5 WWE Superstars and who they originally traveled with

Brock Lesnar and John Cena
Brock Lesnar and John Cena

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced WWE to hold every show at the same venue, it was not uncommon for WWE Superstars to spend over 200 days per year on the road with their colleagues.

While the majority of WWE Superstars end up traveling all year round with their best friends, it can sometimes take a while before friendship groups and travel partners are formed in WWE.

For example, John Cena traveled with three Japanese Superstars and an obscure tag team after he initially joined WWE, while Brock Lesnar asked two legends if he could travel with them.

In this article, let’s take a look at the people who traveled with five famous WWE Superstars during the early stages of their careers.


#5 Brock Lesnar traveled with Kane, The Undertaker, Curt Hennig & Big Boss Man in WWE

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Since returning to WWE in 2012, Brock Lesnar has performed as a part-time attraction who has a schedule unlike anybody else on the WWE roster.

Lesnar has said in interviews over the years that WWE’s hectic travel schedule is the main reason why he decided to quit the company in 2004.

Speaking on The Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network in 2015, The Beast revealed that he used to travel with Kane, The Undertaker, Curt Hennig, and Big Boss Man during his first WWE run:

“I would ask Kane and ‘Taker, ‘Can I jump in the back, ride in the back seat? I’ll pump gas, I’ll do whatever.’ They let me ride with them a few times, then I started riding with Curt and Boss Man.”

Although Lesnar is widely considered to be one of the most naturally gifted performers in modern-day WWE, he still learned a lot about wrestling psychology from those four Superstars.

“What I can credit these guys to is kind of giving me some psychology in the wrestling business, and to open some doors, how to put a match together.”

Lesnar usually travels by himself or with his on-screen advocate, Paul Heyman, when he appears on WWE these days.

#4 John Cena traveled with The Basham Brothers, Funaki, Tajiri & Ultimo Dragon in WWE

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Most of the Superstars in this article only had one or two WWE travel partners, but not John Cena.

As the 16-time WWE World Champion revealed on a WWE Network show Live with Chris Jericho in 2015, he went to extreme lengths to save money by traveling to shows with five other Superstars.re

“I don’t think there’s ever been a larger group to travel from city to city. At one point in a minivan was John Cena, Doug and Danny Basham, Shoichi Funaki, Tajiri, and Ultimo Dragon. Six guys, plus baggage, in a minivan, and we must have stayed in hotels that were 20 bucks a night. We called ourselves Team Stay Cheap.”

It is fair to say that Team Stay Cheap had very differing careers in WWE.

While Cena went on to become WWE’s marquee name for the next 15 years, The Basham Brothers left the company in January 2007 after winning the WWE Tag Team titles on two occasions.

Tajiri spent a total of eight years in WWE between 2001-2008 and 2016-2017, while Ultimo Dragon only lasted one year in WWE between 2003 and 2004.

As for Funaki, he still works for WWE as a Japanese commentator. He has also helped out as an interpreter for Japanese Superstars including Asuka and Kairi Sane.

#3 Triple H traveled with Killer Kowalski and The Kliq in WWE

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Anyone who is a fan of the man behind the Triple H character, Paul Levesque, will probably know that the 14-time WWE World Champion has always been interested in the history of the wrestling business.

While many of today’s Superstars highlight Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock as their childhood heroes, Triple H has often cited the likes of Buddy Rogers and Bruno Sammartino as people who he looked up to.

Another person in that category, Killer Kowalski, actually trained Triple H in the early stages of his career.

Speaking to Wrestle Talk in 2015, Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac) recalled that Triple H used to ride with Kowalski in WWE.

However, it did not take long for The Kliq (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels, and Waltman) to recruit the WWE NXT founder, who does not drink alcohol, as their designated driver.

“Obviously we didn’t predict exactly what would [happen with Triple H in WWE], but immediately it was like, ‘Let’s gobble him up.’ He was riding with Killer Kowalski every night, who was his teacher. He was trying to be cool to Walter [Kowalski]. We were like, ‘You gotta drop Walter, you’re coming with us.’ We needed a designated driver anyway.” [H/T 411mania]

Triple H later traveled with two of the factions he went on to form, D-Generation X and Evolution.

He also refused to ride in a car with Mark Jindrak ever again after the up-and-coming WWE Superstar irritated him during a two-hour car journey.

#2 The Undertaker traveled with Paul Bearer in WWE

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In 1993, Vince McMahon decided to push Lex Luger as WWE’s top babyface Superstar, filling a void that had been left by Hulk Hogan.

The highlight of Luger’s push came when he traveled around America on his own tour bus, known as The Lex Express.

Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast in 2016, WWE director Bruce Prichard said he always liked the tour bus idea. However, he admitted that the role would have been better suited to somebody else, such as The Undertaker, because Luger did not fully embrace the opportunity.

During the same conversation, Prichard also revealed that The Undertaker and Paul Bearer used to travel together in a customized van that Andre The Giant used to share with former WWE referee Tim White and former WWE manager Arnold Skaaland.

“We converted that into an old-timey hearse. It was The Undertaker and Paul Bearer’s hearse. That went all around the country. Well, Undertaker and Paul Bearer actually traveled in that. In between every single town, everything they did, they were actually in it. They loved it, they embraced it, and that worked.”

The driver of The Undertaker’s vehicle was also the same person who WWE hired to drive Luger’s Lex Express.

#1 Roman Reigns traveled with The Shield in WWE

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It should come as no surprise that Roman Reigns traveled with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins during The Shield’s first run together in WWE.

On one occasion, the three men even traveled via helicopter to compete in matches on two different WWE shows on the same day.

That hectic evening (April 22, 2013) began with The Shield losing against Sheamus and The New Age Outlaws at a WWE SmackDown live event in Cardiff, Wales.

Reigns, Rollins, and Ambrose then quickly made it to WWE RAW in London, England, where they picked up a huge win over Team Hell No and The Undertaker in their second six-man tag team match in the space of a few hours.

In recent years, Reigns has traveled with various other Superstars on the WWE roster, including one of his closest friends in real life, R-Truth.

So far, The Big Dog has appeared on two episodes of WWE Network show Ride Along (once with Ambrose and once with both Ambrose and Rollins). He has also featured with Rollins on an episode of Apple TV series Carpool Karaoke.

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