Vince McMahon might be at the center of multiple controversies these days, but there's no denying the fact that WWE would not have become the global sensation it is today without his contributions. Throughout his time as the head of the company, Vince McMahon ruled with an iron fist and had complete control of the creative and contract aspects of the wrestlers, and those who found themselves on his bad side had to endure some humiliating treatment.
However, there are instances when some wrestlers were brave enough to stand up to the former Chairman to defend themselves. While McMahon gave heed to the requests of some wrestlers over the years, some performers found it the hard way how not to end up on his doghouse. With that said, let's take a look at ten times wrestlers stood up to Vince McMahon and got punished for the deed.
10 Cedric Alexander Pays The Price For Disobeying The Boss
While talking in his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, The Olympic Gold Medalist revealed that Vince McMahon deliberately punished former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander for disobeying a direct order.
Angle revealed that Alexander had refused to do something McMahon had asked him to do during his early days on the main roster. It led to McMahon punishing Alexander by not using him properly for about six months. Angle thought Alexander's career was over after the incident, but fortunately, McMahon chose to give him another chance and put him in The Hurt Business with MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin.
9 Mustafa Ali Gets His Contract Frozen
Following the end of The Retribution storyline, Mustafa Ali sat with Vince McMahon to discuss his future character development in WWE. However, Ali reportedly didn't like the character idea pitched by McMahon, and he straight out refused to go by his decision. It led to Ali getting benched by the company and disappearing from television for a while before publicly asking for his release from the company in January 2022.
But Vince McMahon declined his request straight away and instead chose to freeze his contract and tried to make him sit out the remainder of his contract and not allow him to jump over to other promotions. Fortunately for both sides, they reached a mutual agreement, which led to Ali making his return to the company in April 2022.
8 Lita Gets A Stinkface For Refusing To Kiss Matt Hardy
During her time as a member of Team Xtreme alongside The Hardy Boyz in early 2001, WWE chose to bring her real-life relationship with Matt Hardy on-screen and had them kiss on the February 19, 2001, episode of Raw. However, when Lita was asked to share another on-screen kiss with Matt Hardy, she refused to go along with it. It resulted in Vince McMahon giving her an unthinkable punishment by taking a nasty stinkface from Rikishi.
It took place on the February 22, 2001, episode of SmackDown, and after she tried to save Jeff Hardy from Rikishi, she found herself in the perfect position for the Samoan legend to deliver the dreadful move on her.
7 Big Cass Does Exactly What He Was Told Not To Do
During his feud against Daniel Bryan in 2018, Big Cass reportedly went to Vince McMahon's office and asked if he could beat up a little person dressed as Bryan on the May 1, 2018, episode of SmackDown.
McMahon immediately rejected the idea and told him to simply deliver a big boot on the impersonator. But Cass took things into his own hand and stood up to his idea by disobeying a direct order from the Boss, and went on with beating up the Daniel Bryan impersonator on TV. The act angered McMahon a lot, and he punished Cass by having him lose his matches against Bryan on PPVs, which ultimately ended in Cass getting released from his contract.
6 Ricky Steamboat Lost His Entire Push
Following Ricky Steamboat winning the Intercontinental Championship from Randy Savage at WrestleMania 3, the reigning champion found himself in a precarious position as he needed some time off to spend some time with his newborn child.
McMahon tried to persuade Steamboat into staying a while and finish his tours, but the latter stood up for himself and remained adamant about getting what he needed. McMahon eventually gave in and had Steamboat drop the title to The Honky Tonk Man. But the former Chairman didn't forget it and used Steamboat in the worst ways possible after he made his return, resulting in him leaving the company.
5 The Godfather
The Godfather found it the hard way that it's not a good idea to argue with Vince McMahon after he stood up for himself against the former Chairman over his character not getting enough TV time.
McMahon tried to console him by telling him that sometimes, it's better not to be on TV than it is to be on TV. But Godfather didn't buy any of it and kept on insisting that he get featured on television. Vince McMahon then put him in a match against Triple H on the March 21, 1999, episode of Heat, where he booked Godfather to lose to The Game in a 1-minute squash match as punishment for not listening to him.
4 Bret Hart Screwed Bret Hart
When it became evident that Bret Hart was planning on jumping over to WCW while still holding on to the WWE Championship in late 1997, Vince McMahon insisted that Hart drop the title to Shawn Michaels at that year's Survivor Series PPV in Montreal. But Hart stood firmly on his decision and refused to drop the title to Michaels, and instead offered to surrender the title after the event or lose it anywhere in the USA.
However, Vince McMahon wanted to avoid the same scenario with Madusa taking the WWE Women's title to WCW. He plotted to screw over Hart at Survivor Series and laid out the plan for the infamous Montreal Screwjob.
3 Neville Walks Out
Neville was at the top of the WWE Cruiserweight division when Vince McMahon asked him to lose to Enzo Amore on the October 9, 2017, episode of Raw. Neville had already dropped to Cruiserweight title to Amore and had no intentions of losing once again.
When his talks with Vince McMahon didn't produce any results, Neville stood up for himself and walked out of the company, and refused to perform on Raw. It led to Vince McMahon freezing Neville's contract and making him sit out the remainder of his tenure at home until it expired in August 2018.
2 Zelina Vega's Plea For Unionization
In 2020, Vince McMahon banned the WWE superstars from using third-party services like Twitch and Cameo, which put a stop to the prospects of the superstars earning some additional revenue.
Zelina Vega voiced her disapproval of the policy and posted a support tweet for unionization in professional wrestling. This didn't go well with WWE management, and they released Vega from her contract in November 2020. However, she got re-hired by the company after eight months and revealed that the management apologized to her for the release.
1 Stone Cold Steve Austin Refuses To Lose To Brock Lesnar
Stone Cold Steve Austin found himself on the bad side of Vince McMahon after he refused to lose to Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifying match on an episode of Raw. Austin claimed that hot-shotting a rookie would make him look weak and that losing to Lesnar on free television without any build-up didn't make any sense.
It led to him walking out of the company and publicly stating that he didn't like the storyline ideas presented to him. This made Vince McMahon furious, and the chairman brutally buried Austin on television with no regard for his past accolades and contributions. McMahon and Jim Ross buried Austin on live television and referred to him as "taking his ball and going home" because he was not getting his way and he needed to apologize to the fans who paid to watch him wrestle.