Hearing about a backstage fight in wrestling is like opening up your first gift on Christmas morning. Usually you are super excited to discover what’s in store, and in most instances, you aren’t disappointed. Over the past few decades, there have been hundreds of backstage fights between wrestlers, many of which we will never hear about. Luckily for us, the internet has done a great job of preserving the stories that we do have on record so that they will live on forever. Today we will be taking a look at every backstage fight in the history of wrestling.

Well okay...so maybe not every single fight, but we are going to detail every single fight that we were able to find details about. I feel like I need to establish the definition of a fight that qualifies for this article. First, there has to have been some sort of physical contact besides a chest bump - this article would be at least double this size if we included guys who only barked at each other backstage. The second thing to keep in mind is that I disregarded fights that don’t have at least one participant who was a big name in wrestling. Sure there were some indie show fights that could have made the list, but do you really want to read about two guys you never heard about before going at it? Didn’t think so. Lastly, to be included on this list, the two participants had to have been part of the wrestling business. Sorry to all of you who want to read about Shawn Michaels getting beat up by Marines, that would be included here today.

With all that being said, I’d like to give credit to armpit-wrestling for providing the backstory for many of these fights. As always feel free to let me know which fights I missed, or which were your favorites in the comments section.

48 Jericho vs. Sin Cara II - 2016

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Perhaps not learning his lesson after his near fatal experience at SummerSlam with Brock Lesnar (more on that later), Chris Jericho once again created front page news by getting into a scuffle with Sin Cara backstage. During a bus ride on the WWE’s European tour, Cara was making annoying fart noises, annoying everyone in the process. Being the veteran he is, Jericho shouted for Cara to stop, to which the Luchador replied “F*** off”. If Jericho is crazy enough to confront a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, you’d have to imagine that a cruiserweight wouldn’t be able to intimidate him away.

The two men exchanged some words until Cara threw a right hand at the former WWE Undisputed Champion, which missed, and the two locked up with Jericho biting Cara’s hand. The fight was quickly broken up and Jericho was reported to have yelled the Sin Cara would be losing his job soon; only time will tell if this was a threat or a promise.

47 Sin Cara II vs. Simon Gotch - 2016

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You may have heard about the scuffle between Sin Cara and Simon Gotch last year, and if you have good eyes you may have caught Gotch sporting a black eye at WWE Battleground too. While nobody is really sure where the heat between these two actually stems from, it’s pretty well know that the two men had issues with each other dating back to NXT. The heat apparently carried over to a SmackDown taping while the two men were standing in the catering department. By all accounts, the two men started arguing out of nowhere, and before anyone had a chance to jump between them Cara gave Gotch a black eye. Now here is where the stories split. Some people claim that Cara threw an entire soda can at Gotch’s face, while others have reported that Cara actually connected a punch to Gotch during their exchange. While we don’t know the specifics, we do know that Gotch’s eye was extremely puffy on television a few days later.

46 Brock Lesnar Vs. Chris Jericho - 2016

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Chris Jericho is easily the bravest person to ever set foot inside the WWE. I don’t care what you say or how you feel about it, the fact that he was ready to fight a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who had 100+ pounds on him proves it. The legend goes that Jericho was legitimately upset that nobody would tell him the finish of the the Lesnar/Randy Orton match at SummerSlam. Right in the middle of his rant, Lesnar entered the gorilla position and told Jericho to mind his own business. Jericho, of course didn’t. He instead walked up to Lesnar and shouted in his face, to which The Beast responded with a finger push. Jericho immediately jumped into Lesnar’s face, pressing his forehead against the former UFC star’s forehead.

Apparently at this point, Lesnar decided to kiss Jericho on the forehead and told him to either kiss him back or punch him. According to some accounts, Jericho pushed Lesnar into a wall before the altercation was finally broken up by Vince McMahon and Triple H. You can call Chris Jericho many things, but you can never call him a coward.

45 Sheamus vs. Sin Cara I- 2014

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It’s hard to say who was in the wrong during this altercation between Sheamus and Sin Cara. The story goes that Sin Cara disrespected the long-standing tradition of shaking the hand of every wrestler in the backstage area. Traditionally wrestlers will greet every wrestler with a handshake, no matter how high or low they are on the card. Allegedly Cara would only shake the hands of people he deemed as “big stars”, and in the process inherently disrespected the wrestling business. Sheamus got wind of this behavior and tried to strong-arm Cara off the trainer's table after a match. After Cara stood up, Sheamus took a shot at him but was taken down with a leg sweep by the Luchador. Cara was allegedly able to get one clean shot in at Sheamus before the fight was broken up by WWE officials.

44 Big Show vs. Great Khali - 2009

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There is a real thing in wrestling called “giant heat”, and it’s just as you would imagine. When two giant men both want to be the biggest guy in the room, sometimes tension builds until it boils over. WWE had a case of giant heat in 2009 when The Big Show and The Great Khali got into a fist fight backstage. Described by Show as “the worst fight ever”, the altercation occurred because Khali stole Show’s trademark corner chops. The World’s Largest Athlete was reported as taking the first few swings at Khali, with the Punjabi Playboy bobbing and weaving away from the haymakers. Tripping over bags of luggage, the two giants ended up on the ground and Khali was able to mount Show until he was pulled off by The Undertaker and William Regal. Chris Jericho described the fight as a brawl between Godzilla and King Kong, and noted that it was the greatest thing he’d ever watched.

43 Sheamus vs. Yoshi Tatsu - Late 2000s

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There are many uncertainties that play into this altercation between former WWE Champion Sheamus and former WWE employee Yoshi Tatsu. The facts are that the two men once shared an apartment during their time in developmental, and many people thought that Sheamus behaved as a bully. The facts become a bit alternative from that point forward. Some people believe that the Tatsu utilized his background as a former boxer to beat the tar out of Sheamus, while others say Yoshi merely slapped the taste out of Sheamus’ mouth. In either case, the fight was apparently caused due to a blender that Sheamus refused to clean, and in an attempt to teach him some respect, Tatsu confronted his roommate.

After the fight/slapping the story spread around the locker room about the incident, and many people were hoping that the real life loss would derail his push in the WWE.

42 JBL vs. Joey Styles - 2008

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Technically Joey Styles shouldn’t be on this list because he isn’t a wrestler, but come on - don’t we all want to hear about a time JBL was put in his place? During a trip to Iraq in 2008, a drunk JBL was being especially JBL-ish to Joey Styles after one of the shows. This behavior had taken place every night of the tour, but this night Bradshaw dumped a beer on Styles’ head and talked about his family. Standing up for himself, Styles stood up and the two men charged at each other before being held back by the roster. Breaking free Styles unleashed a wild haymaker on JBL, which was strong enough to cut open AND knock down the 6’6” bully. Before anything else could come of it, the fight was broken up and JBL was effectively humiliated in front of everyone...again.

41 Batista Vs. Booker T - 2006

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The Batista/Booker T fight is probably one of the most famous backstage brawls of all-time. Maybe it is so famous because it is the only fight that the WWE actually promoted on television and their website! The fight itself was caused by a number of factors. The driving factor in the scuffle was disrespect. Being a veteran of the business, Booker T demanded respect from younger talent, and when Batista refused to shake his hand in the locker room King Booker had enough. It’s also important to note that the two men had heat through their significant others (Sharmell and Melina), who may or may not have inadvertently accelerated the hostility between Booker and Batista.

The altercation began with Booker calling Batista out in the locker room in front of everyone. The two men had a five-minute argument which culminated in Booker suggesting that the men find a room to settle the beef. Though many tried to talk Batista out of it, he accepted and as soon as they found a room he sucker punched Booker as he was closing the door. The WWE roster let the fight go on for half a minute before rushing in to find Booker in a full mount utilizing a ground and pound. When they were pulled apart a humiliated Batista demanded they continue and grabbed Booker’s dreadlocks. Though he had the advantage, Batista couldn’t connect any punches on the former WWE World Champion, as Booker blocked them all with his elbows. When WWE management caught wind of the situation and pulled them apart, Batista took one final sucker punch at Booker. Though Booker had a black eye, he laughed as they were pulled apart and the common consensus is that Batista lost the fight.

40 JBL Vs. Blue Meanie - 2005

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Though the bulk of this conflict happened live on television, there were parts of the JBL/Blue Meanie fight that weren't on camera. For example, did you know that the reason there was heat between the two men was because Meanie testified against JBL in court? Or that the only reason Meanie testified was because JBL harassed him so bad backstage during the ‘90s? Well if you didn’t know, keep that in mind while watching a drunk JBL absolutely pummel Blue Meanie in the background during ECW One Night Stand in 2005. The fight itself should be considered a backstage fight by itself, as you can only see it if you look closely at the footage. Following the brawl in the ring, JBL again went after Meanie in the gorilla position but this time it was broken up before any real damage was done.

39 Santino Vs. Jim Cornette - 2005

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Like most “fights” on this list, this one between Jim Cornette and Santino Marella is more of a one-sided physical confrontation. Back in 2005, Jim Cornette was still in the good graces of the WWE and was running OVW as a developmental territory for the company. One of the talents that Cornette was trying to develop was The Boogeyman, who was in the infant stages of developing his character. During one of Boogey’s early promos, Cornette had all of his students pretend to be scared as he left the ring. The only student who didn’t run away scared from Boogeyman was Santino, which infuriated Cornette. After the show, Cornette confronted Santino and slapped him in the face much to the surprise of everyone.

Though Santino was a trained Judo champion, he didn’t fight back out of fear of losing his job. On the contrary, Cornette did lose his job with the WWE, but claimed that he only slapped Santino because he didn’t want The Boogeyman to confront the former Intercontinental Champion. Way to defuse a situation Corny.

38 Ric Flair Vs. Eric Bischoff - 2003

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Though this altercation happened while both men were signed to WWE, the heat between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff actually stemmed from years of scorn while they were employed by WCW. Flair long-windedly wrote in his book about the incident, but all you need to know is the cliff notes version for this entry. Upon learning that Bischoff was alone in a room after his 2003 hire to WWE, Flair instructed Arn Anderson to watch the door so that he could confront his former boss. Bischoff was on a phone call, which quickly ended by the way of a slap across the face. After knocking the phone out of Bischoff's hand, Flair swung on him three times and mounted the back-pedalling Bischoff on the couch. Flair then stuck his finger into Bischoff's eye and told him that he could take his eye out, but would rather fight. Bischoff refused and Sgt. Slaughter rushed in the room to stop the fight.

Take this story with a grain of salt, as it has only been publicly acknowledged by Flair in his book. Allegedly Vince McMahon laid down the law that nobody was allowed to talk about the incident, and the company should act like “it never happened”.

37 Kurt Angle Vs. Eddie Guerrero - 2004

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During the final years of Eddie Guerrero’s life, there is no doubt that he wasn’t the competitor he once was and though he could still put on good shows they were becoming far and few between. This type of streaky performance is what instigated a fight between Guerrero and Kurt Angle in 2004. Following a match, Angle began screaming at Eddie for not pulling his weight in the ring which led to a loud argument in gorilla. After being shoved twice, Eddie went for a single leg takedown of Angle but sadly forgot that Kurt was an Olympic Gold Medalist. Angle easily reversed the move into a headlock and held Guerrero in that position until The Big Show came over and broke up the fight.

When asked by JBL why on earth he would pick a fight with Kurt Angle, Eddie replied: "Because I'm stupid!"

36 CM Punk vs. Teddy Hart - 2004

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Teddy Hart has always been the black sheep of the Hart family, who has famously gotten into legal trouble and couldn’t sustain a relationship with the WWE. Hart is however, a talented performer who is capable of death-defying moves in the ring. During his days in ROH, Hart was actually fired partially for performing these moves after established ROH stars complained that he was not selling long enough. One of those stars was CM Punk, who had made mention that he would slap Hart if he ever saw him again. When Hart confronted Punk about this, Punk stood up and slapped Hart in the ear. Hart, who had experience boxing, delivered repeated blows to Punk who ended up on the ground until the fight was broken up by Sabu and Johnny Devine.

35 Chavo Guerrero Vs. Big Show - 2004

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Back in 2004 Chavo Guerrero went temporarily insane and tried to fight The Big Show. Apparently there were some unhappy smaller guys on the SmackDown roster back in 2004, and they all resented Big Show for his push. The feeling was intensified by the fact that Show had let himself go by this point, and was barely recognizable from the man who debuted a few years earlier. Guerrero was so upset that he actually worked himself up enough to confront The Big Show, calling him fat and lazy in the process. To the credit of Show, he simply mushed Chavo’s face when the former Cruiserweight Champion approached him aggressively. When Chavo decided he was going to rush Show, the giant simply pushed Guerrero into a bunch of wrestlers who then held him back.

34 Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley - 2004

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I don’t know about you, but it’s very hard for me to imagine Mick Foley in a real life argument, let alone a fight. Sure enough though, he and Ric Flair had a physical altercation in 2004 stemming from what they wrote in their respective autobiographies. The written words quickly transitioned into wrestling promos as Foley took shots at Flair during independent shows, claiming that he was “no Ric Flair” because he never “carried Batista’s bags”. When the two men eventually met up during an episode of RAW, Foley refused to shake Flair’s hand which sent him over the edge. Flair punched The Hardcore Legend in the face and was quickly pulled away by Arn Anderson. Flair suggested that the two men lock themselves in a room and settle their differences, but this never happened. Instead, John Laurinaitis had a sit down with the Hall of Famers, where it’s said they worked out the bulk of their differences.

33 Eddie Guerrero Vs. Charlie Haas - 2003

Eddie Guerrero vs. Charlie Haas

Respect for seniority is one of the most important qualities in the backstage wrestling culture, and usually that respect translates to the ring as well. When a veteran ring general instructs someone to do something between the ropes, younger talent should always listen. In the case of a 2003 match between Eddie Guerrero and Charlie Haas, the latter didn’t exactly follow the direction of the former. Guerrero was teaming with his nephew Chavo against Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas), and hyperextended his elbow during the match. Guerrero told Haas to ease up on his arm during the match, but felt that his opponent didn’t show any additional concern for his injury.

Following the match, Guerrero berated Haas in front of everyone backstage prompting Haas to walk away. When Guerrero went after him, Haas took Eddie down over a table. The altercation was quickly broken up by Bill DeMott, but additional damage was inflicted to Eddie’s already injured elbow. Neither man was punished for the incident.

32 Chris Jericho vs. Bill Goldberg - 2003

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Chris Jericho’s giant “grapefruits” make another appearance on this list, this time taking on Goldberg during a 2003 taping of RAW. When Goldberg eventually signed to the WWE in 2003, Jericho still had some resentment towards the WCW megastar for taking the spotlight away from smaller wrestlers. When Jericho found out that Goldberg was badmouthing him in the WWE - a company that Jericho was now established in - he confronted the former NFL linebacker head on. After a few harsh words, Goldberg grabbed the throat of Jericho but his hand was immediately slapped away.

The first Undisputed Champion was able to surprise Goldberg by grabbing him in a front face lock, a lock that he held onto for dear life. When the former WCW Champion was finally released the two men were separated, but Goldberg became free and grabbed Jericho by the hair. At this point the scuffle had moved into a common area around fans, and though the two continued to argue the fight was over.

31 New Jack Vs. Gypsy Joe - 2003

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So technically this wouldn’t count as a “backstage” fight, but there is no way that I couldn’t mention the debacle of a match that took place in 2003 between New Jack and Gypsy Joe. Joe went into the bout upset at Jack for not having any respect for him backstage, and just minutes into the match the show turned into a real fight. Even though New Jack was legitimately hitting Joe with real weapons, Joe refused to sell any of his opponent’s offense.

Eventually, after nearly seven minutes of uncomfortable feelings, the show promoter came out and stopped the fight due to excessive violence. To the credit of Gypsy Joe, he was able to wrestle the next day despite being hit with fists, chairs and chains.

30 Buff Bagwell vs. Hurricane Helms - 2001

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After WCW was purchased by Vince McMahon, many of the WCW mainstays decided to sit out their contracts and get paid to wait it out. This left the WWE with few actual “stars” to pluck out of the WCW merger and scraping at the bottom of the barrel to fill spots in their invasion storyline. One of the people who got a chance to rise to main event status was Buff Bagwell. However, his actions behind the scenes quickly brought a screeching halt to his push, as an altercation with Hurricane Helms would lead to him being released from the company. Bagwell and Helms got into an argument after Bagwell told the future Tag Team Champion that he would never be a star in the company. Helms responded by accusing Bagwell of being on steroids in front of everyone present. Buff didn’t take kindly to this and slapped Helms in the back of the head, and was quickly busted open when Hurricane threw a bottle of water at Bagwell’s head.

Reports say that Helms quickly was able to get in a few shots at Bagwell, but stopped once he saw how severely he was bleeding. Bagwell was fired the week after the incident took place.

29 Scott Steiner Vs. DDP - 2000

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In wrestling there is crazy, and then there is Scott Steiner crazy. Unfortunately for DDP back in 2000 he dealt with crazy up close and personal. Following the adoption of the Big Poppa Pump gimmick, Steiner changed both physically and personally. When Steiner found out that DDP’s real life wife Kimberly told WCW management about finding drugs in the locker room, he chased her out of the building causing heat between him and Page. The following week Steiner went off script during a promo insulting DDP repeatedly. When he returned to gorilla, Page sucker punched Steiner and was immediately suplexed to the other side of the room.

It took four men to remove Steiner from DDP, but after breaking free once again put Page into a double leg takedown. Steiner finally released him after being bit by DDP, but the damage was done to Page who suffered cuts all over his face.