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It’s always a delight to watch our favorite WWE Superstars compete in the ring and take each other down with their best moves to inflict as much pain as possible.
While these things work to perfection in the squared circle as well as keep superstars safe, thanks to the years of training they get, the same moves and fights can cause things to get ugly when they take place outside the squared circle.
Over the past several decades, many stars have had differences among themselves and this has led to them exchanging a few harsh words in person and over social media. Things have turned even worse at times, leading the wrestlers to trade blows in real life either backstage or while traveling together.
Such instances are always unpleasant and scary and can lead to severe injuries capable of taking years off the involved superstars' careers. In this article, we will look at six real-life fights that took place between WWE Superstars outside the ring.
#6 WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar
When one thinks of Brock Lesnar's first run in WWE, the name Kurt Angle pops up. The two legends had amazing chemistry in the ring and had a classic rivalry which culminated in a match at WrestleMania 19. Though the two superstars are now the best of friends, their relationship wasn’t always smooth-sailing. The two men were known to have fought each other for real before a North Dakota live event in 2003.
Here's what Angle had to say about the incident:
Someone asked him how I would do against him and he said, ‘He’s too small, I’d kill him. So I walked up to him and said, ‘Did you say I’m too small for you that you would kill me?’ He said to me, ‘Kurt, you’re what? 215 (pounds)?' I said, ‘I’m 225 (pounds)’. He said, ‘Well I’m 315’. I said, ‘Well, I don’t have a problem, let’s get in the ring’. [Talk is Jericho podcast]
The bout concluded with Angle getting the better of Lesnar. Fortunately, this fight strengthened the bond between the two legends, who have been great friends since then.
#5 Batista and Booker T
Batista and Booker T are two of the most well-known wrestlers of all time who made a name for themselves while doing something completely different. While Booker T is by far the most accomplished African-American wrestler in wrestling history, Batista is a powerhouse who has changed the way we see big, muscular men in the sports entertainment business. With the two superstars under their belt, SmackDown was doing extremely well in the mid-2000s.
However, things turned ugly in 2006 when Booker T and Batista's real-life heat escalated from a verbal argument to a full-fledged fight that led to Booker getting a black eye and Batista getting several cuts all over his face and upper body.
The two men have seemingly set their differences aside now, and Booker T revealed the following regarding his equation with the Animal:
"In combat sports, there's always gonna be testosterone. Men a lot of times don't agree with each other and that's all it was. It was a disagreement. Him and I, we settled our disagreement. If I saw him today, he'd get a big hug and I'd say, 'What's going on?' You know?"
While it’s always good to watch our favorite superstars perform in the ring, things can get very messy backstage when a real fight breaks out between the superstars!
#4 Buff Bagwell and Hurricane Helms (Shane Helms)
With WCW slowly approaching its end, Buff Bagwell was among the promotion's biggest stars. Because of this, he seemingly had an inflated ego. After WWE took over WCW, all the stars had to follow WWE’s set of rules, some that were much stricter as compared to those set by WCW.
Hurricane Helms recalled that he was supposed to feud with Chavo Guerrero for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship before dropping the title to Billy Kidman. However, Booker T’s match with Bagwell was so poorly done that Helms’ rivalry with Kidman was cut short. This led to a fight between Bagwell and Helms backstage
Bagwell punched Helms in the ear from behind, leading to Helms reacting by throwing a bottle at him which ended up cracking Bagwell’s head open. Bagwell received 20 stitches as a result of the encounter, while Helms earned the respect of the WWE side of the locker room as a result of standing up for himself despite being the smaller man in the fight.
Helms opened up regarding the incident during Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast and revealed the following:
"He said something and I burned him really bad and he got like all offended by it - and he came and hit me in the damn ear. He's like standing on the floor and he outweighs me by 50 pounds anyway. Everybody in there knows I banged my shoulder up, so then he comes and hits me from behind and I kind of just threw [a water bottle] at him like this and then I jumped out of the ring. And this was just kind of to distract him because now I'm going to go punch him in the face, but he f--king cracked his head open, and he was bleeding all over the place, and I'm like, 'oh, f--k'. I really didn't intend for it to do that and I didn't think it would. I don't know. I guess the water in it made it harder."
This was one of the most well-known backstage fights which led to WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin patting Helms on his back.
#3 Big Show and The Great Khali
Let’s talk about the most massive real-life backstage fight in WWE. While this might not have stemmed from a big story, it was between two 7-footers who were competing in WWE at the same time.
One of Show’s signature moves involved him silencing the crowd before delivering a vicious chop to the chest of his opponent, resulting in a thunderous sound throughout the WWE arena. However, Khali stole that move from Show and started using it in his matches.
The World's Largest Athlete was extremely unhappy with Khali using his move as stated in Chris Jericho’s book – The Best in the World: At What I Have No Idea. Show confronted Khali about it backstage and the two giants came face to face.
Not knowing what to do, Show ended up punching Khali in the jaw, leading to a full-out brawl between the two giants. The rest of the locker room watched on but no one, not even Kane, dared to step in between the two men and calm them down.
The fight ended after Show tripped on a chair while trying to land a punch after which Khali tripped too and landed on top of Show. At this point, WWE Superstars who were watching the fight intervened and got the two giants away from each other. The Big Show and The Great Khali have since buried the hatchet.
#2 Goldberg and Chris Jericho
Goldberg has always been known to be one of the toughest guys to have wrestled for WWE. In 2003, his toughness was put to the test when he got into a real-life fight with Chris Jericho. Jericho wrote about the fight in great detail in his book, "Undisputed: How to Become World Champ in 1,372 Easy Steps".
The feud between the two wrestling icons dates back to their WCW days. When Goldberg signed with WWE in 2003 and was assigned to the RAW brand, it was only a matter of time before the two confronted each other.
Following his match during the April 7, 2003 edition of WWE RAW, Y2J found out that Goldberg had been criticizing his in-ring work. This prompted Jericho to confront the two-time Universal Champion and it didn't take long for the verbal exchange to turn into a physical fight.
Goldberg tried to use his strength to his advantage and attempted to tackle Jericho to the ground. However, Jericho turned out to be the better fighter outside the ring and caught Goldberg in the front face lock before several other stars broke them up. Jericho revealed the following:
“We scuffled back into the dressing room and were finally broken up by Arn Anderson, Terry Taylor, Hurricane, Christian, and Booker T. Nash Mantis continued to sit in his chair in the corner of the room watching the festivities.”
Y2J has a great reputation backstage and while he has always tried to help out whoever has approached him, he does not like being picked on.
#1 Kofi Kingston and Vince McMahon
Kofi Kingston is one of the most successful African-American WWE Superstars of our generation. After his WWE Championship victory last year, Kingston proved to the world that anything is possible if you put your heart into it.
A decade ago, Kofi was one of the purest babyfaces on television but he couldn't manage to become a regular fixture in the main event scene. During a plane ride, former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon joked with Kofi and told him that “Maybe you'll get over one of these days” in a snide manner.
Chris Jericho, who was very drunk at the time, told Kofi not to back down, stand up for himself, and go ask Vince what his problem was. Kofi did just that and ended up being taken down physically by the Chairman of the Board of WWE.
Before things could escalate, Vince let Kofi out of a double leg takedown and laughed hysterically. While Kofi did not come out on top in the fight, he earned Jericho and even Vince’s respect for standing up for himself.
This could be one of the many reasons why Vince started believing in the New Day member and gave him multiple championship runs.
