There are some WWE locker-room rules fans will never see on television, and Zoey Serrano just pulled back the curtain on two of the biggest ones she learned after reaching the main roster.
During her Zoey 101 Q&A, Serrano was asked about unwritten rules inside a wrestling locker room that fans might not know about. Instead of talking about some complicated backstage hierarchy, she explained that one of the first things she did as a newcomer was stick around until everyone else had left and make sure the locker room was clean. Serrano said wrestlers generally cleaned up after themselves anyway, but being new meant going the extra step and making sure nothing was left behind.
“So I would say one important one at least. When I got up to the main roster, I would stay till everyone left. Just kind of making sure that the locker room was picked up. People always picked up after themselves, always. But you just as someone new, you just kind of make sure. Oh, there’s a water bottle here. Here, I’ll just throw that away. No big deal. I think you do that in general and in life. It’s the right thing to do. If you’re there, stay there, make sure your area is picked up for the next person to come in. Just being a decent human being.”
That wasn’t the only backstage rule Serrano learned. She also explained that the responsibility to your opponent doesn’t end when the bell rings. According to Serrano, once a wrestler gets through the curtain and reaches Gorilla Position, they’re supposed to stick around until their opponent comes backstage as well. The idea is to make sure the person they just worked with made it through the match safely and doesn’t have any problems coming out of it.
“The other one would be once you are done with the match and you are in gorilla, you sit there and you wait for your dance partner to come into the back. You want to check on them, you want to make sure they’re safe and okay, that nothing wrong happened and that they are happy. You give them a handshake, a hug, whatever you prefer. Say, thank you so much. Are you okay? Are you safe? Those are the big. The big two.”
It’s a side of WWE that viewers rarely get to see. The cameras may stop following wrestlers once they head through the curtain, but Serrano’s explanation shows that there is still business to handle backstage — whether that’s cleaning up after yourself or making sure the person you just went to war with made it back in one piece. Those little rules might never become part of a WWE storyline, but they say plenty about how wrestlers are expected to carry themselves when the cameras aren’t rolling.
What do you think about these unwritten WWE locker-room rules? Were you surprised wrestlers are expected to wait for their opponents after matches? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
