WWE Raw: 10 Things You Might Have Missed (April 14th)
5. A Bit Of Rock And Roll History
During a backstage cutaway in The Miz's locker room, the Intercontinental Champion's wife, Maryse, berated a stagehand over their amenities. Not only did she complain that Miz's bottled water was domestic and not imported, but she was also furious that the blue M&Ms hadn't been removed from Miz's bowl as requested.
The M&Ms bit was a reference to an old story about '80s rock band Van Halen. As the (true) story goes, Van Halen had a rider in their contract that demanded a bowl of M&Ms in the green room before their live performances, but with a caveat: all of the brown M&Ms had to be removed.
Since the '80s, that story has been trotted out as an example of rock star excess and the spoiled nature of celebrities, but the band's demand was actually quite reasonable. The only reason they made the specification about the M&Ms was to have an easy way to tell if other requests in their contract were followed. If the band saw brown M&Ms, they knew that the venue didn't read their detail demands, and that other errors - potentially even safety-related ones - could plague the performance.