Backstage Fights

Here's the list of what we have so far. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated. Please contact us with any information you have on any fight not yet listed here.

Disclaimer: Take these stories with a grain of salt. Most of these are hearsay, and their veracity cannot always be confirmed. We are certain some stories here are either untrue or greatly exaggerated. Do not trust any of them as true. Nonetheless, backstage fights do happen, and there is at least some degree of truth to most of the stories here. Plus, they’re fun to read.

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Shawn Michaels & Davey Boy Smith & X-Pac vs. some military guys

This happened at a bar in Syracuse, NY in 1996. As the story goes, Shawn got a little too flirty with a female who was dating one of the military guys. Once outside, the guys jumped Michaels and beat him silly. Big ol’ Bulldog and small (but feisty) X-Pac jumped out of the car to help out Shawn until the guys ran away. A battered and bruised Michaels appeared on Raw shortly thereafter and the announcers acknowledged the legit beating.

Shawn Michaels vs. Ron & Don Harris

I think this happened right before or after the Syracuse incident. The Harris twins were on their way out of the WWF, and decided to shake a little fear into HBK in the locker room before they left. If they really wanted to scare Shawn, they should’ve threatened him with tapes of their matches in WCW in ’99.

Eddy Guerrero vs. Road Warrior Hawk

Heard about this one while listening to Wrestling Observer Live. Dave and Bryan were discussing the Hawk-Savage incident and brought up this fight. I suspect it happened in Japan. Meltzer said, “How could anybody beat up Eddy Guerrero? He’s like the nicest guy.” May both rest in peace.

Randy Savage vs. Road Warrior Hawk

Backstage at a New Japan show back in 1996, words were exchanged between the two men (not sure about what) but it ended up with a fight where Hawk hit Savage with a right hook and knocked him out. Heat obviously still existed between the two because they had another confrontation three years later in the United States backstage at a Kid Rock concert at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Fl. Hawk saw Savage coming in his direction so he put his hand out (probably just out of respect) but Savage immediately threw a sucker punch that staggered Hawk. Hawk's wife was then attacked by Savage's then girlfriend Stephanie Bellars (Gorgeous George) and another female leaving her badly beaten. Hawk claimed that he would take legal action against the two women for attacking his wife but not against Savage since fights amongst wrestlers are usually kept away from the law. However, no action was ever taken. (thanks to Rob Harvey)

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels

Tension had been brewing between these two for months. They had a shouting match in the locker room and Michaels just had to yell out, “What are you gonna do about it?” Bret punched him, they rolled on the floor, and Bret left with a clump of Shawn’s hair in his hand. This particular fight happened around 1996/1997.

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon in Montreal

What did Vince expect? After the infamous double-cross at Survivor Series ‘97, Vince approached Bret and got a handful of knuckles. A groggy Vince is seen walking out of the room in the movie, Wrestling with Shadows. Davey Boy Smith was involved in breaking this up, and injured his knee in the process.

Nasty Boys vs. Ken Shamrock

This was quite a few years ago (late ‘80s), before Shamrock was a UFC star. Mike Mooneyham of the Charleston Post and Courier interviewed Shamrock for his latest column. He recalls a funny story regarding The Nasty Boys (Jerry Saggs and Brian Knobbs) many years ago in Charlotte where he claims they blindsided him at a hotel following a night club argument. "I was sitting with a friend and his fiancé, and one of the Nasty Boys reached over and made an inappropriate gesture. They did it again. My friend was getting upset, but he was a small guy and what was he going to do? They disappeared, but I didn't let it lie because I thought that was just totally punkish of them. I knew where they were staying, so I went after them at their hotel. I had a few choice words and told them they had a lot of nerve. Rumor has it that I got clubbed from behind with a steel phone, and then they put the boots to me." That was the last he saw of them until a chance airport meeting while working for the WWF years later: "You talk about the biggest wimps you have ever seen... Knobbs ran when he saw me. The other one (Saggs) thought he'd be funny and walked up next to me at the counter. I was with Billy Gunn, and everyone knew the story because they bragged about how they beat me up. I looked at Saggs and said, 'You know what? I'm going to kill you.' He looked at me and said, 'Chill out, man, that was a long time ago.' I said, for you it was, but it feels like it just happened and I haven't forgotten about it." Shamrock says that Gunn pulled him away but he eventually caught up with Saggs: "I jumped up, pulled him around and told him I was going to knock him out right there. He turned his shoulders away from me, and said, 'If you hit me, it's a felony offense.' At that point and time all the anger left my body. He was totally sickening. But all the boys saw it. All the bragging about how he whipped my ass once... It was kind of satisfying at that point. I think I got the last laugh." (this came straight from Mike Aldren's W365 Newsletter, thanks to Josh White)

Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior

During the Ultimate Warrior/Rick Rude program in ‘89/’90, Rude came back after the match and asked Warrior to "lighten up" a bit. Warrior got right in Rude's face and said, "I don't have to, because I'm the Warrior." Rude knocked him silly with one punch and walked away. (thanks to "name withheld by request.")

Scott Steiner vs. Diamond Dallas Page

This was due to Kimberly Page finding an illegal substance in a locker room in 2001, then telling management that it belonged to Tammy Sytch (Sunny). Management confronted Tammy and she flat out denied it and offered to take a piss test. She passed. Scott Steiner found out and chased Kimberly out of the building and she never appeared on TV again. DDP tried starting something at the next taping where Scott was shooting on TV, and that is what lead to the fight where DDP got his ass handed to him. Well, most people who fight Steiner would get their asses handed to them. (thanks to Dazraven)

Haku vs. Jimmy Jack Funk

There are tons of stories about Haku, apparently. In 1987, Funk was cracking on some women, and Haku went nuts on him. Details are in Dynamite Kid's book. (thanks to Jongregben).

Andre the Giant vs. Ernie Holmes

I guess Holmes got hot-headed backstage at a WWF taping in 1986. Andre muttered, “You know, you talk too much,” and Ernie never said a peep after that. According to two people in the van when it happened (it was a rehearsal for the Battle Royal at the 1986 Mania), Holmes was talking about how tough he was and Andre got tired of hearing about it. Holmes was ready to fight, but was talked out of it and nothing happened. I forget who told Holmes that it was probably a bad idea. (thanks to Dave Meltzer)

Andre the Giant vs. Akira Maeda

Major disaster. The mega-hyped match in 1985 that turned into a near shoot because Andre wouldn't sell Maeda's offense. Maeda was getting a big head and Andre was told to embarrass him in the ring since everyone believed in the Andre myth. Maeda didn't know and Andre, even drunk, was powerful as hell, and started going for Maeda's eyes after no selling his submissions. When Maeda saw it was on, he reacted as only he could. The reason it wasn't stopped earlier was the idea was for Andre to kick Maeda's a** and they were waiting for it to happen. Maeda was kicking Andre's knee until it turned bright red and took him down rather easily a few times. He turned to Kantaro Hoshino and asked if he could finish him off and Hoshino shook his head "no." Maeda was pissed and threw a kick at the guard rail that was more brutal than any kick he threw at Andre. Maeda has been very unprofessional at certain points in his career and is a baby, but in this case, a guy twice his size started it with him and he was trying to protect himself, put some fear into Andre, and not hurt Andre all at the same time. Dick Murdoch, who believed in the myth of Andre, as did everyone at the time, came back and said that he thought Maeda was going to end Andre's career. (thanks to Dave Meltzer)

Lex Luger vs. Bruiser Brody

Brody was, despite his natural charisma and ability to get the fans going, a pain in the ass. Luger was leaving the territory in 1987 and refused to job on the way out, not the other way around. Brody showed up hung over with razorblades taped to his knuckles. He played around for a bit before no-selling everything Luger tried to do. Referee Bill Alfonso told Luger it was all a rib, but later on realized it wasn't and told Luger to go right for the ref bump. Luger did and scampered out of the cage immediately. Right after it went down, Hiro Matsuda, who was the owner of the promotion, was running around the locker room, which had Ron Simmons and Dewey Forte, laughing about how football players think they are tough and they are all chickensh*t next to a tough wrestler. (thanks to Dave Meltzer, "Jesus Christ" and HB2KBuzzsaw)

Brian Pillman vs. Sid Vicious

Ahh, the original dying days of WCW in 1991. Sid said some words about a would-be feud with Pillman that never came about, and it led to a skirmish. Sid left and came back with the infamous squeegee. People who know Pillman say he’d kill Sid in a street fight, which is hard to believe but I believe it.

Arn Anderson vs. Sid Vicious

Perhaps the most famous shoot brawl of all. Lots of versions of this story, which took place in 1993 in Europe. Sid started going off on how Arn had never drawn money, and they had both been drinking. Words were exchanged and maybe a beer was thrown, but both went back to their hotel rooms. Sid later went to Arn’s room and blindsided him with an object, and started a pummeling an unconscious Arn. Arn woke up and the two really got into it. Scissors were involved and the entire hotel hallway was smeared with Arn’s blood, as his body had been punctured by the scissors repeatedly. Too Cold Scorpio came to the rescue. Just a mess that embarrassed the company.

Dynamite Kid vs. Davey Boy Smith

After years of pent up aggression between the two, which included Davey phoning up All Japan, telling them Dynamite had died in a car crash, just so he could try and ruin Dynamite's deal in Japan, Dynamite finally had a chance to do something, when Davey was booked on an independent show in Howe Bridge in 1994, just a few miles away from Kid's house. He arrived at the arena, where he found Davey's dad, and tipped over a table with pictures of Smith on it. He then taped his fists as he walked down the corridor to "knock f*ck out of him". Davey had gotten word Dyno was coming, and locked his dressing room door. Davey had also phoned the police, and Dynamite was escorted from the building. (thanks to Hb2kbuzzsaw)

New Jack vs. Pitbull

Jack jumped him backstage over some comments Bull had made, I think. Jack was so unpopular that the guys let them fight because they knew Bull would hurt him. Not sure how this ended up.

Buff Bagwell vs. Shane "Hurricane" Helms

In 2001, Buff Bagwell told Helm's he would never be a superstar because of his size and a few more words were said. Bagwell slapped Helms, but then Helms threw a frozen bottle of water at Bagwell, and punched him in the back of the head a few times, causing Bagwell's head to split open. This incident led to Bagwell's last moment on TV, where Bradshaw powerbombed him twice. After the first, Bagwell had said his neck was broken. Bradshaw called him a pussy and powerbombed him a second time. It was during a moment when all the WWF guys ran in on some of the WCW guys, and it was pretty well known that it was Bagwell's last WWF TV appearance. (thanks to Doug Adams, Trevor, & Chris)

New Jack vs. Junkyard Dog

Not sure about this one, but it’s pretty sad. Dog was older, got a good reaction from the ECW fans, and this was his last high-profile gig before passing away. May have been over a $500 loan from New Jack that Dog wouldn't pay back. (thanks to Chuck Richmond)

Tony Atlas vs. Paul Orndorff

Paul and Tony were in the car with Tommy Rich and Brian Blair on the road for GCW. Brian's driving with Tony riding shotgun. Paul's in the back seat right behind Tony. Rich is in the back, too. Tony reclines his seat way back to where it's crowding Paul. Paul asks him to sit up a little and Atlas shoots back at him, "You don't want none of this...blah, blah, blah...". Anyway, Atlas pushed the wrong guy too far. Paul told Brian to "Pull over!" Tommy Rich got scared and tried to smooth things over. Blair finally pulled over at a truck stop between two semis. Paul and Tony got out and squared off. Orndorff sort of bearhug tackled Tony and bit part of his ear off on the way down. Blood was everywhere. Ear on the pavement. Tony's in shock. Fight over. Cops coming. They scrambled, picked up the ear, and went straight to the hospital to have it sewn back on.

(thanks to The Masked Man and wrestlingclassics.com)

Paul Orndorff vs. Big Van Vader

Vader cornered Paul in an office backstage at a WCW show and picked this fight, which he soundly lost. Paul knocked him right down and kicked him in the face repeatedly. Vader had shown up late for the Center Stage tapings and Orndorff started yelling at him to hurry up and do his promos. There had been previous heat between the two. Both got face to face and Orndorff begged Vader, who outweighed him by 200 pounds, to start something. Vader shoved him down with a palm blow and Orndorff came back fighting, flooring Vader and knocking him for a loop with a punch from his bad left arm. Orndorff proceeded to kick at Vader’s face with his sandals until all the wrestlers broke it up. Amazingly, everyone just left Vader on the floor in a fetal position and went back to doing their thing. If you didn’t think Paul was tough before this, you knew after this one. Also, as a sidenote, Vader has said in his shoot video that he declined to strike Orndorff back in fear of losing his job. Orndorff later said on Wrestling Observer Live that he attacked Vader from behind. (thanks to Asa Taylor, Tom Hogan, "Jesus Christ" and an unknown website where this info came from).

Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Janetty

Read about this in a Janetty interview. The two never did really get along. Janetty won, of course. This happened during their time as the Rockers, and it probably happened more than once.

Kevin Nash vs. Roddy Piper

On the very same night that Michaels and Hart were fighting backstage at Raw (’97), Piper and Nash were doing some of the same at Nitro. After a match that ended up being a complete mess between Scott Hall & Nash against Piper & Ric Flair, Nash stormed backstage, booted Piper's dressing room door open and leveled Piper with a punch to the head before the pair was pulled apart by various backstage personnel. Nash went unpunished (which became the theme for WCW later) and nothing further came of the fight. (thanks to Rob Harvey)

Eric Bischoff vs. Juventud Guerrera

Nothing physical, but they exchanged words at a WWA show in 2002. Juvi was in character and there was still bad blood between them.

Buddy Rogers vs. some loudmouth at a restaurant

This happened when Rogers was well into his 60s, I believe. Not sure how it happened, but the loudmouth was several years younger, and it was over in 1 punch. Hooray for Rogers.

William Regal vs. Van Hammer

They were at DDP's Christmas party and Hammer was saying some naughty things about British and/or Mexican wrestlers. Regal got word and reportedly gave him a royal thrashing. Word has it he headbutted him 5 times over the punch bowl. Regal is a tough hombre. (thanks to several who wrote us on this one)

Rickson Gracie vs. Yoji Anjoh

What an embarrassment. Anjoh goes down and challenges Gracie an impromptu shoot to prove he’s tough. Gracie drove to his gym, taping his fists on the way. Once there, he gave Anjoh the beating of a lifetime. What a career killer. The only people who saw this were Gracie’s students in Los Angeles.

Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle

Not really a fight, but a friendly challenge in 2001 of who could take down whom. Apparently Angle kept taking Lesnar down, which was impressive because Angle was 5 years removed from competition, and Lesnar is much younger.

Riki Choshu vs. Akira Maeda

An unprofessional “shoot kick” to Choshu in a 6-man tag in ‘87 that obliterated his eye. Not cool, and what’s worse is that kick turned Maeda into a superstar for many years.

HHH vs. Bill Goldberg

Nothing physical, just Goldberg shouting at HHH at an autograph signing in ’99 or ’00 over some harsh words HHH had to say about Goldberg in an interview. Goldberg also said on ESPN that the wrestler he’d like to beat up in real life the most is HHH. Of course when Goldberg signed with WWE years later, HHH kissed his ass.

Capt. Lou Albano vs. Shane McMahon

Albano was one of the people Vince Sr. asked Vince Jr. to "take care of" after he died. So Lou apparently tested this one out one day. An 11-yr-old Shane would always walk up to Lou and say, "What's up, Fatman?" This would piss Lou off and give the boys around a chuckle. One day Shane went up to Lou and said once again, "What's up, Fatman?" Lou reportedly told Shane if he called him Fatman one more time, he'd forget who he was and slap the taste out of his mouth. Sure enough, little Shane said, "No problem....Fatman." Then little Shane got slapped a good one. (thanks to Matt Mazany).

Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest Miller

Bagwell's parody leading up to Road Wild of Miller didn't go down too well. Right before the live PPV match, Miller approached him about it. Bagwell slapped him. Miller immediately responded with two punches, and Bagwell fell, cutting his elbow badly. Bagwell backed off before more damage could be done, and the match went ahead as planned. Bagwell won the match, and neither man was disciplined. (thanks to HB2KBuzzsaw)

Eddie Gilbert vs. Jeff Gaylord

Gilbert talks about this on that tape, "Looking for Mr. Gilbert." A promoter named Gordon Scorazzi (sp?) was mad at Gilbert for no-showing a show or something like that. The guy put a $1000 bounty on Gilbert's head and Gaylord sucker punched him in the dressing room of the Sportatorium after a TV taping. Eddie, Doug, Bruce Prichard and James Beard were in the office talking and Gaylord showed up asking to speak to Eddie. Eddie walked out of the room and there was a noise that told everyone something was up. Doug bolted out the door with Bruce and James behind him. Gaylord had sucker punched Eddie from behind, but before he could continue, Doug caught him in the head with a Coke bottle/can that was not entirely empty and Gaylord ran out holding his head. Eddie said he wished he'd known what Gaylord was up to, because he would have split the "hit money" with him (Gaylord) and turned it into an angle so both of them could make a little more money from it. But, Gaylord didn't see that side of it. This happened around ’91 or ’92. (thanks to James Beard & Robert Solari)

Rod Price vs. Chris Adams, early '90s

Adams in the early ‘90s yanked out Rod’s implanted hair, which caused quite a bit of blood loss. They always worked stiff with each other. Rod missed about 2 months work because of it. But, Chris apologized and that was all that happened concerning it...nothing physical. (thanks to Chuck Richmond, James Beard, & Brandon Finch)

Road Warrior Hawk vs. some patron

An old news program reported on Hawk punching some guy in line at a movie theater, reportedly because the guy's brother had killed a Minneapolis (Hawk's hometown) cop earlier. Another reason not to go to the movies. (thanks to Chuck Richmond)

Juventud Guerrera vs. Australia

Old Juvi Juice was reportedly went on a spree beating up cops (what cop can't handle a guy the size of Juvi?). He may have broken the ribs of a female cop. (thanks to Chuck Richmond and Lewis Feinman)

Messiah vs. ? & ?

Finally saw the America's Most Wanted piece. Two guys broke into Messiah's apartment in 2002 and beat him down, cut off his thumb, and broke a fish tank over his head. The suspects are still at large.

Jim Cornette vs. Ed Ferrara

A few months back, Ferrara went to shake Jim's hand, and Jim responded by spitting in his face. Yeah, go Jim! He told Ferrara "That was for JR." What a hero Cornette is. (thanks to several, including Chuck Richmond)

Jim Cornette vs. Bruce Mitchell & Wade Keller

I remember this one crystal clear. Bruce and Wade had written negative articles on SMW based on the "riot" in Wise, VA. Cornette hated the story and left nasty voicemails on their machines, saying if he ever saw them, he'd "Slap 'em until they fought me." Apparently he once went after Bruce in the stands at a house show, but I've heard stories saying otherwise. Let's just say Jim was going through a lot of stress at this point in his life. (thanks to Chuck Richmond)

New Jack vs. Sandman

Don't know the specifics but allegedly New Jack overheard Sandman telling some racial joke. Jack jumped him and Sandman kicked his ass. Don't know if that's true but the story has gone around more than once. (thanks to David Crawford)

Jacques Rougeau vs. Dynamite Kid

Dynamite was mistakenly accused by the Rougeaus of cutting their clothes with scissors (while notorious pranksters, the Bulldogs were innocent here....it was Curt Hennig who did it). In short, Dynamite punked out both Rougeaus for their false accusations. Two weeks later in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jacques and Raymond Rougeau got their revenge as Jacques suckered Dynamite, knocking out four of his teeth. Dynamite got money from WWF agents to get the teeth fixed. When Vince McMahon sat down both sides to talk out the problem, Dynamite suggested the Rougeaus pay the bill. Not knowing the agents paid for it, they unwillingly agreed to pay for the broken teeth. All that happened was that Dynamite Kid got an extra $1,800. Thus the real winner was Dynamite Kid, who got his teeth fixed and some extra money. (thanks to Tom Hogan and Nicholas Argirakis)

DDP vs. Firebreaker Chip

Chip was mad because he thought DDP tried to take advantage of him during a match. Ended when DDP hooked Chip in a front face lock, and had to be pulled off Chip. And just where was Todd Champion in all of this? (thanks to Justin Newbould)

Big John Studd vs. Basil Devito Jr.

Studd, upset over the marketing of the football players over the wrestlers for WrestleMania 2, and showed up at Devito's hotel room (Devito was Director of Marketing for WWE). He yelled at him, picked him up, and slammed him against a wall. (thanks to Justin Newbould and "WrestleMania: The Official Insider's Story")

Vince McMahon vs. Kurt Angle

Not really a fight, but yet another Angle skirmish. On an airplane, Vince jokingly reminded Angle that he was the only person to take him down. Angle decided to have a little fun, and promptly took Vince down in the aisle. For the rest of the flight, Vince would try to take Angle down at any opportunity he had. During one altercation, the noise woke up a sleeping Undertaker, who either not knowing who was wrestling with Vince, or not realizing that they were just messing around, grabbed Angle from behind, and choked him out. (thanks to Justin Newbould and Kurt Angle's book)

RVD vs. Taz

After a match involving RVD and Sabu wound up Taz, he went around the ECW locker room saying he was gonna kick RVD's ass, Sabu's ass, etc. Word got around to Van Dam, who went up to Taz, and said "Pick the hand." Taz replied, "What?" and RVD punched him in the mouth. Taz went on the defensive, saying he didn't want to fight him. (thanks to HB2kBuzzsaw)

New Jack vs. Dances with Dudley

It's not clear why this one started, but apparently Jack was upset about something that happened in a tag match earlier that night involving the two in 1995. Jack proceeded to walk up to Dances from behind and crack him over the head with a nightstick. Dances quickly rebounded and managed to hit back, before the two were separated by other wrestlers. (thanks to Matthew Singh)

Scott Norton vs. Tony Halme

The two monsters were both in a Japanese bar, when Halme flattened Norton for an unknown reason. Norton reportedly put up no resistance whatsoever and has since claimed he was drunk at the time of the incident. (thanks to Matthew Singh)

Sid Vicious vs. a squirrel

Vicious had a squirrel he took with him everywhere. Two wrestlers (I'm pretty sure one of them was Arn Anderson) bet him he couldn't keep the squirrel down his pants for a whole minute. Vicious accepted the challenge and stuck it down his pants. After about 30 seconds the squirrel bit a very sensitive area, if you get my drift. Vicious fell down in pain and crushed the squirrel. He needed a rabies shot and stitches on his genitalia. (thanks to "Jesus Christ")

Shane Douglas vs. Brian Lee vs. Tracy Smothers

During a Brian Lee vs Pitbull #2 match, they got a little out of control in the stands and Shane Douglas went to Todd Gordon and Paul E. and said they should be fired. Sandman and Tracy Smothers overheard this and Sandman told Lee about what Shane had said. Lee went over grabbed Shane by the throat and dragged him across the hall into the shower and put the fear of God into Shane before releasing him. Shane went running into the locker room and yelled, "Who stooged me out?" Before Sandman could answer, Tracy Smothers tackled Shane and start beating on him until they were separated. Turns out that a long while back Shane was living at Tracy Smothers house back in his younger days for free and Shane had recently said some unkind things about Tracy, who had a horrible temper. After it was all said and done Sandman told Shane that he stooged him out. (thanks to Dazraven)