WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon is one of the most unique personalities you would ever come across in your life. Although the guy is almost 75, he would never back down from a fight. But if there's one person that WWE employees and even the Superstars would not want to get in an argument with, it is Vince McMahon.
After all, he is the one who has the final say on who gets pushed and who doesn't. But throughout history, there have been several instances of WWE Superstars clashing with Vince McMahon backstage for several reasons.
Let's take a look at five such WWE Superstars who had a real-life argument with Vince McMahon backstage and the reasons why. Be sure to comment down and let us know your thoughts on the same!
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#5 Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar is one of the most dominating and accomplished WWE Superstars of this century. Being a huge asset for WWE, Lesnar has been known to have more backstage power than many other WWE Superstars on the roster. Interestingly, the Beast Incarnate has had several backstage arguments with Vince McMahon throughout the years.
Perhaps one of the most famous ones was after his Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34. A livid Brock Lesnar came back to the backstage ar after the match and threw his title on the WWE Chairman, who replied back with some expletives. As per a report by Ryan Satin -
We’re told Lesnar was livid when he returned to the backstage gorilla position and went off on the WWE Chairman … who was not happy about it. We’re told there’s a belief that Brock may have gone off script a little bit near the end of the match, but we’ve been unable to confirm if this is true.
While the two had a heated verbal confrontation backstage, Vince McMahon - being a true businessman - worked out his differences with Brock Lesnar.
Arn Anderson recently revealed another backstage argument between Lesnar and Vince McMahon on his ARN podcast. The incident took place before WrestleMania 31, where Brock Lesnar faced Roman Reigns in the main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Brock Lesnar reportedly walked out of a RAW after having a "shouting match" with the WWE Chairman. Anderson, a WWE producer at that time, credited Brock Lesnar for being the smartest guy in the business at self promotion. At that time, WWE and UFC both wanted him badly, so the Beast Incarnate had the upper hand and knew that WWE would do anything to sign him back.
Brock Lesnar last appeared for WWE at WrestleMania 36, where he dropped the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre in the main event of Night 2.
#4 Neville
Neville, now known as PAC in All Elite Wrestling, was once considered by many to be a major player for WWE in the future. During his time in NXT, he won the NXT Championship and had several incredible rivalries and matches.
After being called up to the main roster, Neville had a decent showing but could never make it big. WWE moved him to the Cruiserweight division, where he turned heel and had a great run as the Cruiserweight Champion. But it was in October 2017, when Neville left WWE, with the reason being dissatisfaction with his place in the company.
But his WWE exit was pretty controversial as before walking out of the company, Neville reportedly engaged in a "crazy shouting match" with WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. He even went to the extent of flipping out on Vince before leaving.
WWE then refused to grant him an early release, freezing his contract and making him wait for almost a year before his official exit in August 2018. In January 2019, Neville, now known as PAC, joined AEW - the new promotion of Cody Rhodes and the Elite.
#3 Batista
Six-time World Champion, Batista has had his share of issues with Vince McMahon and WWE throughout his career. Before infamously leaving WWE (enter Batista waving goodbye gif), Batista was once punished by Vince McMahon and fined a massive amount of $100,000. Ouch!
The incident happened after an episode of RAW in Tampa, Florida where Batista and Chris Jericho took on each other for the World Heavyweight Championship inside a steel cage. As revealed by Batista, during his appearance on Talk Is Jericho, he wanted to keep it "old school" and wanted blood to be involved. But this was during the PG era and hence bloodshed was not allowed. But Batista went ahead and did that for "the betterment of the business!"
"This was a point where we weren't shedding blood any more. We were PG and that didn't make any sense to me. I just didn't want to hear that, especially when there's a title match involved."
But after the two of them went backstage, they found a furious Vince McMahon. As per Chris Jericho - "there was a lot of yelling and screaming going on" because of Batista bleeding all over the match. Vince McMahon went on to punish Batista with a massive fine of $100,000 and also fined Jericho and referee Mike Chioda. The WWE Chairman, at one point, wanted to fire Batista but settled for a fine.
"I knew we weren't supposed to do it…I knew I would get consequences but I thought I would get the consequences and I didn't think they'd be as harsh as they were"
This incident ultimately was a major factor for Batista to quit WWE in 2010 and went on to pursue his Hollywood career. Recently, at WrestleMania 35, Batista retired from in-ring competition and is set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame - class of 2020.
#2 Mark Henry
While Vince McMahon has usually been portrayed as a serious and heel "authority figure" on WWE TV, he is known to play hilarious pranks on WWE Superstars every now and then. One recent one was the prank that he and The Undertaker played on AJ Styles before WrestleMania 36.
Talking about this particular incident, Vince McMahon reportedly decided to play a prank on Mark Henry after an episode of SmackDown in 2011. The World's Strongest Man came out for a dark match after the show. What followed next was Mark Henry stood in the ring for several minutes, but nobody came out.
Henry went on to cut a promo, but his mic was continuously killed by WWE. Then multiple WWE Superstar's theme songs played, but nobody came out. Then Mr. McMahon's music hit, but when the WWE Chairman also decided to not show-up, a frustrated Mark Henry left the ring and went backstage.
A fuming Mark Henry went on to destroy WWE equipment worth thousands of dollars and even threatened Vince McMahon to quit. Ultimately, the WWE Chairman had to calm him down and apologize for his prank, which obviously didn't go very well with the World's Strongest Man.
Now imagine form being in that situation to pranking the entire WWE Universe during his iconic fake retirement segment in 2013, before taking out John Cena. Wow!
#1 The Undertaker
In the recently released WWE Network special "Undertaker: The Last Ride", fans got to see the behind-the-screen look at the relationship between Vince McMahon and what is being considered his greatest creation, The Undertaker.
The Phenom had some huge praise for the WWE Chairman, going as long as to say that he can take a bullet for him. Vince McMahon also got really emotional when asked about what The Undertaker means to him and WWE.
But that does not mean that the two of them haven't had any arguments while working together for three decades. One of the most controversial segments in WWE or even wrestling history was the infamous Montreal Screwjob, where Vince McMahon decided to take the WWE title off Bret Hart in a pretty unfair manner.
During his appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, The Undertaker revealed that he was "pissed" when that happened and went on to have an argument with Vince McMahon about not having him involved in such discussions.
“'If this kind of s*** happens again, you've got to involve me here, because it doesn't have to go down like this.' And he [Vince McMahon] agreed. I guess it all worked out. It was sad. I'm really tight with Bret. Bret could've done some things differently; Shawn could've done things differently; Vince could've done things differently.”
There were also differences between the two when The Undertaker accepted to appear at Starrcast where AEW was having its show. The two briefly stopped talking to each other after that, but later made it up with each other.