The Most Shocking Moments In Wrestling (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1, go back and read it. Now, on to Part 2

PART 2

#30. HAYSTACKS ON A PLANE
Before there was Andre The Giant, there was Haystacks Calhoun. Throughout the 1950s & 60s, the 601 lb man wearing giant overalls was a huge (no pun intended) attraction in the ring. He was often booked in 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 handicap matches and Battle Royals, and winning. But it was something that Haystacks did outside of the ring that made him make THIS list!

Killer Kowalski was on WEEI, an A.M. sports radio station based out of Boston. Kowalski was from the area and owned and operated a local wrestling school. He was a frequent guest on the show and on one occasion, started telling stories about life on the road. He began talking about Haystacks Calhoun and a very long flight to Japan.

Many wrestlers were flying to an tour of Japan, Killer & Haystacks being two on board. Because he was so big, Haystacks ended up flying First Class while everyone else was stuck in Coach for the 20 hour flight. One of the many downsides to being 601 lbs is you can't fit in only one seat on a plane. Another issue is that trying to squeeze yourself into a airplane restroom is damn near impossible. Well eventually, nature calls and Haystacks feels a giant shit coming on. Remember, he's 601 lbs...you do the math about how big his turd must be.

He tries holding it for as long as he can. Eventually he can't hold it anymore and attempts to squeeze himself into the restroom. He just wouldn't fit. So the flight attendants give him a hand. He takes down his overalls (yes, he wore them in public), and evacuates his bowels into a giant trash bag being held by the flight attendants. The other wrestlers are having a huge laugh, especially Killer Kowalski. Then the smell hits them. Many passengers began getting sick as the putrid smell of Haystacks' shit filled the airplane cabin.

Now there are a few rumors as to why this happened. One is that for some reason, Haystacks only took a dump once per week. So when it did happen, it was a monumental occasion. The other is that Haystacks was a notorious ribber (always playing practical jokes). Allegedly, he used to put laxatives in other wrestlers food and this incident on the plane was payback to someone he had wronged. Either way, Haystacks got the last laugh! Because while still over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they still had a LONG way to go until they reached Japan


#29. MUHAMMAD HASSAN
The United States has had its share of problems with the Middle East for decades. Wrestling has mirrored that and used it to spark Patriotism with its babyface heroes like Hulk Hogan & Hacksaw Jim Duggan as they battle the American bashing heels. There was the Iron Sheik in the 80s and Sgt Slaughter became an Iraqi sympathizer during the Gulf War in the early 90’s.

After the attacks on September 11th, it seemed like we would never see something like that again because it was too risky.

In 2004 the WWE signed a young man named Mark Copani; a half Italian, half Jordanian/Palestinian from Syracuse, NY. Because of how he looked, he became Muhammad Hassan, a Middle Eastern-American who condemned the American media for their stereotypes of those of Arabic decent in the post-9/11 world. He said he was an American citizen and felt that people unfairly judge him due to his heritage. The character was edgy, but interesting. He was definitely a bad guy, but you understood why he was a bad guy. He was going to get over in a BIG WAY and this kid was gonna become a BIG STAR.

This character generated A LOT of heat. There was no heel more over than Muhammad Hassan. When he entered the 2005 Royal Rumble at #13, EVERYONE in the ring turned their attention to eliminate him. Usually this happens when a guy is 400 or 500 lbs; not 235. At Wrestlemania 21 that year, he even got to wrestle a match with the ultimate American hero, Hulk Hogan. He started as a top star on Raw, but later in the year was moved to Smackdown so he could work with The Undertaker and make him a top star. A match was to be booked between them for The Great American Bash where the winner would receive a World Heavyweight Championship match at Summerslam.

One night on Smackdown, five men in black shirts, ski masks and camouflage pants rushed the ring and attacked Undertaker after he easily defeated Hassan’s manager Daivari in a match. Daivari was carried out by the masked men while Hassan appeared to be praying to Allah on the entrance ramp. Davairi was carried out like he was a martyr in what looked similar to a terrorist act.

Smackdown is filmed on a Tuesday night and airs on Friday nights. On Thursday morning, a terrorist bombing took place in London, England. Ironically, the men responsible for the attack were wearing attire very similar to what the men wore on Smackdown and were of Middle Eastern decent. Even though it was completely coincidental, the smart thing for Vince McMahon would have been to edit the broadcast and not show this on television.  But Vince let his ego get in the way and he aired the segment anyway.

The media ripped WWE for broadcasting the segment. The especially lashed out at Vince when they found out that he had time to make the decision to not air the controversial segment.

Vince McMahon was told by the UPN network that the Muhammad Hassan character, image or likeness could not be seen nor mentioned on television during the Smackdown broadcast. They further said that if he did appear on their network, then WWE would lose their television deal with UPN. So with weeks until a #1 contenders match between two of the company’s biggest stars, there was no build up and one of the participants couldn't be seen or mentioned on TV.

Finally the match at The Bash took place. Originally Hassan was supposed to beat Undertaker, go on to Summerslam, and beat Batista to become World Heavyweight Champion. Because he was no longer allowed on the UPN network and future Smackdown broadcasts, Undertaker won the match.

Hassan was then going to be moved back to Raw. But amidst the controversy, USA Network didn’t want the character on their network either.

Muhammad Hassan was the top heel in the company at the time and arguably the biggest heel in WWE history…and was not allowed to be shown on television.  All because WWE didn’t edit the segment that should have never been aired in the first place. This was a clear case of Vince McMahon's ego getting the better of him.  24 year old Mark Copani was released by WWE in September of that year and retired from wrestling shortly their after.


#28. THE LAND OF EXTREME BECOMES "WWECW"
I mentioned before how the 2005 One Night Stand was an ECW style event while the 2006 edition was more WWE. Vince McMahon always told Paul Heyman that the reason for the company's failure was that Heyman had to cater to the entire audience and not just a small segment. But Heyman knew how to cater to the most important part of the audience; the 18-34 year old male demographic. They wanted extreme, testosterone-fueled ass-kicking; and that's what Heyman always gave him. Since Vince was the one bringing it back, Vince wanted ECW to be more like his other WWE shows with the occasional bit of hardcore that made ECW famous. This is why Vince & Paul E. always clashed during 2006 and it all came to a head at ECW's only pay-per-view called December To Dismember.

The main event was to be an Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW Heavyweight Championship. Basically it's a giant steel cage weighing 16 tons, is 32 feet in diameter, and has 2 miles of chain circling it. Plus, there would be weapons in it to make it EXTREME!!!

From the beginning, Heyman and McMahon butted heads over the event.  Most importantly, who was going to be in it.

Heyman wanted The Big Show (the ECW champion), Rob Van Dam, Sabu, The Sandman, CM Punk & Elijiah Burke. Heyman's reasoning was RVD was their most popular, he felt Sabu & Sandman were MADE for this type of match, Big Show was obviously the champion, and he wanted to make stars out of Punk & Burke. Vince disagreed and wanted Test (cuz he was a big guy and we all know Vince LOVES big guys), Hardcore Holly (because of his experience) and Bobby Lashley (who was also a big guy whom Vince moved over from Smackdown without notifying Heyman). Though Heyman really pushed for Sandman, he and Vince eventually compromised and the match was advertized as Big Show, RVD, Sabu, Punk, Test & Lashley.

Big Show, who weighed around 540 lbs at the time, was going to take some time off after the ppv so he could lose some weight and the Extreme Elimination Chamber match was going to elevate a younger star and crown them champion. Paul Heyman wanted CM Punk to win because he had the look of an ECW wrestler, a good attitude, and Heyman wanted to make him a star. Vince wanted Lashley because, well, he's a big guy.

The problem was, because they stacked the main event, the rest of the show had very few big stars from ECW on the show. The Hardy Boys Vs. MNM was added last minute to beef up the rest of the card. The card only featured only 6 matches including the Extreme Elimination Chamber match. An hour before the main event, Vince decided to pull Sabu off the match and replace him with Hardcore Holly as a way to build up the new champion. Heyman was beyond pissed because Vince went over his head and the fact that Sabu was made for a match like this.

So the match starts. The first one eliminated was the man Paul Heyman wanted the belt on, CM Punk. So much for his input in the booking! Next eliminated was RVD. Ok, so now you've eliminated a rising young babyface and your most popular star. So you have Lashley vs 3 heels...gee, who are the fans supposed to root for? Lo and behold, Lashley overcomes the odds to pull off the win and becomes the new ECW Champion because that's what Vince wanted and Lashley was a big guy...and Vince likes big guys.

In the aftermath, Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman had heated arguments which eventually led to him being taken off television, off ECW's creative team, and eventually was released from the company. Vince would go on to bury ECW for the next 3 1/2 years attempting to kill its legacy. Bobby Lashley had a lengthy reign as ECW Champion but left WWE a year in a half later and wrestling all together in 2009. Great booking Vince! As for what happened to CM Punk: currently he's the top heel on Smackdown, has his own faction, is a two time Money In The Bank winner and a 4 time heavyweight champion. Maybe you should have listened to Paul Heyman!!!  Vince's ego strikes again!


#27. DOUBLE VISION: PART 1
There are a number of people in the wrestling world that can say they were in the n.W.o. There are only a handful who can say they were in D-Generation X. There are even fewer who can say they have been in the n.W.o. and DX. But there is only one who can say that he was in BOTH groups AT THE SAME TIME!

Injuries led to an early retirement for Ravishing Rick Rude. He was a manager for DX which featured Triple H, Shawn Michaels & Chyna. One night while watching Raw, you would see him in the ring with DX. On that same night, during the same segment, f you changed the channel to check out Nitro, you could also see him in the n.W.o. Apparently, his contract ran out and when it did, he returned to WCW. However, since Raw was taped and Nitro was a live broadcast, he appeared on both shows in factions that were very similar at the same time!

Because he wasn't able to wrestle, eventually WCW ran out of ideas for Rude and he was released from the company. He passed away in 2000.


#26. SPOILER WARNING
WWF was experiencing poor ratings in the mid 1990s due to their product being pushed as "family entertainment" (kinda sounds like things today....maybe a sign of things to come?)

In an effort to save money during this period, WWF decided to tape Raw on a Sunday night and air it that Monday. Not having Monday Night Raw be live every week, did take some of the magic away of that "anything can happen in the WWF" that Vince always said at the time. It was too easy to just go onto the Internet and find out what happened on Raw before you actually watch the show. A few people did this; one of them was Eric Bischoff.

When Eric Bischoff took over WCW, he & Ted Turner's goal was to compete against WWF and beat Vince McMahon. So Bischoff thought of how could he gain viewers. What could he do that WWF was not doing?  For one, WCW Monday Nitro was a live show. Throughout the duration of WCW Monday Nitro, they were always a live broadcast. Because Nitro was live, you couldn't look online for spoilers. If you looked online, all you would find was some mark taking his best guess as to what was going to happen. So you HAD to tune in! Bischoff knew this.

So he began thinking "Let's see, we're live and their taped. People don't know whats going to happen on my show, but I can tell them what's going to happen on their show"! So Nitro would go on the air a few minutes early, and Eric Bischoff live on Nitro, would tell the viewers what's going to happen on Raw so they wouldn't need to channel-surf and now just sit and watch WCW.

It was kind of a low-blow and a lot of people criticized Bischoff for doing it. The more people talked and complained, the more he did it. As devious as it was, it worked. Nitro's ratings began to climb till eventually they were better than Raw's. Today, Monday Night Raw is almost always live. This is just one of the ways that Eric Bischoff changed the industry forever.


#25. SANDMAN & DREAMER TEAR THE WALL DOWN
ECW never had the deep pockets of Vince McMahon or Ted Turner. Instead, they had the creative mind of Paul Heyman. Paul always had the philosophy of "accentuate the positives, hide the negatives" when it came to his product. So many of ECW's angles had to rely on true human emotion. One of the more memorable feuds of the early days of ECW was with two of their signature superstars: Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman.

They had the famous Singapore Cane Match where the loser had to get 10 lashes (real) from the cane; Dreamer lost and to this day, Sandman still carries a Singapore cane. The match carried a lot of real emotion to it. A few months later, Sandman was beating Dreamer down with the cane. In the ring, he stood over him smoking a cigarette in his face. Dreamer slapped Sandman's hand and the cigarette went into Sandman's right eye. He then dropped the cane, Dreamer picks it up and smacked Sandman in his left eye; leaving Sandman blind.

The Sandman was brought to the dressing room and you saw something you had never seen before. Here was The Sandman, a heel, hurt. Around him was almost the entire ECW locker room. Here were all "the bad guys" AND "the good guys" all around this hurt wrestler. Referees were trying to hold Dreamer back. You would expect him to try to attack Sandman, but instead he was yelling "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." This didn't feel like an angle, it felt real. Seeing the baby face good guys and the evil heels together in the back was really taboo then! It is called "breaking kayfabe". Kayfabe is a term in performance art that what you see during the performance is real. Eg: This guy really hates this other guy.

To further keep with the storyline's realism, The Sandman stayed home for a month so no one would see him around Philadelphia. He never left his house, he never answered his door. A month later he's led to the ring in a suit. He is wearing tape over his eyes and sunglasses giving the impression that he is blind and said he's going to retire due to the injury. As soon as Dreamer turned his back, Sandman peeled the blindfold off, and beat the crap out of Tommy Dreamer.

This was a great angle that really hooked the audience!


#24. LESBIAN LIPLOCK
Wrestling has always been called a "soap opera for guys". Here is one of the reasons why.

THE most memorable feud from ECW is no doubt between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. Their feud lasted throughout most of the company's duration and was recently picked up at TNA's ECW reunion show "Hardcore Justice".

The storyline was that they went to summer camp together as kids. Tommy was a jock who got along with everyone and Raven was an outcast loner. Raven came back to take his revenge on Tommy. Eventually Raven brings in a former fat girl who Tommy made fun of as a kid, and she had turned into a Playboy Playmate named Beulah McGiliguty. She became Raven's girl.

One night at the ECW Arena, Beulah announced that she was pregnant.  Raven didn't seem sure it was his so he beat up another of his lackeys, Stevie Richards, suspecting it was him. Beulah looked at Raven and said "It's Tommy's." The crowd went nuts as Dreamer hit the ring and beat up Raven.

Weeks later, Shane Douglass tells Tommy that Beulah was cheating on him and that she was never pregnant. Tommy is expecting it to be another wrestler. Instead it was Shane Douglass's valet, an Asian girl called Kimona Wanalaya (may be the best name EVER). Beulah and Kimona made out in the middle of the ring. It was the first lesbian angle in the history of wrestling. ECW always had very little regular TV syndication; they had even less after this incident.


#23. HALLOWEEN HAVOC ENDS EARLY
WCW Halloween Havoc was usually a decent pay-per-view. 1998s event featured a Double Main Event. For the WCW Championship, you had Goldberg Vs. Diamond Dallas Page and the long awaited Wrestlemania VI rematch between Hollywood Hulk Hogan and The Warrior. The main event sounded like it would be epic. Well it wasn't, and that's not even the HALF of it.

Hogan & Warrior's long awaited rematch has been notoriously regarded as one of the worst matches in wrestling history. Their timing was completely off, there was no chemistry between them, there were a lot of blown spots, and the match dragged on longer than expected. There was a part where Hogan was supposed to lite some flash paper in Warrior's face so he would be blinded by the fire and Hogan would be able to beat on him while he was blind. First, Hogan couldn't get the props out of his tights. Then he couldn't get the lighter to work. When it finally did, the flash paper burst into flames...in Hogan's face...with his back to The Warrior...and Warrior sold it anyway!  UG! The match dragged and dragged and dragged until Bischoff distracted the ref, Horace came in and hit Warrior in the back with a chair, and Hogan pinned Warrior for the win. This got Hogan his loss back from WM6 and Warrior was never seen in WCW again.

Well, that match sucked serious balls but at least we still have the WCW Championship match. So DDP & Goldberg hit the ring to standing ovations. They lock up, Goldberg throws DDP to the mat. DDP stands up, they tie up again, and the pay-per-view ends. Fade to black. 3 minutes into the championship main event, the pay-per-view goes off the air.

Because WCW Nitro was Turner Broadcasting's highest rated show, Bischoff was allowed to do pretty much whatever he wanted. That included going on the air early and staying on later than their scheduled 11pm end time. Someone forgot to tell Bischoff that about pay-per-views, he can't do that unless he specifies before the event.

Because of the incident, WCW received thousands of complaints from those who bought the ppv. WCW ended up having to reimburse everyone who paid $24.95 for the pay-per-view because the company never delivered on the main event. WCW lost a lot of potential revenue on this fiasco and this quickly began the company's downward spiral.


#22 . DOUBLE VISION: PART 2
Wrestlemania III featured the epic main event between Hulk Hogan & Andre The Giant in front of 93,173 fans in the Pontiac Silverdome. They feuded throughout the remainder of 1987. But the one thing that never happened, was a rematch between the two mega-stars. Finally in February of 1988, THE REMATCH took place on network TV on a show simply called "The Main Event" (not to be confused with Saturday Night's Main Event)

The storyline was more than just a rematch. Hogan famously bodyslammed Andre at the end of their WM3 match. He attemtped it early on in the match, and Andre fell on him. The referee counted to 2, but Bobby "The Brain" Heenan claimed that Hogan's shoulder was down. So almost a year later, we get the rematch to see who REALLY is the WWF Champion.

The match goes on with Hogan and Andre. Andre has the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase and Virgil and ringside along with Bobby Heenan. The referee was Dave Hebner. Andre delivers a belly-to-belly suplex to Hogan. Hogan's shoulder is clearly up, and Dave Hebner counts 3 making Andre The Giant the new WWF Champion. Hogan protested and fans nearly rioted. Suddenly anther referee comes down to the ring to right the wrongs of Dave Hebner. And that referee was...Dave Hebner. The two Hebners are in the ring arguing the decision while Hogan and the crowd stood in shock. Hogan took the evil Hebner and threw him out of the ring.

It turns out that Dave Hebner has a twin brother named Earl Hebner. Both were under contract for WWF for about 20 years. Andre The Giant gave the WWF Championship to Ted DiBiase but WWF "President" Jack Tunney ruled the title vacant and that a tournament would take place at Wrestlemania IV to crown a new champion. Hogan and Andre would receive a first round bye and square off in the quarter finals.

Earl Hebner eventually became a full time referee while Dave remained a backstage official. Earl will be seen later in another of wrestling's most shocking moments.


#21. TNA: TOTAL NONSTOP ANGLE
ECW was and always know for its violence. But it also had some of the best wrestling. Guys like Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho used ECW to springboard their careers.

When ECW was brought back in 2006, Paul Heyman was granted to draft pics for his the company's re-launch. From Raw, he obviously chose RVD. From Smackdown, to the shock of many, he chose Kurt Angle. Angle had his share of issues with Heyman and ECW in the past so this was very surprising. Angle was doing his "Wrestling Machine" gimmick which was almost like watching a MMA fighter in the ring. He was REALLY popular with the fans, brought a renewed intensity to the ring, and seemed like he was really motivated.  A wrestler hasn't had that intensity in ECW since Taz.  This was my favorite part of Kurt Angle's career because it just felt "real".  I was really excited for him in the new ECW.

He had a match at 2006's One Night Stand and totally made Randy Orton his bitch. The crowd was brutal to Cena, but Orton didn't exactly have it easy (a fan punched him in the arm as he walked to the ring). Kurt is so good, that he can have a 5 star with just about anyone. Well, almost anyone.

The problem was, after the feud with Orton, there was no one who could keep up with Angle in the ring. Do you think The Sandman could go hold-for-hold with an Olympic Gold Medalist?

Eventually, injuries started creeping up with him. He asked for and was granted release to deal with "personal issues". Angle had legit had some serious injuries, marital problems and abuse of prescription painkillers. Many thought we wouldn't see Kurt Angle again or at least not anytime soon.

Three months later, it was announced that he signed with TNA Wrestling. It was a shock that he was coming back in the first place (so soon as well), and with another organization! Angle coming to TNA is definitely the free agent signing of the decade. Hulk Hogan signing with WCW in the 1990s was what Kurt Angle signing with TNA in 2006 was. It made TNA a major player in the wrestling world.

Angle sort of unofficially continued his Wrestling Machine gimmick into TNA by feuding with Samoe Joe, making Joe a star in TNA. He has remained one of TNA's top stars since then.