Professional wrestling is an ego-driven business when so many people are in close quarters together and have conflicting ideas and personalities, conflict is bound to erupt. This is especially true when wrestlers say or do things between one another that gets construed as disrespectful, or when fans get too close to their favourite stars.
But sometimes, these egos fail to mix properly and end up clashing, which leads to serious arguments, insults, and in some cases fights. Most often, one wrestler will either say or do something that goes against some unspoken or unofficial rule of the locker room, which will lead to that person getting punished. In other circumstances, wrestlers do things that have serious real-life ramifications, and thus they go at it to solve a personal problem.
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These ten entries tell the stories of WWE superstars former and current that have been involved in a heated argument outside of the ring. Each one of these people had to deal with someone causing them grief, and they responded to this grief like any sane wrestler would: by not backing down and getting physical.
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#10 CM Punk and Teddy Hart
What do you get when you combine the ‘strong’ personalities of both CM Punk and Teddy Hart? An explosive situation, to be sure.
Hart, as you might recall, is notorious for having attitude problems and burning bridges with virtually every promotion for which he has worked. His most notorious incident was in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he executed several unplanned aerial spots and nearly injured both his opponents and himself severely. Following this, CM Punk penned a letter condemning Hart for his actions.
Some months later, Punk was in TNA and learned that the higher-ups were thinking of signing Teddy Hart. Punk told them that he’d slap Hart as soon as he walked into the fairgrounds where they taped their shows at the time.
Soon afterwards, Hart confronted Punk while he and some other wrestlers were at a place called the White Trash Café in Knoxville. Words were exchanged and Punk, true to his word, slapped Hart.
But Hart had boxing experience and then proceeded to punch Punk for several seconds until the fight was broken up by Sabu. In the end, both men left TNA shortly afterwards, and the wrestling fandom never got to see this interesting match-up take place inside a ring.
#9 JBL and Steve Blackman
As most of you know by now, JBL has a notorious reputation for being a bully backstage. Many wrestlers have alleged to have been victims of his harassment, including “The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry. But one person that wouldn’t take JBL’s nonsense was Steve Blackman, a noted martial arts expert and probably the only person on earth that intimidated Hardcore Holly.
Some time in the late 1990s, a drunk JBL began annoying Blackman while the two were at an airport in Kansas City. JBL kept grabbing Blackman’s buttocks, and Blackman kept warning him to stop. When JBL kept going, this heated argument quickly escalated into a downright thrashing. Blackman punched JBL several times in the head, while JBL was unable to block properly, most likely because he was still drunk from the previous night’s celebrations.
When both of them got to catering, later on, JBL, now sober, apologised to Blackman, and both of them shook hands.
But afterwards, Blackman pointed out to Holly that, had Blackman not tripped over a bag as he clobbered JBL, he would’ve landed one more knockout punch and JBL, ‘would’ve been in intensive care’. Holly, being one of WWE’s toughest hardmen himself, believed every word Blackman said.
#8 Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu
Once upon a time, Sheamus shared an apartment with fellow WWE superstars Yoshi Tatsu and Ted DiBiase, Jr. Because he was so much bigger than his housemates, it’s believed that Sheamus would do things his way, even if it angered the other two. But because he was bigger than both DiBiase and Tatsu, he could get away with stuff.
These problems, coupled with an allegation that Sheamus owed Tatsu money, led to a confrontation between the Celtic Warrior and his housemates. Sheamus is said to have thrown a blender owned by Tatsu back at the Japanese wrestler, before getting physical.
Yet despite his superior size, Yoshi Tatsu is the one said to have won the fight. This was because Tatsu was trained as a boxer before wrestling, and was also trained to fight for real in NJPW’s dojo.
Yet despite losing this fight, which became common knowledge in WWE’s locker room, neither Vince McMahon nor the rest of WWE’s bookers were dissuaded from pushing Sheamus as a top guy very quickly.
#7 Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar
SummerSlam 2016 will probably be remembered for two things: John Cena and AJ Styles having a fantastic match, and Brock Lesnar destroying Randy Orton’s forehead.
At that event, WWE decided to try and make things look more ‘real’ by having Lesnar win his match via TKO after he busted Orton’s head open the hard way, meaning with real strikes and without the use of a blade. Because of how well it was executed, most people watching backstage thought it was a shoot, and that Brock Lesnar really decided to turn Orton’s head into a practice dummy.
Chris Jericho wasn’t happy about this and demanded to know the truth behind this match. But Michael Hayes, one of the top members of WWE’s creative department, was ordered to keep the finish a secret, to which Jericho responded, ‘bulls**t’. Lesnar came through the ring curtain at that moment, and thought the comment was aimed at him instead of at Hayes and creative.
The two of them got into a very heated verbal argument that involved cursing, taunting, and even shoving. Depending on whom you ask, it’s further alleged that Vince himself had to interfere to de-escalate the situation. Nobody was punished in the end, and SummerSlam 2016 ended with yet another interesting story about it.
#6 Chris Jericho and Goldberg
This heated argument that took place backstage during a 2003 episode of RAW was a long time coming. Jericho and Goldberg allegedly had heat stemming from their days working together in WCW, especially regarding a storyline that, in Jericho’s view, was getting over organically. But the bookers – and Goldberg – didn’t see eye-to-eye with him, and the blow-off match was scrapped, which infuriated Jericho enough to sit out the remainder of his WCW contract.
Years later, Goldberg debuted for WWE, and was backstage during a main event match involving Chris Jericho, and was said to have been bad-mouthing Jericho about his selling abilities. Word soon reached Y2J himself, and he confronted Goldberg at the earliest opportunity. The two men exchanged words and insults, and then things for physical.
Jericho got Goldberg in a headlock, and then scissored his leg. By the time others came in to stop the fight, Jericho was declared the winner, which actually impressed Vince McMahon quite a bit.
#5 Vader and Paul Orndorff
This is one of the most infamous backstage arguments in recent history, especially due to the circumstances of how it happened and its ending. To make a long story short, Vader was booked to be in two places one after the other, and it was difficult to make it to one of them due to timing. By the time he arrived for the second event, which was a photo shoot, he was very late, but Eric Bischoff failed to notify the crew working the photo shoot that this would happen, even though he had cleared it with Vader himself.
Pal Orndorff was a WCW agent at the time, and was downright furious that Vader was late. While the argument between Orndorff and Vader started off relatively calm (’relatively’ being the key word here), it got increasingly intense as time passed, with Vader making the comment that he didn’t have to report to Orndorff whatsoever (which, while somewhat rude of a comment, was technically true).
The actual circumstances of the physicality are shrouded in controversy, with differing accounts of what actually happened. Most accounts indicate that Orndorff did antagonize Vader over the scheduling issue, but the actual winner of the fight has been debated.
Some say Vader froze up after his initial shove nearly caused Orndorff to hit a wooden shed, which could’ve hurt him severely, and thus froze up afterwards. Others have painted Orndorff as a conquering hero teaching the bigger man a lesson.
The truth, unfortunately, will always be hard to come by because wrestling is full of egos and contradictory eyewitness accounts.
#4 Vince McMahon and Nailz
Kevin ‘Nailz’ Wacholz was another big man whom WWE gave a ridiculous gimmick during the early 1990s. In his case, Nailz was a former prison inmate, and his reason for entering the WWE was to get revenge on his former guard, The Big Boss Man. But it wasn’t Boss Man that became Nailz’s target; instead, it was Vince McMahon.
In December 1992, Nailz confronted McMahon in his office, upset over an alleged financial dispute. This dispute turned physical, as Nailz proceeded to turn over furniture and tried to ‘choke Vince out’. Nailz was released from WWE instantaneously, but the problems between these two men continued for over a year.
Nailz and WWE filed lawsuits against one another, with Nailz going so far as to claim that Vince sexually assaulted him. In 1994, Nailz also testified against McMahon in the latter’s steroid trial, but his testimony was so contradictory and full of fallacies that it led to an acquittal against Vince.
In hindsight, perhaps Vince should be thankful to Nailz that his failure in court led to Vince no longer having to worry about the steroid scandal.
#3 Batista & Booker T
In 2006, Batista was in the midst of another major push on SmackDown, and was feuding with King Booker during the summer of that year. However, Batista was said to have an attitude problem backstage, suggesting that he was better than everyone on the SmackDown roster.
This mentality is believed to have stemmed from Batista’s own relatively short climb to the main event, while also suggesting the SmackDown locker room weren’t putting enough effort into their work compared to Batista’s former compatriots on RAW.
Booker T had had enough of this and confronted Batista at a photo-shoot at SummerSlam. The two had a heated exchange that eventually led to a full-blown fist fight, which WWE actually reported on the text message service they had at the time.
Booker T was the ultimate winner in that scuffle, to the delight of many in the SmackDown locker room that felt that Big Dave was walking around with too big of a chip on his shoulder.
#2 Alberto Del Rio and a WWE employee
Up until Del Rio’s recent situation with Paige, this was his most controversial moment in North America. Despite being a top star in WWE, Del Rio was fired on August 7th, 2014 following an altercation with a non-wrestler employee.
But this wasn’t a case of the fiery Latino living up to any stereotype; this was Alberto del Rio standing up to what could only be interpreted as a racist joke meant to demean Alberto and Mexicans in general.
According to most reports, the incident took place in WWE’s catering. A WWE office employee was asked to clean his plate, and this employee made the joke that doing so, ‘is Del Rio’s job’, presumably because Del Rio is Mexican. Well, Del Rio heard this and slapped him right in the face.
This employee then threatened to sue the WWE in response, but was himself fired from the company following widespread condemnation from WWE’s fans over the company’s hypocrisy over what is considers ‘unacceptable behaviour’.
#1 Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels’ argument becomes a fight
This is the single most notorious backstage argument in WWE history, and served as the catalyst for the bitter rivalry between Hart and Michaels going to never-before-reached levels of personal hostility.
Though Bret and Shawn disliked each other significantly, that mutual dislike reached a fever pitch following Shawn’s ‘Sunny Ways’ comment, which implied that Bret was having an affair with Tammy ‘Sunny’ Sytch (ironically, it was HBK who was doing so). This caused Bret real-life anguish in his personal life, which led him to confront Michaels in the locker room. Michaels was angry from the get-go, particularly since Bret hadn’t spoken to him backstage in three months.
Bret retorted that he was angry over Shawn messing with Bret’s private life for the sake of a storyline, and the two went at it. The scuffle lasted minutes, and concluded with Shawn Michaels leaving the arena (while screaming about a hostile work environment) and Bret managing to claim a chunk of Shawn’s hair.
Ultimately, this angry confrontation would later be underscored by the Montreal Screwjob, making 1997 arguably the worst year of Bret Hart’s life.
