Top 10 Wrestlers Who Turned Out to Be Terrible People

WatchMojo

Behind the glamour and glory of the wrestling ring lurked some truly dark figures. Join us as we examine the wrestlers whose real-life actions shocked and horrified fans everywhere. Our countdown includes performers who committed crimes from human trafficking to serial murder, proving some battles with demons happen outside the ring.

Transcript

00:00A lot of guys fall hard in wrestling, but he fell harder than most, without a doubt.

00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 wrestlers who

00:10ended up being revealed as truly monstrous people.

00:1910. Hardbody Harrison

00:21Hardbody Harrison was best known for his stint as part of the WCW roster between 1995 and

00:282001.

00:33At first, he worked as a jobber, but found himself at odds with the company when he was

00:38part of a successful, multi-plaintiff lawsuit filed by Sonny Ono, Bobby Walker, and several

00:44others against parent company AOL Time Warner, alleging racial discrimination.

00:52When the WCW was absorbed by the WWF, his contract was not renewed.

00:57However, in 2008, he was sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking, after he

01:03was found to have eight women living in his house as slaves.

01:07He maintained that he was training them as wrestlers, but he was also forcing them to

01:12engage in sex work and imposing fines for poor behavior.

01:169. Tammy Sitch

01:25Tammy Sitch, also known as Sonny, became one of wrestling's trailblazing divas during the

01:31mid-90s after outgrowing her original gimmick, appearing with her former partner Skip as the

01:36Body Donners. However, as her fame grew, so did her alcohol and substance use disorders.

01:44Eventually, she became more famous for finding herself at odds with the law than she did for

01:49her talents in the ring. It all came to a head for Sitch in 2023, when her record of domestic

02:02violence and disorder arrests were followed by a 17-year prison sentence for killing a

02:0875-year-old man in a DUI driving accident. Her reckless behavior ended up tarnishing her

02:14career and legacy.

02:208. The Fabulous Moolah

02:23The Fabulous Moolah was a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Between her earliest days,

02:28right up to the 1980s, she was a dominant force within women's wrestling. She even retained

02:34a presence in the ring, albeit a reduced one, well into the 1990s.

02:39In the years that followed, dark truths about some of the protégés she trained came to light,

02:53mainly due to the fact that she had exploited nearly all of them financially. She skimmed

02:58off the top from everyone she helped in the business to a far greater extent than normal,

03:03and allegedly then verbally abused and mistreated them behind the scenes.

03:08Some claimed there was also sexual exploitation. All in all, she was generally considered a

03:13lecherous tyrant by many.

03:157. Billy Jack Haynes

03:24In his prime, Billy Jack Haynes was a solid and dependable wrestler for the WWF, probably

03:30best known for his showdown with Hercules Hernandez at WrestleMania III. He quietly retired from performing

03:37in 1996. His only notable moment came in 2016, when he was part of a group of wrestlers who

03:49sued the WWE for long-term brain injuries they had sustained. Or at least, that would have been the only

03:55moment of note if he hadn't been arrested for the murder of his wife in 2024. She was 85 and suffering from

04:03dementia. Haynes, who was 71, mentally and physically abused her and siphoned money from her while she was

04:13incapacitated.

04:146. Jimmy Snooker

04:27During his career, Superfly Jimmy Snooker was a revered babyface to the fans, a high-flyer whose

04:33influence is still felt to this day. However, behind the scenes, things were a lot more complicated. For decades,

04:41Snooker dealt with questioning over the mysterious death of his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, in 1983.

04:53He claimed that her death was due to accidental head trauma, but he completely changed the

04:58circumstances of his story years later. Autopsy reports suggested she had been hit several times. By the

05:05time the authorities started to press Snooker on the details, he had developed dementia and later

05:11passed away due to stomach cancer at the age of 73.

05:19He didn't even realize what was going on.

05:215. Jimmy Savile

05:23You might be surprised to see this notorious British figure ranked on our list, but between the 50s and 70s,

05:30Savile claims to have had hundreds of matches.

05:36Like everything he said, it's best to take it with a pinch of salt, but his ties to wrestling and some of his

05:42standout matches are well documented. Of course, he was best known as an English media darling and the

05:48presenter of many TV shows on the BBC. However, after his death in 2011, the horrific revelations about

06:03his predatory nature came to light, making Savile one of the most despised men of the 20th century.

06:10He was a danger to minors for decades, actively abusing his power to maintain his utterly disgusting

06:16lifestyle as secret.

06:204. Aurelian Grizzly Smith

06:23The control that Grizz had over his kids, he could pit them all against each other.

06:28Aurelian Grizzly Smith should have had a legacy worth being proud of

06:32after a memorable run in the late 50s and 60s. He was also the father of wrestlers

06:38Jake the Snake Roberts, Rockin' Robin, and Sam Houston. Unfortunately,

06:43his reported mistreatment of them puts a horrible stain on it all.

06:52Jake the Snake's mother was still a teen when she gave birth to him. To avoid being charged with

06:58myriad unforgivable crimes, Smith somehow married the teenager, which nullified the crime. He then

07:04proceeded to mistreat his own offspring. The word monstrous doesn't even begin to describe Grizzly

07:10Smith's actions.

07:153. Invader 1

07:19Jose Gonzalez is a wrestler whose name and chosen moniker, Invader 1, still brings a shudder to most

07:31fans who remember the murder of Bruiser Brody. He was a star in Puerto Rico and joined the WWF in 1972,

07:38but all of his positive moments were overshadowed by the controversy surrounding one night in 1988.

07:45Gonzalez stabbed and killed Bruiser Brody, real name Frank Donald Goodish,

07:50in what he claimed was self-defense in the backstage showers.

07:58Unfortunately, despite his claims being patchy, the jury believed him and he was acquitted. Some

08:04claimed that Brody roughed Gonzalez up a little too much in the ring during their match and that

08:10the murder was payback, but he never saw the inside of a jail cell.

08:14Fans in Puerto Rico believed wrestling was real. That was the major reason that Jose was acquitted.

08:202. Chris Benoit

08:23The story of Chris Benoit is probably the most famous case study we'll feature in this video,

08:28at least to modern-day wrestling fans.

08:30Benoit's reputation was left totally in tatters when he murdered his son and wife before taking

08:49his own life in 2007. It was a turn of events that came out of nowhere, and while it did open

08:55a discussion over CTE and brain trauma within the sport, Benoit's crimes are unforgivable.

09:06Scans later showed that he had sustained so much damage in the ring that his brain resembled an

09:1185-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Benoit's is one of the darkest stories in wrestling history.

09:18What Chris did almost destroyed the only thing that he ever loved from a professional standpoint.

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09:411. La Dama Del Silencio

09:44There are plenty of horrendous people who have stepped into the ring, but none are quite like

09:48Juana Barraza or La Dama Del Silencio. The fact that she was a professional lucha libre wrestler is

09:55a mere footnote in her story due to the fact that she allegedly murdered as many as 48 elderly women

10:01during her life. Estimates place the number anywhere between 42 and 48 victims, one of whom were under

10:08the age of 60. Supposedly, her relationship with her abusive mother fueled this desire for revenge.

10:14She became a serial killer who spent around a decade and a half on a killing spree. She was charged with

10:2011 of those murders and is currently serving a 759-year sentence in prison. But what despicable

10:27wrestler do you think should have found a spot on our list? Let us know in those comments below.

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