10 Times WWE Wrestlers Were Punished On Air

3. RVD Was Going To Be A Double Champ, But Then He Got High

Health-wise weed isn’t as bad for you as most legal drugs, but it sure is deadly to a push.

In 2013, shortly before a world championship match at Mania 29 that he was tipped to win, Jack Swagger was pulled over with pot in his car, he lost at Mania and slipped down the card.

A more significant career derailment happened to Ronald Van Donald after one of the most infamous and ill-timed arrests in WWE talent history. Going into July 1st 2006, hot off the One Night Stand pay-per-view, RVD was WWE and ECW champion, proverbially riding high.

But then, in fine Afroman tradition, Van Dam was busted by the cops, for literally riding high. After being pulled over for speeding in a car with Sabu, cops searched the vehicle and found various illegal drugs including 18 grams of marijuana.

RVD was suspended for 30 days after going on a brief punishment tour of Raw and ECW, where he wrestled back-to-back matches for the WWE and ECW championships and was pinned by Edge and Extreme Big Show respectively.

---

2. It Spells GOONNEE

Very few people extort Vince McMahon for money and don’t suffer some sort of terrible consequences.

Step right up J E double F J A double R E Double T, who famously managed to bilk big Vince for hundreds of thousands of dollars by being Intercontinental Champion, letting his contract expire, then refusing to drop the belt at No Mercy 1999 before he jumped to WCW, unless Vince got out the checkbook.

First of all, good con, Danny Ocean would be proud, second, he’s got no problems as long as WCW never goes out of business. Oh dear.

On March 26th 2001, which was the blockbuster final episode of WCW Nitro after being bought by WWE, Vince held a special simulcast episode of Raw, watching both shows from the Monday Night Wars side by side.

He opened the show by watching footage of Jeff Jarrett, saying that after tonight he’d be spelling his name Captial G, Double O, Double N, Double E, and I don’t care what you say, Vince, that spells GOONEE goddammit.

18 months after he crossed the boss, Jarrett was fired live on TV, which just goes to show that revenge is a dish best served raw.

---

1. The Screwjobs 

Because never forget that, despite the Montreal Screwjob being one of the most significant moments in all of wrestling, the axis point on which the Monday night wars shifted, it was still a rerun.

Vince has presided over not one, but two major screwjobs as the chairman of the WWE, serving otherwise loyal talent a jagged slice of retribution for not doing business by his book.

Bret Hart refused to drop the belt to Shawn in Canada at the 1997 Survivor Series, so Vince rang the bell on him, stripped him of the title and sent him on his way with all the best for his future endeavors.

It’s a very very VERY well-known story. Slightly less well-known, but equally callous, was the screwing of Wendi Richter. Richter was in her second reign as WWF Women’s Champion after beating Leilani Kai at the first-ever WrestleMania, when she got into a dispute with Vince.

The Chairman claims that Richter was refusing to sign a new contract, Richter claims that she was still under contract, but that she wanted to renegotiate it for a better per-match payout and royalties from her work on the short-lived Hulk Hogan’s Rock n Wrestling cartoon.

Vince thought that was asking too much and set a plan in motion to remove the title from Richter. On November 25, 1985, at a filmed event at Madison Square Garden, Richter battled The Spider, aka Fabulous Moolah in a mask.

Moolah caught Wendi in a small package, Richter kicked out, but much to the confusion of Monsoon and Ventura, the ref counted the three and awarded the belt to Moolah before Wendi unmasked her, tried to keep the match going, before the whole thing fell apart in an awkward mess, with Moolah grabbing the belt and leaving under guard protection, leaving Wendi alone in the ring, looking furiously down the camera, right into Vince’s soul.

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

• montreal screwjob
• punishment
• Adam Blampied
• wwe

Share this article with friends