10 Wrestlers Who Hated Each Other Inside The Ring & Out

Workplace rivalries are common in every working environment, but when it comes to a pro wrestling locker room, people might not always go to human resources to resolve their differences.

Wrestling fans have heard many stories of in-ring rivalries transitioning into backstage conflicts and also the other way around over the years - the biggest example arguably being Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in WWE.

RELATED: 10 Pairs Of WWE Women You Didn't Know Had Beef In The Past

Wrestlers tend to make their actions louder than words, which left them with a bruise or two on many occasions, and fans have also heard about wrestlers using their backstage influence to make lives difficult for their adversaries. With that said, let's take a look at ten pairs of wrestlers who hated each other both inside and outside the ring.

10 Batista & Booker T

Batista broke into the main event scenes in WWE after winning the 2005 Royal Rumble match and going on to defeat Triple H at WrestleMania 21 to win his first World Heavyweight Championship.

Despite WWE choosing John Cena as the face of the company, Batista was still a big deal, and The Animal allegedly let all the success go to his head following his move to SmackDown.

Batista allegedly rubbed many of his co-workers the wrong way, which resulted in a backstage altercation with Booker T. The two reportedly got into a fight backstage, with many claiming the former WCW Champion clearly emerging the winner. They resolved their differences later on, but it still remains one of the biggest controversies in Batista's career.

9 Edge & Matt Hardy

The Edge and Matt Hardy rivalry is a well-known story among wrestling fans, which had huge implications both inside and outside the ring. WWE released Hardy from his contract after he publicly revealed that his then-girlfriend Lita was having an affair with his friend and co-worker Edge.

However, the fans sided with Matt Hardy and chanted his name during Edge and Lita's on-screen segments, and WWE had to re-hire Hardy due to all the negative backlash they received over releasing Hardy when he was not the one at fault.

Hardy returned to WWE and had an on-screen feud with Edge and Lita over the real-life betrayal.

8 Ric Flair & Mick Foley

Mick Foley's problems with fellow WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair started during his time in WCW in the early 1990s when the latter was a part of the company's booking committee. Foley felt that Flair went out of his way to sabotage his career and wrote about the issue in his 1999 autobiography. Have A Nice Day!

RELATED: 14 Things Mick Foley Never Accomplished In Wrestling

Flair responded to Foley's claims in his autobiography, To Be The Man, in 2004, in which he claimed Foley was a glorified stuntman. The two legends had an on-screen rivalry in WWE and had two matches, including an "I Quit" match at SummerSlam 2006, and Flair came out on top on both occasions.

7 John Cena & Wade Barrett

Several wrestlers have claimed to have had backstage heat with 16-time world champion John Cena over the years, and Wade Barrett added his name to the list as the former Nexus leader claimed that he and Cena never got along.

WWE introduced Barrett's Nexus faction as one of the most notorious groups in the company's history. But their feud with John Cena resulted in them losing all its steam before eventually fading away.

While there were speculations about Barrett having backstage heat with John Cena in 2011, the former added more fuel to the claims during an interview when he said: "Then there are guys like John Cena who I don't get along with. It just so happens that he's not a personality that I get on with very well, in or out of the ring."

6 Eddie Kingston & Claudio Castagnoli

Claudio Castagnoli and Eddie Kingston have been rivals for over 15 years, right from their time competing in the independent circuit. Their rivalry turned even bitter when Castagnoli defeated Kingston in a grudge match in Chikara in March 2011, before the former left for WWE.

Kingston claimed that Castagnoli refused to put him over in the feud, and the bitterness continued for years before they got to take on each other again in AEW, where Kingston put an end to their rivalry by defeating Castagnoli to win the ROH World Championship at AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam in September 2023.

5 AJ Lee & The Bella Twins

Wrestling fans will never forget the rivalry between former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee and WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins. The rivalry broke out of control and turned into a real-life conflict between them as their exchanges became more personal.

AJ Lee even delivered a scathing promo against The Bella Twins, in which she stated that talent wasn't sexually transmitted, taking a shot at the twins' real-life relationship with John Cena and Bryan Danielson at the time.

Tensions remained high between them throughout their time together in WWE, but it might've subsided after AJ Lee retired in 2015.

4 Triple H & The Rock

Triple H and The Rock were bitter rivals on-screen throughout their time together in WWE, but the two had animosity outside the ring as many claimed that The Game tried to derail The Rock's momentum right from the latter's early days in WWE as Rocky Maivia.

Multiple reports claimed that Triple H grew jealous over The Rock's success and tried to derail his push with his backstage influence. Bruce Prichard once stated in an interview that the animosity between The Rock and Triple H peaked during their feud in 1997 when The Game used to go off-script during their promo segments while The Rock stuck to what was given to him.

RELATED: 5 Reasons Why Triple H Is The Rock's Best Rival (& 5 Why It's Stone Cold)

The two continued to feud both on and off-screen throughout their time in WWE, but they settled their differences over the years.

3 Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage

Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage's relationship faced lots of ups and downs throughout their time working together in both WWE and WCW. They worked together as The Mega Powers, and the team's break-up storyline, which played out in time for WrestleMania 5, allegedly played out in real-life as well.

The two reportedly reconciled over the years as Hogan revealed that Randy Savage visited him prior to his untimely passing when he was in the hospital after he underwent a back surgery.

2 Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart

Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart is a classic example of an on-screen rivalry spilling over to real-life as the two used to despise each other during their time together in WWE in the '90s.

The two had a power struggle over the company's top prize, which culminated with one of the most controversial moments in pro wrestling history when WWE pulled off the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997.

Following the incident, Bret Hart's relationship with WWE and Shawn Michaels remained tainted for a long time before they buried the hatchet.

1 CM Punk & Jeff Hardy

CM Punk and Jeff Hardy got embroiled in a heated rivalry in 2009 when Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Hardy to win the World Heavyweight Championship only minutes after the latter had won the title from Edge in a ladder match at the Extreme Rules PPV.

Punk completed his heel turn during the feud and started over emphasizing on his straight edge lifestyle and took shots at Jeff Hardy over his struggles with substance abuse. Hardy reportedly wasn't happy with some of the things Punk said during the rivalry, which caused real-life tensions between the two.