10 WWE Breakups You Forgot Were HEARTBREAKING

Follow-up is vital to any wrestling angle's success. If promoters can't come up with a satisfying second chapter, then the first's impact tends to be forgotten, and that's a real shame when it comes to some of the beauties explored here. You might not actually remember much about them at all - either that or this will be one of those 'core memory unlocked' moments the cool kids talk about. 

WWE split tag teams, factions and on-screen relationships a ton. It's a go to trope for creative, joined by others like "dumb" returns. Need something to plug a hole for the next month? Put someone in a short-lived team then spin out into a feud. Voilá! Instant (albeit short-term) story). Boy meets girl > boy and girl fall in love > another boy steals girl > original boy has to fight for her affection was another oft-repeated story back in the day.

That sort of love-in isn't the main focus here. There are only three romantic relationships on the list, but they're worthy additions to this tear-jerking memory jog. Others concentrate on teams that grew close, or siblings who were always close but had a dynamite split. Sure, things went wrong for their storylines after that, but the initial emotional stab cut deep with fans.

Again, poor follow up can explain why so many people ignore these WWE breakups today. Admittedly, remembering absolutely everything the company has committed to tape is a challenge anyway. They've produced countless hours of footage, which means countless hours of splitty goodness!

Get the tissues ready, because those tears will fall.

There's no better way to start things than by looking at genuine emotion bubbling to the surface.

Billie Kay and Peyton Royce were real-life friends who lived the WWE dream. They did everything together, but poor creative choices squashed their potential as a tag team all too quickly. That kind of rubbish was an annoying trait towards the end of Vince McMahon's run in charge. Sometimes, it seemed like the old boss was actively going out of his way to be rotten to his roster.

On the 31 August 2020 Raw, McMahon decided to split The IIconics as part of an angle. A month or so later, Kay and Royce went their separate ways by being placed on different shows during the Draft, and that was that. They must've been emotional about it, but surely no more emotional than they'd been in late August. WWE's cameras captured quite the moment for .com and YouTube.

It showed things sinking in for the attached-at-the-hip pair. They realised that they'd be apart for the first time since putting pen to paper on their WWE contracts, and admitted to feeling scared about the future. At one point, Billie even told Peyton: "I'll miss you", and the pals burst into tears all over again.

Cameras captured real human feeling here, and it was difficult not to get swept up in everything. Remember saying goodbye to your old school mates when everyone went off to college or university? Yeah, that. There's never any guarantee you'll see your best mates again, and that stings.

Everyone could relate to The IIconics as they poured their hearts out.