Pictures The WWE Doesn’t Want You To See

Over the course of the last couple of years the WWE has used their ‘behind the scenes’ footage to their advantage, creating numerous DVDs and TV shows out of this material. The newest show on the WWE Network entitled Breaking Ground is yet another way the WWE takes their fans behind the scenes for a raw and candid look of what goes on every day at the NXT Performance Center.

Despite the WWE now capitalizing on these kayfabe storylines, this wasn’t always the case. In the 80s and early 90s the world of pro wrestling was obsessed with keeping what went on backstage behind closed doors. Wrestling promoters were like magicians, they had no intentions on revealing their secrets. After the Kliq did there infamous “curtain call”, the business changed and turned into a program that was much more reality based. The next thing you know, there were wrestling rumor sites around every corner online.
As much as the WWE likes controversy and kayfabe storylines, some things are just not meant to be shown to the public. These 15 pictures are exactly that; pictures that the WWE probably didn’t want you to see.

On April 26^th, 1999, the WWE once again pushed the envelope way too far in the midst of their Attitude Era. The WWE thought it was a good idea to crucify McMahon’s daughter on live television. The storyline went that The Undertaker would offer Vince’s daughter back in exchange for control of the WWE, which sounded like a pretty good storyline (minus the crucifying). Thankfully, Austin ended up stopping the crucifying/wedding angle. We can pretty much guarantee that we’ll never see something like that again. Then again, we can never say never when it comes to the WWE.

One of the reasons why Vince McMahon considers The Undertaker his favorite wrestler of all time is the fact that The Undertaker, throughout all these years, has never broken his character in and out of the ring. That mystique we saw in the ring was as real out of it. This picture shows one of those rare times that Taker did in fact break his character. Undertaker was considered a locker room leader throughout his career, so it’s no surprise he had some fun out of the ring. It’s still quite bizarre to see Taker pull out a genuine smile after all these years.

Last year’s Royal Rumble event was one that the WWE certainly wants to forget. What should have been an iconic picture with The Rock and Roman Reigns, turned into a picture that WWE wants to forget about in a hurry. Reigns was booed throughout the entire match. The Philly crowd got even worse following the elimination of Daniel Bryan. Ultimately, not even an appearance by The Rock could have saved Reigns from the crowd that night. The reactions to Reigns winning were so bad that the WWE actually considered once again adding Bryan to the WrestleMania main event for the second year in a row. I’m pretty sure the WWE’s looking forward to putting that moment past them with this year’s Royal Rumble match.

The WWE likes to keep their attendance records on the down low, especially the live events which generate some pretty awful turnouts. In 2014, the WWE drew some crowds of 2,000 fans in places like Glens Falls and Kalamazoo. In the same year, it was said that the average number of attendance during live events in the US and Canada was a little over 4,800 per show. This is extremely problematic due to the fact that more than half of WWE’s live events per year are house show-type events. Whether the WWE wants to admit it or not, the product is nowhere near the numbers it used to draw in the 90s (whether it’s attendance or rating wise). RAW’s ratings were more than double than what they are today. It remains to be seen how the WWE will take care of these ongoing problems.