10 Greatest Family Feuds In Wrestling History
Things get serious when blood is on the line.
Wrestling is a true family business, with the industry full of second and third-generation performers who were brought in by their own flesh and blood. It makes sense. The world of professional grappling is so insular, and so strange, that it stands to reason you’d want a foot in the door if you were hoping to break through.
While some of these familial connections go unmentioned or hinted towards at best, often the bookers will take advantage of the pre-existing story to generate an effective angle. Family disputes are something just about all of us can empathise with, and while we tend not to resolve them with cage fights and WrestleMania matches, anything that makes an angle more relatable is a good thing.
Some of these family feuds take their basis from real-life beef, jealousy over varying career paths, or simmering personal issues. Others are fabricated for dramatic purposes, with the performers’ kinship and comfort with one another adding to the product. Then there are those stars who aren’t really related, but whose closeness simulates the real thing perfectly.
It’s never nice to see a family in disarray, but if it’s going to happen, we might as well get a little entertainment from the strife...
10. Matt Hardy Vs Jeff Hardy
Team Xtreme were once one of wrestling's most over acts, with Matt and Jeff permanent fan favourites wherever they go, and perhaps that’s why the matches between the two brothers often fail to take off. They had some solid clashes, in 2009 particularly, but ultimately we want to see the Hardys together, not apart.
The exception to this was in 2016, when the oft-underachieving Matt briefly became the industry’s finest creative mind. Previous character reinventions had been met with mixed reviews, but Broken Matt Hardy was a work of art. The skunk striped hair, the for British accent, the fey mannerisms - it all worked.
Jeff had to get involved at some point. The younger Hardy had "Broken" his brother, and Matt intended on deleting Jeff in response. With rare freedom, the two concocted a world of their own, culminating in a fight at the Hardys real compound.
The Final Deletion, a TNA special dedicated to their conclusive, homemade scrap, was bonkers, comedic, freewheeling wrestling done right, and the fans absolutely ate it up. Two brothers, playing nicely and being creative - it warms the heart.