10 Times Wrestlers Were Forced To Apologise To Fans

While the majority of pro wrestling careers come and go without any major incidents, that isn’t always the case. Wrestlers have been known to make poor decisions and those decisions, inevitably, have consequences. 

This can often range from fines to suspensions to firings and, on occasions, the need to seek forgiveness from the viewing audience. Those apologies are often less-than-willing, however, with talents not exactly thrilled about having to apologise after, in most cases, being asked to do so by their employer. 

These are 10 times wrestlers were forced to apologise to fans. 

10. Jerry Lawler

With the United States government threatening to regulate violence on television in 1994, the World Wrestling Federation got rid of eye gouging, two-handed choking, the use of foreign objects, and physical threats promising bodily harm.

On the June 20, 1994, episode of Monday Night Raw, Jerry Lawler attacked and repeatedly hit Duke “The Dumpster” Droese with a garbage can, forcing WWF to switch to a wide shot where the assault couldn’t be seen, while announcer Gorilla Monsoon was quick to apologise on behalf of the promotion.

He wasn’t the only one who was forced to say he was sorry, however, as The King - who either didn’t get the trash can spot approved ahead of the live show or otherwise got it approved by the wrong people - was ordered to film a taped apology of his own, which aired on the next week’s Raw.

Lawler managed to apologise in-character, so it wasn’t exactly sincere, but WWF officials felt it was necessary to avoid further trouble.  

9. JBL

Prior to signing with WWE, John Layfield spent much of his time learning his craft in Germany and Austria for the Catch Wrestling Association. 

Despite this, JBL must not have known (or known and not cared) that Nazi gestures and symbols have been explicitly illegal in the country since 1949, punishable with heavy fines or even jail time. 

At a SmackDown-brand house show in Munich in June of 2004, Layfield performed a Nazi salute and goose-stepped in the ring during the main event tag team match as a way to generate heel heat. 

According to the man himself, it didn’t get him any extra heat on the night, but when reports of his actions made their way to the United States, he did get heat with CNBC, who employed Bradshaw as a financial analyst. 

Layfield initially issued an apology for his actions via WWE’s website, but the apology was taken down just a few hours later after CNBC made the decision to fire him.

8. Chris Jericho

Eight years after JBL in Germany, a lack of cultural sensitivity got WWE in trouble yet again, though this time the indiscretion was a lot less obvious than invoking the Third Reich. 

During a May 2012 house show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Chris Jericho was trying to antagonise fans prior to his main event bout with WWE Champion CM Punk when he got hold of a Brazilian flag, crumpled it up, threw it on the mat, and kicked it.

It was jerk behaviour by a pro wrestling heel and, really, nothing that hadn’t been done by countless other wrestlers a million times. Unfortunately for Y2J, desecrating the flag is a crime in Brazil and local law enforcement essentially stopped the match just moments into it.

Offering Jericho the choice between immediately apologising for his actions or getting hauled off to the local jail, Jericho chose the former and the match continued as planned.

Vince McMahon, who wasn’t at the show, was so incensed with Jericho that he sent him home from the tour, fined him $10,000 and suspended him for 30 days.

"I made a bad judgment call in the course of entertaining [WWE] fans in Brazil. I apologised to the people in the crowd for showing disrespect. It was a bad move. I did it with [our] fans’ entertainment in mind and I’ll accept the consequences for that," Jericho told WWE.com after the incident.

7. Jeff Hardy

Victory Road 2011 was an infamous night in the history of TNA and the life and career of Jeff Hardy. 

Scheduled to challenge TNA World Heavyweight Champion Sting in the pay-per-view’s No Disqualification main event, The Charismatic Enigma showed up moments before his entrance in no condition to perform and was basically shoot pinned by Sting in a farcical match.

The situation enraged fans, wrestlers, and members of TNA management, who duly sent Hardy away to get treatment for his addictions. 

When it was deemed that Jeff was ready to return at the August 25 television tapings, Bruce Prichard demanded Jeff Hardy go into the TNA locker room and apologise to everyone for the Victory Road fiasco. 

He did, later recalling it was the most nervous he’d ever been in his career, but TNA also had Jeff apologise to fans on their TV show as well.

Now, this was not only something TNA felt should be done, but also a way of turning Hardy back babyface. Still, Jeff apologised, everyone moved on, and he has remained a top star in pro wrestling ever since.

6. Gene Okerlund

Legendary backstage interviewer Gene Okerlund found himself in hot water while plugging the WCW Hotline in February of 1995. 

The hotline was a significant revenue booster at the time and Mean Gene received a hefty cut, which explains why he and WCW would use sleazy tactics to get people to call the premium number. Such was the money he and WCW were making that Okerlund revealed to RF Video in 2006 that he took the WCW Hotline from bringing in $350,000 per year to $3 million.

In February of 1995, Okerlund told fans to call in to find out which former world champion had died at the age of 45. This started a rumour that Ric Flair, who hadn’t been on WCW television for some time, had kicked the bucket. He hadn’t, but former AWA star Jerry ‘Crusher’ Blackwell had passed away.

Fans phoned up the hotline in record numbers to find out whether The Nature Boy had passed away, but TBS were furious and decreed that wrestler deaths could not be used as hotline teases in the future.

Not only that, they forced Okerlund to apologise on the hotline a week later, which was reportedly about as sincere as you would imagine.

5. The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior developed a reputation for not being the kindest wrestler to his fans, which included a young Ryan Gosling who was denied an autograph by the one-time WWE Champion.

Gosling’s is just one of several stories about Warrior being outright rude to young fans seeking his autograph or wanting a picture with their hero. At one point, Jim Hellwig told a kid to buzz off, not realising that the boy was the son of a high-powered network executive who was well-connected to the World Wrestling Federation.

When Vince McMahon got word that one of his main stars had done this, he was so upset that he made Hellwig record a personal apology video for the offended fan. Footage of the tape finally aired during Warrior’s A&E Biography in 2021, showing a clearly flustered Hellwig requiring multiple takes to make the apology in a kayfabe manner while McMahon assured him off-camera that they were just ‘working.’

4. Jim Cornette

When Curt Hennig jumped from WWE to WCW in November of 1996, Jim Cornette was drafted in to replace Mr. Perfect as the colour commentator on Superstars. 

It made sense, given that Cornette had the gift of gab and was experienced enough to jump right into the role alongside lead announcer Jim Ross, but his lack of a filter soon got him in trouble. 

On his very first broadcast, Jim made an off-colour joke, with the gist being that a burglar broke into Sable’s house, she screamed the ‘R’ word and the burglar shouted ‘NO!’ in response. 

A few minutes later, Jim Ross apologised, saying that WWE didn’t want to make light of domestic abuse. Cornette himself then apologised, saying he’d never want to offend anyone.

3. CM Punk

During his time away from WWE, CM Punk wasn’t shy about criticising the company’s business relationship with Saudi Arabia, and while a host on FOX’s WWE Backstage, Punk told The Miz on Twitter to "go suck a blood money covered d**k in Saudi Arabia you f*****g dork."

CM Punk would later mend fences with The Miz but he had to publicly apologise to Saudi Arabia when he was improbably booked to face John Cena in the Middle East at Night of Champions 2025, around 18 months after his WWE comeback at Survivor Series 2023.

During the Night of Champions 2025 kickoff show, Punk - who was booed - was asked by a fan on camera to apologise for his past comments about the country. Punk replied:

"This guy wants me to apologise for a mean tweet I wrote six years ago. Hey, listen, legitimately had nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. I woke up and I was crabby and I wrote a mean tweet to The Miz and I apologise to The Miz. And sir, what's your name? Muhammad? Muhammad, I sincerely apologise to you and to all of Saudi Arabia.

“I am not perfect by any means, sometimes as human beings we screw up. The beautiful thing is everything is a lesson learned and now here I am and you have invited me to your country and I'm grateful to be here. Thank you very much.”

Now, if this whole thing seemed staged, it’s because Punk reportedly knew he would have to apologise upon going to Saudi Arabia for the first time.

2. Raven

Unlike more mainstream promotions, rebel organisation Extreme Championship Wrestling could get away with doing a lot more things that could cause controversy and rarely felt the need to apologise for the product they presented. 

Rarely, but not never. At High Incident on October 26, 1996, the Raven’s Nest stable attacked The Sandman after the ECW World Heavyweight Champion had successfully retained his title against 2 Cold Scorpio.

After beating up The Sandman, they ‘crucified’ him by tying him to a wooden cross and placing a crown of barbed wire upon his head. It was a heavy-duty angle with religious overtones and some watching from the crowd inside Philadelphia’s ECW Arena were offended by what they had just seen. 

So too was Olympic gold medallist and local hero Kurt Angle, who was confronted by Taz earlier in the show, prior to providing guest commentary for the Human Suplex Machine’s match. 

Angle was aghast at the crucifixion stunt and threatened to sue Paul Heyman if he appeared on the same programme as it. A panicked Heyman, attempting damage limitation, convinced Raven to go out later in the show, drop the act and apologise to anyone who had been offended. 

Raven clearly hated having to do it and maintains that the whole situation was blown out of proportion.

1. Lars Sullivan

Called up from WWE NXT and set to be given a big push on Raw or SmackDown in 2019, Las Sullivan suffered an anxiety attack that caused him to walk out prior to his main roster debut.

In May of 2019, it was revealed that Lars had previously used multiple accounts on internet forums to make racist, sexist, homophobic and other derogatory posts, some of which were directed towards WWE employees. 

Not only did it tank his standing in WWE’s diverse locker room, but WWE levied a hefty $100,000 fine at him and sent Sullivan for mandatory sensitivity training.

On top of it all, WWE forced Sullivan to publicly apologise, with Lars stating that the remarks he made did not reflect who he was today. 

Regardless, his WWE career eventually came to an end after yet another scandal, resulting in him asking for his release.