Top Five Blacklisted Wrestlers

Brian Damage

Let’s face it, pro wrestling can be a dirty business. Within the wrestling industry are pro wrestlers that are quite controversial. So controversial, they may have found themselves on the outside of the business looking in. Fewer jobs, fewer opportunities…all in all…may be blacklisted completely out of wrestling. Today’s Top Five, looks at wrestlers who have perhaps laced up their boots for the last time, or at best will never work for a top company ever again. This list isn’t intended to condone their beliefs or personal actions one way or the other…just top five wrestlers who have the skills, but cannot use them for various reasons.

The Velveteen Dream

At one point in time, The Velveteen Dream aka Patrick Clark was the single hottest act in all of NXT. That was truly saying something when there were stars like Johnny Gargano, Andrade, Aleister Black and many others. He had great charisma and ring presence, along with an impressive skillset in the ring to become a future star on WWE’s main roster. Then came all the allegations of him grooming young fans and reports he was nothing more than a pedophile. WWE initially was supporting Velveteen Dream and kept him on their payroll, but the accusations and evidence grew to a point where they had to cut their losses. A career that never saw its full potential.

Alberto Del Rio/El Patron

Alberto Del Rio was a former WWE champion and was a main event talent for the company. He left WWE, only to become a bigger star in Mexico and in places like Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground. Then reports surfaced of his volatile temper and possible drug use. He was then accused and charged with sexual assault of a girlfriend. The once hot star in wrestling can no longer find steady work. When he was booked for a show in his native Mexico…fans rebelled so much…he was pulled from it. He tried starting his own promotion, but that fizzled out quickly.

Marty Scurll

‘The Villain’ was undoubtedly a hot gimmick all around the United States and places like the UK and Japan. He was just hired to be booker for Billy Corgan’s NWA, when he was outed as having sex with an underage female. Scurll never really had the opportunity to work on the NWA program and certainly was never hired by AEW, which would have certainly been a guaranteed destination for him eventually.

Austin Aries

There was a point in time, when Austin Aries was one of the biggest free agents on the wrestling market. He became a true “belt collector” winning titles all over every promotion he worked for. Suddenly, Aries began putting out controversial opinions about politics, religion and science and the backlash from fans caused Aries to lose bookings. In the midst of it all, Aries has been unapologetic and that has hurt his chances even further to latch on to a major promotion or various independent groups.

Tessa Blanchard

This third generation wrestler had all the potential to be a huge star in the wrestling business. She had talent both in the ring and on the microphone. So much talent, that Impact Wrestling trusted her enough to be their first ever female world champion. Then the wheels began to fall off of her career, when she no showed Impact events, accused of being racist by several peers and the latest incident, bullying other wrestlers on the new show WOW: Women of Wrestling got her fired. Her career is seemingly hanging by a thread, if that. AEW and WWE don’t want to touch her and all of her baggage. A shame, considering the talent she has, just seems very difficult to work with.