10 Times Wrestlers Secretly LIED To The Locker Room
2. AJ Styles & Vince Russo
Vince Russo didn't have too many fights to start in 2003.
Insulated from most of the blowback he might have otherwise received from his WCW days, his creative influence was strong enough to keep most of his TNA's wrestlers on his good side. A job outside of a Jarrett-led promotion felt unlikely, so he too was only prepared to ruffle so many feathers from his sweet spot. And that didn't account for some of the newer wrestlers getting profiled under his pencil, who were often glad to have him around.
But he just couldn't help himself at times.
An enormously divisive figure on screen and - as it would transpire - off, Russo every now and then believed that it was as important for the wrestlers to feel a sense of surprise as much as the weekly pay-per-view audience he was trying to service.
An acute example of this bizarre belief? August 2003's NWA-TNA, in which Russo and AJ Styles hit the ring for a heel beatdown on Jeff Jarrett dressed in Freddy Krueger & Jason (!) costumes having sat in the crowd all night in the garb. The rub? All night, the roster had no idea it was them, having been fed the mistruth from Russo himself.
Gotta keep 'em all guessin', bro.