10 WWE Superstars who were hazed backstage

WWE has been the dream destination for nearly every wrestler in the industry. The company has the power to take stars from the wrestling ring and turn them into megastars.

Over the years, many new faces have come into WWE and become breakout sports entertainers. While many have had it easy in the company, others have encountered some problems.

Fans have heard stories about backstage hazing problems in WWE for several decades. John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) has been at the heart of many accusations of hazing over the years.

He’s not the only one who has hazed WWE Superstars, and many other big names have also come up during such conversations. Top stars have opened up about their early backstage experience at the company, and we’ve collected some verified ones to create this list.

Take a look at the 10 WWE Superstars who were hazed during their time in the company.

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#10. WWE Superstar John Morrison was hazed by JBL

John Morrison returned to WWE last year and is still looking to make it big as a singles competitor. Morrison is one of the better in-ring performers in WWE and deserves to win a world title before retiring.

During his early days, Morrison was one of the superstars who was hazed by JBL. The former WWE Champion tried to use Morrison and Joey Mercury to play a prank on Justin Roberts.

Roberts was hazed by JBL many times in WWE, and he used other superstars to do his dirty work. Morrison has opened up about the incident and said:

“JBL asked me and my partner [Joey Mercury] to steal [Justin’s] passport, and we didn’t. JBL was one of the main event guys at the time, and I don’t remember exactly what Justin Roberts did to become the target of the hazing for this specific overseas trip, but JBL asked me and Joey to snag Justin’s passport. I remember it 'being a thing', you know? We were looking at Justin, he was a few rows ahead of us on this plane, sleeping. We were like, “What do we do?”... Ultimately, we considered the options, and wound up deciding to not do it. This is a weird thing for a wrestler to say, especially in that era, but I usually went by the golden rule. I wouldn’t have appreciated someone doing that to me, especially someone I considered a peer,” said Morrison.

Morrison stood up to JBL as he was one of the top names working on SmackDown at the time and could do so. Unfortunately for Justin, JBL did not tone down his hazing.

#9. Lio Rush spoke about hazing issues in WWE after his release

Lio Rush had a relatively short stint in WWE. He started off in NXT and 205 Live before WWE paired him up with Bobby Lashley on the main roster. Rush proved to be a good mouthpiece for The All Mighty before he started to get some “heat” from people backstage.

He moved back to NXT and soon became the Cruiserweight Champion. However, WWE released him from his contract in April 2020. Rush made public an email he sent to WWE about hazing backstage in 2018.

The former NXT Cruiserweight Champion wrote, in part:

"I fundamentally disagree with this type of hazing. It is not within my job description or contract to perform duties of this kind ... I feel very strongly about this matter being a young African American male. I find these demands to be racially insensitive."

He further revealed that he was also told other wrestlers were "talking negatively" about him behind his back because of his unwillingness to do so.

Rush made it clear that he did not want to insinuate in any way that WWE is a racist company. However, he wanted to express his concerns about racial insensitivity backstage.

#8. René Duprée was hazed by WWE legend The Undertaker

Former WWE Tag Team Champion René Duprée competed in the company for five years. The French Superstar competed in some good rivalries but failed to make it to the top of the company.

In July 2007, Duprée requested WWE to release him from his contract. Since then, the former superstar has competed for several promotions in Europe and Japan.

Duprée sat down with That 90’s Wrestling Podcast to talk about the time he was hazed in WWE by a legend.

Duprée discussed his issues with The Undertaker and made a few allegations about the legendary superstar. He said The Phenom instructed other superstars to bully him just because he didn’t go out to the bar to drink with them:

“They took my $500 shoes and $1000 suit and ruined it in the shower because I didn’t go out drinking at a bar the night before because nobody invited me,” revealed Duprée

The former WWE Superstar also weighed in on the hazing allegations against JBL. He compared JBL to Ben Affleck's character in the movie Dazed and Confused:

"Go watch the movie Dazed and Confused. It has a character played by Ben Affleck, who basically flunked himself out of high school for the sole purpose that he can come back and haze the young kids coming from junior high and hit him with the stick. That's the best description I can give of JBL," he said.

René hasn't held back in talking about the issues of hazing in WWE. It could have been one of the reasons why he decided to ask for his release from the company.

#6-7. WWE Hall of Famers Nikki & Brie Bella (The Bella Twins) were hazed in the locker room

Nikki and Brie Bella worked their way to the top of WWE in a short span of time. However, the two female superstars had a tough upbringing that prepared them for the real world.

The Bella Twins had to prove themselves in WWE, and their hard work bore fruit as both women became WWE Divas Champions.

Brie and Nikki spoke about their early days in WWE and how they weren’t allowed to change in the locker room. They were hazed in their early days before the office caught them there and asked the rest of the superstars to cooperate with them:

“There are many unspoken rules enforced by other wrestlers. Depending on who has seniority, it can be really oppressive. It still boggles my mind that they wouldn’t let us change in the locker room when we debuted, for example. Instead we had to change and get ready in the arena bathroom. That happened for the first few weeks, until the office caught us in there and told the girls they had to let us change in the locker room,” The Bellas said.

The Bella Twins proved themselves to the WWE Universe and became two of the most well-known superstars in the company’s history. They are still regarded as two of the most influential female WWE Superstars of all time.

#5. Former WWE Champion The Miz was hazed by JBL

By now, it’s an established fact that John 'Bradshaw' Layfield wasn’t a very good guy to have around in the back in WWE. The superstar hazed several of the company's top superstars, including The Miz.

The Miz has spoken about being hazed by Bradshaw on multiple occasions. The Most Must-See Superstar in WWE was new to the company when JBL started targeting him.

JBL appeared on the “Right After Wrestling” radio show to talk about hazing himself. He accepted that he hazed The Miz during his time backstage:

“Did I haze the Miz? Hell yes! A lot of people want to talk about me and my hazing. Yes I did. I make no apologies about it what so ever. When I started, guys were hazed, and for good reason. They wanted to know that in a riot, which we had a few back in the day, were you going to be on the side of the boys or the fans? Nowadays there’s no room for it, the corporate, sterile world that is the WWE. When the Miz came in, most of the hazing was me working. Me on the mic, me talking to him. I gave him as much advice as I possibly could because I thought he had the ability to be a good heel. But I’m not going to apologize for hazing him,” JBL said.

The former WWE Superstar was proud of the fact that he hazed Miz along with several other superstars backstage. While many stood up to him, others remained silent and worked hard to reach the top.

#4. WWE legend Edge stood up to JBL after being hazed

Edge made a miraculous return to the WWE ring in 2020. The wrestling veteran has been busy putting on long and impactful matches in the ring during the final run of his career.

The Rated-R Superstar did not have it easy during the early days of his WWE career though. He was another superstar who was bullied by JBL when he was working hard to make it through to the top.

Former WWE Superstars Ken Anderson and Shawn Daivari recently appeared on the ‘Pancakes and Powerslams’ podcast and weighed in on the developing story of JBL’s alleged backstage bullying.

The two spoke about a time when Edge had enough of JBL and finally stood up to him:

“Paul Heyman told me this story about how JBL was needling Edge on a bus, overseas. Edge was pretty new to the company, and [JBL kept needling him]. JBL had a beer in his hand, Edge just stood up, and swatted the beer out of his hand, and said ‘Let’s go right now. I’m sick of it.’ From that point on, JBL said ‘Oh calm down, sweetheart.’ Everything was smoothed over, and he didn’t mess with him again.”

JBL saw that Edge wasn’t going to take all the hazing and wasn’t an easy target. The Rated-R Superstar did the right thing by standing up for himself and shutting down JBL.

#2-3. WWE Hall of Famer JBL bullied Matt & Jeff Hardy early in their careers

The Hardy Boyz won several championships in WWE over the course of multiple stints in the company. Jeff Hardy is still signed to WWE, while Matt Hardy is busy making his way through AEW.

The brothers are two of the most influential men in sports entertainment today. However, they too were hazed by JBL early in their careers. The Hardy Boyz’ 2003 book revealed that the two brothers were victims of bullying at the hands of JBL:

“Alright then,” Bradshaw said. “I’m going to give you boys a little assignment. I want you to buy two six-packs of beer. On the drive home, I want you to drink them and throw the bottles at road signs.”

“Okay,” I said, even though I was pretty sure we weren’t going to do it. The next day we were in Charlotte. Bradshaw pulled me aside and said, “Hizardy, your mission was fairly simple. Were you successful?”

“What’s that?” one of the Hardyz asked. “Did you get the beers and throw them at road signs?” “No, man, we didn’t. We don’t drink.”

The Hardyz further wrote that they should have lied and things would have been a lot easier. JBL lost this cool and was rude to Jeff and Matt from thereon:

“Our match was next, so we went to the ring and wrestled, and when we came back, our bags had disappeared. Our clothes, our money, our credit cards, everything. The room was completely empty. Then Bradshaw came walking in and said, “What’s wrong, guys?”

This is just one of the many stories the two WWE Superstars revealed in their book about being hazed by JBL. The brothers managed to rise above and become two of the biggest names in WWE, and even wrestling as a whole.

#1. WWE legend Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson was hazed by Shawn Michaels and Triple H

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the biggest names in WWE and the entertainment industry today. He won several championships during his time in WWE and will always be regarded as one of the top names in the industry.

Surprisingly, The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment was also hazed during his early days in the company. WWE legends Triple H and Shawn Michaels were the two men who went out of their way to make things difficult for The Rock.

According to Bret Hart, Triple H and Shawn Michaels wanted Johnson out of the company:

"Triple H was the same. He was always out to get The Rock. Shawn was out to get him and they just worked on him, and worked on him, and worked on him," Hart said. "A lot of the wrestlers would give him (Johnson) a hard time in those days, a really hard time, enough to try to break him and get him to quit and they almost succeeded. The Rock was kind of a marked guy. I remember Shawn Michaels coming into the dressing room and dressing down poor Dwayne. Shawn came in and just dressed him down and he chewed him out (over his use of the diving dropkick).”

Hart mentioned that Michaels was an important guy in WWE and could get away with anything. That helped HBK chew down The Rock, who kept apologizing for hitting a dropkick off the top rope.

WWE legend Mark Henry has also spoken about the time someone defecated in The Rock's meal to teach him a lesson about leaving it in the locker room. Johnson managed to hold out and become one of the most bankable stars in the history of sports entertainment and Hollywood.