10 Infamous Receipts in Pro Wrestling History
In pro wrestling, a "receipt" is an ass-kicking that you brought upon yourself. It comes from the cardinal rule of the business -- always take care of your opponent. If you fail to do that, the repercussions will fall squarely on your head (often via chair shot).
The Undertaker recently explained the purpose of giving receipts in wrestling. "I'm pretty patient [when it comes to giving a receipt]. It all depends on intent," the Deadman said. "Some guys just work very snug. I pride myself on my punches. I feel like I can make it look like I can take your head off and not touch you. Every once in a while one gets away from me... I'd much rather it be there than it miss. It ain't ballet."
But not all receipts come after a stiff shot gets away. Sometimes a performer delivers a receipt to protect themselves from an unsafe worker, like when Taker had to shut down Giant Gonzalez at Wrestlemania IX. "[Gonzalez] cracks me right across the back of my neck, and then once I get back the feeling in my little fingers... I flipped," Taker recalled on his podcast. "I turned around and just started wailing on him."
Let's go back to classic WWE, the old territories, and even a battle between monsters in Japan. Here are 10 of the most infamous receipts in pro wrestling history.
- 1
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
If you’re ever in the ring with a former UFC heavyweight champion, don’t stiff him with a knee to the head. Braun Strowman got a little too big for his boots at the 2018 Royal Rumble, kneeing Brock Lesnar right in the jaw. The Beast Incarnate immediately delivered a vicious uppercut, followed by a cross to the temple that put Strowman down on the canvas.
“We laughed about it afterwards,” Strowman later told TalkSport. “It is what it is. We got to the back and I said ‘Hey, my bad” he said the same thing and we went about our business.”
- 2
Stevie Richards vs. JBL
Stevie Richards delivered a brutal receipt to JBL on behalf of his bWo stable mate the Blue Meanie. After the famous in-ring brawl at ECW One Night Stand 2005, where JBL landed some vicious shoot punches on Meanie, the two were booked for a No DQ match on Smackdown. Mid-match, Richards entered the ring and delivered one of the most sickening chair shots ever seen on WWE TV.
Richards recalls hitting JBL with the hardest part of the chair — the lip — busting him open and leaving “a hole in his head” that needed staples. “Did I swing the chair as hard as I could?” Richards stated on his YouTube channel. “I swung the chair as hard as anyone would swing the chair to make the noise.”
Richards admits he feels bad about the chair shot to this day, explaining that no one gets into the business to hurt another wrestler. "I apologized to John and he deserved an apology, independent of whatever he did to Meanie."
- 3
Undertaker vs. Randy Orton
In an episode of WWE Untold, Randy Orton spoke of a lesson he learned from the most respected man in the locker room. During his year-long program with the Undertaker, Orton dealt the Deadman a chair shot from hell, accidentally cracking Taker in the forehead with the lip of the chair.
"That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Orton recalled. “So I’m s—ting my pants, we get to the back and I’m saying, ‘Sorry, sorry!’ He looks at me and says, ‘Don’t worry kid, your receipt is coming.’”
That receipt came during a Hell in a Cell match, when Taker blasted a young Orton with his own chair shot to the head. But to Taker’s credit, he pulled the shot just enough to make sure Orton wouldn’t be injured.
“Anyone else would have hit me as hard as he could,” Orton shared. “I learned an important lesson that day. Your number one priority is to take care of your opponent."
- 4
Perry Saturn vs. Mike Bell
Perry Saturn completely lost his cool with Mike Bell during an enhancement match in 2001. During a botched spot, Bell accidentally dumped Saturn on his head. Saturn responded with some knees to Bell’s head, followed by a throw to the outside of the ring where Bell landed right on his neck.
“I just went off,” Saturn told YouShoot. “Most of it I don’t even remember, I was kind of out on my feet. The thing that Vince [McMahon] and everybody was most pissed about was [throwing Bell outside the ring]. I grabbed him to s—tcan him so I could take a minute to calm down. I didn’t throw him out to try to hurt him, he just took a bad bump.”
- 5
Nia Jax vs. Charlotte
A recent entry on this list, Charlotte Flair learned the hard way that you don't mess with the biggest and most dangerous woman in the locker room. During an episode of Raw in 2021, Charlotte slapped Jax after she didn’t stay down following a big boot. In return, Jax overpowered Flair, no-sold one of the Queen’s trademark chops, then proceeded to slap the s—t out of Charlotte with some very clear receipts.
The match completely broke down after that, as the two sandbagged and taunted their way to a merciful end.
"There was a miscommunication, I don't know where it was, but she started laying into me," Jax later told Renee Paquette. "I didn't know what was going on. It was definitely intense. She is one of my best friends."
- 6
Umaga vs. Steve-O
Jackass star Steve-O didn’t grow up a wrestling fan, so he didn’t quite understand the importance of selling for your opponent. A Raw segment between Steve-O, Chris Pontius and the Samoan Bulldozer Umaga almost went off without a hitch. The Jackass duo got the hell beat out of them, as planned, with Steve-O even receiving a nasty top rope splash from the superheavyweight Samoan.
“Now the match is supposed to be over, but I don’t know that I have to play dead,” Steve-O reminisced on his YouTube channel. “So I keep moving around and he’s not done beating me up.” Umaga would give Steve-O a receipt for not selling — a brutal elbow to the head that knocked Steve-O into a blackout.
- 7
Rikishi vs. Russ McCullough
Never piss off a member of the Samoan dynasty. While wrestling for HWA in 2001, Russ McCullough made a fatal mistake while holding Rikishi in place for a spot. Instead of letting go of Rikishi’s arms, allowing the Samoan legend to dodge an oncoming kick from Haku, McCullough held on, forcing Rikishi to eat Haku’s boot.
The last man on earth you want to be potatoed by is Haku, and Rikishi seemed legitimately dazed by the Tongan’s kick. Eventually rolling out of the ring, Rikishi grabbed a chair from a kid in the crowd, took a running start and swung it into the back of McCullough’s head like a baseball bat. A few more shots across the back and to the dome… and McCullough knew his receipt had been served.
- 8
Stan Hansen vs. Vader
This video plays like a Godzilla movie — a brutal shoot between two of the toughest and hardest hitting men in the history of pro wrestling. Few men ever got one over on Vader, but after the superheavyweight legend hit Stan Hansen with some stiff shots, the cowboy icon paid him back by thumbing Vader’s eye out of the damn socket.
"Yeah, that was a brutal match,” Hansen recalled. “I was seeing so many stars from him hitting me that I wasn’t really concerned about his eye…" (laughs)
- 9
New Jack vs. Gypsy Joe
Gypsy Joe’s gimmick was that he was an elderly, grizzled vet that didn’t feel pain. That didn’t sit well with New Jack. What proceeded at a 2003 NWA show in Tennessee would be one of the most brutal whoopings in wrestling history… and it’s amazing Gypsy Joe survived.
New Jack straight up assaulted Joe with a steel chair, a chain and an aluminum bat wrapped in barbed wire. It was such a violent episode that the match was called off, leaving the audience shocked an hurling slurs at New Jack.
What prompted the violence from New Jack? Joe had approached Jack before the show and said, “Just listen to me kid, I can teach you a lot.” That’s all it took.
- 10
Snitsky vs. Maven
Maven came in a little too hot during Survivor Series 2004. While delivering a running elbow, Maven accidentally broke Gene Snitsky’s orbital bone and gave him a concussion. The busted-open 6’6” beast went on to grab a chair and nearly caved Maven’s head in with a horrid shot.
Maven would go on to call it “the worst real beating” he got in WWE. “Snitsky probably should have hit me a lot harder,” Maven admitted. “That was a receipt that I earned. That was a receipt that, to this day, Gene still reminds me of every time I see him.”