5 WWE Superstars who defied Vince McMahon (and what the consequences were)

Regular followers of what happens behind the scenes in WWE will no doubt have seen a list of banned words and phrases that Vince McMahon has forbidden his Superstars from saying on television.

In addition to that, the men and women that we see every week on WWE programming are sometimes given very precise instructions on what they should do or say in particular matches and segments.

On rare occasions, these rules have been broken by Superstars – sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally – and the people involved have risked being confronted by Vince McMahon when they make their way to the backstage area.

In this article, let’s take a look at what happened next to five WWE Superstars after they defied Vince McMahon.

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#5 Big Cass defied Vince McMahon

After tearing his ACL in August 2017, Big Cass returned to WWE television in April 2018 and Vince McMahon decided to book him in a feud with Daniel Bryan on SmackDown.

Much of the rivalry revolved around Cass making fun of his opponent’s height, so Vince McMahon approved a segment which saw the 7-footer get involved in a physical altercation with a little person who resembled Bryan.

Cass was only supposed to give the impersonator a big boot in a segment that Vince McMahon thought would get him “uber heat”. However, after noticing some fans laughing instead of booing, he followed up with a barrage of punches.

“This was specifically designed to get me uber, uber heat. Then I was panicking because I was like, ‘This is not the reaction they want.’ So then I did what I thought was right.”

How did Vince McMahon react?

Big Cass recalled on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast that it turned out to be “a very bad night” for him after he walked back through the curtain.

Asked if Vince McMahon was unhappy, Cass made it clear that his boss did not appreciate him going off-script.

“That is the understatement of the century. Furious… he was furious. That was the first straw, rightfully so. That was such a bad decision. So stupid.”

Following his two-month rivalry with Bryan, Cass received his release from WWE in June 2018.

#4 Steve Austin defied Vince McMahon

In June 2002, Vince McMahon wanted “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to lose against Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifier on WWE RAW.

At the time, Austin was not happy with the creative direction of his character and, while he had no problem with losing a match to the up-and-coming Lesnar, he felt that their first one-on-one meeting needed a storyline build-up.

As a result, he chose not to show up for work and he did not speak to Vince McMahon for several months.

How did Vince McMahon react?

Shane McMahon said on The Steve Austin Show in 2017 that Vince McMahon was “hurt professionally and personally” when his top Superstar walked out on him.

While that might have been Vince McMahon’s true feelings on Austin’s exit, that did not stop the WWE Chairman from going on television to tell fans that the former WWE Champion “took his ball and went home”.

It was revealed during Vince McMahon’s appearance on The Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network in 2014 that Austin, who returned to the company in early 2003, was fined $650,000 for his actions, but the amount was decreased to $250,000.

#3 Seth Rollins defied Vince McMahon

CM Punk clarified when he began working as an analyst on WWE Backstage in November 2019 that he was employed by FOX, as opposed to Vince McMahon and WWE.

Various WWE Superstars, particularly Seth Rollins, spoke about a possible match against Punk if he ever decided to make an in-ring return, but that prospect was not brought up on WWE programming due to Vince McMahon’s belief that the company should not tease rivalries that they cannot deliver.

Rollins went against that unwritten rule on an episode of RAW when he addressed chants of “CM Punk! CM Punk!” from the Chicago fans.

“I tried to get him here, I'm sorry, he didn't want to show up. He wants to sit behind a desk in Los Angeles and talk about a change he's too afraid to make himself.”

How did Vince McMahon react?

It was reported by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer that Vince McMahon was “furious and really upset” when Seth Rollins went off-script and teased a match with CM Punk, but the details of a conversation between the two men after the segment have never been revealed.

#2 Shane McMahon defied Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon’s son, Shane McMahon, was involved in one of the most brutal matches in WWE history when he fought Kurt Angle in a Street Fight at King of the Ring 2001.

After the famous incident where Angle suplexed Shane through a pane of glass near the stage area, Vince McMahon spoke to referee Mike Chioda through a headset and told him to bring an early end to the match.

However, as Shane recalled on The Steve Austin Show in 2017, because he had been “whacked in the head a couple of times”, he thought Chioda was speaking “gibberish” and he unintentionally defied the order from Vince McMahon by continuing the match.

How did Vince McMahon react?

Shane McMahon said he remembers WWE Superstars applauding both him and Kurt Angle after the match, but Vince McMahon was still “furious” and he was nowhere to be seen in the backstage area.

“Vince thinks that I'm shooing him off, that I'm disobeying an order, that I'm ignoring the order from Chioda, but I never got the order because I would never disobey him [Vince McMahon]. So [the] gorilla [position] was silent. Vince was going ballistic. I mean, throwing stuff.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Shane added that his wife, Marissa, was even more upset about the match than Vince McMahon, especially as he did not warn her about how physical the 26-minute encounter would be.

#1 Sgt. Slaughter defied Vince McMahon

In 1985, Sgt. Slaughter informed Vince McMahon that he had struck a deal with Hasbro to become part of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero franchise.

Slaughter recalled on Prime Time with Sean Mooney in 2018 that Vince McMahon thought the deal was great but he could not sanction it because WWE had a separate agreement with another toy company, LJN.

“At the time, I gave him my notice. He said, ‘You’re not leaving. You can’t leave.’ I said, ‘I’ve got to leave. I’ve got to go.’ I said, ‘I can always be a wrestler, Vince, but I can’t always be a G.I. Joe.’” [H/T Wrestle Zone]

How did Vince McMahon react?

The consequences of the deal turned out to be severe for Sgt. Slaughter, who missed the first six WrestleMania events because Vince McMahon thought the toy deal would be a conflict of interests.

During this time, Slaughter stopped watching WWE and he did not speak to Vince McMahon for six years. Then, once the Hasbro deal ended, he got back in touch with the WWE Chairman and he soon became a prominent Superstar on WWE television again.