10 Most Heartbreaking On-Screen WWE Break Ups

Whether we want to accept it or not, professional wrestling is soap opera told through the means of competitive sport. Yes, the battles may take place inside the ring, but the battles exist to further the stories. In many ways, World Wrestling Entertainment is no different to the dramas and sit-coms that have played out on TV screens for decades now.

And what is a soap opera without romance? It's something that we can all relate to, unless we've been unfortunate enough to miss out on it completely. We all know what it is like to be besotted with an individual, to find out they are rather partial to ourselves and for love to blossom from there. It is a truly magical feeling, one that can't be matched in truth.

It isn't all rosey roses however. We all know the exciting parts, but we also know the slow meandering death march that inevitably consumes all relationships. We know the thrill of the chase, but we also know the pain of the end. In this case, the difference between us and professional wrestling is that our break-ups are fairly mundane, don't take place in a ring, and don't take place in front of thousands of baying spectators.

Here are 10 of the most heartbreaking splits in WWE history.

Jealousy. A terrible thing to feel, one will agree, and a regrettable emotion that becomes terminal when insecurity and delusion are added to the mix. It was this terrible trio that led to the end for Santino Marella and Maria in 2007, when the latter's Playboy shoot proved too much for the Milan Miracle. Marella had only been on the scene for a cup coffee, and in that time he managed to win and lose the Intercontinental Championship and gain an on-screen girlfriend in the shape of Maria.

Jealousy would soon envelop the Italian Stallion however, as the attention focused more on Maria and less on Marella. Ron Simmons would win a date with Maria in a gameshow, which enraged Marella but he was unlikely to take it up with the former Faarooq. It was soon after that Maria was offered a Playboy photo shoot, which stoked the insecure fires deep within our hero.

You see, once jealousy gets a hold of an insecure individual it rarely lets go. The poor sod dealing with these feelings more than likely knows it too, but the tidal wave of fear is impossible to turn back, whether we're talking about an ordinary man or an Italian Stallion. As the shoot drew nearer and nearer, Santino could no longer contain his jealousy and insecurity and gave his beau an ultimatum; the Playboy shoot or the Milan Miracle? Maria chose Playboy, because of course, and the duo split up in the middle of the ring. Santino acted shocked, but he knew that his weakness was the reason for his heartbreak.