10 Wrestlers Who Became Backstage Outcasts In WWE

In an industry as closed and clannish as professional wrestling, many naturally presume that every single one of any promotion's wrestlers fall into the classic "one big family" relationship.

But between wrestlers' court, years of tradition, and the intense rivalries innate in competition, there is an abundance of missteps that can send a performer plummeting into a pit of backstage heat.

Once a wrestler has irked the collective consciousness of the locker room, their punishment is swift and all-reaching. A member of the roster who becomes a social outcast through such castigation carries a burden heavier and more taxing than body slamming André the Giant.

In a medium where you are relying on your colleagues to cooperate with you to put on a spectacle in front of a live crowd and millions watching around the world, such backstage indiscretions can derail if not destroy even the most promising career.

But here is hope for those cast out of the locker room and into the wilderness of arena corridors, public toilets, and broom closets. The Miz, now one of WWE's brightest and most respected stars, was exiled from the locker room for allegedly eating chicken over referee Scott Armstrong's bag...

The Patriot (Del Wilkes), as all of wrestling's masked men really should be, was a mysterious and enigmatic figure in the locker room. This was an extension of a loner personality that saw him cause friction with his co-workers. Leaving WCW for WWF in 1997, after he became tired of being eclipsed by the company's recent star signings from the competition, Wilkes found only more of the same.

The locker room was largely split around the on- and off-screen feud between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. While details are slim, Wilkes unfortunately managed to somehow irk both locker room leaders. With neither The Kliq nor The Hart Foundation in his corner, the man behind the patriotic mask again saw his wrestling career flounder.

Wilkes' run in WWE began well with a feud opposite Hart. The Patriot picked up a win over "The Excellence of Execution" (Raw, 28th July 1997), which led to a WWF Championship match at WWF In Your House 17: Ground Zero (7th September 1997). Though it was a decent match, The Patriot lost cleanly via submission. Being defeated the next night by Triple H, The Patriot entered the mid-card, largely competing on house shows until his early 1998 release