History HostilityOnTheSet / ProfessionalWrestling

** Or maybe not, as Punk finally broke his silence on the matter in an April 2024 interview on ''The [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA]] Hour'' podcast where he explained what happened and buried AEW, The Bucks, and Tony Khan; saying that AEW "isn't a real business" because Khan doesn't even care if his company is profitable. AEW responded by airing the security cam footage of the fight on ''Dynamite'' ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9aOR3r7w1c here's a clip]]) the following week as part of a Bucks-FTR angle.

** Or maybe not, as Punk finally broke his silence on the matter in an April 2024 interview on ''The [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA]] Hour'' podcast where he explained what happened and buried AEW, The Bucks, and Tony Khan; saying that AEW "isn't a real business" because Khan doesn't even care if his company is profitable.[[note]]Estimates vary on exactly how not profitable AEW is (and it's a private company so exact figures aren't available), but even the most optimistic ones figure an 8 figure loss over the course of the year, and their business has been trending down since the first Punk incident back in 2022[[/note]] AEW responded by airing the security cam footage of the fight on ''Dynamite'' ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9aOR3r7w1c here's a clip]]) the following week as part of a Bucks-FTR angle.

** Or maybe not, as Punk finally broke his silence on the matter in an April 2024 interview on ''The [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA]] Hour'' podcast where he explained what happened and buried AEW, The Bucks, and Tony Khan; saying that AEW "isn't a real business" because Khan doesn't even care if his company is profitable.[[note]]Estimates vary on exactly how not profitable AEW is (and it's a private company so exact figures aren't available), but even the most optimistic ones figure an 8 figure loss over the course of the year, and their business has been trending down since the first Punk incident back in 2022[[/note]] AEW responded with the bizarre and frankly stupid decision to '''air the security cam footage of the fight''' on ''Dynamite'' ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9aOR3r7w1c here's a clip]]) the following week as part of a Bucks-FTR angle, which accomplished nothing other than giving Punk credibility as the events in the video were exactly as he described them in the interview. Perry returned to AEW a couple weeks later, to zero reaction from the crowd.

** Tying into above into the All In 2023 show there had been several issues before hand heading into the show such as the fact Punk and The Elite were supposed to have a sit down meeting to finally air out their differences only for the Elite to pull out at the very last minute. Before the show for All In, Punk ran into travel issues where his ride was not available despite being told they would be there. When Punk called the listed number for his transportation it was a inactive number. Thus leaving Punk having to try and find his on way around town into the stadium. Said travel transportation agent had noticeable liked tweets that had bad mouth Punk and called himself on his twitter page a "Young Bucks stand in". This further tensions and the idea that people were trying to cause Punk issues. Punk returned to WWE at ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2023'', which should put all of this to rest for the time being.

* Wrestling/{{Sting}} and the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior broke into the wrestling business together and initially worked as a tag team known as the Freedom Fighters and later the Blade Runners. When asked about his time with Warrior at his retirement media scrum, Sting noted it was good they went their separate ways because they would have "literally" killed each other. Warrior backed this up, having said in interviews that he and Sting had a "clash of personalities".

* The Wrestling/WWEDivaSearch was a gimmick thought up in 2003 where they would audition a lot of models, actresses and {{Ms Fanservice}}s to find a new Diva for the company. The first winner just won a photoshoot for a magazine, but the next year it was upgraded into a search for someone who would join the company and earn a contract worth $250,000. The talent were not happy with a non-wrestler immediately making more than most of them, and this was accidentally exacerbated when the contestants were told not to bother them backstage - earning them reputations for being aloof and snobby.
** Within the contestants themselves, Carmella [=DeCesare=] earned a lot of heat by acting rude towards everyone else. Wrestling/AmyWeber claims that all the girls got on very well, but Carmella acted like an AlphaBitch towards them; Wrestling/MariaKanellis confirmed this, detailing an incident where Carmella arrived late and literally kicked her out of the make-up chair (it's very telling that while the contest was going on, Carmella was also facing criminal charges for assaulting another woman in a night club). In a segment titled 'Diss the Diva', allowing the remaining contestants to have a live mic and trash talk their opponents - the other three gave Carmella a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech each (compared to the more playful teasing they gave the others). Ironically when they turned this into a storyline, Carmella's kayfabe rival Wrestling/ChristyHemme, was the one girl she appeared to get on with (in her 'Diss the Diva' promo she said "Christy, I hope you win" and sincerely congratulated her when she won).

* Juventud Guerrera has publicly accused Konnan of trying to monopolize the lucha libre industry of Mexico and of literally shitting in his bag. Konnan actually confirmed the bag shitting incident, but passed the blame to [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac]], stating he merely did nothing to stop it because he found it funny. Regardless, it lead to a fight between the two that had to be stopped by Jack Evans when Guerrera grabbed a chair.
* Wrestling/{{Mistico}} and [[Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio Dos Caras Jr.]] haven't exactly kept their disdain for each other secret. The former actually pulled a gun on the latter during a locker room confrontation. Neither this nor both ending up in WWE (as the original Sin Cara and Alberto Del Rio, respectively) did anything to stop their animosity, with Caras Jr./Del Rio threatening to beat down Místico/Sin Cara after the latter called for referee stoppage due to a jammed finger during a match they had in WWE, and later still their mutual hostility caused Místico to leave Wrestling/{{AAA}}.

*** This even extends to the wrestlers such as FTR and Ricky Starks who worked closely with Punk during the early days of ''Collision''. After Punk's departure, all of them slid down the card or were booked in meaningless feuds that did nothing to elevate them, making fans speculate that the company's [=EVPs=] were burying wrestlers that they saw as being in cahoots with Punk.

** Punk previously had issues with Meltzer not just because he kept pushing the narrative that Punk got Cabana demoted (even after Tony kept insisting that wasn't the case) but also because before Punk returned, Meltzer had published a story on his internet forum saying Punk got his lawyer involved because Punk didn't wont to work a match where Moxley had squashed him in three minutes before they would do the rematch at All Out two weeks later-painting Punk as if he refused to comply with losing. However Punk (in the same Instagram story where he called Jericho a stooge) pointed out that he got his lawyer involved because he (Punk) wasn't medically cleared at the time Tony wanted him to work the match. Meltzer would later admit he did know that Punk wasn't medically cleared at the time when he posted the story. Meltzer also kept publishing back stage stories presenting Punk as a unlikeable toxic person who no one liked despite the fact many wrestlers from FTR, Jade Cargil, Wardlow, Ricky Stark, and Power House Hobbs all speaking positively about him.

* While Gangrel was usually the peace maker, he freely admits to losing his patience with an [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy inebirated]] Ric Flair during an Australian tour and coming a few steps short of assaulting him, with alcohol itsefl being needed to [[INeedAFreakingDrink pacify]] Gangrel.

** Speaking of [=McCool=], she admitted in Lilian Garcia's podcast that she was resented backstage over dating (and eventually marrying) The Undertaker, with her being accused of her relationship with him being the reason behind her being consistently pushed to success. It got to the point that one of the writers on [=SmackDown=] got in on it by suggesting the brand be renamed "The Michelle [=McCool=] & Undertaker Show". This all became one of the reasons she chose to retire as the non-stop accusations were causing her to hate her career and the business she grew up loving, citing she would've had a sour taste in her mouth had she stayed.

* Wrestling/JerryLawler, the self styled "King" of Memphis, signed a WWF contract in 1993. Lawler was a co-owner of the Memphis based USWA promotion, which featured past-their-prime talent and rookies working Memphis and associated towns for very low payoffs. This led to at least one WWF wrestler with Memphis experience [[ExcrementStatement shitting in his crown]] when he left it backstage for a match.

** Speaking of [=McCool=], she admitted in Lilian Garcia's podcast that she was resented backstage over dating (and eventually marrying) The Undertaker, with her being accused of her relationship with him being the reason behind her being consistently pushed to success. It got to the point that one of the writers on [=SmackDown=] got in on it by suggesting the brand be renamed "The Michelle [=McCool=] & Undertaker Show". This all became one of the reasons she chose to retire as the accusations were making her hate her career and the business she grew up loving, citing she would've had a sour taste in her mouth had she stayed.

** About a decade later, history would repeat, only with Michaels and HHH burying Wrestling/CMPunk during his WWE tryouts. Again, Punk and Triple H managed to work something out (at least before Punk's departure from WWE in acrimonious terms in 2014); if Punk and Michaels did too, they haven't felt the need to make it known [[note]]It has been stated that Shawn Michaels actually vouched alter on for Punk at creative meetings and was critical of writers who didn't get Punk and just wanted to bury him[[/note]]. Granted it seems that as of 2023 Punk is on good terms with Triple H and has buried the hatchet with him. He also was shown getting along with Shawn Michaels at the NXT Deadline show which suggest no bad blood with him either if there was any.

** About a decade later, history would repeat, only with Michaels and HHH burying Wrestling/CMPunk during his WWE tryouts. Again, Punk and Triple H managed to work something out (at least before Punk's departure from WWE in acrimonious terms in 2014); if Punk and Michaels did too, they haven't felt the need to make it known [[/note]] It has been stated that Shawn Michaels actually vouched alter on for Punk at creative meetings and was critical of writers who didn't get Punk and just wanted to bury him[[/note]]. Granted it seems that as of 2023 Punk is on good terms with Triple H and has buried the hatchet with him. He also was shown getting along with Shawn Michaels at the NXT Deadline show which suggest no bad blood with him either if there was any.

* Wrestling/BeckyLynch 2021 ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries'' feud between Wrestling/CharlotteFlair had major elements. The two once good friends had a real life falling out at some point. This lead to Flair going off script and dropping the belt to the ground despite the fact she was supposed to hand it to Lynch. This botched segment lead to a real backstage argument between the two. Lynch has confirmed that her and Flair do not talk to each other despite once being close friends.

* Triple H and Shawn Michaels weren't very high on [[Wrestling/TheRock Rocky Maivia]] when he tried out for WWF and continued to try to cut off his run in the company until he joined Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination. The Rock and Triple H would move past this, but The Rock has notably never worked with Michaels. (Admittedly, Michaels was forced into a four-year hiatus from wrestling due to a severe back injury that coincided with the height of The Rock's career, but there were still several opportunities both before and after.) Some of the heat between The Rock and Michaels even dates back before The Rock was a wrestler; Shawn Michaels had once done a show for The Rock's grandmother's wrestling promotion and Shawn was said to be disrespectful to Rock's grandmother to the point where a then-teenage Rock was ready to fight Shawn and had to be stopped from doing it.
** About a decade later, history would repeat, only with Michaels and HHH burying Wrestling/CMPunk during his WWE tryouts. Again, Punk and Triple H managed to work something out (at least before Punk's departure from WWE in acrimonious terms in 2014); if Punk and Michaels did too, they haven't felt the need to make it known.

** Unfortunately, it seems like the powder keg was destined to explode again when Punk took creative control of ''Collision'', banning people who have made even light criticism of him or seem to be involved with the Elite, like Ryan Nemeth who made a comment about Punk being the "softest man alive" on Twitter after a Punk called the soft elite soft in his return promo or Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels, the man in charge of the ''HR department'' at AEW. Eventually, Punk got into a conflict with Jack Perry over a dangerous bump onto a car windshield.[[labelnote:*]]In wrestling, tempered glass is typically used instead of pane glass, as it's more durable and shatters into smaller, rounder pieces, thus lessening the risk of wrestlers being hurt. Windshield glass is laminated, and is designed to safely buckle and crack in case a body hits it with momentum.[[/labelnote]] Punk explicitly forbade Perry to do the spot on ''Collision'', allegedly accusing him of trying to perform this stunt to get himself some time off-this was also after several other people including Tony Schiavone had tried to talk Perry out of doing the stunt but had refused to listen thus they went to Punk to try and talk him out of it. A few weeks later, Perry took a bump on a real glass windshield during his match with HOOK at ''All Out 2023'' and called Punk out live on camera saying "It was real glass, cry me a river". After the match, Punk and Jack got into a brawl. reports vary on who caused this or what completely happened but one rumor was that the brawl caused some monitors to fall on Tony Khan. Wrestling/SamoaJoe managed to break them up, and Perry was sent home, while Punk was said to yell and even lunge at Tony backstage after his match with Joe and elected to leave the arena and not participate in a media scrum. The incident led to Perry being suspended and Punk being fired from AEW, with Ace Steel also being released some time later. Shortly thereafter, Dave Meltzer (who had heat with Punk after the latter called him a rumor-spreading stooge for the Elite in the aforementioned media scrum) would release many backstage reports indicating that Punk's abrasive backstage personality caused him to get in confrontations with not just the Elite and Perry but several other wrestlers including Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/JonMoxley--he was also the one who reported that Punk had "lunged" at Tony Khan. The first ''Collision'' after Punk was fired saw the Young Bucks appear and take a "victory lap" around the ring after the show went off the air, indicating the drama hadn't gone away at all.

** Cornette has since said the feud between the two was 100% work at that point, [[WorkedShoot though only Cornette, Heyman, and a couple others knew it was all for show]] (this is known as "working the boys", in other words being so dedicated to the angle that even your co-workers think it's real). The non-comedic nature of the tuxedo match was just Cornette wanting to have a match he wouldn't be embarrassed of[[note]]He had also torn his ACL (for the second time) a couple days beforehand[[/note]]. Cornette and Heyman would stay in contact for a while even after Cornette quit WCW, the worked hostility became real once they were running [[Wrestling/SmokeyMountainWrestling competing]] [[Wrestling/ExtremeChampionshipWrestling promotions]]. Today Cornette has no problem calling Heyman a pathological liar (and he's [[Wrestling/TommyDreamer not]] [[Wrestling/RobVanDam the]] [[Wrestling/{{Sabu}} first]] [[Wrestling/AJStyles to]] [[Wrestling/JonMoxley make]] [[Wrestling/{{Raven}} that]] [[Wrestling/TheRevival claim]]) but also says he highly respects what Heyman has done and is still doing in wrestling, often calling him the only part of WWE programming that's worth watching.

* Wrestling/EddieKingston had a grudge against the majority of the ROH locker room for mocking his physique while giving Wrestling/KevinSteen a pass. Steen actually did get called "disrespectful" by Wrestling/CMPunk, but only after Steen complained about booker Gabe Sapolsky's request to wear a singlet instead of a t-shirt and tried to explain himself to Punk while blown up after a match, causing his words to come out wrong. Regardless, Punk and Steen made up fairly quickly while Punk and Kingston's beef continued decades later into All Elite Wrestling, even if the hostility did not keep the two men from working together.
** By contrast, Kingston actually started a fight in the locker room with Sammy Guevara over Guevara mocking Kingston's weight. Popular opinion among the other wrestlers is that Kingston simply disliked Guevara and was waiting for an excuse to take a swing at him, but the hostility is obvious whatever the reason.

* Wrestling/JonMoxley doesn't exactly speak fondly of Wrestling/BrockLesnar. Moxley claimed that during the weekend of ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 32'', when he tried to talk about doing spots for the match, Lesnar would not listen to any of his ideas he had thought of[[note]]After seeing [[GarbageWrestler some of the ideas he's come up with since leaving WWE]] Brock flatly refusing to do any of Mox's suggestions makes a lot more sense. Even more so when you remember that Brock would later do a UFC match that year so he understandably did not want to risk major injuries.[[/note]]. He also claimed Lesnar never bothered to really seriously discuss or rehearse the match.

** Tying into above into the All In 2023 show there had been several issues before hand heading into the show such as the fact Punk and The Elite were supposed to have a sit down meeting to finally air out their differences only for the Elite to pull out at the very last minute. Before the show for All In, Punk ran into travel issues where his ride was not available despite being told they would be there. When Punk called the listed number for his transportation it was a inactive number. Thus leaving Punk having to try and find his on way around town into the stadium. Said travel transportation agent had noticeable liked tweets that had bad mouth Punk and called himself on his twitter page a "Young Bucks stand in". This further tensions and the idea that people were trying to cause Punk issues.

* Wrestling/RicFlair may have once exposed himself to children while inebriated (gaining a life long grudge from Wrestling/ShaneDouglas, or at least that what Douglas claims, Flair burying him while being a booker has [[SarcasmMode nothing to do with it]]), Wrestling/ArnAnderson may have been legitimately afraid of his TagTeam partner Ole Anderson for a while, but the man in the original [[Wrestling/TheFourHorsemen Four Horsemen]] lineup who had the most people in the locker room reaching for his neck was Tully Blanchard. No less than Jim Crockett, who eventually took control of the entire NWA, hated his guts. Hence Blanchard initially wasn't part of Wrestling/{{WCW}} when it succeeded JCP, despite being a proven draw, but Arn Anderson wasn't either as he was loyal to Blanchard. But eventually Arn and Tully had a falling out too over Tully experimenting with cocaine. Granted, their falling out was nothing compared to the hatred Anderson, both Andersons, developed for Jim Herd, whom Arn held more responsible for losing his WCW payoffs. Tully also had issues with Wrestling/MagnumTA, and made even more enemies by beating the piss out of Magnum after Magnum [[TheBully had been disabled in a car accident]]. Tully's daughter Tessa also became a wrestler and seemingly inherited her father's charming people skills, which you can read about further down the page.