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Many real-life couples are currently working together in WWE and AEW. However, a few others are split between the two promotions.
There are currently several real-life couples in WWE. Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, for example, are both on the Monday Night RAW roster, while Naomi and Jimmy Uso are on SmackDown.
Meanwhile, AEW also has its fair share of real-life couples. Adam Cole & Britt Baker and Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti are probably the most famous duos in Tony Khan's company.
Nevertheless, a few wrestling couples are now split between the two competing promotions. While some superstars are signed to Vince McMahon's company, their real-life partners are active in AEW.
Here are three real-life couples split between WWE and AEW.
#3. Queen Zelina and Malakai Black
After competing for several years on the independent circuit, Malakai Black (FKA Aleister Black) joined Vince McMahon's company in 2016. A year later, his current wife, Queen Zelina, also signed with the company.
The couple never worked side-by-side in WWE. Instead, Zelina managed Andrade while he feuded with Black. Being on-screen enemies, Zelina and Black initially tried to keep their real-life relationship a secret. However, their romance came to light when they tied the knot in 2018.
Speaking on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, Zelina explained why she and her spouse wanted to keep their marriage a secret:
"There's a few reasons why I thought it might affect us. With Andrade, Aleister was our enemy. There could be this huge conspiracy that they can say that the reason why Andrade lost the title was because of me. They would say she jumped on him and he did the Black Mass and she was with him the whole time. I had seen a few times in history where real life bleeds into storylines and it can get a little messy. So I didn't want any of that and Aleister didn't want it either," she said.
In November 2020, WWE released Zelina from her contract, with her husband following suit less than a year later. Nearly a month after her husband left the company, Zelina returned to WWE on July 2, 2021. Five days later, Black made his debut in AEW.
In an interview with The Zaslow Show, Black disclosed how working in different promotions sometimes makes things tough for him and his wife:
"Do I see her as much as I want to? No, but we both made a conscious decision. The one we made years ago that we wanted to be professional athletes, and we know what comes with that. She's no stranger to being on the road. She's been doing this for 12 years, I've been doing this for 21 years. We made a commitment to each other, so yes, sometimes it gets tough, and yes, it requires extra travel and extra sacrifice. But at the end of the day, you have to realize it's temporary. It's not going to last forever," he said.
The former Women's Tag Team Champion is now active on Monday Night RAW. Meanwhile, the former NXT Champion is now part of the House of Black stable in AEW alongside Brody King and Buddy Matthews.
#2. WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair and Andrade El Idolo
In 2012, Charlotte Flair left her job as a personal trainer at a gym to join WWE. After spending three years in NXT, The Queen got promoted to the main roster in July 2015. Later that same year, Andrade El Idolo signed with Vince McMahon's company.
Although they worked in the same company for the next four years, Flair and Andrade did not know each other personally until former WWE Superstar Karl Anderson introduced them in 2019 following a UK tour.
Answering a fan's question on Twitter, Flair revealed that she was the one who made the first move in her relationship with Andrade by asking Anderson if the former United States Champion was his friend. Meanwhile, Andrade was initially a little intimidated by Flair.
In an interview with Hugo Savinovich of Lucha Libre Online, the Mexican-born star disclosed that he was also nervous about going on a date with the SmackDown Women's Champion because they worked together.
Luckily for both wrestlers, things worked out between them. They dated for several months before announcing their engagement in January 2020. While Flair is still an active competitor in Vince McMahon's company, her fiancé requested his release and left WWE in March 2021. Three months later, he joined AEW.
In a recent interview with HOT 97, The Queen spoke about her and her fiancé working for different promotions. She also addressed the rumors that suggested she might join him in Tony Khan's company:
"In terms of my fiancé, I think everyone likes to dream and play with this, like, 'Oh my gosh, he's over there and she's here and she's gonna leave or he's gonna leave.' No, like, he wants to be successful, I want to be successful. We encourage each other. I'm not someone who – I don't tease things for attention or put things out there so I can get clicks or likes or attention and be like, 'Oh, she liked an AEW tweet.' Come on, guys. I've been the face of the women's division in WWE for how long now? My fiancé made a decision, what I think was best for him, but just because he's at another company doesn't mean there needs to be drama behind it. If anything, we want both companies to do well for competition," she said.
Flair recently announced that she and her fiancé would tie the knot this summer in Andrade's home country of Mexico.
#1. WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella and Bryan Danielson
Brie Bella joined WWE alongside her twin sister Nikki in 2007. She became a regular competitor in Vince McMahon's company for nearly nine years before announcing an extended break from in-ring competition in 2016. Although she is no longer a full-time WWE Superstar, Brie is currently a WWE ambassador.
The Hall of Famer is currently married to AEW star Bryan Danielson. The couple first met in 2010, when Danielson was also working in Vince McMahon's company.
In the Bella Twins' book "Incomparable", the former Divas Champion disclosed that she was not interested in dating WWE Superstars before meeting her husband. She also revealed that although the former WWE Champion was not her type, she discovered that they had a lot in common:
"Romantically, I had never cared much about the WWE guys. I was friends with a bunch of them but preferred to hang out with bartenders and handsome strangers in New York City, rather than sleep where I worked. And Bryan really wasn't my type— I had always gone for tatted-up artsy skaters and musicians, not mountain men from Aberdeen, Washington, who came from a long lineage of loggers. But we were working together, and so we would chat before and after matches, and we found that we had a lot in common," she wrote.
Brie and Danielson dated for a few years before tying the knot in 2014. They currently have two children together.
Last January, the former Divas Champion returned to the ring to participate in the Women's Royal Rumble match. She entered the bout at number 19 and lasted for over 19 minutes before getting eliminated by Ronda Rousey.
Meanwhile, Danielson is currently a regular competitor in AEW, where he recently founded the popular faction Blackpool Combat Club alongside Jon Moxley and William Regal.
