5 little-known WWE backstage disagreements
Followers of behind-the-scenes WWE news will be aware that backstage disagreements have been going on in WWE for decades.
Even the most casual of WWE fans likely know everything there is to know about the Montreal Screwjob. The story has been told plenty of times by both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, while WWE has even made documentaries about the incident.
Another famous backstage argument came in 2003 when Chris Jericho and Goldberg were involved in a legitimate fight in the WWE locker room. Over a decade later, Jericho stood up to another high-profile Superstar, Brock Lesnar, in a backstage altercation at WWE SummerSlam 2016.
Those three stories have been recalled countless times by various different people. In this article, let’s take an alternative look at real-life WWE dramas by counting down five other disagreements you might not know about.
#5 Former WWE Superstars Curtis Axel and Josh Bredl
In the summer of 2015, Josh Bredl won the WWE Tough Enough competition and earned himself a contract as a WWE Superstar. Meanwhile, Curtis Axel had started performing as a Hulk Hogan impersonator alongside Damien Sandow (aka Macho Mandow).
Fast forward to January 2016 and things looked very different for both Superstars. Axel had reinvented himself in the four-man Social Outcasts faction with Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, and Heath Slater. Bredl, who was renamed Bronson Matthews, trained at the Performance Center at this time but he had not debuted on WWE NXT television.
The term “jobber” is used in wrestling to describe someone who loses a lot of matches. As part of Bredl’s new gimmick, he decided to start using insider wrestling terms, including jobber, in promos and on social media.
During the January 18, 2016 episode of WWE RAW, Bredl took to Twitter to refer to The Social Outcasts as “Social Jobbers”.
Speaking to former WWE NXT Superstar Dan Matha, Bredl said he was kicked out of the locker room following the tweet. He also revealed that he had to attend Wrestlers’ Court to explain the situation (31:30 in the video above).
Wrestlers’ Court is a mock court room backstage in WWE. If a Superstar has stepped out of line, they attend Wrestlers’ Court to address what they have done wrong. The Undertaker used to be the judge for many years. However, on this occasion, Mark Henry acted as the judge.
Bredl clarified that he had respect for one of the Social Outcast members, Bo Dallas, but he could not say the same for Axel.
“The one with the Hulkamania shirt, beard. He’s like [shouting], ‘You should quit! You should go back to Colorado!’”
Bredl said Axel left the room at that point. The WWE Tough Enough winner explained to Dallas that he was only trying to be cool as a heel. Then, all of a sudden, Axel returned because he decided he needed to be present for the rest of Wrestlers’ Court.
Axel has never publicly given his version of the incident. However, in Bredl’s opinion, the former WWE Intercontinental Champion threw a “hissy fit” and made the situation bigger than it really was.