Chris Masters Recalls Diddy Leaving a Bad Impression on WWE Locker Room

A story from WWE’s past has resurfaced courtesy of Chris Masters, who opened up about how Sean “Diddy” Combs was received backstage during the rapper’s various appearances with the company.

Speaking on TMZ’s Inside The Ring podcast, Masters was candid about the general feeling among talent at the time — even though he acknowledged he wasn’t present for the specific incident that became the defining locker-room story.

“I wasn’t there, from what I remember. I don’t know where I was, but I wasn’t there,” Masters said. “But yeah, he just made a bad impression on the boys. Everybody thought he was kind of full of himself.”

The moment that apparently stuck with people involved a pair of rare sneakers. According to Masters, Combs had an assistant follow him around all day carrying a pair of exclusive trainers — possibly Jordans — displayed on a fluffy pillow. For a locker room full of wrestlers who tend to value a more grounded approach, the gesture landed the wrong way.

“Say what you want about wrestlers, but to them that just came off as a bit too much,” Masters said, adding with some self-awareness that as a self-described sneakerhead, he could partially understand the attachment to rare footwear — just not the presentation.

Combs made multiple appearances in WWE over the years. He performed alongside Diddy-Dirty Money at Tribute to the Troops in 2010, introduced Machine Gun Kelly at WrestleMania 28 in 2012, delivered a live set at WrestleMania 29 in 2013, and made a brief Raw appearance in 2016 to promote the WWE 2K17 video game.

The anecdote is a small but telling window into how celebrity guests were perceived behind the curtain — and how quickly a single impression, pillow-borne sneakers and all, could define a visit for years to come.