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In its most simple terms, wrestling is still a job. WWE employs all of its superstars, and some of the time these employees don't get along. When several people are forced to work together in a high-stress environment, it can lead to tension. In turn, this can become both vocal and volatile.
Over the years, there have been many well-documented backstage arguments, including ones between Vince McMahon and Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho, and even Sin Cara's recent antics that landed him in anger management.
The following list looks at just five lesser-known backstage arguments that took place between WWE Superstars, as well as the reasons why.
#5. Kofi Kingston and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon
Kofi Kingston has been part of WWE's main roster for more than a decade but was only recently able to push himself into a position where he could become WWE Champion.
Kingston's career was derailed many times in his early years. But he's finally in a place where he is seen as a veteran and able to enjoy the job he is doing on Monday Night RAW.
In the lead up to WrestleMania 26, Kofi Kingston was on Vince McMahon's private jet alongside John Cena and Chris Jericho when the WWE Chairman made a comment about Kingston that was deemed "unfair."
Chris Jericho went on to explain the events that followed in his autobiography entitled: The Best In The World: At What I Have No Idea:
"The plane pulled up on the tarmac, and we stayed aboard for a few extra minutes to finish up our drinks. Kofi got up to leave, and Vince made some sort of a jokey comment along the lines of "Maybe you’ll get over one of these days."
After some encouragement from Jericho, Kofi was told to go back and respond to his boss, otherwise he would never respect him.
"Kofi piped up and said with some big-boy bass in his voice, "Vince, do you have a problem with me?" Vince looked at him in surprise as Kofi repeated the question. "Maybe I do," Vince replied. "Do you wanna do something about it?" Kofi swallowed hard, knowing he’d gone too far to turn back now. "Do you want me to do something about it?" "Do you want to do something about it?" Vince repeated as he looked seriously into Kofi’s eyes from his chair. "Do YOU want me to do something about it?" "YOU want to do something—" Vince double-legged Kofi mid-sentence. They scuffled and rolled around in the aisle for a few seconds until Vince got up laughing. "That’s the way to do it!" He belly laughed and got off the plane. Kofi looked at me for justification, and I gave him a big thumbs-up." Jericho wrote.
It appears after this altercation, Kingston had earned the respect of his boss and this could be one of the reasons why the former World Champion has lasted so long in WWE.
#4. Matt Riddle and former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar
Matt Riddle has become a controversial character in WWE since his debut in NXT a few years ago. His background in MMA has pushed him to want matches against some of the company's biggest stars.
Riddle has already had altercations with the likes of Goldberg and Seth Rollins, but it appears The Ultimate Bro had his heart set on facing Brock Lesnar at some point in his career.
Back at the Royal Rumble in 2020, Matt Riddle was included and hoped that he would be able to cross paths with The Beast. After he called the former WWE Champion out several times on social media and made it clear that he wanted to retire him, it appears that Lesnar wasn't interested.
Riddle told TalkSPORT that he was confronted by Paul Heyman and Lesnar backstage and told there was no chance he would be facing Lesnar.
“Then, of course, [Paul] Heyman and his security guard – I won’t mention his name [laughs] – him and his security guard come up to me and basically told me I had no chance in hell – it was very Vince McMahon like [laughs] – no chance in hell that I was going to get that match with him and I’d have better luck doing something else." Riddle said.
Riddle was obviously disappointed. But given the way he had tried to goad Brock Lesnar into a WWE match, it made sense that The Beast wanted no part of it.
#3. Mandy Rose and former WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella
Over the years, it's become hard to believe which backstage arguments between WWE's females are real and which are there to be used on Total Divas. That being said, following the Money in the Bank pay-per-view back in 2019, Carmella and Mandy Rose had a lot of things to say to each other.
Carmella was forced to leave the ring after a scary spot with Mandy Rose, before she returned to the match after seemingly being cleared to continue.
Reports suggested this led to a heated argument between the two women backstage. This also saw Carmella take to social media, where she called The Golden Goddess out for being unsafe, as well as telling her to head back down to NXT.
The Tweet was later deleted and it appears that the two women have since moved forward after the issue. However, they are currently performing on separate brands, so it would be interesting to see how the two women would work if put together again on WWE TV in the future.
#2. Big Cass and former WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn
After Big Cass was released from WWE back in 2018, several reasons were reported to have contributed to the company's decision to fire the former NXT star.
One of these reasons was a backstage argument with former NXT Champion Sami Zayn. Throughout his career, Cass was known to be a big supporter of United States President Donald Trump, which led to several issues for Cass when it came to his view on politics.
According to reports, Zayn and Cass got into a heated argument about the treatment of Muslims. Whilst this seemingly wasn't the main reason for WWE to make their final decision, it was reported to have upset a number of stars backstage. Reports suggested that many stars changed their opinion of Cass following the altercation.
Cass had a number of issues backstage in his final few weeks with WWE and, if true, the argument with Zayn didn't do very much for his reputation.
#1. Randy Orton and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns
Randy Orton and Roman Reigns are two of WWE's biggest stars at present. Their pushes to the main event level have made both stars larger-than-life characters.
Back in 2013, when Reigns was still coming through the ranks in WWE alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in The Shield, he crossed Randy Orton after the duo argued over a botched spot in a live event match.
According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, this led to massive heat on Roman Reigns early in his career.
"There was heat on the Shield in recent weeks. It was said that Rollins and Reigns were the two the office was upset with... Another WWE source said the issue with Reigns was that there was a house show tag match which Reigns and Randy Orton were in, and they botched up a spot and got into a shouting match about it backstage. A guy in Reigns' spot arguing with a guy in Randy Orton's spot is a great way to get massive heat on you." Said Meltzer.
This heat doesn't seem to have affected Roman Reigns' career, since he is the current Universal Champion and was destined to become a star in WWE.
