10 Most Cringeworthy WWE Backstage Segments
Don't Peek Behind The Curtain.
WWE Superstars don't make too much of a secret of the intense scripting and direction that feeds into mere seconds of output on any given edition of Raw or SmackDown.
Equal parts foaming frustration and beaming pride, performers such as The Miz and Chris Jericho have spoken at length about the largely laissez-faire attitude on a film set compared to the atmosphere backstage at a WWE television taping.
Unlike the endless reshoots utilised to fine-tune the end product towards perfection, Vince McMahon's vision requires rapid-fire recollection of the lines of dialogue and quirks of his direction - and that's before a last-minute script change or creative wire coming loose in his chaotic mind.
Vignettes are often disposable fluff on the bloated shows in 2018, necessary evils due to the sheer time taken up by WWE on USA Network and FOX thrice a week. Devoid not only of purpose within their bubble but also robbed of their original intent, the ostensibly random backstage interventions or interminable "office" interactions are neither well-received nor well-performed. Instantly forgettable is at least better than instantly infamous though.
A hobby or skill can allegedly be mastered within 1000 hours, but WWE have banked far more than that and have yet to stop a shot lingering too long or performer mumbling their way to obscurity via one dreadful line or another. A calamity awaits around every corner in WWE - these were the worst to have to endure.
11. Vince McMahon: Funkasaurus
This list could easily be filled with moments of megalomaniacal Vince McMahon madness, but he'll make select appearances based on the most obnoxious exhibitions of his preposterous peccadilloes. In this particular edition of 'Boss abuses privilege', he #GivesDivasAChance several years before he actually had to by patronising Natalya almost all the way into an early career grave before stealing one of his own performer's gimmicks by dancing with Brodus Clay's sidekicks Cameron and Naomi.
"Dancing" is of course a generous description of his thrusting and posturing, after so gleefully bantering off a woman he'd later desperately require as a horde of talented new athletes replaced the vapid models he'd flooded the product with for a generation. The pair can't get enough of his cavorting, nonetheless.
Not just content with liberally nicking the best bit of Clay's flagging gimmick, he ends the utterly meaningless backstage stroll-along by throwing Zack Ryder's catchphrase back in his face after doing much the same to his career just months earlier. But more on that, next...