5 former WWE opponents who are real-life best friends

Twenty years ago, it would have been difficult for WWE fans to know which Superstars were real-life friends and which Superstars legitimately did not get along behind-the-scenes.

Nowadays, thanks to the power of social media and the increased number of interviews that WWE’s men and women give, fans know more about this generation of performers than ever before.

During the Attitude Era, for example, The Rock and Steve Austin were involved in three WrestleMania matches against each other in the space of four years, but it was not obvious to fans at the time that the two men were good friends and that they had a huge amount of respect for each other.

In this article, looking specifically at the current WWE roster, let’s count down five former opponents who are best friends in real life.

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#5 Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa

The Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa rivalry is among the greatest in the history of the NXT brand.

After debuting as tag partners in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in September 2015, the #DIY duo gradually established themselves as a popular team in 2016 by defeating names including The Vaudevillians and The Revival on NXT.

Then, following a one-on-one match against each other in the Cruiserweight Classic, Gargano & Ciampa defeated Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder at NXT TakeOver: Toronto to win the NXT Tag Team titles in a 2-out-of-3 falls match that would later be named as WWE’s Match of the Year.

On-screen, the partnership between the two men derailed in 2017 when Ciampa shockingly attacked Gargano at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, kick-starting a feud that went on to last almost two years.

Off-screen, meanwhile, Gargano revealed in a 2018 interview with ESPN that Ciampa actually lived with him and his wife, Candice LeRae, for two years during their early days in WWE.

"At the end of the day, Tommaso was in our wedding, we lived with Tommaso -- he was our roommate for two years. When we got married, we moved in together, and the first time we had our own place, Tommaso moved in with us. We were all together."

#4 Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair

“We wanted the best for each other. Imagine a friend who has something that you have dreamed about your entire life, but you still give her advice and want her to have that position and success. That’s true friendship. Even if I was getting pushed and Becky wasn’t, she was there for me. I can’t wait for the day when I get to repay her.”

Those words, taken from Charlotte Flair’s 2017 book, “Second Nature”, tell you everything you need to know about the real-life friendship between the nine-time Women’s Champion and Becky Lynch.

On WWE television, the women became fierce rivals when Lynch attacked Flair at SummerSlam 2018, leading to the emergence of her “The Man” character, and they went on to compete in one of the best women’s matches of all time at the Evolution pay-per-view in October 2018.

As for “repaying” Lynch, Flair headlined WrestleMania 35 alongside her best friend, as well as Ronda Rousey, to make history as the first women to main-event WWE’s biggest show of the year.

Nowadays, it is difficult to say whether Flair or Lynch is viewed as the bigger star by WWE, and that likely suits both women perfectly.

#3 Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax

Nia Jax defeated Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 34 to win the Raw Women’s Championship for the first time in her career.

The build-up to the match revolved around Bliss and Mickie James mocking Jax’s weight in backstage segments on Raw, leading to them facing off in a rare one-on-one women’s match at WWE’s annual extravaganza.

Speaking on her ‘WWE 365’ documentary on the WWE Network, Bliss highlighted the importance of addressing bullying in their storyline and said it was “awesome” to lose her title to her friend on such a memorable stage.

"It's no secret that Nia and I are best friends. To see Nia holding the title up and knowing that my best friend is having her WrestleMania moment and I was able to share that with her was awesome. We did the best job at our abilities to make the payoff and show that bullies never win and the good guy will prevail because of the story we had told leading up to it."

Various reports in late 2018 claimed that the two women had fallen out, but Bliss clarified on Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast that they remained good friends but they were unable to see each other as much due to Jax’s filming schedule with Total Divas.

#2 Finn Balor and Kevin Owens

Regular WWE fans would probably assume that Sami Zayn is Kevin Owens’ best friend in the company, but the former Universal Champion has mentioned in multiple interviews over the last few years that his closest friend is actually Finn Balor.

Speaking to CBS Los Angeles in 2018, Owens even namechecked Balor as somebody who he wants to face at WrestleMania one day.

"He and I came to WWE the exact same time. We didn’t know each other before we got there. We became pretty close pretty quickly when we did get to the NXT Performance Center. He’s been my best friend ever since, so I’d love to share the ring with him on that stage in WrestleMania."

Interestingly, the only singles match between the two men as members of WWE's main roster came in June 2018 when Balor defeated Owens via disqualification on an episode of Raw.

Their most notable televised match before that came in July 2015 when the Irishman defeated his best friend for the NXT Championship at the Beast In The East event in Tokyo, Japan, while their next encounter – a ladder match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn – had the same outcome.

#1 Bayley and Carmella

The friendship between Bayley and Sasha Banks has been an integral part of both women’s WWE careers ever since their famous match at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August 2015.

However, die-hard WWE fans may remember that the real-life friendship between Bayley and Carmella, aka Baymella, was featured on an episode of ‘Breaking Ground’ on the WWE Network before they made their way to the Raw and SmackDown Live rosters.

Speaking in a conference call before SummerSlam 2018, Carmella said she still regularly talks to Bayley but, at the time, their schedules made it difficult to see each other.

“Bayley’s my best friend. For sure, yeah. We’ve been friends since NXT and it sucks cause she’s on Raw and I’m on SmackDown but we still talk every single day and she’s one of my really good friends.”

The only televised one-on-one match between the two women came in January 2016 when Bayley successfully defended her NXT Women’s Championship against Carmella on an episode of NXT.

Since then, they have faced off in multi-women Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and Money In The Bank matches but they are yet to cross paths in a meaningful rivalry on Raw or SmackDown Live.

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