10 WWE backstage stories we learned this week: Superstar 'begged' Vince McMahon for TV time, Roman Reigns' best friend in wrestling

The attention of the WWE Universe right now is on the upcoming episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live from Madison Square Garden.

Off-screen, meanwhile, lots of Superstars and former WWE personalities have revealed interesting behind-the-scenes stories during media interviews and podcast appearances over the last week.

For example, everybody knows that Roman Reigns is real-life friends with Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose), but did you know that he considers one of WWE’s top comedy characters to be his best friend in wrestling?

In this article, let’s count down 10 of the best backstage stories that we have heard in the last seven days.

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#10 Chad Gable ‘begged’ Vince McMahon for TV time

Chad Gable progressed in the King of the Ring tournament this week by surprisingly defeating Andrade on SmackDown Live.

Speaking to PW Insider before the show, the former American Alpha member discussed various topics about his WWE career, including his reaction to being split up from tag team partner Bobby Roode after WrestleMania 35.

Following his move to SmackDown Live, Gable created his own vignettes and went to Vince McMahon with ideas for his character and future storylines.

"I made my own promos that I would bring my laptop in and show him. Just basically like begging, pleading, doing whatever I could to get something, get anything. And I wasn’t married to these ideas that I was giving him. Look, I’m open to anything."

It might have taken a while but the plan seems to have worked, as the 2012 Olympian is more popular than ever as a singles competitor and he has appeared frequently on SmackDown Live since the King of the Ring tournament began.

WWE recently filed a trademark for the name ‘Shorty G’, which has led many people to believe that the constant digs about Gable's height will result in his character receiving a new name.

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#9 Roman Reigns’ best friend in wrestling

Like him or loathe him, Roman Reigns is one of the most decorated WWE Superstars of the last decade. The former Shield member has won almost every title there is to win in WWE, while his run of four consecutive WrestleMania main events is unlikely to be matched any time soon.

Throughout his seven years on the main roster, “The Big Dog” has formed various alliances, notably with Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose), and with his real-life relatives, The Usos.

This week, Reigns discussed his battle with leukemia on the latest episode of the Leukemia Chatters podcast (listen to the 12-minute interview here). Towards the end of the conversation, the former WWE Champion took part in a quickfire Q&A, mostly consisting of questions related to his wrestling career.

Interestingly, he quickly replied “R-Truth” when asked who he considers to be his best friend in the wrestling business, which might surprise a few people considering his past connections with The Shield.

#8 How Nikki Cross found out about her call-up

Nikki Cross discussed her journey to becoming a WWE Superstar on the latest episode of Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast.

One of the most interesting stories came when she revealed that she was in Glasgow when she found out about her call-up to Raw and SmackDown from NXT in December 2018.

The Scot saw lots of missed calls and voicemails on her phone and immediately thought she must be in trouble for something. She then spoke to Matt Bloom, the head trainer in NXT, who informed her that she was going to be included on a graphic on the next episode of Raw to advertise her move to the main roster.

Her final match for the black and yellow brand came on the January 3 NXT television taping, where she lost against Bianca Belair, before she teamed with Bayley & Natalya to defeat The Riott Squad in a six-woman tag team match the following week on Raw.

#7 The Miz’s surprise message from Edge

In July 2012, The Miz began the first of his eight Intercontinental Championship reigns by defeating Christian on the 1000th episode of Raw.

At the time, “The A-Lister” had been a full-time member of the WWE roster for six years but he had not yet established himself as somebody who regularly produced strong in-ring performances, despite the fact that he main-evented WrestleMania one year earlier against John Cena.

Speaking in an Intercontinental Championship roundtable discussion this week with Christian and Randy Orton, The Miz revealed that WWE Hall of Famer Edge sent him a text after Raw 1000 and told him that his victory over Christian was the best match that he had ever had.

The Miz & Mrs star went on to explain how it meant a lot to him to receive the message from Edge, especially as he had grown up as a huge fan of former Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior and wanted to do the title justice.

#6 Hornswoggle’s awkward encounter with The Rock

Hornswoggle was this week’s guest on the latest episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness.

The former Cruiserweight Championship opened up on a variety of topics from his 10-year WWE career, including the time that The Rock thought he was a Make-A-Wish child in the backstage area.

This story has been told in the past, but Hornswoggle went into great detail on this occasion by taking Edge and Christian through every step of the bizarre encounter.

It began with The Rock returning backstage after cutting a promo in front of the Miami fans. Hornswoggle then introduced himself to the Hollywood star, who referred to him as “little buddy” and asked if he enjoyed the show tonight.

When Hornswoggle told Kofi Kingston, the New Day member said that The Rock probably thought he was an ill child who had been invited to watch a live episode of Raw as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Big Show then found out about the story and relayed it to The Rock, who initially laughed it off before admitting that he did not know who Hornswoggle was because he did not watch WWE at the time.

#5 Triple H’s explanation for the Goldberg vs. Undertaker match

One of the most talked-about WWE matches of 2019 came in June when The Undertaker defeated Goldberg in the main event of Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.

The match quickly went downhill when Goldberg legitimately knocked himself out with a spear into the ring post. From then on, the first-time-ever encounter was full of uncoordinated moves and mistakes, making it an unfortunate contender for Worst Match of the Year.

Triple H, who competed in the Match of the Night against Randy Orton at the same event, explained to talkSPORT that the temperature in Jeddah was "about 105 degrees and 100 percent humidity at ringside" and that it was “humanly impossible” to produce a high-tempo performance in a venue that resembled a sauna.

"People can say what they want to say about Saudi Arabia or the match between Undertaker and Goldberg. Listen, my hats off to both of them, it was a bad situation… There was those moments like when you step out of a sauna and you’re like ‘jeez, I’m lightheaded, I might pass out’ – it was so ridiculously hot. And you put pressure on yourself and everything on top of that, so it’s a lot."

#4 Baron Corbin’s relationship with WWE’s higher-ups

Baron Corbin progressed to the semi-finals of the 2019 King of the Ring tournament by defeating Cedric Alexander in a quarter-final match on the most recent episode of Raw.

Shortly before the show, the former Money In The Bank winner spoke to Sporting News’ Brian Fritz in an out-of-character interview and revealed that he not only has a good working relationship with Raw's Executive Director, Paul Heyman, but he also enjoys receiving feedback from the likes of Vince McMahon, Triple H and The Undertaker.

“He [Heyman] knows how to handle people. That's what I relate to. That's why I get along with Vince and Hunter and Taker. Those guys will tell me that wasn't good and I'm not going to get offended. ‘OK, I'm going to make it better than. I'm going to show you.’ They push you to be better.”

Superstars are often asked in interviews about their relationship with WWE’s top decision-makers. While some say that they only speak to the likes of McMahon and Triple H when it is absolutely necessary, it seems that Corbin is more than happy to hear what his bosses have to say after his matches and segments.

#3 Hornswoggle’s standing ovation

One of the most unique WWE matches of the last decade came at Extreme Rules 2014 when Hornswoggle faced El Torito in a WeeLC match.

The concept was essentially the same as a non-title TLC match. However, due to the size of the Superstars, the weapons were a lot smaller, and Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry Lawler were replaced on commentary by three little people (Micro Cole, Wee BL and Jerry Smaller).

Los Matadores’ Diego and Fernando (better known as Primo and Epico) helped out El Torito throughout the match, while Hornswoggle was accompanied by 3MB members Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal and Heath Slater.

In another story from this week’s E&C Pod of Awesomeness, Hornswoggle revealed that he originally disliked the idea of facing El Torito in a match that was designed to make fun of their size, as he wanted to prove that he was more than just a comedy act and that he could actually wrestle.

As it turned out, the match far exceeded expectations and resulted in Hornswoggle and the rest of the participants receiving a rare standing ovation in the backstage area after they made their way through the curtain.

#2 How Nikki Cross reacted to her Tag Team title win

Every time that Alexa Bliss has joined forces with a new ally on Raw, SmackDown or NXT, she has ended up getting exactly what she wants before eventually betraying them.

With that in mind, it was only natural that many fans predicted that the same thing would happen when the five-time Women’s Champion aligned with Nikki Cross in June 2019. However, as the weeks went on, the two women ended up having undeniable on-screen chemistry, resulting in them winning the Women’s Tag Team titles from The IIconics shortly before SummerSlam.

Following the unexpected triumph, Cross hugged her tag team partner before clutching the Women’s Tag Team Championship – her first title in NXT or WWE – as she knelt down in the middle of the ring.

In reality, Cross explained on Chasing Glory that she did not build her hopes up about winning the tag titles because she knows that WWE often alters storyline plans and she did not want to get carried away about something that might not happen.

“When Fit [Finlay] told us that was the plan, you’re kind of like, ‘Okay but things might change’ so you just keep yourself level and chilled... For me, it showed me that they want to continue this story with me and Alexa, because that was something we really wanted because there’s so much there. We have really good chemistry and we get along really well.”

#1 How Baron Corbin really felt after his MITB cash-in

In August 2017, one of the biggest shocks in the history of Money In The Bank took place on SmackDown Live when Baron Corbin unsuccessfully attempted to win the WWE Championship from Jinder Mahal.

Having claimed the briefcase two months earlier in the main event of the Money In The Bank pay-per-view, Corbin looked on course to become a World Champion for the first time in his career when he cashed in his contract following John Cena’s non-title win over Mahal.

However, Cena caused a distraction as soon as the bell rang, allowing Mahal to roll up his impromptu opponent to retain the WWE Championship.

Speaking to Sam Roberts on Notsam Wrestling this week, Corbin said he was genuinely disappointed when the opportunity to win WWE’s top title was taken away from him.

“It’s not just the disappointment. You’ve got to think about the snowball effect of the disappointment, because now all these people that I’ve been rubbing it in their face – Money In The Bank, World Champion, internet, ha ha ha – now not only am I disappointed in myself, but now I have audiences chanting, ‘Where’s your briefcase?’ … That stings, man, I should be holding the Championship right now!”