10 Ridiculous Reasons WWE Stars Had Backstage Heat

If there’s one thing you don’t want to get backstage in WWE, it’s heat. In wrestling, heat can do everything from cancel your push to get you hauled into wrestler’s court to, in extreme cases, get you wished the best of luck in your future endeavours.

Sometimes heat can be warranted and there are plenty of examples of WWE stars doing themselves no favours with the way they conduct themselves. There are also plenty of other occasions where the source of the heat is, quite frankly, preposterous.

These are 10 ridiculous reasons WWE stars had backstage heat.

10. Giving a writer an action figure

Wrestlers trying to court favour with the writers, bookers, road agents, and other influential backstage personnel is a common occurrence. While not all WWE stars do it, everyone from the main eventer to the lowest jobber can be guilty of playing politics in this way.

Bob ‘Hardcore’ Holly believed he had caught Edge and Christian red-handed when he witnessed the tag team not only socialising and having a laugh with writer Brian Gewirtz, but giving him a gift, too! Soon after Holly watched E&C hand Gewirtz a Flash action figure, the Canadian duo were hauled into wrestler’s court along with the scribe.

Edge and Christian were tipped off about their court date in advance by Kurt Angle and thus had time to prepare a humorous defence – complete with props, such as a mocked-up book titled ‘Edge & Christian: How To Kiss Ass, Our Road to the Top’ – which quickly got them off the hook. A case of beer for the APA, a bottle of Jack Daniels for The Undertaker and a tub of protein powder for Holly later and the charges were dropped. Poor Gewirtz, on the other hand, had to sit there and take it as the locker room verbally raked him over hot coals.

9. Losing a game of Dodgeball

The established crew of Jazz, Molly Holly, Nidia, Gail Kim, Stacy Keibler, and Victoria lost a game of Diva Dodgeball to the Diva Search contestants, mostly thanks to Michelle McCool who, it turns out, is a regular White Goodman on the dodgeball court.

This didn’t sit well with the boys in the back, who felt their convincing loss painted the business in a bad light. Triple H sat in as judge, with Val Venis as the prosecuting attorney, and Ivory acting as the defender for the women’s crew.

According to Ivory, she pleaded a good case and would have won, had the locker room not already decided that the divas were guilty. So, they lost the case and Ivory tried to bribe Triple H with a Red Roof Inn gift card, which apparently got a pop from those observing the trial since it was well-known that ‘The Game’ stayed at much fancier hotels.

8. Using a chiropractor

A professional wrestler’s body is, in many ways, their prized possession. Given how important their body is to their work, wrestlers go to great pains to keep it in the best possible condition. So, you'd think a WWE star in a great deal of agony deciding to visit a backstage chiropractor wouldn't be such a big deal. You'd be wrong.

Aaron Aguilera – who portrayed Carlito’s bodyguard Jesus in late 2004 – found himself in the doghouse for utilising a service that he was under the impression was available to everyone on the roster. However, an ‘unwritten rule’ stipulated that only the ‘top guys’ could have their joints manipulated and, once it was discovered Aguilera was taking advantage of a perceived perk, he was ostracised for it.

This gets even more silly when you realise Aaron’s WWE run was cut short due to multiple injuries, including herniated discs in his neck (which caused loss of feeling in his arm and ultimately required surgery to fix). Other wrestlers in later years – including Seth Rollins and Summer Rae – reportedly got heat for the crimes of visiting the backstage masseuse or using ice packs to treat their aches and pains before ‘earning the right’ to.

7. Booking a Holiday

When most employees want a holiday, asking your boss for some time off is the general way of doing things. Not in WWE. Tyler Bate wanted to go on holiday, instead of working shows for WWE.

The then-NXT UK Champion wanted to go on tour with the lads rather than his employers and turned down the opportunity to join a main roster loop as he had already made plans, with reports noting that WWE called him late to book him on the tour to begin with. It wasn’t too terribly long after these reports that Bate dropped the UK Title to Pete Dunne at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, before going on something of a losing streak.

6. Misusing an analogy

The SmackDown locker room in the mid-2000s was a dangerous place for a greenhorn to find himself, as it was policed by a crew of intimidating enforcers including The Undertaker and JBL.

Matt Striker – who is self-admittedly a bit of a loner whose shyness could be misread as cockiness – found himself feeling the full force of their wrath after making the comment that the blue brand was like ‘high school’ in comparison to the ‘college’ of Raw. Taking it as a massive slight, the goon squad read him the riot act and kicked him out of the locker room for a while, with Bradshaw also drunkenly challenging the former schoolteacher to a fight in a hotel bar.

Striker didn’t help himself by brushing off Eddie Guerrero’s attempt to give him advice. This led to Striker’s bags being thrown into the hallway, being banned from dressing with his colleagues. Striker accepted his punishment, even if he claimed his comment was meant to demonstrate how ‘laid back’ SmackDown was next to the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the flagship show.

5. Sitting in the wrong plane seat

Winning your first title in WWE is a cause for celebration, and Michael ‘PS’ Hayes thought he would reward himself and The Hardy Boyz by upgrading their plane seats to first-class after they bagged the tag straps. Unfortunately for Matt and Jeff, the upgrade meant that one of them inadvertently took a seat that was intended for Kane, who was running late for the flight but just made it at the last minute.

The Hardys tried to offer their seats to him, but the Big Red Machine assured them it was fine – even if the seven-footer wasn’t exactly comfortable all the way back in coach. The rest of the boys who witnessed it – most notably chief instigator Bradshaw – decided to take Matt, Jeff and Hayes to Wrestler's Court over the situation.

According to Matt, Bradshaw prosecuted them in a light-hearted way by making them out to be rampaging egomaniacs who felt they were above former world champions. Bribing ‘Taker with Jack Daniels got them out of trouble, but Hayes (who was the one the crew really wanted to take to task) was ordered to buy Kane dinner at different restaurants for a month.

4. Getting choked out by a Diva

Sticking with Matt Hardy for a second and another, altogether more embarrassing reason the Sensei of Mattitude found himself experiencing some backstage blowback.

During a European tour in 2008, Hardy and new interviewer Eve Torres were playfighting at the hotel bar when things got unexpectedly rough. During the skirmish, Eve ended up getting a black eye and, seeing red, decided to put the inebriated Matt in a legit chokehold. Exacting her revenge, Torres not only subdued him but ended up putting him to sleep in front of the rest of the SmackDown and ECW rosters.

Pouring salt on his wounded pride, Hardy was then supposedly dragged into Wrestler's Court and had The Deadman bust his balls over the humbling episode.

3. Spilling chicken over someone's bag

As we’ve already established, the SmackDown locker room of the mid-2000s was a dangerous place for a newcomer to be. Now imagine you’re a naturally annoying newcomer with a reality show background and a fauxhawk. There was enough to dislike about The Miz already, but when he committed the cardinal sin of eating and subsequently spilling some chicken on a veteran’s bag, his life was duly made a misery.

The veteran in question was a certain Chris Benoit, who flat-out ignored Miz’s numerous attempts to apologise and exiled him from the locker room. Later describing this period as a career low point, Miz recalled how he would have to get changed in stairwells and janitor’s closets and occasionally had to use the arena bathrooms where fans could see him.

This went on for months until The Undertaker decided that he’d suffered enough and allowed him to get changed with the rest of the roster once again. While The Miz perhaps should have been more considerate with how and where he ate his lunch, the punishment far outweighed the alleged crime here.

2. Signing a guaranteed contract

It might be hard to get your head around now, given how his WWE career ultimately turned out, but Marc Mero was hot property in the mid-1990s. Vince McMahon wanted the former Johnny B Badd so badly that he signed Mero to a guaranteed contract, something that was practically unheard of at the time.

While The Wildman was used to getting guaranteed money from WCW, WWE contracts were structured differently with any guarantees being a token payment for television tapings and the real cash being dished out based on how well the business was doing and how much a performer contributed to that fact.

Mero sauntering in with a six-figure deal naturally rubbed some the wrong way, in particular his former WCW colleagues Steve Austin and Mick Foley. They weren’t really angry at Marvellous Marc, per se, more that the boss saw more upside in him and rewarded him accordingly. Some of those in the locker room who resented Mero’s agreement found pleasure in him failing to live up to what McMahon believed was main-event potential and neither he nor his then-wife Sable were missed when they decided to collectively quit.

1. Having a good match

Stealing the show in WWE isn’t always a good thing. Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Paul London has told a story about how he and Sylvan kicked off a WWE house show in Bangor, Maine on December 11, 2005 with a barnburner, only to return backstage and see Booker T positively apoplectic with rage.

According to London, road agent Arn Anderson told him and his confused opponent that Booker (who was due to wrestle Rey Mysterio in a 2 out of 3 falls semi-main event) was furious at the two of them for having a banger of a match that the rest of the roster might not be able to follow. Booker himself then confronted the puzzled pair and tried to make an analogy about how the opening act for Britney Spears wouldn't try to upstage the pop princess on her own tour.