls a "pinata" of gay porn being discovered in Chris Kanyon's luggage.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Jim Ross, defensive over Steve Williams being considered the favorite to win the Brawl for All, called him:
    "...a fucking 4-time All-American in Wrestling... In Division I!"
  • He does so again in regards to what everyone thinks about Warrior's "Destrucity":
    "What the fuck is 'Destrucity?'"
  • When asked what John Stossel would say to David Schultz if he was in front of him.
    "Fuck you, David!"
  • Said by Diamond Dallas Page in regards of Chris Kanyon:
    "I loved to work with the motherfucker!"
  • Tracy Edwards in regards of her late husband, Johnny K-9, as she burst into tears:
    "He fucked it up, fucked it up big time!"
  • Rob Black did one on a live show, aiming at his own audience:
    "I can do whatever I want 'cause I own this fuckin' place, and you don't!"
• Present Absence: Most episodes are about the legacies of dead wrestlers.
  • Macho Man and Ms. Liz, for starters. He will always be remembered as a man who earned the legitimately love of his fans and she will be forever the first true "Wrestling Diva".
  • What made Brody's tale so tragic was the fact justice never reached the culprit of his untimely demise.
  • Dino Bravo and (possibly) "Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez's "dangerous liaisons" outside their professional and family circles were more likely involved on their deaths as told by their still-grieving loved ones.
  • The Last of the Von Erichs describes in full detail the passing of every member of the family one by one while remembering the good times is equally a Tear Jerker and a testament of how much of The Stoic the surviving brother had become.
    • In the same sense, the Grahams strange saga was told chiefly by their last surviving member, Mike's daughter Nicole.
  • The Fabulous Moolah is no longer here to defend her now-controversial legacy after her abuses were revealed. Even her critics seem hesitant to show their anger in interviews now that Moolah is dead.
  • Both Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are no longer here to talk about their mentalities in the mid-2000s, with the latter especially leaving a lot of questions as to why he committed the Murder-Suicide of his family and himself.
  • Superfly's legacy is left to debate after the reopening of Nancy's case thirty years later. Now with both gone and after a dismissed trial, the Argentino family's search for justice may never have a clear closure for their hardships.
  • The bottom line on Herb Abrams and Johnny-K9 stories is that their own wrong, poor decisions ended their lives all too soon.
  • The Road Warriors' episode is told majorly from Animal and their manager Paul Ellering perspectives about their lives with his absent fellow Hawk. It is Harsher in Hindsight now since the former would pass away a few weeks after it was premiered.
  • The Ultimate Warrior's telling about his constant chain of questionable decisions and having him performing his own unbeknownst eulogy as the episode's ending is as uncanny uplifting as heartbreaking.
  • The Dynamite Kid's history was told without any kind of sugar coating. It was one of a man whose only interest in life was wrestling itself, disregarding of his own general well-being, personal and family life.
  • If several tellings about the passing of revered, beloved wrestlers are hard to swallow, Luna's own leaves the audience with an extra bitter taste due the deep sadness her life's story involves.
    • Another good example of this was Kanyon's episode.
  • Same thing goes for Matt Borne's episode, his career highlights and lower moments in life were told by the women he loved and the peers he left behind.
  • The ups and downs Junkyard Dog had to endure during his entire life and a crippling addiction to recreational drugs changed him deeply but never changed what he was at his very core, a fun-loving good man, a whole charactrer and a revered wrestler who'll live forever on his friends and fans fondest memories.
  • The many interviewees expressing not just how much they miss their passed friend or the sadness for his demise, but the admiration they all feel for Adrian Adonis is a very good example of this.
  • Bam Bam Bigelow's story was mainly told from the perspective of family and peers and friends such as DDP, Dave Meltzer and Tazz.
  • John Tenta and Terry Gordy's telling of their beginnings, outstanding careers as tragic downfalls and demises were also made by their surviving peers and relatives.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • invoked A supplemental video on wrestling manager Jim Cornette paints him this way, showing his attic which is chock full of wrestling memorabilia. Cornette says that "if it's happened since the pioneer days in professional wrestling, I have documentation of it here in this room". Cornette shows off a book of promoter Sam Muchnick's programs, with Cornette calling it his prized possession and saying he'd grab that book first and his wife second if their house was on fire. In "The Last of the Von Erichs," he boasted that over 50 years of his obsessive collecting, hoarding, and research is what makes him qualified to be a Wrestling expert.
  • The most glaring example can be Mick Foley himself, retelling the history of (to this point) four of his most admired performers ever: Bruiser Brody, The Dynamite Kid, Doink the Clown and Abdullah the Butcher, to the point of saying how he bragged about having a foto of the latter all soaked in blood and tell his friends that he was his father.
  • Each and every Chris Kanyon alumni proudly called themselves like that.
  • Eric Bischoff declared that his avid fandom to Sherri Martel was the main reason he looked out to have her on WCW.

Q-T

• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Two cases involved Moolah's alumni:
  • After her career was given a full stop due an in-ring accident, Princes Victoria was contacted by Moolah saying she got an assignment with certain promoter, commmiting her to "be kind" to him so she would get better earnings. Victoria knew she was about to be taken the rough way, so she established separate motel rooms as her only condition. By the time said person irrupted in her room she had to defend herself applying a wristlock to the agressor, effectively submitting him to be taken out.
  • By the time she was 16, Moolah arranged a photo session for Luna Vachon. Once their time was over, the photographer attacked her. Luna also had to defend herself so she could bail out of that place.
  • Grizzly Smith, guilty as charged and by a really long shot. It was to the point that his "sexual escapades" were an open secret in the locker room.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: No other episode showed a most glaring example of this as "The Last ride of the Road Warriors".
  • Joe Laurinaitis (a.k.a. Animal) was blue, having to get his life together pretty soon since he was married and having a baby on the way when he broke into the business. Barry Darsow and Nikita Koloff stated that he always was the most focused and centered of the couple. His style was more cemented on Power Wrestling.
  • Mike Hegstrand (a.k.a. Hawk) was red, having been a sort of bully and a Boisterous Bruiser from a very young age lead him to a life avocated to party, debauchery... and nothing else. Scott Norton confessed that in Japan Hawk even went to parties with the Yakuza. His style was an explosive combo of Brawling and Hi-fly.
• Revenge: New Jack only joined XPW so he could get payback against Vic Grimes for almost killing him back in ECW, hence why he left after the scaffold match.
  New Jack: So, I did my last show, which was with Vic Grimes. Once I got him, I was like "Mission accomplished". I was done. So, I left.
• Riches to Rags: A couple of stories involving this:
  • After Matt Borne career went sour, he ended-up providing for his second family with earnings attained in a menial tkm job, being this a constant source of frustration to him.
  • The Junkyard Dog went from earning upwards of $4,000 a week as "Cowboy" Bill Watts' top star, to make up to six figures with his toys, to working a part-time job at Walmart due to being fired from WWE for missing dates and substance abuse problems. This and with Mid-South Wrestling having folded, made impossible for him to capitalize his massive popularity back again.
  • At the height of his career, Abdullah the Butcher was earning enough money to single-handedly support his family. Now he's in debt due to legal troubles, and his home is literally falling down around his ears.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Not outright expressed on the episode but WWF's upper brass forced referee Earl Hebner into taking part in the Montreal Screwjob. Making matters worse, Bret had caught up with him the day before the match and warned him that the brass were going to try and screw him, only for Earl to swear on the lives of his children that he wouldn't allow that to happen, and that because of this Bret had been hoping that Earl would be the referee for the match, feeling safe when he saw that he was.
  • Luna Vachon was instructed by McMahon that if she ever scratched or mauled Sable (who for starters never even wanted to learn how to take a proper bump) during their WrestleMania XIV match, she could kiss her job at the company goodbye. Luna proceeded to perform the work of her life in that match, with almost absolutely no one (save for Owen Hart) giving her the appreciation and support she really earned that night.
    • Twenty-two months later at the 2000 Royal Rumble, Vince proposed a "beauty pageant" for the WWE female performers to partake in, to which the bookers had envisioned a spot where Luna had to lose her top, but Luna's refusal to do so contributed to her release from the company.
  • B. Brian Blair and Kevin Sullivan keep being clearly disturbed at having gone through having to torture or fully maim fellow performes on Eddie Graham's command or facing to be fired from CWF some four decades later. A practice Graham was apparently very fond of.
• Safe Driving Aesop: Car crashes were involved on Brian Pillman, Magnum T.A., Junkyard Dog and Adrian Adonis episodes. All of them with lethal consequences.
• Sanity Slippage: Some episodes are full of this:
  • Randy Savage lost it after his marital breakup. By the time Liz left him, he took it out on Hulk Hogan for whatever the reason, even to the point when he had went to Hogan's home and demanded Linda (Hogan's then-wife) to tell him where they were hiding her.
  • Fritz Von Erich, traumatized by outliving five sons and addled with cancer that spread to his brain, points a gun at Kevin and repeatedly asks if he's afraid while encouraging him to kill himself. Kevin himself has to flee before Fritz decides to pull the trigger. Present-day Kevin admits that he was glad Fritz died not long after, as he couldn't stand to watch him lose his mind.
    • Kevin himself confessed he had his own moment of weakness after the episode described above, by heading into a gun shop and taking a loaded shotgun without paying. The shop owner and two other men had talked this out with him and comforted the disturbed wrestler, for they knew the ordeal he went through.
  • After Chavo Guerrero witnessed his uncle's passing, he received a phone call from Benoit. As Chavo described it, Benoit's reaction was a long roaring wail at the top of his lungs. Chris wasn't the same person after that night anymore. Later in the episode, CTE scans of Benoit's brain showed that the concussions he'd suffered during his time with WCW and WWE had left him with a brain comparable to an end-of-life Alzheimer's patient, which likely contributed to it.
  • New Jack theorized he "flipped the fuck out" when he was around 6, first witnessing his father stabbing his mom five times in front of the whole family and then shooting her in the leg a few months later after she threatened to leave him while carrying Jack in her arms.
  • Per Jim Hellwig's wife, after WrestleMania VI, her husband "left" home forever and began living his in-ring personality on and off camera. From that point on, his life was a down-the-hill rollercoaster: dubious political leanings, highly controversial statements, a terrible comeback, merciless shoots against many members on the industry and so on. He didn't seem to come back to his senses until literally the end of his life, returning to the WWE to make amends with his former enemies and apologize for his bad behavior in the final 72 hours leading up to his fatal heart attack.
  • Dynamite Kid's behavior was progressively deteriorating, typified by an incident in which his then-wife ordered a non-alcoholic drink in a bar, prompting him to take her outside so that they could play chicken against trucks in the opposite lane on their way back home.
  • "The double life of Chris Kanyon" depicts a lot of this. Diagnosed with bi-polar and depressive disorders later in life, the fact he had to be "closeted" for so long and the constant feeling of "being a freak" led him to have constant outbursts of erratic behaviour, sometimes unbeknowst even to him. His then-trainees recalled a time they had to subdue him, rope and all, in order to not let Chris outside to "chase aliens".
  • The Graham's unfortunate saga fighting a life-long battle against depression caused by a combination of deared ones passing away by suicide and raging alcoholism is both a cautionary tale and a hell of an example.
  • The same goes on the anger Matt Borne had to bear inside his whole life, unchaining a free-fall spirall to an unstoppable addiction, endangering love ones and ultimately himself.
• The Scapegoat:
  • "Dr. D" David Schultz, after the John Stossel's incident, was stranded in several situations that unbeknown to him, shed a very unfavorable light over his career and character, releasing McMahon of any suspicion about his involving all at once.
  • Bart Gunn for winning a legitimate tournment and squashing the upper brass' favorite Steve Williams in their match, to be literally put to rest later on along with the whole Brawl for All concept, demolishing his career in the process.
  • Curt Hennig and Scott Hall were the only two wrestlers aboard The Plane Ride from Hell fired from WWE for their misbehaving.
  • Jeff Jarrett's career suffered a set back it took him years to recover from after Bash at the Beach 2000.
• Screwed by the Network: Discussed in a few episodes:
  • Dr. D's story is the blueprint of this trope, no doubt. He played by the business rules given the circumstances and times his story unraveled itself just to be ousted not just from the most powerful promotion in the states but from the entire business forever.
  • Invoked in the episode about Chris Kanyon. After his in-ring career wound up a part-time job alternating with his segments on the Howard Stern show, Kanyon was told at point blank by John Cena and Ric Flair that his moment passed on, and he may never be re-hired by McMahon. Kanyon's face after Flair, a former coworker and considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, says that he wasn't good enough shows just how crushed he was to hear it. Flair posted on Twitter after the episode that he was pretty much ordered to do it, to "play defense" for the company.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Vince McMahon attempted to make Harley Race jump the ship to WWF for a hefty sum, Race cleaned his mustache with the promoter's check and let him know that he promissed to surrend the title to Ric Flair at the event Vince was trying to sabotage.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Played for laughs. Cornette remembered how once the Montreal screwjob happened, he ran as fast as he could to the parking lot in hopes none of the involved parties chased him to kick his sorry ass, just to find right in front of his car Earl Hebner's (the match's referee) fleeing from the scene too.
  • In Brawl for All, Dan "The Beast" Severn a legit tough guy and MMA World Heavyweight Champion beated The Godfather badly on his first match, but since he saw the event as a risk to his career and credibility he had no choice but flee from WWF, eliminating himself from competition to never go back again.
  • Vince Russo told that the reason he jumped to WCW was he was exhausted by McMahon and wanted to move closely to his wife's family so she wouldn't be alone raising their kids.
  • On May 9, 1975 Chris Colt was scheduled to partake in a cage match, this right after consume copious amounts of LSD. At the moment the cage was closed he started to see giant spiders coming at him, so he proceeded to bail out from the venue as he started to attack people in ringside. After being beaten-up by the rabid fans, he had to be escorted outside in handcuffs by local policemen.
• Season Finale:
  • Season 1: The Fabulous Moolah and the controversy around her.
  • Season 2: The death of Owen Hart.
  • Season 3: Part 1 featured The Dynamite Kid; part 2: The Steroid Trials.
  • Season 4: The World According to Marty Jannetty.
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll:
  • After finding success within the industry, "The Fabulous Freebirds" indulge themselves in a truly RockStar fantasy, with all the debauchery and issues with the law it comes with.
  • Chris Colt was a notorious case since this was really all what he expected in life. Hard on alcohol, drugs and parties, he even became acquaintance for the likes of Janis Joplin and even went on tour as Joe Cocker's bodyguard a couple of times.
• Sickening "Crunch!":
  • Jim Ross describes the impact of Owen Hart's fatal fall as having a disturbing thud.
  • Darren "Droz" Drozdov describes hearing two loud pops during the botched powerbomb that left him paralyzed.
  • FMW's Hayabusa cracked two of his vertebrae and ended up paralyzed after landing on his head from a botched springboard moonsault attempt.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Downplayed with Jim Ross in regards to "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. He believes that everyone is blowing everything out of proportion in regard to the perceived favoritism Williams received in the Brawl for All and that everyone should just grow up, especially in regard to him being upset over Bart Gunn knocking out "his boy."
• Shower of Angst: Taken by Heidi Doyle, one of the flight attendants on the infamous Plane Ride From Hell.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Rob Black was depicted like this in his own episode. Despite the initial success of XPW, promoter Rob Black became more concerned with using the federation to settle personal scores, and for getting sex from women who he lied to that it was going to be used for his porn operations. Ultimately, Rob Black dared the government to take him to trial on obscenity charges. So that's just what they did, sending Black to federal prison and bankrupting both his wrestling and pornography companies. The whole time, Black is depicted in interviews and by narration as a guy with an overinflated sense of self-entitlement who just didn't know when to keep his mouth shut.
• Smarter Than You Look: This for being always playing The Heavy in every promotion he worked for, but Terry Gordy had a taste of the business as a whole since a young age and came to handle it very well according to both his children, pro wrestlers Miranda and Ray^note A.K.A. WWE's Jesse/Slam Master J.

  "Once you know how this business works, you'll never want to do anything else."

• Smoky Voice: Downplayed. Not due smoking of course. Several instance as those of Macho Man, The Snake and even Luna, but Pillman's case highlights over the rest. When he was just a baby, Brian's vocal chords developed several polyps that made him simply breath a challenge, at one point it went so bad his breathing could be heard from the next room, his mom had to call a doctor who performed an emergency tracheotomy on the baby. According to his sister Linda, Brian had to endure over thirty surgeries to correct the problem, leaving him with the raspy voice he was known for.
• The Spartan Way: Proving that Good Old Ways not always are that good, Harley Race's history shows this in spades. His family was so poor he had to leave home at fourteen because they couldn't support him anymore, so he ended up working on a farm owned by the legendary Stanislaus and Wladek Zbysko, they offered him wrestling lessons in exchange of his hard work, this proved to be a veritable Training from Hell. Then he went to work as a Carny attraction, having shoots^note Real fights against anybody for 3-4 bucks a match.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending:
  • Despite the upsetting, traumatic funeral march that is "The Last of the Von Erichs," the episode ends with Kevin at peace and surrounded by his adoring family as he asserts the importance of love and family over the emptiness of fame and titles.
  • The two-part Chris Benoit episodes are overall grim, but it ends with Chris' eldest son David reconnecting with his aunt Sandra (Nancy's sister) thanks to Chris Jericho.
  • Nick Gage got his life together, becoming one of the biggest and most popular names in deathmatch wrestling and has thousands of adoring fans behind him. But it all came after the loss of both his parents, technically dying during a deathmatch, falling into drug addiction, homelessness and then his brother killed himself.
  • Owen Hart's episode showed that his family never got legit justice for his death, but they live their lives in a noble and fulfilling way to honor his memory.
  • After a lifetime of addictions, bad choices, and the passing of his beloved mother due Alzheimer, Buff Bagwell received the helping hand of Diamond Dallas Page. With the latter's patient sponsoring, the former is living happily with a new woman and hoping to get back to the squared circle once more. He even assisted his former Tag Team partner Scotty Riggs, for he was having a rough time also.
  • After a life full with ups and downs, Harley Race found a resurgence in the business as manager and instructor. Proof of this was his WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2004.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Discussed in regards to the Bart Gunn/Butterbean fight at WrestleMania XV. While Gunn may be a talented boxer and Butterbean being Unskilled, but Strong, a professional will always beat an amateur. Butterbean even notes that Bart Gunn trying to box was his own undoing, and admits that had they been in a legitimate street brawl, Gunn would've had a 50/50 shot at winning.
  • The whole drama created on the road to Bash at the Beach 2000, reaching its logical conclusion. A showrunner not wanting to give up to his own (distorted) vision of the business, a promoter trying to mediate the incoming disaster and a reluctant star adamant to make the promotion uphold to his contract clausules.
• Tall Tale: In regard to Bam Bam Bigelow's famous stories ranging from rescuing a girl who was held restrained in Mexico when he was assisting a bounty hunter who was killed in the deed, doing time for the fact but befriending a judge by protecting him from some cartel goons, to the most well known about how he went into a house set ablaze to rescue some children trapped in there.
  • The season 4 finale focuses on the life of Marty Jannetty, where a good portion of the episode is spent focusing on the many outlandish things he has said over the years. This ultimately culminates in Marty telling the production crew about how he might have killed a man as a teenager who tried to rape him.
• That Man Is Dead: In the episode centered on Grizzly Smith, Jake Roberts (born Aurelian Smith Jr.) says that he 'buried Aurelian' because of the pain of his childhood, and that he hasn't let him out in over fifty years.
• Technician Versus Performer:
  • In regard of the long standing rivalry between Abullah and Brody, the former stated that despite his utter brutality, the latter was the real wrestler while his own style is a bit different.
  "I'm not a wrestler, I don't grab holds! I use karate, I use Jiu-Jitsu... I can beat you up any time that I want to beat you up, understand?"
  • Jim Ross uses this analogy to describe the rivalry between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo. He describes Cornette as "the steak": he adores old school style wrestling that focused on technical skills above all else and abhors the gimmicky, "low brow" wrestling and storylines that he feels have overtaken modern wrestling. Russo was "the sizzle": he loves having gimmicky and swerve filled angles and matches and views in-ring performances as nothing but a framing device to support storylines.
  • Road Warrior Animal describing himself and Hawk:
    "We were badasses pretending to be wrestlers, they were wrestlers pretending to be badasses".
  • The reason the long standing feud between a popular scrapper like Junkyard Dog and the gifted technician Ted DiBiase used to be is still massively fonded by fandom, is because it worked out so well. Focusing into exploit only their strengths, and it showed.
  • Tazz pondering about the many matches he had to face Bam Bam in are also a good example.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Bruiser Brody died from at least three stab wounds, one lacerating his liver, another nearly disembowling him.
  • Dino Bravo died by eleven gunshots, seven of them to the head.
• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • Fritz Von Erich's wife, Doris, would divorce him, blaming him for the deaths of their sons.
  • Invader #1's murder of Bruiser Brody. The wrestling fandom and comunity's general opinion is that there's no possible way to feel any kind of respect or empathy for a guy who got away with stabbing another to death in a pre-meditated murder arranged to get rid of a problematic employee. The fact he perpetrated it in a room full of eye witnesses, and later laughed and joked about it in front of Brody's friends with his co-conspirators, makes it even worse.
  • Several interviewees express this view towards Chris Benoit over his Pater Familicide:
    • Chavo Guerrero Jr., who is the most sympathetic towards Benoit, still openly condemns him as a murderer.
    • Dean Malenko looks absolutely devastated when the subject comes up and says he still misses Benoit, but that he can't condone his actions whatsoever.
    • Chris Jericho does an impressive closing for the two-parter, saying that while he also misses Benoit, Jericho will always hold a grudge against him for having utterly destroyed the two things he prized more than anything in life: his family and his career. It doesn't matter that it was by Benoit's own hand; Jericho will never forgive him for it.
  • Ultimate Warrior's first marriage ended up when his then wife learned that he was cheating on her with multiple women, and even keeping track of his affairs in a day planner. She divorced him.
    • A similar case occurred to Tonya, being this the reason why she is Buff Bagwell's ex-wife.
  • After dragging his wife by the hair in a fit of rage, Dynamite Kid was given a one-way plane ticket back to England. He responded by going down the basement, picking up a loaded shotgun, and saying he'd rather blow her head off. That was the last straw , and their marriage dissolved soon after.
  • Magnum T.A.'s only regret in life was the constant cheating on his first wife before and after his fatidic accident, resulting in getting their marriage broken for good.
  • Two instances on Matt Borne's case:
    • His first wife Maria recalled how he missid his first daughter's birth, getting there late past-punch drunk. Later on and frustrated for being fired from WWE for drug abuse, he could be absent from home up to three or four days at a time. Eventually it went so bad for her that he once throw lit cigarrettes to her and sent her and their baby daughter flying from a couch. That was all she could take.
    • As frankly depicted by his second wife Michelle, one day out of the blue and without any evidence he accused her of cheating, the next thing she knew was waking up in a hospital both eyes shut down swollen, a broken nose and Matt unable to even remember the incident for starters. Even though she forgave him, eventually Matt's persistent addiction took its toll on the relationship.
• Token Minority: According to Jim Ross, this was how Vince McMahon Sr. used to operate the WWF: by gathering the best wrestlers from each part of the globe to represent one race. Once Vince Jr. took over, he did away with that system and subsequently the top wrestlers became less diverse. Tony Atlas similarly believes that Vince Jr., while not racist, preferred to attract a predominantly white audience during his early years and purposely kept minority wrestlers despite of their tremendous popularity like Rocky Johnson, Junkyard Dog, Koko B. Ware or even himself in the mid-card, giving them major pushes but rarely allowing them to hold titles.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Almost everyone involved in the WCW North Korean excursion. NJPW didn't prepare any of the Western wrestlers or promoters, neglecting to warn them about the country's extreme culture of paranoia, the extent of the totalitarian regime's power over everyday life, or their history of demonizing Americans in their propaganda. Similarly, none of the westerners did any sort of research themselves, and assumed that traveling to North Korea would be the same as wrestling in Japan. While in normal circumstances visitors would've received a State Department briefing, Eric Bischoff's decision to illegally transport the wrestlers to North Korea by way of Japan meant they never received any official warnings or preperations. As a result, Bischoff himself nearly causes an incident when he goes out jogging without his escort (admitting on camera he was concerned his actions might've resulted in said escort's execution), and Scott Norton does cause an incident when he disparages the country on a phone call to his wife, resulting in his being arrested and taken to a military prison from which he was only freed due to Inoki's intervention.
  • Part of the reason the Plane Ride from Hell ended up as bad as it did was given the wrestlers on board three carts worth of booze, and no one stopping drug use. It nearly got everyone on board killed when Curt Hennig almost opened the emergency exit at thirty thousand feet in the air.^note Scientifically speaking, there was no way Henning could have opened the door, since the pressure differences plus momentum means that no human being has the strength to open an emergency exit door mid-flight, even one as strong as a pro wrestler. But it's still not something that any sane person should ever attempt, and Hennig was still acting incredibly stupid.
  • Rob Black is depicted as a guy whose ego outstrips his talent in the episode on XPW. Eventually, this egotism led Black to daring the American government to take him to court on obscenity charges over the porn business he was running. So they did, and Black ended up in jail for it, bankrupting both XPW and his porn company.
• Tranquil Fury: A trait of Hulk Hogan's, as discussed in season 4's episode on WCW's Bash at the Beach 2000. Eric Bischoff states that the angrier Hulk becomes, the quieter he becomes. And after hearing about Vince Russo's promo burying him at the pay-per-view, Hulk became very quiet.

U-Z

• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Vince McMahon thought he would gain sympathy in his interview with Jim Ross in regards to the Montreal Screwjob, but he came off to the audience as cold and calculating. McMahon instead pulled an Author's Saving Throw by having a larger on-screen presence as a Corrupt Corporate Executive as a result, paving the way for what's known as the Attitude Era.invoked
  • Devon Nicholson does not come off as the victim he tries to portray himself. For one, the idea he was bladed against his will by Abdullah the Butcher is questioned as both men were familiar with each other and had wrestled several times, though his diagnosis of Hepatitis C was genuinely regretful. His attack on referee Lando Deltoro in World Class Pro Wrestling, where he jabbed him several times in the head with an iron spike, leaving several gouges that needed to be closed did him no favors either. His "Shit happens" attitude when discussing it and an arrest for domestic violence is the rotten cherry on top. The show itself deserves credit for not ignoring Nicholson's mistakes but he seems to think the viewers will take his side.
  • Abdullah himself to some viewers, as his claims of illiteracy are unconfirmed and even surprise his longtime friends and supporters. The idea that he couldn't have someone read the process notice for the lawsuit and help him respond and avoid the default judgement, especially since he has a caretaker, is a bit hard to swallow. The fact that he didn't get checked for blood borne diseases despite nearly always bleeding in every match is also a very questionable choice.
• Unknown Rival: Herb Abrams to Vince McMahon. After being snubbed by Vince in regards to possibly working together, Herb vowed to run him out of business. Vince, aside from re-signing André the Giant after his one-time appearance in UWF, doesn't seem to pay him any attention.
• Un-person:
  • Besides erasing Chris Benoit from their programming, WWE basically tried to pretend that David Benoit didn't exist after the Murder-Suicide. David admits in an interview that he's still mad at WWE for it. Both Chavo Guerrero and Chris Jericho expressed disgust at how David was treated by WWE and society in general.
  • Subverted with Jimmy Snuka. He was removed from the WWE Hall of Fame after legal troubles began catching up to him, but after his death in 2017, he was quietly re-added to the Hall.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • James Mitchell namedrops this trope to describe what Chris Kanyon has become after the latter admitted to him that he didn't really get fired from WWE becaue he was gay, but is going to use that in case he has to sue them.
  • Not surprisingly, Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff accuse each other of this as they recount their partnership in WCW and the events that occurred at Bash at the Beach 2000. Journalist Dave Meltzer and wrestler Lance Storm who was there think they are both untrustworthy.
  • According to his closest friends and even his own physicians, Marty Jannetty is considered one of the biggest bullshit artists in the industry, which is quite the accomplishment!. It's not just about his time in the wrestling industry either; he tells an unlikely story about mixing the wrong chemicals at Middle School chemistry, resulting in an explosion that sent a girl flying across the classroom, caused massive damage to the lab, yet only leaves him with a few stains. And the less said about his infamous claim to have killed a man who tried to sexually assault him when he was a teenager, the better.
• The Unsolved Mystery:
  • If Invader #1 will ever face the charges against him or if Atlas and Mantell's testimonies will be ever heard on court in Bruiser Brody's murder case.
  • Was David Von Erich's death really a mere acute enteritis or was it something else? Fritz was as satisfied as he could be (given the circumstances) by the forensic report in Japan so he could give an statement on his TV show. Many people assured that was an overdose in fact, but four decades have passed and it seems highly unlikely that none but the official cause will be the real deal.
  • Who exactly killed (if so) "Gorgeous" Gino Hernandez is left up in the air. It's implied that Gino was Properly Paranoid and killed during a deal over money gone wrong, but there are a lot of unanswered questions.
  • Similarly, the murder of Dino Bravo is unlikely to be solved. Shot more than a dozen times, the case has plenty of questions and few answers. Bravo died in his recliner while watching a hockey game, with no forced entry found. Bravo seemed to know his killer(s) and either wasn't expecting to be killed or was resigned to his fate.
  • Despite all known facts, it's still a baffling conundrum what really happened the last moments in Earth of Nancy Argentino, Herb Abrams and Johnny K-9. So much that a lot of conflicting hypotheses and wacky theories have been drawn up over the years.
  • To this day, very little information is known about the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of Jo Lynn Smith, Jake Roberts' youngest sister. Her husband's ex-wife confessed to the kidnapping, but maintained she had escaped her captors. The police chief who led the futile search firmly believes her body was incinerated in the cigarette factory she worked in.
  • Did Rob Black pay two men to attack Messiah in retalation for the latter sleeping with the former's wife and bragging about it at a show? While everyone asked about it in the episode, including Messiah, believes this to be the case, it was never proven and no one was ever charged. Black had the motive and means in addition to threatening Messiah, while the attackers went straight for him, not even pretending to be burglars. Strongly circumstantial, but nothing concrete to prove it for certain. On another level, the criminals who commited the act were never charged or even identified and will likely never be.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Jim Cornette suggesting double-crossing Bret Hart was what led to the Montreal Screwjob. Cornette admits, years later, that he's responsible for the death of kayfabe (albeit entirely by accident), despite Cornette being one of its most passionate defenders. Once Cornette saw Shawn Michaels put Bret Hart in the sharpshooter submission hold, Cornette said "Screw This, I'm Outta Here" and jumped into a car before he saw anything else go down.
  • Brody himself. Several interviewees during his episode stated that, if after a fashion, Brody decided not to play along with you, there was nothing that could make him change his mind. Brody was trying to purchase Gorilla Monsoon's WWC shares, effectively, getting over Colon-Jovica-Huertas Gonzalez's power and influence in the promotion (he was already part of the booking team). As he trusted to Tony Atlas "...you are going to see a lot of changes around here."
    • Huertas Gonzalez on the other hand saw his ever-lovin' crap beaten out of him by Brody on a previous tour, had the possibility of losing his job if Brody purchased Monsoon's shares, and suffered the loss of his 3 year old daughter around the same time. This in absolutely no way justifies his acts, but they could have been the detonating factors of the tragic events that unfolded themselves later.
  • Oddly, and by no means their fault in any way, Sting and WCW management. Owen Hart's descents from the rafters were designed as a comedic jab at Sting's heroic zip line entrances. This is why Owen would be humiliated when he did the stunt, such as being unmasked by Steve Blackman while simultaneously being unable to get his feet on the ground. The night he died, he was supposed to release himself about three feet above the ring and fall flat on his face. To WCW's credit, they always made sure Sting was rigged by professionals and that he was properly trained. As noted above, negligence by WWE management led to Owen's fatal fall.
  • Eddy Mansfield, in a way, unwittingly caused the end of David Schultz's wrestling career when he decided to work with John Stossel's exposé on wrestling. (see Didn't Think This Through).
  • While Jacques Rougeau was able to get his revenge on Dynamite Kid and ensured he would not face retaliation, this would end up driving Kid mad as he was unable to get his revenge, which would lead to the destruction of his marriage.
  • The daring flight attendant Heidi Doyle and her peers, of all people. She suspected and confirmed later to her horror that serving the amount of liquor consumed by the wrestlers that day was a proverbial recipe for disaster.
  • It was Sherri Martel, who made a bond with Luna Vachon, for both women were talented performers downgraded to being valets and the former had immersed the latter unawarely deeper and deeper into harder drugs.
  • About Chris and Tammy:
    • Jim Cornette recognizes Sytch had the looks to be a star and offered her a chance to record some promos to see if she had speaking ability as well. She did, dropped Pre-Med School out and started her road to mega-stardom...and then to complete ruin.
    • Doc Pritchard told that someone came in at WWE introducing The Teetotaler Chris to muscle relaxers after he got his neck broken, and then to a potentially lethal overdose, having said:
  "...one was good but six were better".
  • Astonishingly, the TNT CEO Brad Siegel putting Russo and Bischoff together, attempting to blend water and oil leading to the utter disaster Bash on the Beach 2000 winded-up into.
  • After an incident in 1968 where Chris Colt burned an american flag on live TV, got not just "California Hell's Angels" ousted off the promotion but the TV show out the air.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Said by several wrestlers regarding both Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch, until they got to WWE and subsequently fell into addiction and abuse.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Grizzly Smith. A notorious pedophile who openly brought girls as young as ten years old on the road, but nonetheless made important connections within and without the wrestling industry. Former daughter-in-law Baby Doll (Nickla Byrd) notes that Grizzly not only knew people, but knew things ''about'' people that guaranteed that nobody looked too closely at his predatory activities.
• Vindicated by History: Invoked by Eddy Mansfield, who stated that Vince McMahon's decision to declare wrestling as Sports Entertainment rather than a sport prove that he was right all along.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Even though there came a time when they would get into very physical confrontations which lead them to distance themselves from each other, Jannetty and Michaels have been filmed on separate ocations stating they still feel sympathy and care for one another.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jake Roberts revealed that he wanted to be a wrestler so he could finally get his father's approval and validation. When that never happened, Jake used his volatile emotions from his childhood abuse to create his wrestling persona.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Said by Jim Cornette about Chris Colt, a performer he called himself a fan of and as "The best wrestler nobody ever saw." Working predominantly on territories with small venues and due his flamboyant and dangerous way of life, he also passed away relatively young.
• We Used to Be Friends: Several friendships ended up badly, due the business' own nature.
  • Four instances involved Hulk Hogan:
    • The episode about Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth and the supposed involving of Hogan on (according to Randy) their crumbling marriage and subsequent divorce.
    • David Schultz and Hogan were the best of friends until Schultz was fired and Hogan turned his back on him. Lampshaded when Schultz showed an old photo of Hogan with the following words written on the back: "Old friend forgot his name."
    • Although he didn't testify against Vince's best interests during the steroid trials, the fact he was called in by the prosecution left a mark in what it was up to that point an amicable working relationship.
    • After a party Hogan was offering, he had a fall out with his best friend for years, Brutus Beefcake. Many of the interviewees stated the real reason is that Hulk doesn't appreciate too much Brutus' long time friend now wife Missy for whatever the reason. A woman who had stood and being always there for him, through thick and thin.
  • After the Mid-South incident that got him fired, Matt Borne harvested a deep grudge against Jim Duggan, culminating years later having them in an indy match that ended-up turning into a shoot Duggan had to stop grabbing his 2x4, Jim waited to take it to the locker rooms still following the script but Matt simply spoiled the match by walking away.
  • When former pupil Devon Nicholson had his shot to be amongst the WWE ranks, he remembered how his mentor Abdullah screamd in joy. After periodical medical test were run it was discovered Nicholson contracted Hep C. ruining his coveted opportunity. He has blamed Abdullah for he was bladed by the latter without his consence on a match and this was the most likely cause he got infected.
• Whammy Bid: Subverted. Warlord stated on the steroids trials that he was never a Dr. Zahorian client because he was getting the same products four times cheaper than what cost to get them with the physician.
• What Could Have Been: Invoked by Jim Cornette and others on a few instances:
  • Pondering David Von Erich as a future NWA World Heavyweight Champion instead of Kerry, if things would be different.
  • In Brian Pillman's episode (part two), who wonder what heights he could have reached if he hadn't gotten into the car accident that derailed his career.
  • Had The Steroid Trials occurred five years before, who knows what could have be of Pillman, Billington or Benoit's careers afterwards?
  • Antonio Inoki wanted Hulk Hogan to perform at Collision in Korea. Eric Bischoff pitched it to him, but Hogan's answer was a very quick, "Can't make that one, brother."
  • Magnum T.A. was a good looking, massively popular and talented performer destined to be Jim Crockett Promotions' next big Super Star and World's Heavyweight Champion. Then he gets into a near-fatal car accident, ending his meteoric career. Jim Cornette even theorized that Vince McMahon's aggressive expansion across North America wouldn't have happened as quickly or effectively as it did, if Magnum had been able to capitalize on his burgeoning star power.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Did you know Jake "The Snake" Roberts is actually a self-confessed real-life ophidiophobe? Yeah, he was afraid of snakes himself in real life. This despite the fact that he actually was forced to carry around and had to take care of his various ophidians himself while on the road having absolutely zero control over them.
    "I hated the sons of bitches, I'm terrified of them!"
  • Luna Vachon tended to go pick up her son from school with a snake wrapped around her neck, much to the poor boy's own annoyance.
    Van Hurd: "It almost got me once. Yeah it sucks, but to me that was normal!"
• Wicked Stepmother:
  • Brian Pillman's daughters Brittany and Dani view his widow Melanie as this. Brittany blames Melanie for her mother Rochelle's suicide, and both women blame her for frittering away their late father's estate on drugs and alcohol, forcing them to live neglected and in poverty. Melanie for her part admitted her failings as a parent, wishing more than once that she could reconcile with her stepdaughters.
    • Brian Jr.'s stepfather was very much this, a violent drug addict punishing him and his older half-sister Brittany by grounding them for several months over minuscule troubles, destroying his Nintendo GameCube out of anger and even training his dogs to attack the children if they disobeyed him.
  • Jake Roberts alleges that his stepmother Marcia would sexually abuse him growing up. Half-sister Robin - Marcia's daughter - places the blame on their father Aurelian 'Grizzly' Smith (who sexually abused Robin before she was ten), saying that if it happened, her mother was coerced or manipulated into doing it by Grizzly for his own sick pleasure.
• Worf Had the Flu: Scott Norton argues that 2 Cold Scorpio only fared as well as he did in his fight against Road Warrior Hawk because Hawk was on medication that produced flu-like symptoms at Collision in Korea.
• Worth It:
  • Subverted with Vince Russo in regards to Brawl for All. At first, he was satisfied as he got what he (and unwillingly Cornette) wanted (Bradshaw being knocked out), but considering the injuries as well as the current knowledge about concussions, Russo stated that he would never do this again.
  • Nick Gage has suffered through so much pain, loss, and addictions, and yet he will keep wrestling for his thousands of adoring fans.
  • The opinion of 2 Cold Scorpio and Scott Norton when at their last propaganda visit to the North Korea's founder mausoleum. Muhammad Ali did shadow boxing as he climbed up the stairs to lift the entourage's already troubled spirits.
  • Most of XPW's former roster wouldn't change a thing about their time there as most of them enjoyed putting on the best shows they could and their time in the promotion led to new career opportunities and long lasting romantic relationships.
  • While The Steroid Trials end with little in the way of legal consequences to those involved, the aftermath saw the industry quietly shifting away from its former top stars while giving performers typically dismissed as mid-card fodder a chance to build up a name for themselves.
  • Johnny Candido states that if his brother Chris, at age 13, would be told that he would die at 33 but make it to national television and even win a major title (The WWF Tag Team Championship), then he would happily accept that deal.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Chris Benoit suffocated his then-seven-year-old son by smothering him to death.
  • New Jack remembered how his dad routinely beat him and his mom up for either little or no reason at all.
  • Grizzly Smith routinely physically abused his children growing up and most heinously molested his two daughters before they were ten years old.
  • All of Johnny K-9's family was constantly abused by his father. His widow recalled that Johnny had told her about a Christmas incident when he was only six years old, in which his father was so drunk that he started to beat up the whole family with a broom.
• World's Best Warrior:
  • Jerry Briscoe and Ed Sharkey talked very highly about Harley Race's fighting prowess on and off the squared circle.
  • The same was told by Kevin Von Erich, David Manning and his own brother Neil about Chris Adams' abilities and extensive martial arts background.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child:
  • Given their name and influence over the younger fans, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior always tried their best to never let a single kid down, making them promise to always give their best in school and with their parents.
  • Though there are few confirmed details in the Dino Bravo case, police are convinced the killer(s) waited until his wife and young daughter were out of the house before going through with the murder.
  • Junkyard Dog went one step beyond, turning himself into an advocate for their welfare.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • Shawn Michaels played this card with the WWE upper brass after a serious backstage brawl he got with Bret Hart, taking as evidence a considerable hairball the Hitman pulled out from Shawn's scalp and complaining about the "unsafe working conditions" within the promotion.
  • Possibly in regard to John Stossel's lawsuit against WWF over the infamous "Slap heard around the world." It doesn't help that Stossel all but admits the pre-trial doctor's diagnosis that he may be faking his pain for the sake of the lawsuit is true.
    "I held onto my pain, but it gradually did go away when I got paid."
  • Vince McMahon tried (and failed) to capitalize the jury's good graces during the steroids' trial by wearing a neck brace. Fortunately for him, the government's case (as noted above) was so weak that he was acquitted on all charges.
  • Possible case with Abdullah The Butcher. He claims he never responded Devon Nicholson's lawsuit for being illiterate, statement that took his friends Mick Foley and Hugo Savinovich off guard. Neither can confirm it, but are unwilling to deny it either, with Foley claiming Abdullah can at least read a menu. He also claims to be broke and unable to pay the suits against him filed by Nicholson alleging hiding of assets, which haven't been proven in court yet.
  • Vince Russo played the victim after taking matters into his own hands once an agreed last-draft script was set in motion, bypassing Bischoff, Hogan and even the network CEO's decision.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay: Played for Laughs. Harley Race's first job in the business was as driver and assistant for Happy Humphrey, a well known 700 lbs. wrestler back in The '50s. One of Race's main chores was to help Humphrey to take a bath, consisting in swab the extra-large performer with a soap soaked mop as he lied naked on the ground.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Some individuals or even true dynasties in pro wrestling seem to be linked to an unfortunate fate.
  • The saga of the Von Erich Family is presented as a constant game of "one step forward, two steps back" with success and tragedy. Just when it seems like the Von Erichs are starting to find success and put their tragedies behind them, something else will happen to cause even more heartache.
  • The Grahams' well documented history of loss trauma related mental illness unchained a series of sadly remembered demises to every patriarch in this family.
  • By his own admission, Brutus Beefcake's career enjoyed of some popularity in early The '90s, but he was never offered an interesting or relevant gimmick. Even he couldn't utter his most famous persona's name without laughing at the beginning.
    • Then it came the accident that almost finished not only his career, but his life. Having one day off he decided to throw a big party with friends that included a ski boat for parasailing, all of the sudden he was struck head-on by the woman dragged in by the boat, sinking half of his skull from the tremendous impact. It took to the surgeon sixteen hours to repair the damage without any guaratee of survival. The surgeon even stated it was a miracle for Brutus not to end up blind. So he spent two days in an induced coma just hoping for the best. By the time he was on recovery, one of his eyes just popped out and it had to be inserted back.
    • Besides of all that, his only claim to fame is to be remembered as "Hulk Hogan's buddy".
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • When discussing XPW's scaffold match, Mike Hartsfield (the former live event producer) admits that it wasn't actually insured. Doing the insurance the "normal way" would've meant the match as planned would've (obviously) not been allowed to happen, so instead Mike forged an insurance waver on his computer.^note Specifically, he dug up an old insurance certificate, edited out portions of it, typed up replacement names, and then faxed it out.
    Chris Jericho: (offscreen) So, wait a minute... There wasn't actually insurance for the event?
    Mike Hartsfield: Yeaaaah...
  • The reporter's reaction having Chris Candido mom retelling how his first major gimmick on SMW; "The Suicide Blond", sported a woven baby bonnet was to let escape a loud laughing "...WHAT?"
  • The entire production's reaction as they were listening from Jim Cornette how much Buzz Sawyer was a full-fledged Con Man scoundrelling ten grand from Terry Allen was to let a loud laughing go.
  • The judge presiding over Hulk Hogan's defamation lawsuit against Vince Russo, who had to point out to Hulk that he couldn't file a real-life lawsuit over a wrestling storyline.
  • By their own admission, Haku and Jake Roberts never had watched the infamous "Shockmaster" T.V. spot before, when the production crew showed it to them neither could stop laughing. Nevertheless, Haku stated his sympathy for Fred Ottman.
  • Brutus Beefcake again on both ends:
    • By the time he was talking about his terrible accident, he recalled with a smirk how Sherri Martel went to pay him a visit while recovering, but when she had a glance at his condition was so horrified that screamed at top of her lungs and started to cry.
    • Brian Knobbs had this precise reaction when heard Brutus considered himself as good as an actor as Mel Gibson for playing mostly forgettable gimmicks during Beefcake's WCW stint.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Fritz Von Erich's wife divorced him, holding him responsible for the deaths of their children, who were Driven to Suicide.
  • Owen Hart's widow and children openly resent WWE for their negligence that led to his death.
  • Brian Pillman's daughter Brittany openly resents her father's widow Melanie, whom she holds responsible for her mother being Driven to Suicide, even calling her evil and the devil.
  • Downplayed. Shell declared that given her father's caring and sweet nature he was taken advantage of by Onita.
  • Doink the Clown's daughter Tegan and former wife Michelle believe his then-girlfriend Connie was criminally negligent at best in his death (if she didn't outright murder him) for going to sleep when it was clear he was overdosing and not calling 911 until he was all but dead or actually giving him a lethal cocktail of booze and pills. For what it's worth, the police investigated the circumstance of his death and cleared Connie of any wrongdoing.
• Your Days Are Numbered:
  • Ultimate Warrior discovered at very young age (due to his grandfather's demise) that every man in his family had few possibilities to live past 60. His worst fears came true the day he found out his father passed away in his mid 50's. Sadly, Warrior himself only made it to 55 before his own time came.
  • Nick Gage believes that he'll die young, but intends to continue wrestling for as long as he can.
  • Hayabusa's condition worsened despite recovering enough fortitude to stand and walk while being assisted by crutches to finally collapsing and dying at home.
  • The constant abuse and consumption of hard drugs took the best things in life from Matt Borne, first his most important spot ever at the biggest wrestling promotion in America and then two families. Ending up his life being only 55.

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