Wrestling locker rooms can be a very, very volatile place. Whenever you're on the road with the same people for close to three hundred days of the year, it's not all that surprising to hear that wrestlers get a little creative with their time outside of the ring. Sometimes it's playful, sometimes it's hurtful, and sometimes enough's enough and certain wrestlers end up coming to blows. Whichever way they decide to work out their issues is up to the wrestlers and this list is going to feature fifteen of those times when it got a little nasty.
There have been legendary ribbers throughout wrestling history; it seems like just about everyone has at least one Owen Hart story that they can recite like it was yesterday. While he certainly was legendary for his stunts, a few other people also make this list that you maybe didn't know were also kings of practical jokes, only they preferred ribs that were borderline revenge and took their jokes a little too far at times.
It's our hope that most of these backstage occurrences no longer happen in today's era of professional wrestling, but we're not that naïve. Nonetheless, here is our comprehensive list of the fifteen nastiest to happen backstage at a wrestling show!
15 15. 1-2-3 Kid Gets Revenge on The Smokin' Gunns
Sean Waltman wasn't exactly a prankster, but if you pissed him off, you better watch your back. The kid was never very big in stature, but he never backed down from anyone. That was especially true when he had fallen asleep after getting drunk on his 21st birthday and a few of his buddies (The Smoking Gunns and Mr. Perfect) decided to shave off one of his eyebrows just for a laugh. When Kid showed up to the arena the next day, he was surprised to see that they were shooting pictures for their line of WWE wrestling figures, so he had no choice but to shave off the other eyebrow in order to not look stupid (if you look at the picture, you can clearly see that he doesn't have any eyebrows).
Now, this is where the revenge takes place. Since Kid and Mr. Perfect were buddies, he figured that it must have been the Smokin' Gunns who shaved off his eyebrow, so for revenge Kid decided to put super glue all around the brims of both their cowboy hats before a match. When The Gunns got to the ring and tried to take off their hats, they quickly learned that something was wrong and struggled to remove them without pulling out chunks of their hair. Lesson learned.
14 14. Randy Savage Used to Lock Miss Elizabeth in his Locker Room
Well, there's no doubt that Randy Savage loved Miss Elizabeth, but it was almost to the point where it became unbearable for the two of them. Savage was a jealous guy and he would go to extreme lengths to protect Elizabeth from the rest of the locker room out of fear that she might become too close with another one of the boys. In order for him to keep an eye on her 24/7, he would literally put Elizabeth on lock-down by keeping her concealed in his locker room while he was in a match or shooting a promo. He even went as far as locking her inside of his house for days at a time while he was working on the road.
All of it didn't matter, as tension between the two of them rose too much that their real-life marriage ended and she eventually ran off with another one of the boys (Lex Luger). The two of them were together up until her tragic death in 2003.
13 13. The Bad Guy Gets Revenge on Marty Jannetty
Marty Jannetty and D.J. Peterson were travel buddies together and thought it would be funny if they used another wrestler's real name to check into their hotel for the night. They decided to use "Scott Hall" and proceeded to absolutely wreck the place, and since the name on the bill wasn't Marty or D.J. the hotel contacted WWE. They came looking for Scott to explain exactly what had happened, but Hall had absolutely no idea and couldn't figure out why Marty had done what he did since they both mutually liked each other.
Either way, Scott needed to get his payback somehow, so he went up to management and asked if he would get fired for beating up Jannetty. They had no problem with it, so Scott kicked the crap out of Marty backstage before his match. Harley Race saw the whole situation go down and said to Scott, "Hey kid – next time you do that [stuff]…do it after the show. Now the [effin’] guy can’t work…"
12 12. Harley Race Congratulates Owen Hart
No list of backstage ribbing would be complete without mentioning Owen Hart. He was always looking to put one over on his fellow wrestlers, but sometimes his gentle ribbing ruffled the feathers of people twice his size. The story goes like this: Harley Race was having all of the boys over for a chili cookout when Owen Hart -- the prankster that he is -- decided to spike the pot of chili with the hottest hot sauce he could find. It made everyone at the party irate, but one person in particular let the anger stew on the back burner until it was time to enact his own revenge.
The next day Harley went to the WWE show in Topeka, Kansas and when he got to Owen's locker room, he proceeded to congratulate him on a fine rib, shook his hand and then instantly pulled out a stun gun and shocked the ever-living crap out of him. I don't think Owen pulled any more stunts against Harley after that incident.
11 11. Jacques Rougeau Knocks Out Dynamite Kid's Teeth
Legend has it that The Dynamite Kid, The British Bulldog, and The Rougeaus didn't get along very well, so when they were booked for a match against each other, tensions got a little high. Known backstage for their pranks on other wrestlers, The Rougeaus had asked Mr. Perfect to watch their gear while they went out to the ring. Well, he didn't. Instead he chose to cut up all of their clothes, but he also essentially placed the blame on Dynamite and Bulldog.
The Rougeaus would wait until the perfect moment to get them back. A few days later, they were all backstage in front of Pat Patterson, and when Pat happened to look away, Jacques Rougeau blasted Dynamite in the mouth with a fist-wrapped roll of quarters. Dynamite lost four teeth, but here's the real kicker to the story: WWE had agreed to pay for all of Dynamite's dental work, but he still was able to bill Jacques into also paying his $1,800 bill. Dynamite pocketed the extra money that he got from Jacques, and that was that.
10 10. Mr. Fuji - Legendary Ribber
You wouldn't ever think so, but Mr. Fuji -- longtime manager for various tag teams and, of course, Yokozuna -- was one of the biggest pranksters that the wrestling world has ever seen. There are far too many to list all of them here, as they actually occurred so often it was almost a given that you were going to be pranked by Mr. Fuji at some point during your career. One of the more tame ribs that he pulled (Fuji used to go to such extreme lengths that sometimes they were borderline criminal) was with Sunny (Tammy Lynn Sytch) while she was working with WWE in the '90s.
Fuji asked her to braid Yokozuna's hair before a match and Sunny obliged, figuring that wasn't any harm in braiding someone's hair. What she didn't know, however, was that Yokozuna never washed his hair and, unbeknownst to Sunny, it reeked like raw sewage. She claims that she wasn't able to fully wash off the stench on her hands for three full days, all while Mr. Fuji laughed and laughed.
9 9. Rick Rude Knocked Out The Ultimate Warrior
Rick Rude was one of those guys who you never wanted to get on their bad side. He was a consummate professional and took pride in having the best match on the card that night, so when he was asked to work with The Ultimate Warrior -- a larger than life character who cared very little about match quality -- Rude made it a point to show him the rough end of the business after trying to be nice. Rude had previously asked Warrior to not be as stiff as he was known to be, but their match was about as rough as you'd come to expect from an Ultimate Warrior showing.
Being the professional that he is, Rude never let it known on TV that he was pissed, so he waited until they both got back behind the curtain before he approached Warrior about the result. Rude asked Warrior if he remembered their discussion about lightening up in the ring, but Warrior simply said, "I don't have to because I'm the Warrior." Rude then knocked out Warrior with one uppercut and left the arena.
8 8. Harley Race Threatened Hogan With a Gun
Harley Race is another one of those real badasses that stood up to every man he ever had to face. One of those guys was Hulk Hogan and the two of them exchanged words after a show one night in Race's region of Kansas City regarding WWE's decision to try to run every territory out of business. Harley ran up to Hogan and punched him down the floor, to which Hogan sarcastically replied, "I'm surprised you don't have a gun!" Then Harley whipped out his .38 special and Hogan immediately changed his tone, calming down the entire situation.
Thankfully Race didn't actually want to commit a murder, as he just more or less wanted to send a message. However, WWE would eventually succeed in purchasing every rival territory throughout the United States and Race would end up working for the WWE briefly in order to make back the money he lost by shutting down his company.
7 7. Nailz Threatened Vince McMahon
Perhaps this is one of those instances where wrestlers take their gimmicks a little too far, so to speak. Nailz was a character based on a prison escapee, complete with the orange jumpsuit and downright mean demeanor. From what we can gather, Nailz was upset that he wasn't getting paid nearly as much as he was expecting to be paid for a large sellout crowd at Wembley Stadium. When he went to McMahon's office to settle the situation, Vince essentially laughed it off, which made Nailz snap. He lunged at his boss and reportedly choked him out until he turned blue, effectively ending his WWE career immediately.
What's interesting is that Nailz was getting a push at the time and was reportedly about to make a main event run against such Superstars like The Ultimate Warrior and The Undertaker, but he threw all of that away over a little bit of money.
6 6. Bret Hart Knocked Out Vince McMahon
Whenever anyone even remotely refers to The Montreal Screwjob, very little has to be mentioned because it's such a legendary backstage moment in wrestling history. Hell, the whole situation went down during the filming of a documentary about the life and times of Bret 'The Hitman' Hart, which was insanely coincidental if you think about it. Bret Hart was leaving WWE for rival WCW (and way more money), so the way Vince saw it, business had to be done.
Unwilling to drop the belt to Shawn Michaels in Canada, Vince made the decision to do business for him anyway and we all know what happened after that. Hart spit in Vince's face, destroyed the ringside area, and when he went back to the locker room to "discuss" how upset he was, he gave Vince a very noticeable and lingering black eye. To say that Bret was miffed about the situation is an understatement.
5 5. Don't Mess With Jake's Snake
Another one of the unusual pranksters on this list, The British Bulldog and his tag team partner Dynamite Kid were actually really well-known as being two of the typical partners in crime of the legendary ribber Owen Hart. On one occasion, Dynamite and Bulldog were attempting to get through the thick skin of Jake 'The Snake' Roberts by throwing lit cigarettes into Jake's snake bag, obviously trying to anger the poor creature. When Jake saw what they were doing, he quickly put an end to the madness, but not without devising his own plot.
Davey and Dynamite traveled with a nice bulldog named Matilda and Jake knew exactly what to do with her. He decided to wait until the two of them had their match, during which he proceeded to feed that canine so many chili dogs backstage that only one thing could happen. When the boys left the dog alone in the hotel room for a few hours, while they went out and drank, they came back to a completely devastated, crap-filled room that no one could possibly endure for the night. Poor Matilda had crapped in both beds and all over the floor. Don't mess with pets.
4 4. X-Pac Leaves a Treat in Mark Henry's Sandwich
Rumor has it that Mark Henry wasn't very well-received by the rest of the boys in the locker room when he started out in WWE, and he didn't do himself any favors when he didn't play along with gentle ribbing. Someone had previously hidden Henry's crutches that he needed to use to heal from a leg injury, and he went around threatening the entire locker room if nobody admitted to the rib. X-Pac didn't take to this lightly, so he decided to do what everyone fears: he crapped in Mark Henry's lunch.
Witnesses say that Henry took a big bite out of his sandwich and immediately hobbled off to the bathroom to vomit, all while still being without his crutches. The saying is that revenge is a dish best served cold, but I doubt that the sandwich in question was anything but steaming, and I guess Henry learned a lesson in taking a joke in the locker room.
3 3. X-Pac Gives Sable a Travel Gift
Yet another X-Pac rib of the fecal variety. During the WWE Attitude Era, Sable was must-see television, at least she was according to herself. Many of the boys in the back were pretty vocal about their displeasure over the amount of money Sable was being paid compared to other guys who had been in the company for far longer. They also weren't very happy when she took full credit for WWE winning the infamous Monday Night War, which is why X-Pac took it upon himself to make an example out of Sable during a trip across the Atlantic Ocean.
Just before his match, X-Pac left a steaming pile and put in a cup to fester inside of her travel bag, knowing that she would have to check the bag through international customs and also take a seven hour flight across the ocean. When she landed in the United States, she was absolutely furious when she finally found the generous departing gift that someone had left for her, and the boys in the locker room praised X-Pac for the cruel prank.
2 2. Someone Else Left a Surprise in The King's Crown
Now, I'm sure you're getting a little put off by the amount of fecal matter that's featured on this list, but hey, we aren't the ones responsible for any of these moments. Jerry 'The King' Lawler was basically a territorial icon and won just about every belt in the business throughout the '70s and '80s, and he also ended up running a promotion in his hometown of Memphis. The wrestlers he employed, however, didn't exactly love the paychecks that they were getting from Lawler, often times only receiving food stamps as a form of payment. So when Lawler was in the WWE and a wrestler who had previously worked for one of his promotions saw his crown sitting on a table, let's just say that all of those foodstamp paydays ended up paying off dividends.
It was so bizarre at the time that it became a myth at one point, but Paul Bearer admitted in a shoot interview with Jim Cornette that he actually watched the door while Steve Keirn did his business into the crown.
1 1. Bruiser Brody Was Murdered in Puerto Rico
While most of the things on this list concerned harmless ribbing, acts of minor revenge, or confinement out of jealousy and paranoia, this act was just cold-blooded and is deserving of the number one spot on our list. Bruiser Brody was a rebel without a cause in the late '80s and it eventually led to his shocking death while at a wrestling show in Puerto Rico.
Rumor has it that Brody was notorious for doing whatever he wanted in the ring and when wrestlers came to him about what they wanted to do during a match, he would have none of it. Sick of him not ever wanting to do business the way it's supposed to be done, Jose Gonzalez asked Brody to talk with him in the showers. What Brody didn't know was that Gonzalez was carrying a concealed knife under a towel, and after a short discussion about doing a job, Gonzalez fatally stabbed Brody several times in the torso. Paramedics weren't able to reach the venue until about 45 minutes later and, by that time, it was already too late. Brody had already lost too much blood and died in the hospital from his wounds.