These wrestlers made their biggest heel moves outside the ring. Some are living, some aren't, but their reputations are seemingly beyond repair.
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00:00These wrestlers made their biggest heel moves outside the ring. Some are living,
00:04some aren't, but their reputations are seemingly beyond repair.
00:09JBL spent much of his early career in various tag teams, from his pairing with Barry Windham
00:14in the New Black Jacks to his memorable run with Farouk in the Acolytes, which became the APA.
00:19He finally came into his own as a singles wrestler when he took on the character of a
00:23rich Texan businessman. Sort of like a wrestling version of Dallas patriarch J.R. Ewing,
00:29it was reflective of his real-life success in the stock market.
00:32Throughout his career, JBL had a reputation as a backstage bully,
00:36and that reputation didn't go away after he retired from in-ring action and became a
00:40commentator. In March 2017, SmackDown Live lead commentator Mauro Ranallo abruptly stopped
00:46appearing on the show. JBL had called him out on the WWE Network program Bring It to the Table,
00:52poking fun at the Wrestling Observer newsletter naming Ranallo announcer of the year.
00:56While it was a scripted call-out, it rubbed Ranallo the wrong way,
01:00and he didn't return to SmackDown, where JBL was color commentator.
01:03Ranallo became the lead commentator on NXT instead.
01:07Every working relationship, you have to navigate. You're not always going to get along with
01:11everybody the way you would like to get along with your colleagues.
01:15Former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts was also quite open about his negative experiences
01:20with Layfield, documenting them extensively in his autobiography, Best Seed in the House.
01:24In a Reddit Ask Me Anything to promote his book in 2016, a fan asked Roberts about JBL. He replied,
01:31"'He terrorized me and a lot of guys. He'd make life hell for a lot of guys. He chewed Miz and
01:36Morrison out after they won the WWE Tag Team titles for not celebrating enough.'"
01:41Tammy Sych only rarely wrestled, and mostly in mixed tag team matches. But she didn't really
01:46need to, becoming one of the biggest stars in the WWF just by appearing on screen.
01:51After a stint in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, she and real-life boyfriend Chris Candido
01:55made their way to what's now WWE in 1995 with Sych, under the name Sonny, managing Candido's
02:02tag team, the Body Donnas. She'd go on to manage some other teams, but quickly became a fan-favorite
02:07attraction all on her own. Sych and WWE refer to Sonny as the original diva.
02:12Even at the height of her success, Sych was heavily abusing drugs and alcohol.
02:16After no-showing some appearances, she was let go from the WWF in 1988. She made her way to ECW
02:22and WCW for some brief stints, but was out of both by 2000. Things maybe seemed to be turning
02:28around for Sych when she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011, but the press she's
02:33gotten since has proven otherwise. She racked up multiple domestic violence charges in the early
02:382010s, and has a far more well-documented history of arrests for driving under the influence.
02:43In November 2023, Sych was sentenced to over 17 years in prison
02:47for her role in a drunk driving accident that killed a 75-year-old man.
02:52A precious life was lost that drive today, and I'm so incredibly sorry for that."
02:59Over a fairly long career spanning the 1990s and 2000s, Bill DeMott was a solid mid-carder
03:05in WCW and the WWE. He wrestled under several names, but the one he kept coming back to was
03:11Hugh Morris. Get it? Humorous? After retiring in 2011, DeMott became a WWE trainer,
03:17he played a prominent role in the company's reality competition series Tough Enough,
03:21and he eventually became head coach at the WWE Performance Center when it opened in 2013.
03:27Two years later, DeMott resigned from that position amid a slew of controversies regarding
03:31his training methods. The Washington Post reported that several developmental talents,
03:35including Austin Madelson, who now wrestles as Luchasaurus in AEW,
03:40complained about DeMott's physical and verbal abuse, which included hitting one wrestler with
03:45a legitimate groin shot and making inappropriate comments. A female trainee who chose to remain
03:50anonymous claimed on Reddit that DeMott looked the other way when she and other wrestlers reported
03:54another coach who was engaging in sexually abusive behavior. Former Tough Enough contestant
04:00Ivelisse Velez told interviewer Chris Van Vliet,
04:03He has a personality that can become, rather quickly, a bully-type personality."
04:11Billy Jack Haynes was a solid mid-card hand in mid- to late-80s WWF. His WrestleMania 3
04:17Full Nelson Challenge match against Hercules Hernandez was arguably the highlight of his
04:22stint with the company. Haynes retired from wrestling in 1996, and much of that retirement
04:27was pretty quiet. Though he was one of many wrestlers who sued WWE in 2016 over long-term
04:33brain injuries, that suit was dismissed. What hasn't been dismissed are charges that Haynes
04:38allegedly shot and killed his wife, Jeanette Becraft, who was 85 years old and suffering
04:43from dementia. The New York Times reported that Haynes was arrested following a standoff with
04:48police. He was described as uncooperative after authorities found him at home on the morning of
04:53February 8th, 2024. He was later taken to a hospital for reasons, quote,
04:57unrelated to the homicide or his contact with law enforcement. On February 28th,
05:02he was released from the hospital and jailed for charges of second-degree murder
05:06and unlawful use of a weapon. As of the making of this video, his trial has not started.
05:11When I got in that wrestling ring, I was ready to kill somebody.
05:14When I got out of the wrestling ring, I was ready to kill somebody."
05:17Billed at 7 feet tall and 320 pounds, Grizzly Smith was an imposing presence in the ring.
05:22Outside it, he's considered one of the most despicable figures the wrestling business
05:26has ever seen. His son, WWE Hall of Famer Jake the Snake Roberts, told Sports Illustrated that
05:32he was conceived after Smith sexually assaulted the 12-year-old daughter of the woman he was
05:36dating. Roberts said,
05:38"[My parents then got married because that's what you did back then.
05:41She had two more children fairly quick and before the age of 17 she was divorced with three kids."
05:46Smith's daughter, Rockin' Robin, followed her older brother and father into the wrestling
05:50business. In an interview with High Spots Wrestling Network, she accused her father
05:54of molesting her, starting when she was 6 or 7 years old.
05:57You know, it wasn't just me. I think it's something that's deeply embedded with any
06:02child molester. There's just something really off there."
06:06Smith died in 2010.
06:08Finnish wrestler Tony Halema portrayed foreign heel Ludvig Borga in the WWF in the mid-1990s.
06:15He also had a brief career in mixed martial arts, most notably losing, in less than a minute,
06:19to MMA icon Randy Couture at UFC 13 in 1997.
06:25But Halema got far more heat for what he would do years later. As a member of the
06:29Finnish parliament in 2003, Halema, representing the national True Finns party, made homophobic
06:35comments about the country's then-president, Tarja Halonen, even though Halonen is in
06:39a heterosexual marriage. He also racked up multiple charges related to smuggling,
06:44illegal use of firearms, drug use, and driving under the influence.
06:48Halema even dabbled in music, releasing a 1999 single that made it all the way to number two
06:53on Finland's pop music charts, despite containing homophobic lyrics.
06:57Halema died in an apparent suicide in January 2010. Legendary former WWE announcer Jim Ross
07:04wrote on his personal blog at the time,
07:06"...Tony obviously had issues and was not a great guy to be around.
07:09I personally found him to be somewhat obnoxious, and he could be a bully if allowed to be such."
07:14Guys like Halema don't mix well in any locker room and need to be removed from the team
07:18sooner than later.
07:20The Fabulous Moolah was unquestionably the most dominant woman in professional wrestling history.
07:25WWE lists her first reign as women's champion as lasting an astounding 28 years.
07:31Did you get any moolah?
07:34You bet.
07:35She trained several female wrestlers throughout her decades in the business,
07:38and remained active as an occasional performer even into the late 1990s,
07:42winning her fourth and final title in October 1999.
07:46On the surface, that sounds like someone the WWE would want to honor following her 2007 death,
07:51right? Well, when WWE named its women's battle royal at WrestleMania 34 after her,
07:57fans cried foul, and they had to change it. The protests arose because many of the women
08:01who trained under Moolah have made claims she exploited them, financially and otherwise.
08:06In an interview with Pro Wrestling Sheet, former student Mad Maxine went into detail, saying,
08:11A lot of women paid to train at her school and then went out on the road.
08:15They risked life and limb in their matches, and she repaid them with the worst kinds of abuses.
08:20She skimmed their money, she ignored women who were badly hurt,
08:23she pimped women out to creepy men, and on and on.
08:27Starting out in the Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling before signing with WWF in 1984,
08:32Tom Dynamite Kid Billington was one of his era's most innovative in-ring talents.
08:37As half of the British Bulldogs alongside his cousin,
08:40Davey Boy Smith, Billington held WWF World Tag Team Gold once. As his injuries added up,
08:46Billington got deeper and deeper into drug and alcohol abuse, which didn't help his reputation
08:50as a backstage bully who pulled cruel pranks. Bret the Hitman Hart said on his Confessions
08:55of the Hitman podcast,
08:57He had a lot of enemies, and he did a lot of lousy things to people. He was a real bully,
09:01and he would pick on guys that were minding their own business.
09:04Things were even worse at home, where Billington's explosive temper led to a violent argument
09:09that culminated in him pointing a gun at his then-wife, who was pregnant at the time.
09:14Billington dealt with various health issues after he retired from wrestling,
09:17and he died on December 5, 2018, on what was his 60th birthday.
09:21His nephew, Tommy Billington, now wrestles in AEW, also under the name The Dynamite Kid.
09:27For most of his wrestling career, Superfly Jimmy Snuka was a beloved babyface,
09:32a high-flying daredevil whose style influenced many. But Snuka's personal
09:36life was clouded by tragedy and controversy. In May 1983, Snuka's then-girlfriend,
09:41Nancy Argentino, died under mysterious circumstances. For decades,
09:45Snuka denied allegations that he killed her, but his story was wildly inconsistent.
09:51What are the odds? Freak accident, huh?
09:52Oh, I wasn't — I was going nuts.
09:54In Snuka's 2012 autobiography, Superfly, The Jimmy Snuka Story, the retired wrestler claimed
09:59that Argentino, who had momentarily stepped out of his car, slipped and hit her head,
10:04and later died in her sleep in their hotel room. Almost three decades prior,
10:08Snuka told authorities that Argentino suffered the fatal head injury while the two of them
10:12were play wrestling in the hotel room. Both versions of the story conflicted with autopsy
10:16reports that suggested that Argentino's injuries may even be suggestive of mate abuse due to many
10:22blows to the head. Snuka was not formally charged with Argentino's death until 2015,
10:28and one year later, he was found unfit to stand trial due to his apparent dementia,
10:32which prosecutors found suspicious. He died of stomach cancer in January 2017.
10:38A mainstay of the hardcore wrestling scene for around 30 years, Jerome Young,
10:42aka New Jack, was known to be a loose cannon in the ring. Most infamously, in 1996, New Jack
10:48decided to teach 17-year-old Eric Kulas, a fan who got booked in an ECW match by lying about his age,
10:55a lesson about disrespecting the business. New Jack cut Kulas with a surgical scalpel,
11:00severing two arteries. He later showed no remorse for his actions,
11:04insisting that Kulas' father provoked him with a racial epithet.
11:08So you really didn't care what happened to him at that point?
11:10No, I didn't.
11:12Because it was his idea for you to cut him?
11:14Yeah.
11:14At a 2003 independent show, New Jack viciously took liberties with his 69-year-old opponent,
11:20who apparently angered him by calling the match in advance. New Jack hit Gypsy Joe
11:24Melendez multiple times with a chair, then beat him with a barbed wire baseball bat
11:29before the match was declared a no contest. New Jack's unsavory personality also manifested
11:34in his family life. His child, drag performer Washington Heights, claimed to Vice in 2020
11:39that her father unfriended her on Facebook because she is a drag queen.
11:43New Jack sent an email to Vice denying the allegations, but the outlet noted that the
11:47wrestler used a homophobic slur on a Facebook stream a month prior. New Jack died in May 2021.
11:54The Ultimate Warrior was a dominant star in late 80s and early 90s WWF,
11:59but remained mysterious enough to have strange urban legends crop up about him.
12:03Some fans sincerely thought there were two of him, for example.
12:07There was just one guy, though, whose name was James Hellwig until he legally changed his name
12:11to Warrior in 1993. After his in-ring career came to an end, Warrior became a conservative blogger,
12:18and he made headlines with a homophobic 2005 rant at the University of Connecticut.
12:22He would then double down on his anti-LGBTQ beliefs in a blog post he shared after the UConn
12:28engagement. That same year, he commented that the victims of Hurricane Katrina got what was
12:32coming to them. He also used his blog to spew vitriol toward iconic manager Bobby the Brain
12:38Heenan and suggests that his cancer diagnosis was karma. In 2007, he openly wondered why Martin
12:44Luther King Jr. has a holiday. The following year, Warrior sarcastically mourned the death of actor
12:49Heath Ledger and opined that he did his child a favor by dying of a drug overdose, writing,
12:54"'His kid is without a father, yes, but the negative influence is now removed and his
12:58own child has the chance for a full recovery.'" He never publicly apologized for those offensive
13:03comments prior to his death in 2014. WWE inducted Warrior into its Hall of Fame just
13:08before he died and posthumously named a Humanitarian Award after him.