10 Nastiest Sibling Rivalries In Wrestling

10. The Bad Breed Have Bad Blood (Axl & Ian Rotten) - ECW

Storyline brothers, Brian €˜Axl Rotten€™ Knighton and John €˜Ian Rotten€™ Williams were real life mentor and protégé, Knighton having recruited and trained Williams in the early 1990s in order to have someone with chemistry to tag with. It was their jump to Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1993 that cemented their names in wrestling history. The Bad Breed, as they were known, had a solid run as tag team partners for over a year in Paul Heyman€™s fledgeling ECW, until the fateful feud with the Pit Bulls in late 1994. A series of losses culminated with the blow-off match in Philadelphia in January 1995 having the stipulation that the losing team would be forced to split. In the storyline, each Rotten brother blamed the other for the historic loss. In real life, Williams and Knighton had significant friction, and weren€™t working or playing well with each other at all. They would feud with one another for an impressive five months from that point, having their first match against each other at Double Tables in February 1995, Ian pinning Axl. The next half a year or so would see a variety of gimmick matches take place in this vicious feud €“ hair versus hair, barbed wire, chairs and other weapons would come into play in an angle covering fourteen nasty, brutal matches that Pro Wrestling Illustrated named 1995€™s Feud Of The Year. Axl would consistently come out of top during the feud. The angle finally came to a close in July 1995, at the Hardcore Heaven pay-per-view, when Axl and Ian Rotten took part in a Tapei Deathmatch, each man covering their fists in shards of broken glass. A significant amount of blood was spilled, even for ECW €“ but Axl emerged victorious once again to end the angle. Only a few months later, the two would reconcile and wrestle together again. That€™s €˜brothers€™ for you.