10 Bizarre Backstage Rules WWE Forced On Wrestlers
From corporate rules to long-standing traditions, the WWE superstars had seen them all!
Every workplace has a set of rules that employees must follow, and it's the same with professional wrestling promotions. However, these rules are not something HR can print up in orientation handbooks and hand over to the superstars when they sign their contracts.
WWE is a company that has thrived for over seven decades and has seen different generations of wrestlers. Apart from the basic corporate rules, there are unwritten codes, conducts, and traditions passed down from one generation to the other, and there are rules that stem from impulsive decisions.
While things are more relaxed in the current era, such rules were more common during the old Vince McMahon regime, and wrestlers had no choice but to comply or risk the consequences. From dress codes and banned words to menial issues like sneezing and nodding, some rules WWE imposed on its wrestlers raised more questions than clarity. However, change is inevitable, and while some of these rules went through changes according to the times, some even became obsolete.
These ten entries would explain the implications of these eccentric rules and prove life behind the screens in WWE is as wild as the action inside the ring.
10. The Interviewers Must Be Shorter Or Made To Look Shorter Than The Wrestlers
Every wrestling promotion wants to portray its wrestlers as larger-than-life characters, and WWE is no different. One tactic the company has always employed to achieve this feat is to ensure the backstage interviewers are shorter than the wrestlers or are deliberately made to look shorter.
Former WWE commentator Jonathan Coachman, who started his career as a backstage interviewer, shed some light on the bizarre technique the interviewers must use to look shorter than the wrestlers. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Coachman stated that the interviewers must spread their legs out during the segments to make the wrestlers look taller. He recalled an incident when the cameraman widened the shot too quickly during an interview segment, inadvertently showing Coachman with his legs spread apart.
Scott Stanford, a Studio Host for WWE since 2009, stated during an interview with The Launchcast that in his early years in the company, he had to kneel during the backstage interview segments to look shorter than the wrestlers. He also claimed that it is why WWE started hiring short female interviewers.