Braun Strowman's Ambulance Flip and 10 Best WWE Backstage Segments of All-Time

The wrestling world was left buzzing after the April 10 episode of Raw, where Braun Strowman brutally and and relentlessly assaulted Roman Reigns in the backstage area.

The big man tossed the former three-time WWE champion around with reckless abandon, throwing him through a table. From there, he wheeled Reigns (tied to a stretcher) off a platform and to the ground below. Unsatisfied with his destruction of his rival, he proceeded to tip over the ambulance in which Reigns rested.

It was a star-making segment that did as much to create intrigue and excitement for Strowman as it did to build sympathy for Reigns.

It was the latest example of how effective and entertaining backstage segments in WWE can be when thought and creativity goes into them. Over the course of the company’s historic run atop the industry, it has produced several unforgettable segments that have altered its creative course, set up iconic matches and provided fans with genuine laughter.

With the Strowman attack still fresh in mind, enjoy this journey through the annals of Vince McMahon’s sports-entertainment empire and relive these 10 extraordinary backstage segments.

10. The New Day, the Club And...The Shield?

Fresh off breaking a decades-long record and becoming the longest-reigning WWE tag team champions in history, The New Day were proud of their accomplishments as they met backstage during the 2016 Tribute to the Troops telecast.

They were soon interrupted by WWE champion AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who cited their success around the world as the reason for calling themselves wrestling's best team. The banter between the two trios would continue until the heels went wide-eyed.

Standing to the left of both teams was Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. For the first time since their premature split in 2014, The Shield was reunited for a brief moment in time, giving fangirls everywhere a glimmer of hope they may see the trio back together at some point in the future.

Rollins and Ambrose said a few lines before asking Reigns if he believed either The Club or New Day was the best team in WWE history. "Nah," he said before walking away.

The segment, a quick bit of filler on a show only the most die-hard fans tuned into, was a nice treat for those fans eagerly anticipating the moment they hear "Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta" play over the PA system one more time.

9. The Rock and the Hamburglar

The Rock's heel run in 2003 ranks among his best work. Returning from Hollywood an egotistical jackass who became disenfranchised with the people the moment they started booing him six months earlier, he looked out only for himself. He made demands based on his growing star and refused to allow his fans to "sing along" with his catchphrases.

He also looked down on younger stars, including The Hurricane. A superhero wannabe clad in green, the popular competitor had approached The Great One on several occasions in the backstage area.

Each time, fans were left rolling with laughter at the comedic chemistry between the two.

From Rock's insistence on referring to his newfound rival as The Hamburglar to Hurricane suggesting the heel was not packing below the belt line, fans were entertained by the back-and-forth that ensued.

It was the last time fans got a taste of a truly original Rock.

Yes, he continues to pop up from time to time and entertain the masses, but he does so by relying on the handful of tried and true catchphrases he has utilized over the course of his career. That heel run, and his backstage shenanigans with Hurricane, represented the last time Rock was truly great.

8. Undertaker and Brock Lesnar Face-to-Face

Just prior to the 2002 Unforgiven pay-per-view event, then-WWE champion Brock Lesnar, his adviser Paul Heyman, SmackDown general manager Stephanie McMahon and No. 1 contender The Undertaker met in the backstage area for a face-to-face confrontation.

Lesnar was the cocky, arrogant young star who touted his age and everything he accomplished in his first six months with WWE. Wearing a grin, he asked Undertaker how old he was, as if to suggest The Deadman had no chance in hell of dethroning him.

The Phenom, a serious look painting his face, suggested Lesnar achieved the things he did because he had not been tested. He recalled The Next Big Thing wiping Hulk Hogan's blood on his own chest but asked the former NCAA champion wrestler if he had ever had to wipe his own blood out of his eyes. He promised to bring the fight to Lesnar at Unforgiven.

Heyman, always one to intensify the situation thanks to his way with words, suggested Undertaker's attention would be elsewhere. He revealed the challenger's wife Sara was home pregnant, then proceeded to offer to take care of her after Lesnar obliterated The Deadman at Unforgiven.

It set The Phenom off and a staredown between him and Lesnar ensued.

The darkened locker room created a fresh and unique environment for what was otherwise a traditional in-ring segment that probably could have passed as a contract signing in today's WWE. Unfortunately, those in power opted to never replicate the success of the segment.

7. Kurt Angle Kisses Stephanie McMahon

Credit: WWE.com

The summer of 2000 saw a love triangle brewing as "Billion Dollar Princess" Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley began taking an obvious liking to Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle, despite being married to Triple H.

Tension, beginning with Angle’s arrival in late 1999 and escalating the following year, came to a head just before SummerSlam.

During a Mixed Tag Team match, Stephanie was bumped and knocked unconscious. Angle abandoned Triple H and carried his budding love interest to the locker room, where he checked on her until she began to regain consciousness.

Still somewhat loopy, the married woman shared a kiss with her "friend," creating tremendous controversy on the final SmackDown before the summertime spectacular.

The moment was the confirmation fans needed. Suddenly, the "who will she choose" story became better dramatic television than anything the big four networks were putting out in primetime. Two jealous beaus fighting for the affection of a beautiful young woman?

It is a storyline that strikes the audience, male or female, every time.

6. Randy Orton Punts Mick Foley in Madison Square Garden

There are some backstage segments that are not continuations of a rivalry but, rather, the ignition. That was the case on the June 23, 2003 episode of Raw from the historic Madison Square Garden.

During that telecast, Mick Foley found himself on the receiving end of a beating, courtesy of Evolution's Ric Flair and Randy Orton. While The Hardcore Legend was able to thwart the aging Nature Boy, he proved no match for a ruthlessly aggressive Orton, who fought him into a stairwell.

Then, in a sickening act of brutality and violence, Orton kicked Foley down a flight of stairs, watching with satisfaction as the former WWE champion landed in a heap on the ground below.

Few could have suspected it at the time, but the angle was the catalyst for a year-long rivalry between Orton and Foley that would reheat the following January at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, intensify at WrestleMania XX and conclude the following month at Backlash, where Orton defeated Foley's alter-ego Cactus Jack in a Hardcore match.

Orton earned the Legend Killer moniker coming out of the segment and was legitimized as a result of his program with Foley. In fact, he can attribute his 13 world championships to performer, who did everything in his power to lend credibility while putting the third-generation star over.

5. Backstage Buffoonery with Stone Cold, Kurt Angle and Mr. McMahon

Kurt Angle and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin may have been two of the toughest wrestlers in the world in the summer of 2001, but injuries had caught up to them, rendering them unable to compete for a few weeks.

Unwilling to let two of his top stars disappear from television at a time when The Rock had gone back to Hollywood, Vince McMahon joined them for a series of ridiculous, over-the-top funny backstage segments.

Fans never really knew what to expect from the trio.

One moment, Austin may have been strumming his guitar for his boss, singing "Kumbaya," and the next, Angle was obnoxiously strumming the same guitar, singing a rendition of "Jimmy Crack Corn" so out of tune that The Texas Rattlesnake fights to keep himself from cracking on live television.

Austin presented new best friend McMahon with a cowboy hat, hoping to lift his spirits during a time of personal struggle. When a disappointed Angle entered the room and saw the hat and questioned where his was, Stone Cold gifted him a smaller, more comical one of his own.

The two Superstars exercised their comedic chops, staying relevant and getting even more over with audiences as a result.

While the comical elements of the segments may not have played to the Austin character fans of the Attitude Era were used to, it allowed him to show a different side of himself at a time when the word "stale" was creeping into the conversation.

4. John Cena Raps for the First Time

There may be no backstage segment more important to the success of professional wrestling in the 2000s and beyond than the chance encounter then-SmackDown general manager Stephanie McMahon had with a Vanilla Ice wannabe John Cena during the Halloween 2002 broadcast.

Superstars, officials and authority figures had spent the night partying backstage, enjoying the festive atmosphere. Stephanie, looking for father Vince after she was informed he had been spotted in the arena, was temporarily distracted by Cena, whose white-boy rapper costume was the hit at the party.

What happened next would change the fortunes of Cena and, unbeknown at the time, the course of WWE history.

After spitting a few lines for whoever would listen at the party, Cena found new life as the self-proclaimed "Doctor of Thuganomics." As a vanilla midcard babyface, he found no traction with audiences. As a freestyler, he earned the fans respect and found himself getting more and more over with the WWE faithful with every passing week.

Eventually, he would ride the wave of momentum he enjoyed after taking on the rapper persona straight to the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21 in 2005.

The rest, as they say, is history.

3. Stone Cold and the Concrete Truck

The rivalry between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon dominated airwaves in 1998 as the antihero vs. establishment storyline fueled WWE Raw past WCW Nitro in the Monday Night Wars.

Constantly looking to top the previous week's interactions between rebel and boss, WWE Creative (headed by the always controversial Vince Russo) concocted an angle in which Austin would fill one of McMahon's prized Corvettes with concrete.

The Texas Rattlesnake rolled into the backstage area in a cement truck, continuing his penchant for driving heavy machinery, and proceeded to ruin one of his boss' obscenely expensive prized possessions.

Relatively insignificant historically speaking, it is still an unforgettable backstage segment that grew the legend of Stone Cold and intensified the rivalry with McMahon during wrestling's hottest period.

2. The Mega Powers Explode

The trainer’s room inside The Bradley Center in Milwaukee was the site of the explosion of the Mega Powers on February 3, 1989.

During a match pitting Hulk Hogan and WWE champion Randy "Macho Man" Savage against The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man), Miss Elizabeth was errantly wiped out at ringside by Savage. Eager to help her, Hogan carried the unconscious body of Elizabeth to the backstage area, leaving his partner to fend for himself.

Later, when he returned to the ring apron, Hogan was greeted with a slap from Savage.

The tension spilled over to the backstage area where a belligerent Macho Man did not want to hear a thing his partner and friend had to say. As Hogan turned to plead with Elizabeth to talk some sense into her charge, Savage blasted The Hulkster with the WWE Championship and left him lying in a heap.

In one fell swoop, Savage brought an end to the greatest alliance in WWE history to that point and set up the main event of WrestleMania V at the same time.

1. Stone Cold Attacks Bret Hart in the Ambulance

There was no more heated, personal rivalry in 1997 than the one between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Bret "Hitman" Hart.

The April 21 episode of Raw featured a relentless Austin looking to deal pain and punishment to his rival, and he did just that. After a brutal assault inside the arena, Hart was being wheeled through the backstage area and to an ambulance, in which he would be taken to the hospital and tended to.

Instead, the driver of the ambulance was revealed to be Austin, who jumped in the cab and proceeded to beat the ever-loving hell out of Hart some more before Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart intervened.

It as an electrifying segment that set the tone for the wild and chaotic show WWE Raw would become during the Attitude Era.

Perhaps as importantly, it introduced the rebellious badass Austin to the WWE masses and announced the days of moral good guys in Vince McMahon’s traveling circus were over.