6 current WWE Superstars and the real-life crimes committed against them
In WWE, many wrestlers have taken part in storylines that involved kidnapping, attempted murder, and robbery. However, only a few current superstars had to live such moments in real life where their property got stolen or lives were threatened.
While one current WWE Superstar had to deal with a dangerous stalker who threatened to murder her friend and attempted to kidnap her, another fell victim to a knife crime that left him with a visible ugly scar.
Here are six current WWE Superstars and the real-life crimes committed against them.
#6. Former WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks is the latest WWE Superstar to fall victim to a crime. Just a few hours ago, The Boss shared videos and photos on her Instagram stories showing her car being broken into on Tuesday night in Oakland, California.
The videos showed the car thief breaking her windshield and stealing a bag. Commenting on one of the videos, Banks sent a message to the thief:
"Have fun with the hair products," she wrote.
In another Instagram story, a frustrated Banks spoke about the incident while showing her broken windshield.
"Five minutes in Oakland, just five minutes! Ugghh!" she said.
The 30-year-old superstar is now out of action due to her suspension from WWE after she and her tag team partner Naomi walked out during the May 16 episode of Monday Night RAW.
#5. Former WWE RAW Women's Champion Rhea Ripley
In October 2020, Rhea Ripley announced that she had lost her luggage, which contained her gear and Women's Tag Team Championship belt, while traveling. The 25-year-old requested that whoever finds her travel suitcase inform her.
About two months later, however, Ripley's property surfaced as it became clear that she had fallen victim to a robbery. The thief tried to sell Ripley's bag and championship belt on social media in December 2021.
According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer, the thief stopped responding to messages after people figured out he had stolen Ripley's stuff:
"The person who evidently stole Ripley's bag when she was on tour in Albuquerque, NM, in October, which included her women's tag title belt (there are multiple copies and they use different belts for the house shows than at television) evidently tried to sell it on social media, both the bag and the title belt. When it was clear people figured out it was Ripley's stolen property, he stopped responding to messages," Meltzer noted.
Ripley is currently active on Monday Night RAW. She is now a member of The Judgment Day.
#4. Sonya Deville
In August 2020, a man carrying a knife, plastic zip ties, duct tape, and mace broke into Sonya Deville's home while she and Mandy Rose were sleeping. According to Tampa Bay Times, the security alarm went off nearly an hour later. As the two superstars went to check, they spotted the man on Deville's back porch.
Deville explained that the man started walking towards her after she screamed and asked him what he wanted. She and Rose then fled the house.
Footage from the security cameras later showed the man following the two superstars into the house. However, he thought they had gone upstairs, which luckily allowed them to escape.
Authorities later arrested the man, Phillip A. Thomas, on several charges, including aggravated stalking, armed burglary of a dwelling, attempted armed kidnapping, and criminal mischief.
Checking his Twitter account after his arrest, Deville also discovered that Thomas had threatened to murder Mandy Rose:
"Look outside, baby, by your pool. I'm gonna kill that little b**** you have inside with you," he wrote.
In 2021, the court reportedly found Thomas incompetent to stand trial. Earlier this year, other reports suggested that the cases against Thomas have been closed. They also stated that he was transferred to the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Florida.
Last April, Deville disclosed in an interview with the Pat McAfee Show that she was afraid to sleep at her house after the incident:
"It's been a crazy ride and you never know something like that is gonna happen until it happens. And you don't know how you're gonna feel about something like that happening until it happens. I'll just say, the day of, I was like, 'Oh, everything's fine. I'm gonna go sleep in my house tonight.' And then by the time nightfall came I was – like, couldn't even drive to the neighborhood. So, it's crazy." (H/T: Wrestling Inc.)
Deville is currently active on SmackDown. Next Friday, she will team up with Natalya to face Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark in the first round of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament.
#3. WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther
While in Chicago for Saturday night's Evolve 142 show in 2019, the then-NXT United Kingdom Champion Gunther (fka Walter) had his title stolen. The championship belt was in the 34-year-old's rental car when someone broke into the car and stole it. The thief also took Gunther's passport.
According to reports, several independent wrestlers fell victim to similar crimes during that time in the Logan Square area of Chicago. The same day Gunther's belt was stolen, former WWE Superstar Timothy Thatcher also reportedly had property stolen from his car.
After spending several years on NXT UK and a few months on NXT 2.0, Gunther made his main roster debut last April. The Austrian superstar is now active on SmackDown, where he holds the Intercontinental Championship.
#2. WWE NXT color commentator Wade Barrett
Before joining WWE in 2006, Wade Barrett was a bare-knuckle boxer in Europe. Despite Barrett being a legitimate fighter, a man thought he could mug the 42-year-old in an alleyway in Hungary's capital, Budapest.
After Barrett earned 20k for winning a bare-knuckle fight in Budapest, a man with a knife jumped the five-time Intercontinental Champion in an alleyway, hoping to steal Barrett's money.
The English superstar later told the story of the scary situation he found himself in at the time:
"The place was crawling with a whole host of unsavory characters and every single one of them wanted to get their hands on the £20K winners prize that was now sitting in my bag. (...) As I walked through an alleyway in search of a taxi to the airport, I heard footsteps behind me and a split-second later, I was jumped from behind and stabbed in the back with an eight-inch blade. I remember feeling the initial pain of the wound, but it was very quickly masked by numbness as the pain endorphins kicked in. At this point, I was supposed to stay down on the ground in agony whilst my assailant made off with my winner’s money, but things didn’t quite work out like that," he said. (H/T: The Wasteland)
Although he lost a lot of blood that day, Barrett successfully fought off the thief and protected his money.
"I lost a lot of blood that day, but I wasn't about to lose a penny of my hard-earned cash. I can't say too much about what happened next due to legal reasons, but what I will say is that if I've ended up with 12 inch scars on my body, just imagine how the other guy ended up looking. If you can't imagine it, just go and look at some minced beef next time you are in the supermarket and that should do the trick," he added.
Barrett is no longer an in-ring competitor. However, he is currently a color commentator on WWE NXT 2.0.
#1. Former WWE RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss
Many WWE fans admire Alexa Bliss. A few even asked her out on dates and proposed to her. However, things got darker when a fan on Twitter started sending the superstar disturbing messages.
In his messages, the fan with the Twitter account "Albert Little 666" accused Bliss' now-husband, musician Ryan Cabrera, of being a cheater. He also stated that he was the right person for her and that she should marry him instead of Cabrera.
Despite Bliss' best efforts to block the person, he kept writing to her through fake accounts. In another tweet, he claimed that Bliss was his wife and that Cabrera was standing in his way of getting her home. He also threatened to "let [Cabrera] sleep a long sleep."
In February 2021, things got much uglier when Bliss' stalker tweeted that he planned to pay a visit to her house:
"Hello everyone who thinks I'm a troll, I'm not I'm dead serious about getting rid of that piece of s*** @RyanCabrera so stop calling me a F***ING TROLL! I'm not a stalker I'm a lover of Alexa bliss, I will be at her house in Orlando, Florida and pay her a little visit. #LetMeIn (...) Alexa Bliss your home looks amazing from outside I wonder what the inside looks like #LetMeIn," the stalker wrote in a series of tweets.
Some fans later identified Bliss' stalker as a man from Whitehall, New York named Bobby.
Earlier this year, Bliss found herself dealing with a similar situation with another so-called fan. The former RAW Women's Champion disclosed in a tweet that the guy had sent people DMs saying that he was going to shoot her and her husband.
As death threats are considered a criminal offense in many states, Bliss revealed that she had contacted the authorities over that person's threats. She also clarified that she had turned in screenshots of his messages.