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- When you betray the confidence of the locker room and the fans, it's next to impossible to ever get back into the business. If these folks were to appear on screen again, there would need to be a huge mea culpa to the locker room and the fans. It’s really hard to look at these superstars and not think about their past transgressions. Nobody is safe from this as even the all-mighty Vince McMahon unceremoniously announced his retirement on Twitter after The Wall Street Journal unearthed an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
In the wrestling world (along with life) a lot of drama can get conjured up and make everything complicated. It is a tough business with a lot of hurdles and obstacles that are in the way for most wrestlers to overcome. It is a medium of art that allows for many to get the opportunity to make a living off of their dream, but it can also be a nightmare of a time.
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Sometimes there are other wrestlers that take advantage of their position and purposely refuse to act like a professional, effectively shutting down their chances to ever get hired because of their misconduct. Unfortunately, these people have betrayed the trust of their colleagues in the business along with the fans and should never be allowed to wrestle on TV again.
UPDATE: 2022/08/29 15:00 EST BY Eric Blattberg
When you betray the confidence of the locker room and the fans, it's next to impossible to ever get back into the business. If these folks were to appear on screen again, there would need to be a huge mea culpa to the locker room and the fans. It’s really hard to look at these superstars and not think about their past transgressions. Nobody is safe from this as even the all-mighty Vince McMahon unceremoniously announced his retirement on Twitter after The Wall Street Journal unearthed an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
10 Sunny
Sunny without a doubt was a cornerstone of WWE's New Generation Era and a part of its transition into the Attitude Era. She had a girl next door air about her, even as a heel valet, and she was a pretty good villain. Later in life, perhaps she has become too good of a villain. As numerous DUI incidents piled up and an autobiography written by her did her no favors in the public eye, fans began to lose respect for her. It all culminated earlier this year when she was arrested for killing a 75-year-old man in a car crash while driving drunk. She has been given many chances and constantly takes the yard on the inch. Her personal troubles have landed her in prison.
9 Jeff Hardy
If we’re going to add Sunny to this list, we cannot overlook The Charismatic Enigma, Jeff Hardy. He, too, has not had an easy go of dealing with his demons and inhibitions. Thankfully, he hasn’t done nearly the amount of damage that he could do when it comes to his DWIs and DUIs.
Related: How Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy Are Similar (& How They Are Different)
Fans of Hardy have always been behind him, no matter the situation. But if he’s going to continue to fall off the wagon then he needs to steer clear of the squared circle forever.
8 Vince McMahon
It’s almost impossible to type. For decades, fans had simply assumed that Vince McMahon would leave the WWE when he exited the mortal coil. However, when all of the stories came out several months ago, there really wasn’t a choice in the matter. Whether you subscribe to the theory or not that Vince is still secretly running things like a puppet master Governor, The Chairman shouldn’t ever show his face on TV again.
7 Joey Ryan
When the "Speaking Out" movement was in full force, there were a lot of wrestlers outed from the business for their misconduct. However, almost none suffered a larger hit to their reputation as much as Joey Ryan did. A constant collaborator with The Elite and once known as one of the most popular independent wrestlers who had an entertaining gimmick, Ryan had the whole world at his feet.
He would have been a big part of AEW's meteoric rise to popularity, but the sheer number of accusations and accounts of his bad behavior were enough to justify his blacklisting from wrestling. Since then, he has seemingly reached out to others for help and has ceased his "sleazy" character work which is a good start, but his place in wrestling is ultimately gone.
6 Sexy Star
Dulce Poly is a storied veteran with a great amount of success in the lucha libre scene and had her best moments in the legendary Lucha Underground as their main champ. Unfortunately, she broke one of the most crucial rules in all of professional wrestling, and she purposely went out of her way to seriously injure Rosemary during an AAA event in a match back in 2017. While it is fairly common to see some wrestlers work snug or give stiff shots after a spot goes wrong or there is a bit of real heat between the competitors - specifically going out of one's way to injure another wrestler is almost blasphemous.
She has since been booked by Nacion Lucha Libre owned by another controversial figure in Alberto El Patron and Chavo Guerrero, but when it comes to blacklisting there are very few worse ways to get blacklisted than to break such an important wrestling rule.
5 Velveteen Dream
Patrick Clark (Dream) has been seen by the fans as a wrestler that failed to reach his true potential like many others before him in WWE after his amazing run in NXT. This was before his backstage attitude issues in combination with accusations of grooming underaged fans completely derailed any of the momentum he had. There was so much backlash to his actions that just about any event that he would wrestle in would get barraged on social media with the hashtag #FireVelveteenDream.
It did not help that he went on to essentially excuse himself from any wrongdoing instead of admitting his problems and getting help. It rubbed the entire wrestling world in the wrong way and remains one of the best examples of untapped potential as he continues to be barred from wrestling by most major promotions. In fact, he was even removed from his first-post WWE career event, when Superstars of Wrestling Federation owner Rob Fury had to remove him from an event after fans were outraged with his addition.
4 Lars Sullivan
After quickly becoming one of the hottest new wrestlers in the world and even cracking the top 100 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's best of the year list, Sullivan was lauded as a solid big man with plenty of potential during his run in NXT. Woefully, Sullivan turned to have a sketchy past as an online troll that lurked around in body building forums and posted plenty of homophobic, racist, sexist, and overall terrible statements. Sullivan was reportedly fined $100,000 when it came to light and was ordered to undergo sensitivity training by the company. These issues eventually caused him to be let go from WWE and left his career as a wrestler in question.
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He has since expressed regret for his words, but it will take a lot for Sullivan to ever save face and get his reputation back up, but the severity of his actions might make it so that he will not wrestle again.
3 Abdullah The Butcher
At over 80 years old and seemingly retired for good, it might be safe to say that Abdullah The Butcher's long career has finally come to an end. However, professional wrestlers are infamous for not knowing when to call it quits and wrestle until they cannot anymore. If anyone needs to stay in retirement for good, its Abdullah, who contracted Hepatitis C and knowingly wrestled other competitors in bloody death matches and infected fellow wrestler Devon "Hannibal" Nicholson.
He would go on to apparently successfully sue Abdullah for a whopping $2.3 million dollars in 2014 for the infection as it halted his career as a wrestler and got him ousted from the WWE. In all likelihood, The Butcher's career is said and done but hopefully no one gets the idea to try and book him for one more match as there is no place for that kind of terrible behavior.
2 Nia Jax
Nia Jax was labeled one of the most dangerous workers in the world by fans, with a myriad of injuries that she is responsible for giving to other female competitors such as Alexa Bliss, Kairi Sane, Mandy Rose, Ember Moon, and others, it has been assumed by many fans that her role in the company was secured by her family ties to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
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She has very little charisma on the microphone, not exactly a good talker, and has a bland moveset but kept getting consistently booked in big matches and even held multiple championships for the WWE. Outside her stiff working ways, her attitude and treatment of others in the locker room means that she does not have a lot of friends in the industry. Nia Jax has not been booked since her departure from WWE, (aside from a baffling cameo in the 2023 Royal Rumble at the number 30 slot) and it does not seem like she will be wrestling for any other wrestling company anytime soon.
1 Alberto El Patron
Alberto El Patron (FKA Alberto Del Rio) is an example of a wrestler that has followed the footsteps of the likes of other performers that burned their bridges after working with several major companies. Del Rio is a former WWE Champion, Royal Rumble winner, Money in The Bank holder and a world champion in the likes of Impact Wrestling, AAA, and CMLL among many others but is no longer featured in any of these companies.
He has consistently skipped out on bookings and has a bad track record with his personal life that includes a recent arrest for assault and battery. While the charges were eventually dropped, Del Rio's constant spotlight in the news with negative drama continues to plague his career. It has gotten to a point where it seems like no booker is willing to trust him with their show.
