Watching action take place during a professional wrestling event is entertainment that I have enjoyed since I was a small child – seeing gargantuan athletes fight each other is thrilling, even though I am well aware of wrestling’s pre-determined nature. It does not make it any less entertaining, as any wrestler can win on any given day if proper circumstances align. Even an smaller-than-average wrestler like 123 Kid can defeat Razor Ramon, or The Hurricane can pin a superstar like The Rock, which is what makes wrestling so exciting.
Now, if you take the same wrestlers and put them in a one-on-one fight against each other, conventional wisdom says that usually the larger and more muscular wrestler will usually prevail due to their strength and power advantage. However, there have been a number of cases in wrestling history where even the most unlikely person can win a legitimate fight on any given day.
As James Ellsworth (who would likely lose against most of these wrestlers) once said, “Any man with two hands has a fighting chance”. Well, some of these wrestlers took that saying very literally and took their chance to win the fight! Here are some backstage altercations that had some very surprising outcomes.
20 Sin Cara vs. Everybody - Winner: Sin Cara
Judging from the way Sin Cara is booked, you wouldn't really associate him with being one of the toughest guys walking around the locker room, but in fact he is. The man formerly known as Hunico to WWE fans is actually undefeated in backstage altercations. And he's been in several of them. One incident involved former Vaudevillain member Simon Gotch, who was known to have made few friends in the WWE locker room. Sin Cara reportedly flipped out and threw a soda can at Gotch and handled him in a one-sided fight.
In another instance, Sin Cara handled Sheamus pretty easily. Sin Cara was laying on a trainer's bed getting examined when Sheamus told him to get up because he was more important than him. Well, Cara didn't take that well and proceeded to get the better of Sheamus after taking the first blow.
Finally Cara got into a mini altercation with Chris Jericho, a resident tough guy himself, on a bus and managed to give him a black eye. The incident prompted WWE to send Cara to anger management classes, but we're sure no one will mess with him anymore.
19 Sheamus vs Yoshi Tatsu – Winner: Yoshi Tatsu
Since I am not a six-foot, two hundred plus pound monster of a wrestler, I have always enjoyed when a much larger person believes that they can get the better of someone just because they have a size advantage over them.
In the case of Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu, it would appear The Great White Shark would have an easy win, but he forgot Tatsu had extensive boxing and legitimate fight training from his time in the New Japan Dojo.
During an altercation surrounding Sheamus borrowing and not cleaning Tatsu’s protein shaker (yes, you read the correctly), Sheamus was surprised by Tatsu’s fighting abilities and quickly ate several punches to the face for attempting to strong-arm him. It appears that size is not everything, which Sheamus quickly learned during this fight.
18 JBL vs. Joey Styles – Winner: Joey Styles
I don’t think that anyone would confuse former ECW and WWE announcer Joey Styles of being a street fighter, but all it took was one lucky punch to make him a legend in backstage fighting. During a tour in Iraq, John Bradshaw Layfield was living up to his name of being one of WWE’s most notorious bullies backstage, and was harassing Styles throughout the trip. Going as far as pouring drinks on his head and making fun of his family pushed Styles over the edge to the point where he began to attack the much larger Bradshaw.
On any other day this fight would have ended with Styles flat on his back, but he threw a wild haymaker to the side of Bradshaw and knocked him cleanly on the ground. Styles gained a lot of credibility for standing up to the bully, and walked with his chin up a little higher backstage. I hope that once he hit the punch he screamed “Oh my god”!
17 Matt Hardy vs. Eve Torres
Please, don't misinterpret this. In no way are we implying Matt Hardy and Eve Torres got into a brawl. It was more of a "sparring session" so to speak, as it was more of the typical horseplay you see from wrestlers in their down time.
Eve Torres as we know is fully trained in jiu-jitsu but back in her early WWE days she was still pretty new to it.
Torres recalled the story as saying she and Matt got a little competitive when play wrestling. During the session, Torres noticed she had gotten a black eye and that's when she turned things up a notch:
"So I sink in a rear-naked choke, and put my hooks in, and he goes to sleep. Yeah. And he starts, um, snoring. And all the other wrestlers were like 'You just got choke out by an interviewer!' I was an interviewer backstage, I wasn't even in the ring yet!"
16 JBL vs. Steve Blackman – Winner: Steve Blackman
I’m starting to smell a trend here of one of WWE’s biggest bullies getting taken out when it finally comes down to a fight. It seems that JBL’s tough guy persona in the ring doesn’t necessarily translate to when he gets into scuffles backstage. Fortunately for Steve Blackman, his status as The Lethal Weapon was a legitimate name due to his martial arts background prior to entering WWE. During an interaction following a long flight at the airport, JBL was annoyingly teasing Blackman despite being told repeatedly to leave him alone.
Following several warnings, Blackman ended up smashing JBL with one punch by baggage claim leaving him to ponder “Maybe I should stop being an annoying bully?”. Considering how many other former WWE employees have outed JBL over the years as continuing his bullying ways, it seems that he did not learn his lesson.
15 Booker T vs. Batista – Winner: Booker T
When it comes to being a locker-room leader, Booker T surely earned his stripes during his altercation with Batista back in 2005. Despite being out-weighed, Booker was keen on defending the Smackdown brand against Batista’s remarks during an interview where he referred to Smackdown as The B-Show when compared to RAW, thus insulting all of the wrestlers on the roster. Couple this with the fact that Batista broke one of the cardinal rules of the wrestling locker room by refusing to shake everyone’s hand, and Booker snapped on The Animal.
The fight took place behind closed doors, but when wrestlers finally broke in after a few minutes of fighting, they were treated to Booker T mounting Batista on the floor while raining punches down on his face. When picturing the sheer size of Batista, you have to give it up to Booker for being brave enough to accept the challenge.
14 Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero – Winner: Kurt Angle
While it's no shock to hear that an Olympic Gold Medalist won a backstage fight, this is more about how Eddie reacted to it afterwards. Following a heavily-edited match on SmackDown in 2004 featuring the two men where Eddie’s mental state did not allow for the best match between the two, the two started to argue about Eddie’s recent performance.
After some back-and-forth yelling, Guerrero dove for Angle’s legs, which Angle easily suppressed and proceeded to lightly front face-lock Guerrero until the fight was broken up.
Following the “fight”, several wrestlers asked Guerrero why he would try to take down an Olympic gold medalist to which he responded “because I'm stupid!”, which made everyone laugh and helped defuse the situation.
13 Too Cold Scorpio vs. Road Warrior Hawk – Winner: Scorpio
Normally when you hear of a fist-fight featuring either of the Road Warriors, you would think that it would be an open-and-shut case of the Legion of Doom winning decisively, however this is one of the few cases in history where someone has been able to take out a Road Warrior and has been very vocal about their “win” over the years. Too Cold Scorpio has changed his story over the years about how this fight began, so it's unclear exactly what the real details are regarding it, but we know that there was a disagreement between the two backstage which led to Scorpio sucker-punching Hawk and proceeding to stomp on him while he was down.
A contributing factor to this being an oddly short fight is that Hawk was battling Hepatitis C at this point in his career and was visibly weaker than he usually was.
12 Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg – Winner: Chris Jericho
Being able to provide a long awaited “receipt” for when someone has treated you poorly in the past must be incredibly satisfying, particularly if that person is much larger than you and you had been waiting for years to finally confront them. During their time in WCW together, Chris Jericho attempted to start a storyline between himself and Goldberg in order to get himself some airtime with a main eventer, but Goldberg rejected his offer to work with him due to Jericho’s status as a Cruiserweight and the angle was nixed. Fast-forward to when they met in WWE in 2003 while Jericho was a main eventer, and he got wind that Goldberg was allegedly talking trash about him backstage, but was not willing to back down to him this time.
Jericho stood up to Goldberg and got him in a front face lock before the fight was stopped.
Jericho received a lot of credibility for standing up to Goldberg, which must have translated into his most recent backstage confrontation with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2016.
11 Rob Van Dam vs. Taz – Winner: RVD
If you were an ECW fan during their run in the 90s, you would know that Taz was portrayed as being one the toughest people on the planet, with his mixed-martial arts fighting style making him feared in the ring. However it appears that during a lesser-known fight against “Mr. Monday Night”, he was not much of a fighter. Following a match between the two which Taz was unhappy with (as he was known to be very critical during this time period), him and Van Dam got into an argument in which RVD simply asked Taz to “pick a hand” before smacking him across the face leading to the two of them briefly fighting in which RVD came out on top. Taz was reportedly furious that he was made a fool of, but I’m sure RVD simply shrugged and went on with his day.
10 Buff Bagwell vs. Ernest “The Cat” Miller – Winner: Miller
Despite having very low work rate during his time as a professional wrestler, if I were to see both Buff Bagwell and Ernest Miller beside each other and asked to choose who would win in a fight, I would instantly go with Bagwell given his size and muscles compared to “The Cat”. However, it appears that what both I and Bagwell did not know is that Miller is legitimately a former Kickboxing World Champion and it was not just a wrestling gimmick – following an instance where Bagwell had the finish of a match between the two changed for Bagwell to win, they had a confrontation backstage which ended in Miller quickly dropping him with only a few strikes. Bagwell was not aware of Miller’s legitimate fighting background, and quickly apologized and cowered away.
9 Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar - Winner: Kurt Angle
Okay, so this is one outcome that probably could have gone either way. You have an Olympic gold medalist and a NCAA heavyweight champion (and future UFC Champion) going at it. Angle and Lesnar were good friends in WWE, but their competitive nature got the better of them, as they decided to have a grappling contest in front of the locker room to determine who the better wrestler was.
It was very close, but Angle got the better of Lesnar in the exchange, with Angle's superior technique winning the day over the size and strength of Lesnar.
“We had the showdown. It was close. It really was." Angle said. "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.
“It was really close, but to me, Brock wasn’t the wrestler I was. I know Brock doesn’t want to hear this, but Brock is a beast.
8 Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty – Winner: Jannetty
If this were a bout that took place in a WWE ring, I would be very welling to bet that Michaels would likely be the one that would win, however it was not the case when they allegedly fought legitimately. While little is known about the origins of how this fight occurred (as Michaels is unwilling to comment on it and Jannetty’s story has changed many times of the years), it took place prior to the two of them teaming together in the American Wrestling Association, and ended in Jannetty allegedly swiftly defeating the much more agile Michaels.
When asked to comment on the fight Jannetty is quoted as saying, “I’ll tell you what, I like Shawn, although I don’t like him anything like I used to, but he can’t fight. He’s a good wrestler, but he can’t fight.”.
7 Rick Rude vs The Ultimate Warrior – Winner: Rude
As revealed on an episode of Ric Flair’s Woo! Nation podcast, a fight broke out between Ravishing Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior during their time wrestling in WWE together and it did not end the way that you think it would given The Warrior’s size and strength.
As he is well known for being a hard-hitter (also known as a stiff worker) in the ring, The Warrior was not the easiest person to work with.
Following a night where he was hit particularly hard, Rude approached Warrior and asked him to lighten up in the ring during their next match, and Warrior replied with a statement akin to “I do not have to, because I’m The Warrior” and told him to suck it up. Rude quickly responded with one punch which allegedly knocked Warrior out cold and prompted other wrestlers to hold him back. I hope that Warrior lightened up his punches going forward!
6 Paul Orndorff vs. Vader – Winner: Orndorff
One of wrestling’s most infamous fights took place in the early 1980s between Mr. Wonderful and The Mastodon, and while conventional wisdom would say that the four-hundred-plus pound Vader would likely be the winner, it seems that Paul Orndorff actually took home the win in a strange turn of events. Following Big Van Vader no-showing a photoshoot featuring the two causing Orndorff to wait for several hours prior to the shoot being cancelled, an fight broke out between the two after Vader got wind of Orndorff trash talking him. Vader confronted him after he got out of the shower, but was surprised with a quick punch to the side of his head which took him down, and led to Orndorff stomping and kicking him while he still wore his shower shoes. Watching two gigantic wrestlers fight each other is scary enough, but add in the fact that Orndorff was likely only wearing a robe and flip-flops and it becomes hilarious.
5 Hurricane vs. Buff Bagwell - Winner: Hurricane
Wow, maybe Hurricane really is a superhero. In all seriousness, there were many unresolved issues in the WCW locker room by the time WWE bought them out in 2001 and brought them into the WWE locker room. One day while Shane Helms (known as Hurricane later) was training with WWE officials, Bagwell told him he'd never be a big star because of his size. Helms mouthed something off to Bagwell, and received a slap.
With Bagwell out of his reach, Helms reached for a water bottle and whipped it as hard as he could at Bagwell.
Reports vary as to whether the bottle was frozen or not, but either way, it caught Bagwell in the head and Helms claimed he refrained from striking Bagwell more, once he saw Bagwell donning a crimson mask.
The conflict never escalated further, as Bagwell was released from the WWE the following week.
4 CM Punk vs. Teddy Hart – Winner: Teddy Hart
It seems as though CM Punk has an issue with any of his legitimate fights (let’s hope that is not the case on June 9th when he faces Mike Jackson at UFC 225), which is why he was swiftly knocked out by Teddy Hart following a confrontation between the two. Teddy Hart’s actions while he was in Ring of Honor in 2003 have left him with many enemies in the world of professional wrestling – you can read all about “the incident” here – one of them being CM Punk who did not appreciate Hart’s actions while wrestling on the same card as him.
After coming across each other in a sub shop prior to a show where they were both booked, they got into an argument outside of the restaurant where Hart proceeded to knock CM Punk out very quickly, which he has been more than happy to discuss since it occurred.
3 Hernandez vs. Brent McKenzie – Winner: McKenzie
Who is Brent McKenzie, you ask? Well, we're all too happy to know who he is. There are often times where a “big time” wrestler who used to wrestle on television is a part of independent wrestling events and attempts to throw their weight around with other wrestlers in the locker room. Unfortunately for former TNA Tag Team Champion Hernandez, it appears that he messed with the wrong wrestler at a show in Texas in 2016.
After allegedly trying to bully McKenzie, Hernandez approached him and kicked him while he was seated, prompting McKenzie to fire up and punch him hard enough to stagger him backwards. Following some more punches, Hernandez was left bleeding from the mouth and left the building before the event took place.
2 Vince McMahon (w/The Undertaker) vs. Kurt Angle
Once again, this wasn't really a brawl so to speak; more of a giant misunderstanding. When Angle was in his first stint with WWE, he and Vince became very good friends, with Kurt even seeing Vince as a father figure. Well, it was a case where both got very competitive with each other and would horse around, with each trying to one up the other. One time, Vince took Kurt down by surprise and was bragging about how he took down an Olympic gold medalist. Well, Angle wasn't going to take that and planned his revenge. While on a plane, Angle caught Vince off guard and seemed to be on his way to taking his revenge, but unfortunately, The Undertaker was awoken and unaware of the context, he assumed Kurt was attacking his boss.
Taker came to the boss's rescue and quickly choked the Olympian out, before being told it was all a joke.
There wasn't really a winner here, but let's just say, no one saw this one coming.
1 Awesome Kong vs. Bubba the Love Sponge – Winner: Kong
Perhaps this fight is not that surprising, but given Bubba’s status as one of the more disliked men in the history of professional wrestling, I wanted to include it so we could all have a good visual in our heads. Following Bubba’s extremely distasteful comments regarding relief efforts in Haiti following the tragic earthquake in 2010, Kong took it upon herself to show him how much offence she took and proceeded to beat him up backstage before an event while yelling “This is for Haiti!”.
Kong was sent home following the incident, but all parties involved knew that he deserved what was coming to him, and Bubba was released from TNA shortly afterwards. Kong garnered massive respect from the rest of the locker room for putting Bubba in his place.