Professional wrestling has been around for decades. So has the violent culture surrounding it.
Wrestling is like any other sport. There is a list of athletes that are bad people outside of sports and have trouble with the law. However, wrestling is a lot more widespread and normalized, and it all starts at the top.
The biggest issue that is plaguing wrestling right now is the Vince McMahon and Janel Grant lawsuit. This lawsuit is 101 pages long and details how McMahon allegedly trafficked Grant while she was an employee for WWE.
The full lawsuit goes into descriptive detail; however, I will not go into all of the details as it is very disturbing. You can read the full lawsuit here.
The lawsuit details how McMahon and other top officials inside WWE used Grant for sex for multiple years while she worked there. In the lawsuit WWE superstar Brock Lesnar is named as McMahon was trying to use Grant as an item to give to Lesnar so he would resign a contract in 2020.
WWE and its parent company TKO did make McMahon resign. However, Brock Lesnar just returned to the company at Summer Slam to a big crowd roar. Lesnar is not a defendant in the lawsuit, but he is named in it and yet WWE and the fans just do not care.
Many top executives in WWE are named in the lawsuit as they knew what was happening but did nothing. This includes WWE president Nick Khan.
This is not the first time that someone spoke out against McMahon. He has had many allegations since 1992, and this is the first one to actually stick.
In the world of wrestling there are independent companies which fans call the indies. These are smaller companies that run local shows so that wrestlers can learn how to perform and get better before going to the pros.
One such company, KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy, had an incident on Aug. 24. MMA fighter Raja Jackson who is the child of ex MMA fighter Rampage Jackson, went to the show that KnokX pro was running that night.
He streamed the entire event, and you can watch it here. Viewer discretion is advised as it does get disturbing.
In the beginning of the stream, he is talking to the camera man about how he is still recovering from a concussion. This is the start of it all as he should have been nowhere near a ring with a concussion.
As he got to the show a friend of his showed him the backstage area. The camera is still filming at this point even though in the wrestling world a camera in the backstage area is almost never allowed.
The backstage area is a sacred place for wrestlers as it’s the one place where the wrestlers do not have to “work” or be in their character. With a camera there it makes it seem like it’s an opportunity to work and build a story with someone in the back.
One such person thought that. Syko Stu whose real name is Stuart Smith thought that Jackson was a fellow wrestler and hit him in the head with a can. Jackson did not know what to do and Smith then realized he was not a wrestler.
For Smith it was an honest mistake, and he just saw a camera and thought he could work a story with Jackson.
Jackson was immediately pissed, but Smith calmed him down and apologized multiple times to him.
The promoter of the show then thought that he could turn it into an actual story and told Jackson to run in on Smith during his match and to get him back.
Raja Jackson would get into the ring and slam Smith on the ground immediately knocking him out and then punching him in the face at least 20 times.
Smith was fully knocked out and no one helped him until finally a wrestler jumped in and pulled Jackson off of him. However, the damage was done.
Smith was unconscious as he went into the hospital. The injuries included trauma to the jaw, a laceration to the upper lip and a fracture to the maxilla bone which resulted in the loss of teeth according to a post made to Smith’s Instagram page.
After that all happened, someone even pinned Smith to the end the match. That is insane as Smith needed hospital attention right away and people still let him get pinned.
This video of a wrestler and lawyer goes more in depth on the incident.
Raja Jackson could be looking at charges from the police, but nothing has happened yet.
What has happened though is that Jackson got advertised for another wrestling promotion. Danger Pro Wrestling took this moment and made it a publicity stunt as they advertised Jackson for future events even while Jackson has no intent to be in wrestling again.
To use a horrific beatdown as a publicity tactic is terrible but wrestling companies use horrible tragedies for stories all the time. Which is another big issue inside the culture of wrestling.
The most infamous story in WWE is the Katie Vick storyline.
This storyline includes Kane and Triple H which are two of the biggest performers at the time in 2002.
It starts when Triple H calls Kane a murderer but not for his parents, which is already well known, but for someone else. Katie Vick.
Triple H says that Kane was with Vick in a car that went off the road and killed her. Triple H alleges that Kane was drunk and killed her and then says that Kane was in love with her.
This then proceeds to next week where a video of triple H as Kane ends up having sex with a dead corpse. Yes, this is a real thing that aired on national television.
In 1999 during a pay-per-view wrestler Owen Hart had a character that was a superhero. So, for one event he had to come down from the rafters for his entrance.
The issue was that Vince McMahon did not spend extra money to make sure that the harness was safe. So, when Hart jumped from the rafters. He never stopped. He ended up falling 80 ft and dying on impact.
McMahon did not tell the crew to stop though. They cleaned the blood and kept the event going. Someone died. Yet McMahon made the show go on.
The Hart family ended up suing and winning $18 million from WWE because of the incident.
There are even more incidents like all of these. In 1992 a ring announcer sex trafficked ring boys. Vince McMahon has had countless other women over the years come out against him for sexual abuse. There are a countless number of wrestlers that were called out during the Me-Too movement.
Wrestling needs to change. This has all been normalized for years at this point; even the fans are ok with it at this point. It has been overdue that wrestling becomes something different from a culturally.
It is hard to be a fan of professional wrestling when there is so much stigma behind it. I love wrestling but it is hard to say that when so many people in wrestling are not good people.
I hope wrestling can change. I hope that sexual harassment lawsuits are not the normal. I hope that bad people are not the normal for people who wrestle. I hope these things for the future of wrestling so that wrestling does not die because people do not want to defend bad people.
Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
