10 WWE feuds that got way too personal
A lot of people in the professional wrestling business say that the best characters are the ones that stay true to the performers. The likes of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin admit that the persona you see on TV is their true personality turned way up.
This same logic can also be applied to the storylines we see on television. A feud that blurs the line between fiction and reality can make for some must-see TV that grips an audience.
But sometimes this can go too far and is sometimes uncomfortable to watch. Whether it’s professional pride or problems stemming from their personal lives, there are a number of examples of real-life issues that have been used to build feuds on television.
Here are 10 examples of when pro-wrestling feuds have gone too far.
#1 Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart
Probably the most infamous example of on-screen feuds that crossed over into real life is the one of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.
What began as a competitive rivalry, that saw the two men have a classic ‘Ironman’ match at WrestleMania 12, soon escalated in bitterness and got to the point where HBK and ‘The Hitman’ couldn’t stand to be in the same room as one another.
Vince McMahon did his best to keep them apart, but when they began taking shots at each other on live TV even when they were not working an angle together, he had no choice but to put them in the ring again.
The issues between Michaels and Hart had become so personal, with Bret accusing Shawn of being homosexual for posing in Playgirl and HBK suggesting that Bret had cheated on his wife with Sunny and that Bret refused to drop the WWF Championship to him in his homeland of Canada.
This led to one of the most significant moments in wrestling history, the ‘Montreal Screwjob’ at Survivor Series 1997. Although this has gone down of one of the greatest feuds in WWE history, it’s a shame it got to the point where the two men could no longer work together professionally.