10 most controversial moments in the history of the professional wrestling outside WWE

#5 Wrestler yells ‘Black Lives Matter’ during match

A controversial incident occurred at a local MWMA Wrestling show in St. Louis recently when a white wrestler yelled ‘Black Lives Matter’ at his black opponent during their match. Without getting into the politics of it, the statement is very controversial, especially in the black community, even though the spot was pre-planned between the wrestlers.

With police violence against minorities seemingly on the rise in the US, the incident was like a mirror to the divisive politics dominating the country.

#4 Cactus Jack throws down the WCW Tag-Team Championship belt

Cactus Jack spat on his WCW Tag-Team Championship title and threw it down

WCW sent Cactus Jack to ECW in 1994 to have a hardcore dream match with Sabu. WCW wanted a working relationship with ECW and sent Jack over to work in ECW as a sign of good faith. At the time, Cactus Jack was one-half of the WCW Tag-Team Champions.

Cactus Jack and Sabu took each other to the limit but Sabu eventually prevailed. Jack cut a brilliant promo after the match saying that up to that point, his tag-team championship belt had been his prized possession but now that he’d lost to Sabu, that belt didn’t mean anything to him anymore.

After saying this, he spat on the belt and threw it away. Needless to say, the higher-ups at WCW weren’t very happy with Cactus Jack later.

#3 The Mass Transit incident

Mass Transit was only 17, and got on the show after lying about his age

The Mass Transit incident is one of the most controversial incidents in the history of pro wrestling and it single-handedly caused ECW to lose what would have been its first pay-per-view. The incident is so infamous that it has its own Wikipedia page.

The incident occurred at an ECW house show on November 23, 1996. The late Axl Rotten was supposed to tag with D-Von Dudley on the show against New Jack and Mustafa Saeed, but he didn’t show up, and was replaced by a young underage wrestler called Mass Transit who’d lied about his age to get on the show.

New Jack, who is considered to be one of the most infamous nut jobs in wrestling, proceeded to beat the holy hell out of the youngster. He bladed him so deep that he severed two of Mass Transit’s arteries, causing him to bleed profusely and pass out.

The incident not only caused the upcoming pay-per-view to get canceled but also led to a lawsuit from the youngster’s family.

#2 Jake The Snake inebriated

The Heroes of Wrestling show is remembered for one thing and one thing only – Jake The Snake Roberts making a drunken ass of himself during the main event against Jim Neidhart.

The show happened during a dark phase in Jake Roberts’ life, when he was dealing with various substance issues at the time. He appeared out of sorts from the opening promo itself, where he stumbled through his words on Neidhart, making little sense. More than anything else, it was sad to see Jake slur his lines and try to get a DDT chant started.

During his entrance, an inebriated Jake kept Damien on the apron before trotting back up the ramp backstage for no reason at all. He reappeared a few minutes later, at which point he grabbed the arms of a woman in the crowd and rubbed her hands all over his chest.

The match finally started when Roberts managed to stumble into the ring. But Neidhart got out and paced around as soon as the bell was rung in a bid to buy time, because Jake was barely able to stand on his own two feet by that point.

What followed were some of the most embarrassing moments in wrestling history, where Jake took out Damien, his python, and put him in between his legs and stroked his head in a very inappropriate gesture.

The match was eventually turned into a tag-team match when the promoters realized that Jake was in no condition to wrestle.

#1 Raven crucifies the Sandman

Raven and the Sandman were in the middle of a heated rivalry over the ECW Championship in 1996 when Raven started to play psychological games in order to get an advantage. He first brought in Sandman’s ex-wife as his valet, before going a step further by brainwashing Sandman’s young son, Tyler.

Things came to a head in October 1996 when Sandman and his son finally reconciled, but the celebrations were short-lived because Raven came out and attacked Sandman from behind and started to viciously beat him up.

He pile-drove Sandman through a table, at which point he was joined by his cronies, the Blue Meanie and Steven Richards. They then brought out a wooden cross from under the ring and proceeded to crucify Sandman in front of his son.

The live crowd were incensed by the angle and were on the verge of rioting when Paul Heyman sent Raven back out to apologize, before apologizing himself.

An interesting fact about this event is that Kurt Angle was in talks to appear in ECW at the time and was in attendance that night. Kurt was so horrified by the angle that he left the building immediately and told Paul Heyman to never call him again.