5 WWE icons who had heat with another wrestler

As anyone who follows behind-the-scenes WWE news will know, it is not uncommon for WWE Superstars to have legitimate issues with each other in real life.

For example, the big news after the first night of the 2020 WWE Draft obviously revolved around the roster changes, but social media was also full of discussions about the out-of-character dig that Seth Rollins aimed at Matt Riddle.

Plenty of other stories about WWE Superstars having real-life heat have emerged in recent years, with some legendary Superstars opening up about problems that they had with a former colleague.

In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE icons who had heat with another wrestler.

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#5 WWE legends Bret Hart and Jake Roberts

Bret Hart does not think Jake Roberts passed the torch to other WWE Superstars

Jake Roberts made his views on Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels perfectly clear when he appeared on the FlipDaScript podcast in March 2020.

The WWE legend explained that he did not win the WWE Championship during his seven-year run in WWE because his character did not need to hold a title.

He added that Hart and Michaels did not draw money when they were the top Superstars in WWE, which is why he considers them to be the worst WWE Champions of all time:

“I think Shawn was a better showman than Bret, no doubt. Bret was boring. Bret was a great wrestler. To me, Bret Hart would never have been Champion. He belongs on the fifth or sixth match in a tag situation.”

Speaking in his Confessions of a Hitman series on BretHart.com, The Hitman gave his honest opinion on Roberts’ wrestling career:

“Jake Roberts was one of those guys that never passed the torch to anybody. He never made anybody else but himself. He was a sneaky kind of guy in the ring.”

Hart went on to say that Roberts changed the finish to his match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 8 at short notice.

According to Hart, Roberts was reluctant to put The Undertaker over, so he called an audible and wanted his opponent to Tombstone him at ringside instead of inside the ring.

The Undertaker then rolled Roberts back into the ring and pinned him to pick up the win.

#4 WWE legends Bruno Sammartino and Ric Flair

Bruno Sammartino and Ric Flair are icons of the wrestling business

Bruno Sammartino had two spells as WWE Champion between 1963-1971 and 1973-1977. In total, he held the title for a combined 4,040 days – a record that will almost certainly never be broken.

Towards the end of his career, Sammartino headlined the same Madison Square Garden events that featured an up-and-coming Ric Flair further down the card.

The real-life heat between the two men began when Flair wrote in his book that he was not impressed by Sammartino’s in-ring work and he did not believe the two-time WWE Champion could draw money outside of the Northeast.

Speaking in an RF Video shoot interview, Sammartino acknowledged that Flair worked hard but questioned his versatility as an in-ring performer.

“He is a hard worker – I would never take that away from Flair. He was a hard worker and he took a lot of bumps in that ring. But you saw Ric Flair wrestle once, you seen him a hundred times. Ric Flair was the same match every time he went into the ring. Same match.”

The two men also had a disagreement over who snubbed who when they were both present backstage at a WWE show. While Flair claimed that Sammartino ignored him, the Italian-American called Flair a “liar” and said he saw the two-time WWE Hall of Famer walk away from him.

Thankfully, the WWE icons reconciled before Sammartino passed away at the age of 82 in 2018. They even appeared together on an episode of WWE Network show Table For 3 alongside current WWE Superstar Randy Orton.

#3 WWE legends The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude

Rick Rude lost almost every match he had against The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude faced each other in 68 singles matches between 1986 and 1990, but the former WWE on-screen rivals were not always on the same page behind the scenes.

Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, WWE director Bruce Prichard told a story about the different approaches that Warrior had backstage with Rude and Andre The Giant.

When Warrior worked with Andre, he would hand the legendary WWE Superstar a bottle of French wine on his table in the middle of the dressing room every night.

This genuinely annoyed Rude, according to Prichard, as he never received anything in return for working hard to make Warrior look like a star.

“Rude sees this and Rude got upset thinking, ‘I worked with this son of a b**** every night, took all of his s***, busted my a** trying to get him over.’ He goes, ‘I don’t drink f***ing French wine, but I didn’t even get a bottle of Gatorade from the motherf*****.’ Now, that was said and that was said in my presence that was actually said to me by Rick. So there was a little resentment there.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Prichard said Andre could sometimes bully other WWE Superstars in the ring if he did not like them, hence why Warrior was so keen to make a good impression before their matches.

#2 WWE legends Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin

In 2019, Steve Austin began the Hulk Hogan episode of his podcast by discussing the perceived heat that he had with his fellow WWE Hall of Famer.

The Texas Rattlesnake revealed that he called Hulk Hogan a couple of years before they recorded the podcast. During the phone conversation, Austin cleared up their apparent heat by clarifying that he was very competitive during his career, but he has always respected Hogan’s work.

Speaking directly to Hogan on his podcast, the six-time WWE Champion admitted that he had a professional grudge against The Hulkster dating back to their days in WCW.

“I always had this grudge against you because you were the guy. How am I going to overtake this when I can’t even get past three-quarter mid-card status? So there was always that grudge and it was competitive. I was like, ‘Man, why is this guy here now?’ Well, I know why you’re here now, in retrospect, when I look back. But when you’re in the trenches and you’re in the ring every night, there’s that competitive part.”

The nWo (Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) defeated Austin and The Rock on a March 2002 episode of WWE RAW. However, a one-on-one match between Austin and Hogan never happened in WWE.

#1 WWE legends Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker

Although the Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker rivalry is widely considered to be one of the greatest in WWE history, the two Superstars were never supposed to face each other in WWE.

Bruce Prichard revealed on the That’s Gotta Be Kane! episode of WWE Untold that Vince McMahon repeatedly said in the 1990s that Michaels and The Undertaker would never go one-on-one.

In September 1997, the WWE Chairman finally had a change of heart when he decided to book Michaels vs. The Undertaker at WWE In Your House: Ground Zero, kick-starting a rivalry that went on to last for several months.

The man behind the ‘Taker character, Mark Calaway, confirmed in the WWE Untold episode that he did not get along with Michaels in those days.

“Where Shawn Michaels and I are today and where we were at back then on a personal level... it's taken a complete 360 [180]. If Shawn Michaels back then was on fire, I probably wouldn't p*** on him to put him out.”

Michaels and The Undertaker went on to work with each other at back-to-back WrestleManias at WrestleMania 25 and WrestleMania 26, with ‘Taker winning both matches.

The first match is viewed by many WWE fans as one of the best WWE matches of all time, while the second brought an end to Michaels’ legendary in-ring career.

Eight-and-a-half years later, the rivalry was revisited when Michaels came out of retirement and joined forces with Triple H to defeat Kane and The Undertaker at WWE Crown Jewel in November 2018.