The PG Era might be one that many fans complain about, simply because it is not the Attitude Era, but in terms of in-ring quality it is arguably the greatest product that WWE has ever presented and even though many wrestlers lack the great character work of old, there is still plenty of positives. While in the storylines the wrestlers very rarely do anything that is considered to be questionable or out of line like they did during previous times, that does not mean that they are all squeaky-clean behind the scenes.

Many of the wrestlers from the PG Era have done plenty of ridiculous things behind the scenes, some intentionally and some not, but many of these stories might change the way that you think about them because of how they act or things that they say. Because all of the wrestlers are supposed to be such role models now that go along with the company rules and charities such as Be A Star, it is rare that you hear about things when the wrestlers step out of line, but it happens more often than most people think, probably because they are so restricted in the workplace.

That is why this list will look at 25 backstage stories about wrestlers from the PG Era that will change the way you view them, whether for the better or for the worse will be for you to determine.

25 A Giant Problem

Imaging a fight between the Big Show and Great Khali, two of the biggest ever wrestlers to work for WWE, seeing them collide would be like the meeting of King Kong and Godzilla, but it actually took place behind the scenes. Both men had real problems with each other for years in what was considered "Giant Heat" with both men being envious of each other and not wanting to lose their spot on the card to the other man as WWE had them both filling the same sort of roles. Khali had the height advantage on the more experienced Big Show, but the World's Largest Athlete was considered to be a better in-ring worker, which meant they both had traits the other was jealous of when it came to their wrestling careers.

The situation came to blows when Khali stole one of Big Show's signature moves, something which is considered a major issue in wrestling, right in front of his face during a tag team match. The infamous slap to the chest in the corner is something that Show often does, but on this day Khali decided to do it himself. When they got to the back Big Show let Khali know that he wasn't impressed and the two giants broke out into a legitimate fight in the locker room, with only Kane, another huge man, being strong enough to pull them apart.

24 Chris Jericho And The Beast

It either takes a brave man or a stupid man to want to fight someone like Brock Lesnar, arguably, you need to be a little bit of both and that must be what Chris Jericho is when he decided to confront the Beast and square up to him. Following Lesnar's match with Randy Orton at SummerSlam in 2016, WWE planned a spot where Lesnar would bust Orton open the hard way, with several nasty looking elbows that took longer than hoped to get the job done.

Many people didn't take this well with Jericho being one of them, thinking that the former UFC star had gone into business for himself rather than working a storyline and he approached Lesnar in Gorilla position to let him know his thoughts and things quickly got out of control. With Lesnar not taking kindly to Jericho's comments (after all, he was only doing what he had been instructed to do, as vicious as it was), the two men quickly went nose to nose until Triple H and others broke the pair up and stopped the issue from getting further out of hand.

23 John Cena Buries Nexus

The Nexus had all the potential in the world and should have been something totally groundbreaking that changed the landscape of professional wrestling for the better, but instead, it just became another stable after the infamous SummerSlam 2010 7-on-7 main event. The faction had burst onto the scene in WWE and taken out everyone in their path from Vince McMahon to Bret Hart and just about every active member of the WWE roster, and it seemed like Wade Barrett was going to lead a totally dominant group.

When it came to that 7-on-7 match with The Nexus taking on Team WWE, led by John Cena, this was the first time that the new group had really been tested when the numbers were level and fair and they got beaten. Nobody expected to see The Nexus lose as it just didn't make sense to kill the groups heat that early, yet it turned out that Cena himself wanted the result to happen, proving he isn't always there to help younger talent. Despite the fact that veterans Edge and Chris Jericho had told him it was the wrong decision, Cena still went ahead and won the match single-handedly, and thus, destroyed the young stable in one fell swoop.

22 Kassius Ohno Nearly Joins The Shield

For many fans. Kassius Ohno, f.k.a. Chris Hero is simply just a very talented wrestler who sadly, appears to never be set to gain the push he deserves in WWE, even in his second run with the company as he continues to sit in the mid-card of NXT. However, at one point in time, during his first run before his release, Ohno was actually set to be a major player in WWE and was penciled in the original plans for The Shield, which would have seen him take Roman Reigns' place in the group alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

The trio was originally meant to be the henchmen for CM Punk, and they would have created a stable.

Punk revealed that Ohno was his pick to bring up from developmental, but WWE ultimately decided to go for Roman Reigns in his place. Can you imagine just how different things would have been had Ohno taken that spot? Would he now be the man getting booed week in and week out, and would Reigns have ever made it to the main event of WWE? It is truly a case of "what if" for both Ohno and Reigns.

21 JBL Bullies... Again

During the Attitude Era, JBL established himself as a locker room leader and someone that his peers should not mess with should they not want to wind up feeling the wrath of him and other established names such as Ron Simmons and The Undertaker. Numerous incidents took place with him bullying talent, but you would think as he got older and took a step back from the ring to the commentary table, that Bradshaw would have matured and grown up... but that was not the case.

Despite the fact he wasn't actually a member of the active roster anymore, JBL still took it upon himself to keep people in line and have his own idea of fun, which included him bullying Justin Roberts and Mauro Ranallo, helping to force both of them out of the company. Ranallo was convinced to return, and soon moved to NXT, where he continues to thrive without having to deal with JBL's alleged bullying. His disgusting behaviour surrounding Ranallo actually led to a #FireJBL trending worldwide after he bullied him over his mental health issues, a stigma that in the modern world is something people are trying to come together to improve, while JBL was determined to take it all a step back.

20 Randy Orton Takes A Camera

Randy Orton is not exactly known for having a relaxed attitude, with his temper often getting the better of him, it hasn't always been his colleagues that have felt his wrath, with members of the WWE Universe falling victim to the Viper's attitude at times as well. One incident in 2014 saw Orton nearly wind up being arrested after a fan approached him and asked for a quick snap. The WWE Superstar took the camera off the fan and proceeded to go upstairs to the bar and drop the camera to the floor, where thankfully, someone was able to catch it.

However, the incident didn't end there as the fan quickly noticed once he got his camera back that the sim card had been taken out by Randy and the police were called to sort out the strange incident and get back the sim card. Orton instead gave the fan $100 to cover the costs and he even signed it for him, but if you think that was Orton's way of saying sorry, you would be wrong, as he signed it "To [expletive]," clearly making his final point.

19 Bray Wyatt And JoJo

When you look at Bray Wyatt, most people see one of WWE's best gimmicks in recent years, until his terrible booking destroyed any of the momentum he had built up for himself, but people often forget to look at the person behind it all. Most accounts portray him as one of the friendliest, most down-to-earth wrestlers when it comes to dealing with fans and colleagues alike. However, when you learn that he actually strayed from his marriage to his wife Samantha with someone much younger than him in WWE ring announcer JoJo, you see the Eater Of Worlds in a slightly different light.

After the couple was caught red-handed, Wyatt's childhood sweetheart had no problem in spilling the beans about everything that happened and calling him out on the situation over social media for the entire world to see. While this happens in everyday life, as unfortunate as it may be, when it happens with a high profile wrestler it certainly alters the way many think about them, especially when it involves such a character-heavy wrestler as Bray Wyatt's. At least it appears he and JoJo are happy together at this stage.

18 Michael P.S. Hayes Almost Fired

He might be a WWE Hall Of Famer now after ruling the wrestling world during his Fabulous Freebirds run, but Hayes' biggest impact to wrestling really has come behind the scenes as a head WWE producer. Hayes has been crucial during the PG Era making plenty of crucial decisions, but his confidence and loud mouth attitude almost cost him his job once upon a time after dropping a racist remark to the wrong man.

Hayes told Mark Henry some extremely insensitive and hurtful comments which the World's Strongest Man did not take kindly and he made his feelings heard to WWE management and Vince McMahon in particular. He was suspended for 60 days and was only allowed to return to the company thanks to Henry himself saying so, with Hayes hopefully learning a major lesson about how you can and cannot act in this day and age. While he might not be a professional wrestler anymore, he still plays a major role and considering the high number of African-American wrestlers and fans, this was a story he would likely want to be kept quiet.

17 WWE Fires Daniel Bryan

Considering Daniel Bryan's stature in WWE and the fact he has gone on to become one of the biggest names in the history of the company, let alone just the PG Era, the fact he was fired is probably something WWE doesn't want everybody to talk about. It took place immediately after his debut with the Nexus after he went outside the world of PG by spitting on and choking Justin Roberts with a tie while being shown on camera, something that WWE's sponsors did not appreciate or find appropriate.

Bryan paid the price for this act and was fired straight away, returning to the independent scene, where he would enter the ring and actually get ties thrown at him by wrestling fans who were annoyed at the entire situation, considering how popular he had been prior to getting signed. WWE, of course, ended up bringing Bryan back and the rest is now history, but the fact he was actually fired for going too far with his actions on his very first night is very strange to think about when you consider him now.

16 Brock Lesnar Throws Title

Hearing a story about Brock Lesnar being disrespectful might not change your opinion on the Beast but perhaps only just confirm it, but Lesnar's actions after the WrestleMania 34 main event match with Roman Reigns certainly crossed the line. It was a story that was kept very hush-hush, but the Beast got into an altercation with Vince McMahon himself after the match where he defeated and bloodied Roman Reigns and the two had a major argument in Gorilla position.

The subject of the argument has never been confirmed, but it has been reported that Lesnar busting Roman open without consent was a major reason behind it.

Both men got into a huge argument that actually led to Lesnar throwing the Universal Championship toward him, a major sign of disrespect to the wrestling business. According to reports, Shane McMahon himself stepped in and confronted Lesnar, with a minor scuffle taking place before Lesnar stormed away. With the Beast not happy with the fan response and Vince not happy about the match, their egos were always going to collide, but this was a major incident to end what was a fun show.

15 Bill DeMott's Training

Bill DeMott's in-ring wrestling career had long since ended by the time that the PG Era came around, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a major impact in how the company progressed, with DeMott taking up a major role behind the scenes. One of the biggest things that have happened in the PG Era has been the rise of NXT, one of the most exciting wrestling brands in the entire world which have seen so many brilliant young talents be developed, and those wrestlers train at the Performance Center. While it is currently under the control of Matt Bloom, the original Head Trainer was Bill DeMott, and some of the stories that came out from those who were trained under him are quite frankly horrific, which led to him having to walk away from the company.

DeMott had an old-school approach of pushing his wrestlers to achieve the very best, but it was crystal clear that he didn't know the limits to that, with DeMott having verbally and physically assaulted many of the trainees that were under his control. DeMott was known for giving out homophobic slurs, hitting talents on the head despite them being out of action for concussions, and many other terrible acts, proving exactly what sort of man he is.

14 Roman Reigns And The Wellness Policy

Roman Reigns is the current poster boy of WWE and somebody who Vince McMahon believes is the future of the company, hence why everything that happens seems to be built around the Big Dog in order to help get him over with fans. WWE clearly sees him as the next John Cena and the fact fans both boos and cheers him likely only enhances that belief, but the issue is that unlike Cena, Roman Reigns has already got himself into trouble with the company, being busted for a wellness violation which led to a 30-day suspension.

Now, if that was a one-off perhaps you could say he has learned his lesson and that's the end of it, but Reigns' name was then dragged in the mud by someone who was involved in distributing performance enhancers to famous people in acting, music and sports. In a confessional video (in order to get an earlier release), the man released several names that he had given the performance enhancers out to, and one of those happened to be Roman Reigns. Now, so far nothing has come of this, but the fact his name is still being talked about in relation to the situation is not a positive sign for him.

13 The Many Tales Of Alberto Del Rio

He no longer works for WWE and it is not too surprising to know that once you learn how many backstage stories there are about Alberto Del Rio, who clearly has a temper problem, despite his talent inside the ring. Where to begin with the tales surrounding Alberto Del Rio? There have been countless times which have really shown his true colors, with the first being how he got fired from WWE during his first run, after slapping one member of the WWE staff after a heated exchange.

Then following his second run, even more, stories began to come out after he left, some of which sadly involved Paige. The infamous incident between them at the airport showed his aggressive side, with a member of the public recording his irate argument with Paige. As well as that, there was plenty of other issues on the independent scene with Del Rio often not turning up to shows, with one incident seeing him pretend he was stabbed as an excuse. He also got into a major fight with another wrestler who had been talking to Paige. It seems as though Del Rio's true colors have been revealed and they are not great.

12 Randy Orton And The Baby Oil

Randy Orton seems to have been the Shawn Michaels of the PG Era, firstly acting like a total jerk and then eventually calming down to become likable later on in life, thankfully, as if his actions had stayed the same it would have been a miracle to have seen him still with the company. Orton has managed to make plenty of enemies during his time in WWE though and in 2005 he managed to make plenty, with the majority of them being in the women's division after one of his "pranks" went way too far.

Former WWE Diva Search finalist Amy Weber made plenty of comments about how the locker room was when she left WWE in 2005 and claimed many wrestlers harassed the women, with Orton being a name of someone that was responsible for it. One of the stories she told was how Orton decided to destroy Rochelle Loewen's bag, by filling it with a mix of baby oil and self-tanning lotion, destroying the bag and everything that was inside of it, just because apparently...

11 Why Shane McMahon Quit WWE

He may now have returned to the company and put the past firmly in the rearview mirror, but the reason why Shane McMahon quite WWE in the first place to start his own company was a very deep and personal one. The tensions within the McMahon family are understandably high, with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon seemingly now poised to take over whenever Vince decides to step down, and those problems were clearly starting to take shape back in 2009 when Shane left.

Walking away from the family business he had been involved in for 20 years was certainly not an easy decision for Shane'O.

But the reason was all about his family, with Shane admitting that the tensions and rifts were becoming too much between them, especially him and Vince. The fact that Shane had to walk away because he feared he would lose his relationship with his father tells you a lot about how much stress both men were under, but also shows Shane's real character.

10 Kane's Political Career

During the PG Era, Kane might not have been quite as dominant and feared as he was prior to that in the Attitude Era when he was one of the scariest characters in the entire company, but he still had his moments. Sure we were given a babyface dancing Kane, corporate Kane and him masking and unmasking several times, but there were still moments when the Big Red Machine looked like his former self, from his "embrace the hate" gimmick and storyline with John Cena, and later on, when he battled with Braun Strowman.

Regardless of which version of Kane fans were given, nobody would have ever expected that the man behind the mask, Glenn Jacobs would go on to have a career in politics, which he is currently doing during his time away from WWE right now. Kane has been busy running for Mayor in Knox County, which certainly gives fans a different perspective on the former WWE Champion that fans would not have guessed to have happened, but that is the case and we now have to respect the brains and humanity that the real man has.

9 Daniel Bryan Loses His Cool

Daniel Bryan is a firm WWE fan favourite and there are very few wrestlers more popular that the SmackDown Live superstar and one of the reasons for that is that he is the ultimate babyface and nobody expects him to do anything wrong, get angry or lose his cool. However, during one episode of SmackDown, Bryan certainly lost his cool after Triple H decided to end his match with Randy Orton in order to protect Bryan and his health after he suffered a stinger in the middle of the match. Bryan wanted to continue wrestling but wasn't allowed and he was furious about the situation, admitting that he went backstage and confronted Triple H, having to be dragged away before the pair got into a fight.

In the end, William Regal calmed Bryan down and ensured he went and apologized to Triple H, who was simply doing his job and looking after Bryan, looking at his health first before simply being a performer, which paints The Game in a totally different light at the same time.

8 WWE Leaks

In the modern age of social media, people in the limelight must be careful about what they say or do, and that was something that many wrestlers suffered from in 2017 when countless amounts of personal photos leaked from professional wrestlers. There are simply too many to give them all a point each, so the talents are being lumped together for this one, with the likes of Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Seth Rollins all being exposed during the course of the year. While what people do in their own time is fair enough, when you are a celebrity you are always taking a major risk when sending naked photos, especially over social media itself and all of them were caught out.

When you are working in a PG environment, this sort of a leak is the absolute last thing that a WWE performer wants to happen, as it casts them in a totally new light. Although you do have to wonder just how much trouble people in the Attitude Era would have been in had social media been around. That said, with the company taking quick action to limit the damage, the fact is that too many fans were able to capture them, and the real damage may never be repaired.

7 Paige's Private Videos

While we just grouped a major number of wrestlers leaks into one, unfortunately for Paige, there was so much content on her alone that it is impossible not to bring her in on her own entry as it certainly showed her and two other wrestlers – former WWE star Brad Maddox and New Day member Xavier Woods – in a new light.

Unlike all the other WWE Superstars, Paige didn't just have private images of her leaked, but also intimate videos which led to a terrible year for the Anti-Diva, who fell into a bout of depression and serious illness. These leaks were not the fault of Paige herself, but they certainly played a negative impact on her career as thousands of wrestling fans quickly saw her in a different way, which was the last thing she needed at the time as she was in WWE's bad books due to her relationship with Alberto Del Rio. Thankfully, Paige managed to overcome this situation and return stronger than ever, only for her to sadly suffer a career-ending injury which has totally changed the course of not just her professional career, but her life.

6 Bella Betrayal

In terms of success, no female athletes from the PG Era have thrived more than Nikki and Brie Bella, who has done an incredible job marketing themselves, they have managed to become more than just wrestlers, enjoying major success in the reality TV world as well. Their platform in WWE hasn't just allowed them to star and produce two reality shows, but also their own win company and clothing range as well, but there might have been another lady in the same position as them had it not been for a backstabbing moment from the Bella's. After their first run with WWE had ended, the company contacted the twins and Maryse about a new deal to return, something they all wanted to do. The twins told Maryse to hold out for a better offer from the company, convincing her they would do the same to get more money.

Instead, Brie and Nikki signed with WWE while the company only offered Maryse another contract until her latest return several years later. It was a moment of true petty behavior, and was something that Maryse has called them out on during an episode of Total Divas, allowing the entire world to find out about the situation. It appears to be water under the bridge at this point and Maryse does have her own reality show, Miz and Mrs coming out soon, but it's unlikely she will ever forget that moment of betrayal.