Professional wrestling is a form of sports entertainment loosely based on competitive wrestling. It’s a type of soap opera to many male fans. Even though the sport is fake, the entertainers that work in the industry are known to be some of the more unhinged individuals that work in modern society. You must constantly put your body and life in jeopardy and do things that wouldn’t even be considered normal. There’s no off season in pro wresting and many wrestlers get injured and need to continue wrestling in order to keep their top spot in the company and help support their families. There have been more wrestler deaths in pro wrestling compared to any other sport. This is a direct result of abusing pain killers, sleeping pills, and steroids in order to recover faster from injury, stay awake to reach your next show and to keep your body looking built up in order to have the physique of a pro wrestler. But, how do you define crazy in pro wrestling? Something that might appear crazy to one fan might be perfectly acceptable to the person sitting next to them at a wrestling show.

We’ve decided to showcase some of wrestling’s crazier superstars by breaking them into three distinct categories. The first category is ‘In-Ring Lunacy’. In this category, we’re going to highlight wrestlers that took things too far inside the ring. These are individuals who broke the conventional wrestling code and put their lives on the line in the ring and did things to their opponents that most fans would cringe at. The second category is ‘The Voices’. These are wrestlers who took their wrestling promos too far and said things that shouldn’t have been said inside and outside the squared circle. As wrestling fan, you had to ask yourself whether what was said was all an act or whether these individuals truly believed in what they were mouthing off to other people. The last category is ‘Outside Madness’. This category is reserved for pro wrestlers who took things too far outside the pro wrestling business and into their personal lives. Many of these people had underlying problems beyond the pro wrestling industry and made mistakes that they shouldn’t have made and some resulted in another individual’s death. We’re going to start our series off with ‘The Voices’ of professional wrestling. These wrestlers on this list put our attention in a choke hold from their first crazy word. There were no such things as scripts or script writers. When a professional wrestler lets loose on a microphone, it’s safe to say that absolutely anything and everything is bound to happen. Some wrestlers can give interviews that sound like Shakespeare while others will go off on such a maniacal departure that viewers can only be left in amazement at the insanity that they just witnesses before their own eyes.

-The Ultimate Warrior (James Hellwig) has produced so many crazy promos that he could fill this entire list. He often talked about making sacrifices and taking things to another level that we’re sure involved planets and spirituality. He would often deliver his promos away from the camera and would be all over the place in terms of direction. When warrior quit the WWE over payment and royalty issues, He legally changed his name to ‘Warrior’ in order to own the rights to the name ‘Ultimate Warrior’ so that Vince Mcmahon couldn’t legally own the rights to the same name and profit from it. The WWE and Vince Mcmahon hated Hellwig so much that they released a DVD entitled ‘The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior’ that highlights what a neurotic individual Hellwig was to do business with. Outside of the ring, James Hellwig is a right-wing conservative commentator that has toured several universities discussing politics and attacking left-wing politics. He has made several controversial comments about gay people and mentioned that ‘Queering doesn’t make the world work’ where he said that the world wouldn’t exist if there were only gay people living on the planet. When an Iranian student asked the Warrior a question at a University funded event , Warrior told the student to ‘get a towel.’ He’s known to have made racist and homophobic comments at several public speaking events. He has a nasty persecution complex and has sued many publications that have insulted what he believes in. While the Warrior might be misunderstood to many, he’s also a known self-help guru with plenty of inspirational speeches that he delivers to his fans that are posted on YouTube.

-The Iron Sheik (Ali Vaziri) is a retired Iranian professional wrestler and actor who Hulk Hogan defeated for his first WWF Championship. Along with Iraqi General Adnan, Slaughter and the Sheik were portrayed as Iraqi sympathizers during the first Gulf War and feuded with Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. In recent years, ‘Sheiky’ has flown off the deep end and uses profanities, wanting to ‘humble’ fellow former WWE colleagues. At a WWE ‘Old School Raw’ event, Sheik started dissing Hogan before his mic was cut off. In YouTube videos on the Iron Sheik, he’s always talking about breaking people’s backs and making them humble. He’s been a frequent guest on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ where Howard makes fun of the Sheik and has him perform in several humiliating contests to the amusement of Howard and the audience. In an interview with ‘Forbes’ magazine, it was hard to tell whether Vaziri was still playing his character or whether it was his true persona. It seems that alcohol, cocaine or marijuana might play a role in his recent antics. It’s said by colleagues that Sheik is addicted to drugs and often gives crazy speeches while intoxicated. The Iron Sheik’s craziest tweets have now surfaced as the wrestler likes to use the social media website to discuss anything that he hates in this world with such topics of hate including ‘Chris Brown’, ‘Mr. Fuji’, and ‘North Korea’. All the attention that Sheik has received got the attention of Maxim magazine who recently gave Sheik his own advice column with the magazine.

-For a man who was once governor for the state of Minnesota, Ventura’s career has steadily gone downhill. Aside from being a pro wrestler, Ventura most notably co-hosted Saturday Night’s Main Event with Vince McMahon and the first six WrestleManias. He was recognized for his strong work as a heel announcer which broke away from having two stereotypical face announcers cheering for the good guys. He would often make fun of the WWE’s champion, Hulk Hogan, who he would challenge to a fight whenever Hogan won a title match. After wrestling and politics, Ventura did speaking tours and then went into television. ‘Conspiracy Theory’ follows the host as he travels to remote places making amazing and controversial statements about whether secret societies are out to destroy the planet or if there’s secret government research facilities hidden inside a rock somewhere in a remote desert in Nevada. It would be a fun show if Ventura used it as an entertainment platform. Instead, Ventura believes every conspiracy on the show and does several interviews with known conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones where they discuss the topics and truly believe that the government is out to get them. Ventura is quick to denounce people that think that he’s crazy and won’t waste a minute telling anybody who will listen about his time as a Navy Seal and his bullying of other individuals who didn’t serve in the military. Ventura has also written a book, ‘Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me’, in which Ventura reveals that Fidel Castro once told him who murdered President Kennedy and other crazy batshit stories.

-Brian Pillman was a master manipulator. He’s one of the few wrestlers who you listened to as a fan and couldn’t tell whether the guy was being serious about what he was saying or if it was all a rib and part of the show. While in WCW, he developed the ‘Loose Cannon’ gimmick where he would mix in real life or ‘shoot’ information along with his staged interviews. In one show, he went too far about insider information which led to the removal of the head booker of the company. In another interview, he grabbed Bobby Heenan by the neck (Heenan had neck surgery and was sensitive about his neck) and was fired from the company. He would venture over to ECW and began his career by launching a raunchy promo filled with foul language that would result in Pillman threatening to urinate on the ring. He then proceeded to spit on a fan and stab a man (who was in on the act) with a fork to help establish himself as a complete nutcase. It turns out that he wasn’t ever fired from WCW and asked his boss, Eric Bishoff, to release him temporarily so that he could perform his new character with another company. He would go back and forth between WCW and ECW but his antics got the attention of another rival and he would soon sign a 3 year contract with WWE. He couldn’t perform because of a massive automobile accident that nearly killed him. The company had him used as a manager for the Hart Foundation and he would perform a controversial incident on Monday Night Raw where Steve Austin would break into his home while Pillman was with his family and Pillman would attempt to shoot Austin with a gun. The line between fiction and reality was always blurred with Pillman. Steve Austin (Pillman’s former tag partner) once mentioned how Brian would read vocabulary books to boost his vocabulary, always thinking about promos and trying to improve himself. Pillman recovered from his injuries and would begin wrestling again. Sadly, Pillman died unexpectedly in his hotel room one night before a PPV. Although Pillman had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, he died from a heart condition which was hereditary and had also killed his father.

-‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage had an energetic personality. Randy Savage’s promos were an equal mixture of philosophy and schizophrenia. His promos would discuss ‘Space as the Place’ and going down ‘Lonely Highways’ and nobody had a clue what he meant. If you actually dissect what Savage said, you can see that Savage had a method to his madness and that most of his promos ended up something coherent coming out that discussed a heel turn or advice from his manager Elizabeth on how to confront his enemies. He would act very defensive of his manager Elizabeth in the ring and he looked like an abusive boyfriend who would never allow his girlfriend to speak others unless spoken to. His successful promos got the attention of outside companies. Savage would be the lead spokesperson for Slim Jim snack foods and coined the phrase ‘Snap into a Slim Jim, Ohhhhhh Yeahhhh!’. Savage would leave the WWE and go over to WCW. He got more irrational in WCW as he became confrontational while being surrounded by his girlfriend ‘Gorgerous George’ at the time – only this time it wasn’t an act. Savage was very defensive of his girlfriend and it led to a falling out between him and former tag partner Hulk Hogan. Savage hated Hogan with a passion and even dedicated a rap song to Hogan called ‘Be a Man’ where Savage spent the entire rap song dissing Hogan about his film and wrestling career. Oh, did we forget to mention that Savage came out with a rap album? Savage would leave WCW but would continually bash Hogan in media interviews while secluded away in Tampa, Florida.

Savage would attempt a comeback with TNA wrestling but acted weird and nervous and would only wrestle one match for the company. Many believe that Savage had been away for too long and couldn’t handle the pressure of being an over the top personality again as his life had become more calm and secluded away from the spotlight. At least Savage understood that his promos sounded like that of a lunatic who was on cocaine and steroids and Savage embraced this crazy behavior. Sadly, Savage would die from a heart attack while driving with his wife in the car. He’ll always be remember for his psychotic promos, his crazy outfits and his high-flying elbow from the top rope. Thanks for reading. In our next article in this series, we’ll focus on the crazy in-ring antics of wrestlers and what crazy things that they would do in order to get the fans attention.

-Scott Steiner has competed for WCW, WWE and TNA wrestling promotions. Scott Steiner is not shy with his opinions. His promos are unintelligible with Steiner using words like ‘Sympy’ and ‘Doin’ Him An Egg’ as some of his famous misused words/quotes. In one WCW promo, he managed to bring up astrological physics and quantum theories as a metaphor about how much his ‘freaks’ lust over him. At a WWE PPV, Steiner can clearly be heard saying ‘Give me the Fucking Mic!’ upon entering the ring which wasn’t well received by WWE management. Also, Steiner had a way with words backstage. At a WCW show, Steiner insulted Diamond Dallas Page’s wife Kimberly which led to an altercation between the two that had to be broken up by other wrestlers. At another WCW event, Steiner made disparaging comments about Ric Flair and told WCW fans to turn to their competitor’s channel to watch a better product. Steiner was later suspended for two weeks as punishment for the incident. Near the end of WCW, Steiner was known to bully anyone backstage that crossed paths with him. According to Petey Williams (On Colt Cabana’s podcast), if you stand up to him, he’ll back down and actually turn out to be a (reasonably) nice guy. Recently, he went on twitter to attack TNA management, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Garrett Bischoff and Ric Flair. TNA wrestling subsequently sued Steiner for defamation of character and Steiner counter sued for breach of contract. Furthermore, Steiner is not a fan of people in uniform judging by his multitude of arrest warrants for verbally assaulting road maintenance workers, airport officials and emergency medical crews.

Thanks for reading. Next up, we’ll be showcasing some of wrestling’s crazier in-ring madmen.

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