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In modern-day WWE, there is more information out there than ever before about the real people who portray the over-the-top superstars that we see on weekly television.
Superstars regularly speak out-of-character in interviews and post about their real lives on social media, while WWE’s multiple podcasts and talk shows provide fans with even more insight into their favorite in-ring performers.
Although the majority of these interviews and informal conversations revolve around positive topics, there have been plenty of times when superstars have given details about the real animosity that they have had with co-workers.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at six WWE Superstars who you might not know have heat with other wrestlers:
#6 WWE Hall of Famers Goldberg and Bret Hart
Bret Hart and Goldberg are possibly two of the biggest wrestlers in the entire industry. Having worked with each other in WCW, it was a kick from the former Universal Champion that led to The Hitman suffering a concussion, which ultimately led to Hart retiring from in-ring competition.
Since then, the two-time Hall of Famer has openly criticized Goldberg's in-ring ability:
"[Goldberg] was a gorilla. [Goldberg] was a guy that nobody seemed to have taught how wrestling really works. He seemed to think he could just pick a guy up and just slam him through the mat as hard as you could and that was good wrestling. But I always liked Bill as a person. His wrestling, his workrate was 0/10. Like, everything he did hurt - everything! He could tie up with you and hurt you. He'd tie up with himself and hurt himself!"
Bret has even questioned WWE's decision of having Bill Goldberg in the Hall of Fame, stating that the WCW original used to hurt anyone he worked with.
#5 AJ Styles and CM Punk
According to wrestling statistics database cagematch.net, AJ Styles and CM Punk faced each other on 10 occasions at the start of their careers between 2002 and 2004. Punk won four times and Styles won five times (the other being a Fatal 4-Way, won by Christopher Daniels), while their most famous encounter came at Ring of Honor’s At Our Best event in March 2004, with The Phenomenal One defeating The Best in the World in a 24-minute match with Ricky Steamboat as the special guest referee.
In 2005, Punk joined WWE and worked for the company for the next nine years. Styles, meanwhile, mostly competed in IMPACT Wrestling, ROH and NJPW before signing with Vince McMahon’s promotion in 2016, meaning he never crossed paths with “The Best In The World” in the wrestling behemoth.
More than 15 years after their final match together, Punk took to Twitter in 2020 to say that a lot of people are “snitching on themselves” by not speaking up about the "Black Lives Matter" movement. One Twitter user replied by mentioning that Styles continued to promote video streams, but he did not reference "Black Lives Matter" on his social media, which prompted Punk to aim a dig at the WWE Superstar.
"Well. Come on. That one has been obvious for years."
Addressing the tweet, Styles told The Times of India that he does not respect the AEW World Champion:
"I will not react at all coming from a guy that I don’t [have] any respect [for] anyway. It doesn’t really matter. Look, my job as a performer is to perform and get the mind off all the things that have happened throughout the world. I am not going to react to people saying ridiculous and stupid things."
It is worth noting that CM Punk has since deleted his original tweet about Styles.
#4 Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool
It emerged in 2020 that former WWE colleagues Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool have heat over a concussion that McCool received at the hands of Phoenix in their first match against each other.
Phoenix tweeted in March 2020 that “there’s always more to the story”, prompting McCool to question what she meant by that.
In May 2020, McCool spoke in an Instagram Live video with Nine Line Apparel and gave details about the incident:
“The first time I wrestled Beth, her finisher [Glam Slam], she hooks your arms and faceplants you. Well, she didn’t unhook my arms. Don’t know why. She definitely knows how because she had plenty of matches. Ended up giving me a concussion.”
McCool said she “didn’t sell” the injury because she did not want Phoenix to know that she had hurt her, but she later noticed that the WWE Hall of Famer made a comment about the incident in a WWE Magazine interview.
After reaching out to Phoenix, McCool said she was told they should both be “grateful” for how their careers panned out. However, she did not get “the other side of the story” and she is still unsure why there was any animosity with her former on-screen rival.
McCool also claimed that Phoenix unfollowed her on social media after their conversation.
#3 Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey
The real-life situation between Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey stems from the latter’s on-screen rivalry with Alexa Bliss. Following Rousey’s match against Jax at Money in the Bank in 2018, she went on to defeat Bliss at SummerSlam to win the RAW Women’s Championship before defending it against the same opponent at Hell in a Cell.
During the match at Hell in a Cell, Bliss suffered a concussion after receiving a headlock takeover from Rousey. The five-time women’s champion then returned to in-ring action a month later at live events, but she suffered another concussion after taking exactly the same move. This led Jax to make a complaint to WWE management due to concerns that she had about Rousey’s in-ring ability.
"She came into the scene and she really didn’t get the proper WWE training that I was able to get at the Performance Center. So she had to learn things on the fly and her instinct is MMA/UFC fighting, so her instinct is to go somewhere different than where our instincts tell us where to go in the ring if that makes sense." [H/T talkSPORT]
Following Rousey’s comments about “fake fighting”, Jax tweeted in April 2020 that she would go off-script and “risk her own job” by knocking the former UFC star out if they ever meet again in a WWE ring.
Also Watch: Ronda Rousey & other WWE Superstars hate the WWE Universe for this reason
#2 Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose
Brock Lesnar defeated Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose) in what turned out to be one of the most underwhelming matches of WrestleMania 32. Later in 2016, Moxley said on The Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network that he was “met with laziness” from Lesnar when he attempted to pitch ideas for their No Holds Barred encounter, which saw “The Beast” pick up the victory in 13 minutes after he hit an F-5 on his opponent onto a stack of steel chairs.
Elaborating on the topic with PW Torch’s Wade Keller in 2019, Moxley implied that Lesnar thought the former Shield member was receiving a push just by facing him at WrestleMania:
“I think he truly thought he was just doing me a favor. [Lesnar thought] me being in the ring with him was enough to do awesome things for me. I think that’s what he thought. He didn’t want to be there.”
Lesnar is a very private person and rarely gives interviews outside of WWE, so he has never publicly responded to Moxley’s comments.
#1 Cameron and AJ Lee
AJ Lee and Cameron met in five one-on-one matches on WWE television between 2013 and 2014, with Lee picking up the victory on four of those occasions. In 2019, Cameron (real name Ariane Andrew) revealed in an interview on Ring the Belle that she found the former Divas Champion difficult to work with, especially as she was so new to the wrestling business at the time.
“For someone who was new, I wish I could have had someone who was a little bit more guiding and not just kind of like leave me out with the wolves. That was what it was kind of like with dealing with her, major tough love.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]
Cameron also acknowledged that wrestling fans would likely “hate her” for saying something bad about Lee, who was widely viewed as one of WWE’s most popular 'Divas' during her time with the company.
“I don't want to throw her under the bus or anything, it's just was me being so new I would have expected someone to not show up at the ring five minutes before doors are about to open.”
The former Funkadactyl added that she respects how much of an impact Lee had on WWE’s women’s division, but she felt she had to “spill the tea” on their working relationship.
