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WWE Superstars are trained professionals who work tirelessly to perfect the art of wrestling. Over the years, the company has axed several superstars for breaking some rules or being too stiff in the ring.
Often, traveling on the road causes some differences to emerge between superstars. Many in-ring rivalries also turn bitter and spill over behind the scenes.
Fans have seen many superstars get into real-life fights for various reasons. It has led to some interesting stories that have been looked at from many angles.
In this article, look at five times WWE Superstars got into real fights outside the ring for different reasons.
#5. Rick Rude knocked out The Ultimate Warrior
WWE built up The Ultimate Warrior as a great babyface and looked to put him on par with Hulk Hogan. However, his attitude inside and outside the ring got to his colleagues at times.
Warrior was known to think a little too much of himself. A few superstars wanted him to stop being so stiff in the ring, but he always shrugged it off. This didn’t work well with one superstar, Rick Rude.
In an interview, Ric Flair spoke about when Warrior did not think Rude was good enough to be the Intercontinental Champion. The two had a backstage altercation, and Rude beat him up badly.
Flair also confirmed that he heard from someone that Rude apparently approached Warrior to stop being a stiff worker. Smash, one half of the infamous Demolition tag team, mentioned that Warrior did not take the suggestion generously, and Rude punched him out cold in return.
It’s not the only time that a superstar has knocked out the Ultimate Warrior in real life. Andre the Giant had a similar problem and reportedly punched him out cold when Warrior didn’t take his suggestion seriously backstage.
#4. Booker T and Batista got into a backstage fight in WWE
Batista and Booker T are among the toughest characters fans have ever come across on television. The two men won several championships during their time in the ring.
Booker T is by far one of the most accomplished African-American wrestlers in wrestling history. Meanwhile, future WWE Hall of Famer Batista has changed the way we look at powerhouses in the ring.
The two superstars were at the top of their game in the mid-2000s. During that time, the real-life heat between them turned into a physical fight.
A verbal argument turned into a fight that left Booker with a back eye, while Batista got several cuts and bruises over his face and upper body.
"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?" Booker T said while talking about the incident.
The two men seem to have set their differences aside ever since and have shown great respect for each other in recent years.
#3. Kurt Angle scored one over Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had some memorable matches against each other. It’s safe to say that they were one of the best on-screen rivals the world has ever seen.
The two WWE Superstars are known to be good friends behind the scenes. However, that wasn’t always the case. Before a live event in North Dakota, Lesnar and Angle got into a real-life fight that could have turned ugly.
Appearing on the Talk is Jericho podcast, Kurt shed some light on what went down between the two men:
"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,’" Angle said.
Both men exchanged several strikes before the Olympian got the better of The Beast Incarnate. Gerald Brisco, who witnessed the bout with Jim Ross, confirmed that Kurt Angle had the edge over Lesnar.
Here's what Angle recalled about the match:
"We had the showdown. It was close. It really was. He had 90 pounds on me, but I probably took him down into the ropes a good 7-8 times. He used the ropes to say we’re out of bounds. That’s OK. I did take him down once. He didn’t take me down at all."
They have remained good friends behind the scenes ever since. The two WWE legends competed in an incredible match at WrestleMania 19 that took the wrestling industry by storm.
#2. Eve Torres showed her jiu-jitsu skills on Matt Hardy before entering the WWE ring
Many fans still love Eve Torres, who was part of the WWE’s women’s division between 2007 and 2013. Early in her career, Torres was a backstage interviewer.
During that time, she was preparing to compete in the ring. She went out to a bar with Matt Hardy, and the two found themselves fighting each other out of nowhere.
In an appearance on MMA Hour, the former WWE Divas Champion recalled the story:
"So basically he starts kind of like trying to play wrestle with me, and mind you I had been training jiu-jitsu for like three or four months, so he's trying to play wrestle with me and I'm kind of trying to fight back and then for some reason it just clicks in my mind and I'm like 'I want to see if this stuff works,'" Torres said.
While the two were initially having fun, things got more competitive. Torres was left with a back eye:
"So I get a black eye and I'm like 'oh my.' Now I turn to rage, like boiling rage, because I realize I have a black eye. [Because I'm on tour] and I had just started at the company. So I sink in a rear-naked choke, and put my hooks in, and he goes to sleep."
It turned out to be an embarrassing moment for Hardy, who the interviewer choked out.
#1. Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu had a fight when the latter joined WWE
Former WWE Champion Sheamus is one of the toughest men in the industry. He has taken down the biggest superstars in the ring to prove himself to be one of the best international wrestlers in the company.
Early in his career, Sheamus shared a place with Ted DeBiase Jr. At the time, Japanese wrestler Yoshi Tatsu joined WWE, and the two tried to help him out.
They offered him a place to stay, but he did not pay the rent or bills. It went on for a few weeks before things got heated. The Celtic Warrior confronted Tatsu, who didn’t take the comments lightly.
A scuffle broke out between the two men, and they slapped each other before things calmed down. The Irishman appeared on Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast and spoke about his infamous fight with Yoshi Tatsu.
"So we had a couple little conflicts or whatever and then it kinda boiled over one time, and we had, it was a bit of a shoving thing. And he threw a slap at me, and I threw a slap at him, and that was it... It was just two hambags, you know what I mean, flying at each other. It lasted about maybe 60 seconds, it was just a couple of shoves and stuff and slap and slap, so we’re like okay, listen, we got over it, we worked it out," Sheamus said.
While Sheamus has cleared the air about what went down between him and the Japanese Superstars, many accounts claim that Tatsu beat The Celtic Warrior to a pulp. More importantly, it's great to know that the animosity between the two stars has ceased to exist.
