5 Unexpected WWE romances (and what the Superstars really thought about the storylines)
Bobby Lashley and Lana produced one of the biggest WWE shocks of 2019 when they shared a kiss in the closing segment on the September 30 episode of RAW.
Both Superstars had been absent from WWE programming for several months, with Lashley requiring elbow surgery in August and Lana taking a break with her real-life husband, Rusev, midway through 2019, but nobody would ever have predicted that WWE’s decision-makers would turn them into a storyline couple.
Although the majority of modern-day WWE rivalries are based on in-ring action and match outcomes, there have been plenty of stories throughout the years that have revolved around kayfabe romances between two or more Superstars.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five unexpected romances from WWE history to find out what the Superstars really thought about being involved in those storylines.
#5 Jeff Hardy and Trish Stratus
Long-term WWE viewers may remember that the company planted the seeds for a possible on-screen romance between Jeff Hardy and Trish Stratus on two occasions in the early 2000s.
In 2001, Stratus kissed Jeff after he lost a match against Big Show on RAW, but the storyline was quickly dropped and “The Charismatic Enigma” soon found himself in a rivalry with his brother, Matt.
Two years later, it looked as though WWE was going to revive the romance when Stratus and Jeff were involved in a segment with Victoria and Stevie Richards on RAW. However, Jeff was fired shortly after, bringing an early end to the storyline.
Speaking on a Vengeance 2001 episode of the Something To Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard revealed that the original storyline did not go anywhere because Jeff did not feel comfortable taking part in a love interest angle with Stratus, leading Vince McMahon to drop the story.
“Jeff was uncomfortable with it. Trish was always game, man. She always had ideas and she would listen and she would try pretty much anything. There wasn’t a whole lot of chemistry there and Vince looked at it and was like, ‘Not feeling it, next, move on.’ Nobody was going to buy that because there wasn’t any chemistry. He [Vince] didn’t feel it.”