10: Jeff Jarrett Angers Stone Cold Steve Austin  

When Jeff Jarrett returned to WWE in 1997, he was promised a feud with WWE’s resident top star, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

To plant the seeds for this eventual feud, WWE had Jarrett cut a shoot promo directed towards Austin on RAW, where he declared:

"Now here’s a guy who’s lowered himself to shaving his head and coming out here every week not once or twice but ten or fifteen times and saying the word a**…That’s right. Saying the word ‘a**’ just to get a reaction. Just to get noticed. Stone Cold, you will always be the Ringmaster. And as far as your blasphemous merchandise, that offends me. Austin 3:16 offends me because what you’re doing is ripping off the Bible to put money in your pockets!"

These comments enraged Austin, who had zero idea what Jarrett was going to say. Austin would immediately confront Jarrett, and Austin was so annoyed that he ordered Vince Russo to never directly book him in a match against Jarrett.

9: Paul Heyman Buries Vince McMahon (To His Face)

Paul Heyman has had so many memorable promos throughout his career, yet one promo in 2001 was completely unscripted, and Heyman pushed boundaries with a ground-breaking promo.

Heyman cut a promo on former WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon leading up to the Survivor Series event in 2001, and McMahon didn’t give Heyman any direct instructions other than to draw him money.

Heyman’s shoot promo contained such lines as:

“Your father shook the hand of every promoter in this country and swore to them that he’d never compete against them, that his son would never compete against them. And when your father died, you competed. And with your ruthless, merciless, take-no-prisoners attitude. You drove everybody out of business, didn’t you, Vince? You ran all the competition to the ground and stole all their ideas and you made yourself a billionaire out of it. And you know whose idea you stole the most, Vince? You stole mine.”

Speaking about the iconic shoot promo in an appearance with Inside The Ropes, the WWE Hall of Famer stated:

“To his credit, I’ll give him a ton of credit, I went up to Vince halfway through the day and said, ‘Do you even know some of the shots I’m going to say to you?’ And he goes, ‘Nope. Draw me money.’ OK. ‘Are you going to say anything back to me?’ ‘Nope. Just draw me money.'”

8: Paige Goes Too Far

Charlotte Flair’s brother, Reid Flair passed away in 2013, and just two-years later, WWE decided to use the tragic passing in a storyline.

On the November 16, 2015, edition of RAW, a contract signing took place between Charlotte and Paige, and during the segment, Charlotte would state that she was going to pay tribute to Reid in the upcoming PPV match. Virtually out of nowhere, Paige declared: “Your little baby brother, he didn't have much fight in him, did he?"

This line received immediate backlash, as it was tasteless and disgusting. It was rumoured online that WWE hadn’t asked the Flair family for permission to use Reid’s name in this manner. The insensitive comment led to no surge in interest in the storyline, it just turned people away from the story completely. WWE offended the Flair family in attempts to generate buzz in a story, and it backfired, and rightly so.

7: Ric Flair Changes Everything

In 2004, Ric Flair cut a promo that was so wild that it forced Vince McMahon to become more hands on with promos.

Flair was cutting a promo on Randy Orton that was supposed to promote their upcoming PPV match; however, Flair went completely off the rails and began to talk about his real-life experiences with virgins…

Quite rightly, McMahon wasn’t happy, and this was the turning point for McMahon, and this was where his micromanagement style was born.

Speaking on AdFreeShows, former head writer for WWE, Brian Gewirtz discussed the infamous promo:

“There might have been an incident in Madison Square Garden once when Ric Flair went off script that got Vince a little heated about what he had said and said, ‘Dammit, from then on, I need to know what every single talent is going to be saying going out there…That was in Madison Square Garden with lots of corporate sponsors and when he said [that he has made virgins bleed] there was, there was a noticeable shift in the amount of approval process growing from that point.”

6: Sunny Days

It’s well documented that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels weren’t exactly best friends in the 1990s, and in 1997, HBK took things a step too far.

During a promo battle between the two on RAW, HBK made a reference to Hart’s sex life, before stating that Hart had been seeing a lot of Sunny Days recently.

This was playing to the rumour that Hart and Sunny were having an affair. Hart was livid with HBK, and Hart would later confront HBK backstage, which seemed like a common theme during the respective time period.

Whilst WWE were prone to pushing the boundaries during this era, there were lines that talent shouldn’t cross, and this was definitely the case here.

5: Pipebomb

CM Punk changed the wrestling landscape when he cut the Pipebomb promo in 2011. The promo became a staple of the pro wrestling industry and has drastically altered the way pro wrestlers cut promos over the past 13-years.

There are a ton of urban legends surrounding the promo, as some believe that the promo was unscripted, whilst some believe that Vince McMahon would never allow Punk to cut a promo of this nature without knowing the content ahead of time.

The truth is that (according to Punk at least), he gave McMahon an outline, and Punk proceeded to ignore everything that was approved on this outline.

In the promo, Punk would mention taboo topics such as ROH, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and even McMahon dying.

Whilst the content of the promo was controversial and extremely real, it was the exact promo that WWE needed at the time, as it led to a mass surge in interest in their product.

4: Xavier Woods Is Livid

Even though the WWE Draft is one of the most exciting nights of the year for fans, the same can’t be said for the talent. Friends are often separated, and WWE have been prone to splitting up established tag-teams.

During the 2019 Superstar Shakeup, Xavier Woods was frustrated that several of the names that were key parts of his Up Up Down Down YouTube channel were moved to the opposite show. This made working on the channel extremely difficult, and the next time Woods appeared on WWE TV, Woods began to shoot on the outcome of the Shakeup during his promo:

“Honestly, on top of that, with all this Superstar Shake-Up nonsense, Raw took like 80 percent of the UpUpDownDown roster. And what am I supposed to do? I'm trying to make a successful YouTube channel. They are taking everybody from me and honestly, if I don't see Tyler Breeze on SmackDown by the end of the show, I would lose my mind”.

3: John Cena Goes Low

Due to their star-power, WWE thankfully gave John Cena and The Rock a ton of leeway in terms of their promo work in 2012. The two were building towards one of the biggest matches in pro wrestling history, so it was vital that the feud felt real and organic.

Cena during the feud ditched a lot of the PG elements of his character, and Cena reminded the entire world just how good he was on the mic.

During a promo exchange between the two, it was apparent that The Rock had notes written on his wrist, and Cena decided to do the unthinkable. Cena came to the ring, and outright called The Rock out for having his promo written on his wrist:

“I don't need words like respect or loyalty to trend worldwide, just like I don't need my notes for my promo on my wrist”.

According to Cena, this wasn’t initially in his promo plans; however, a certain name backstage tipped him off regarding The Rock’s wrist, and at the time, Cena believed he was fully justified in calling out The Great One.

2: Roman Reigns Finally Claps Back

During Roman Reigns’ rather uninspiring run as a babyface, the crowd often gave him a tough time, and due to him being the top babyface in the company, WWE booked him to just ignore the negative response.

However, in 2016, Reigns snapped on the crowd in an unscripted real-life moment that acted as a prelude to his heel persona that would come just four-years later.

This took place during a promo segment between Reigns and Dean Ambrose, and when the fans began to chant that Reigns couldn’t wrestle, it clearly hit a nerve, as Reigns clapped back by saying:  

 “For all the dudes chanting that I can't wrestle, calm down, relax, take a sip of your beer, and shut your mouth”.

1: Tell Everyone Who Chose You

The work between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre has been incredible on WWE TV, as both men have consistently gone for the jugular, and refused to hold anything back.

On one particular RAW during the road to WrestleMania XL, McIntyre was talking about his time as the Chosen One, and Punk responded in a clearly unscripted remark by saying:

"Tell everyone who chose you, say his name if you have the balls.”

Both men were referencing Vince McMahon, and due to there being a blanket ban on mentioning McMahon on TV, Punk knew he had put McIntyre in a difficult position. McIntyre handled it well, as he just smirked and moved on. This was one of the first times that McMahon had been indirectly mentioned on TV since he was virtually blacklisted from the company, and instances of this nature are going to be less frequent as the years go on.

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