Fans who have been watching the WWE for a long time know about the WWE Wrestler’s Court. This was something that took place backstage when wrestlers believed that someone had done something wrong and deserved to be punished. Men like The Undertaker and JBL have long been considered the leaders of the WWE Wrestler’s Court.
Fox Sports reported that former Attitude Era writer Brian Gewirtz was on Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk is Jericho , and he shared a very funny story about what it is like to be in the WWE Wrestler’s Court, as he was there as someone on trial for a perceived wrong.
lol edge and christian was too nice pic.twitter.com/Tv66rTOITF
— die(or)beatus (@Delaphonic) May 25, 2016
According to Gerwitz, he was pretty close to three wrestlers in the Attitude Era, and those men were The Rock, Edge, and Christian. He remains close to The Rock, as he still works for Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Production company. However, the night after The Rock left the WWE following WrestleMania 17 , Gerwitz found himself standing trial with Edge and Christian in the WWE Wrestler’s Court.
The charges came from an innocent incident where Edge gave Gerwitz a Flash action figure that a fan had given to him at an autograph signing. Edge gave it to him to be nice since Gerwitz had been a Flash fan since childhood. However, Bob Holly saw the handoff and made an assumption that Edge was giving Gerwitz gifts in exchange for more on-screen television time.
As a result, Gerwitz was told that he had to stand trial in the WWE Wrestler’s Court. He told Jericho that he had no idea what that was, so he asked Vince McMahon, who just told him good luck. He asked Stephanie McMahon, who told him to bring beer and pizza to try to ease the tension.
Listening to #TIJ 254 – Brian Gerwitz: https://t.co/v4P3dXFHEJ pic.twitter.com/lFYIuhXaWs
— The MandeQuan (@QuantessentialR) June 8, 2016
Gerwitz said he had no idea what to expect, so he showed up with a six-pack of beer and a box of pizza to find all the wrestlers in the room, ready to try him, Edge, and Christian in the case. He said Bob Holly accused him of giving favorable treatment to Edge and Christian and asked why he didn’t get more TV time, asking to be made the champion.
Gerwitz even said that they accused him of inviting Edge and Christian to his mom’s house for dinner. When Gerwitz joked that he wanted to call his mother as a character witness, he said that Kane had to physically hold back Holly and Sean Waltman.
“We were found guilty, even though I wasn’t giving Edge and Christian airtime for the gifts. Obviously Taker’s the man, obviously, so he had me write an essay on why I respect the business, which I legitimately wrote and handed in. He read it, and it was a surreal experience.”
This isn’t the first time that people have talked about the WWE Wrestler’s Court backstage. Bob Holly has been involved in a number of these cases, including one instance where Holly took Mick Foley to WWE Wrestler’s Court. The entire WWE Wrestler’s Court was actually started by Dutch Mantel, who most recently portrayed the character of Zeb Colter, and he told Steve Austin on his podcast that he actually put Undertaker and JBL on trial on occasion before they took over.
The idea of the WWE Wrestler’s Court was that of a kangaroo court where those put on trial always lost and had to pay something to the court as an apology. It even moved out of the WWE and ended up making other companies put a stop to it.
Wrestle Zone reported that Ring of Honor wrestlers tried to hold their own Wrestler’s Court in 2015 and received a reprimand from the Ring of Honor CEO. In that case, BJ Whitmer was the judge in the case and put referee Gino Colucci on trial. Michael Elgin was the defensive attorney, and Colucci was found not guilty. They were told to never hold a Wrestler’s Court again in Ring of Honor.
[Image via WWE]