For the most part, wrestlers only fight each other as part of the storyline that plays
out in the ring.
Every now and then, though, unchecked egos, misunderstandings, and just plain bad blood
can break into legitimate backstage brawls that are anything but scripted.
Here are the stories of some of your favorite wrestling superstars taking each other on
in real life.
Kofi Kingston vs. Vince McMahon
He’s been the villain of plenty of in-ring storylines, but a wrestler actually fighting
WWE chairman Vince McMahon in almost unthinkable, especially for a fan-favorite good guy known
for pancakes, Booty-Os, and high-flying stunts like Kofi Kingston.
In Chris Jericho’s book Best In The World (At What I Have No Idea), he says McMahon
decided to pick on Kingston during his rookie days, telling him on a plane,
“Maybe you’ll get over one of these days.”
In other words, the boss was taking a sarcastic jab at Kofi’s popularity with the fans - or
lack thereof.
Jericho approached Kingston and told him he needed to fight back, and after some understandable
hesitation, Kofi confronted Vince and kicked off some serious trash talk.
That’s when McMahon went for a legit double-leg takedown and a real-life wrestling match was
on.
A few moments later, McMahon picked himself up and started laughing, happy that Kingston
stood up for himself.
It clearly worked out for the high-flyer of the New Day, but for the rest of us, starting
fistfights with your employer is probably a bad idea.
Goldberg vs. Chris Jericho
The real-life battle between Goldberg and Chris Jericho was years in the making.
In 1998, Goldberg was a megastar known for obliterating opponents in under a minute,
while Jericho played an arrogant, obnoxious villain.
Seems like a perfect matchup, but it never happened.
As Jericho said in a podcast interview, Goldberg simply refused to work with him, and Jericho
himself refused to lose on regular TV rather than in a more lucrative pay-per-view match.
Years later, when both were in WWE, Goldberg confronted Jericho about rumors of some online
trash talk.
Insulted by the accusation, Jericho refused to back down.
When Goldberg went for Jericho’s throat, Jericho grabbed him in a front-facelock and
took him down with no trouble, in a real life reversal of exactly the kind of quick victory
that Goldberg had been known for in the ring.
Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty
Before becoming one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Shawn Michaels was one half of
a tag team called the Rockers, alongside Marty Jannetty.
By the early ‘90s, though, they were apparently sick enough of each other to throw down for
real.
According to an interview with Jannetty, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper instigated a fight between Jannetty
and Michaels, that Jannetty won quite easily, saying of Michaels,
”He's a good wrestler, but he can't fight."
The brawl was bad enough that the police were called, but Jannetty credits the legendary
Randy Savage for keeping him from being arrested.
The Macho Man told the cops the Rockers were simply practicing for a storyline, and the
star-struck cops agreed to let Jannetty go in exchange for some autographs, and maybe
a couple Slim Jims.
Eventually, the Rockers would have their on-screen breakup, but after a stellar career, Michaels
is a Hall of Fame legend, and Jannetty’s name is unfortunately synonymous with the
weaker half of any tag team.
That's called winning the battle but losing the war.
Sid Vicious vs. Arn Anderson
Arn Anderson’s 1993 brawl with Sid Vicious is one of the most brutal real-life fight
stories in wrestling history, and it's a wonder both men are still alive to tell it.
During a tour of Germany that involved a 9-hour flight, a two-hour bus-ride, a long night
of wrestling and another ten hours on the road, the wrestlers were well past exhaustion
and tempers were running high.
At a bar, Sid offered up an opinion that WCW was losing money because of older stars like
Ric Flair, and his best friend Arn Anderson.
Anderson understandably got mad, but a bar fight was avoided when cooler heads prevailed.
For a couple hours, at least.
Later that night, Sid broke the leg off a chair with intentions of clubbing Anderson
with it.
Anderson grabbed a pair of scissors, and this time, no one was around to break up the fight.
By the time the other wrestlers separated them, Sid had been stabbed four times, and
Anderson over 20.
The most amazing thing, besides the fact that they both survived and continued wrestling
for years?
Sid would later apologize, and the two men are actually on good terms today.
The Big Show vs. The Great Khali
When two seven-foot titans like the Big Show and the Great Khali decide to take each other
on for real, you’d expect the knock-down, drag-out fight to be literally Earth shattering.
According to Show, however, their backstage brawl was, quote, "the worst friggin' fight
on the planet."
While appearing on Chris Jericho's podcast, Show recalled that the fight with Khali broke
out over one of Show’s signature moves, where he'd throw his opponent in the corner,
shush the crowd, then deliver a thunderous chop to the chest.
Khali started doing the same thing, and Show was none too happy.
When he confronted Khali, they began punching each other, and as Jericho put it, no one
would break them up because it was like King Kong vs. Godzilla.
They didn’t need to bother, though.
The fight soon ended on its own when Show took a swing at Khali, tripped over a chair,
and fell down, somehow knocking Khali over on top of him.
The pile of giants then called the whole thing off.
Of course, If you ask Khali, all the wrestlers took his side in the fight and he made the
Big Show cry.
That's almost certainly untrue, but to be fair, it’s a much better story than "we
both fell over."
The Plane Ride From Hell
If you’ve ever had a bad time on an airplane, you can always be thankful that you’re not
one of the wrestlers on board 2002’s infamous “Plane Ride From Hell.”
This legendarily awful flight across the Atlantic made headlines for a lot of reasons, and none
of them were good.
One of the most memorable was an alcohol-fueled mid-air match between the legendary "Mr. Perfect,"
Curt Hennig and a young, but still terrifying, Brock Lesnar.
The details are hazy, but Hennig and Lesnar, both graduates of the University of Minnesota
with strong amateur wrestling backgrounds, apparently decided to see who could come out
on top in a takedown contest.
In the aisle of a 747.
While flying at 35,000 feet.
There are about 35,000 reasons that’s a bad idea, but various reports say that the
two grapplers almost crashed into the plane’s emergency door, which could’ve put a very
bad ending on what was already a miserable flight for everyone on board.
Luckily, that never happened, but Hennig wound up as the scapegoat, losing his job over the
whole episode.
Lesnar, on the other hand, was spared punishment.
It turns out that WWE had pretty big plans for him.