5 Times Vince McMahon lost his temper with WWE Superstars backstage

With so much wrestling content available to fans in 2020, there is hardly a day that goes by without a current or former WWE Superstar telling a new story about an interaction that they once had with Vince McMahon.

In recent years, we have discovered that several WWE Superstars have become friends with Vince McMahon in real life, including Braun Strowman and The Undertaker, but that does not necessarily mean that they are exempt from criticism from their boss.

Strowman, for example, once got shouted at by Vince McMahon after saying a banned word on television, while the likes of Brock Lesnar and Dolph Ziggler have never shied away from telling the WWE Chairman exactly what they think.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five times that Vince McMahon lost his temper with WWE Superstars backstage.

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#5 Vince McMahon lost his temper with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton

Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton held the SmackDown Tag Team titles

Arn Anderson often has interesting stories to tell on his ARN podcast about his 17-year spell working for Vince McMahon as a WWE producer.

In April 2020, Anderson recalled that Vince McMahon “chewed out” Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton for performing as babyfaces during their heel run as a tag team on SmackDown in late 2016/early 2017.

According to Anderson, Vince McMahon did not approve of Wyatt and Orton’s fellow Wyatt Family member, Luke Harper, attacking a babyface Superstar when the referee was distracted, as he felt that it was something that a good guy would do.

“We would do stuff that we knew would get heat during a match. We would lay some stuff out and we would do some clever stuff using the guy on the floor, and we would come back and just get chewed out for it. No one could figure out why. What are we getting chewed out for here? He [Vince McMahon] would voice his opinion, he’d say, ‘Guys, that’s babyface stuff.’”

Using that story as an example, Anderson added that WWE talents would sometimes look around at each other wondering what they did wrong after being yelled at by Vince McMahon.

#4 Vince McMahon lost his temper with Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler has worked for Vince McMahon for 15 years

Vince McMahon allowed certain Superstars to go over their allocated time during the Attitude Era, but that is no longer the case in modern-day WWE.

Speaking to talkSPORT and Sportskeeda’s Alex McCarthy in 2019, Dolph Ziggler was asked to reveal the worst thing that Vince McMahon has ever said to him.

The two-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion joked that he cannot disclose any of his negative interactions with Vince McMahon, but he admitted that it can sometimes get very passionate in the backstage area if his matches and segments last too long.

“Of course, as much as I brag about being great, I’ve been yelled at a million times because you either went the wrong direction or did something or went heavy [on time]… Something along the lines of, ‘This isn’t the Attitude Era, you can’t just go as long as you want out there,’ with some yelling back and forth between us.”

Ziggler has competed in over 1,800 matches for Vince McMahon’s company since becoming a member of WWE’s main roster in 2005.

#3 Vince McMahon lost his temper with Braun Strowman

Vince McMahon has always been very strict about certain words and phrases that WWE Superstars are allowed to say on television.

The word “hospital” is not to be used, with “medical facility” preferred instead, and the word “belt” was banned by Vince McMahon for several years before Becky Lynch began referring to herself as “Becky Two Belts” after WrestleMania 35.

In 2017, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley said on Lilian Garcia’s former podcast Making Their Way To The Ring that Vince McMahon “chewed out” Braun Strowman after he said “title shot” instead of “title match” on an episode of WWE RAW.

“That's exactly what I would go to call it when I would go out there. You want a title shot. He [Vince McMahon] is like, ‘It's a title match. It's a match!’ So if you ever wonder what it's like to see a six-foot-eight, 300 pound behemoth get chewed out, you should've been there.” [H/T Fightful]

Strowman was unable to win the Universal Championship on that occasion from Kevin Owens, and it took over three years before he finally won the title from Goldberg at WrestleMania 36.

#2 Vince McMahon lost his temper with Seth Rollins

In June 2014, Seth Rollins became one of the most talked-about Superstars on Vince McMahon’s roster after he betrayed The Shield and joined forces with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as a member of The Authority.

On-screen, Rollins’ WWE character was more cocky and confident than ever before. However, it was a different story behind the scenes, especially after one particular incident with Vince McMahon during the taping of the June 20, 2014 episode of SmackDown.

Speaking on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness in 2019, the former Shield member revealed that Vince McMahon ordered him to go back out in front of the same SmackDown crowd to redo a match that he had just finished with Kofi Kingston.

“Vince was furious about it! Like, furious! Just, 'Get over here!' And he's yelling at me, and he's just like, 'If you're gonna be my guy, you're gonna be my guy, that's not what I want!' And he shooed me out of the gorilla [position].” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Rollins explained that he allowed Kingston to have some offense in the match, as he respected his WWE colleague and did not want to squash him, but Vince McMahon thought their original three-minute match did not make The Architect look strong.

#1 Vince McMahon lost his temper with Brock Lesnar

Vince McMahon booked Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania for the first time in 12 years when The Beast faced Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31 in 2015.

Lesnar, whose WWE contract was set to expire after the event, was torn between re-signing with Vince McMahon’s company or returning to UFC.

As it turned out, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion opted to agree a new three-year deal with WWE, keeping him in the company until 2018, while he also went on to compete at UFC 200 against Mark Hunt in July 2016.

Speaking on his ARN podcast in 2020, former WWE producer Arn Anderson recalled the time that Lesnar and Vince McMahon were involved in a “shouting match” backstage at a WWE RAW event in Nashville, Tennessee on February 23, 2015, prompting Lesnar to walk out before the show.

“He [Brock Lesnar] was smart enough to know that not only did WWE want him, in the worst way, so did the UFC. He was just sitting in a position to go, 'Okay, we’re all aware of what’s going on here. I know you [Vince McMahon] want me. You know you want me. It’s up to you guys to decide who’s gonna get me. Who’s going to make me the sweetest deal?'”

Anderson added that he considers Lesnar to be “the smartest guy in this business” when it comes to self promotion.