8 Pairs of wrestlers who couldn't stand each other in real life

Sometimes, they are not faking the hatred.

At this stage of the internet age, it's common knowledge that pro wrestling is a scripted performance. No matter how many steel chairs rattle brain cells, no matter how much blood is spilled, at the end of the day the wrestlers are just pretending to hate each other, right?

As it turns out, this is not always the case. Sometimes bad blood develops between wrestlers and they carry their feud into the real world. It might be because of a botched performance, or a clash of personalities, or some other reason, but the end result is the same.

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Sometimes these hatreds boil over into acts of aggression, and sometimes the enemies just play politics with each other backstage, but it always leads to speculation on the part of the fanbase.

Here are eight pair of wrestlers who legitimately didn't like each other.

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#1 Roddy Piper and Mr. T

These days, when celebrities choose to become involved with a wrestling show, they are often greeted with open arms by both the management and the wrestling talent. This is because all parties know that the celebrity will bring in extra attention and income for the whole promotion.

In the 1980s, however, kayfabe was alive and well, and the wrestlers didn't take kindly to outsiders coming into their arena. This was especially true with Mr. T and Roddy Piper.

During the very first Wrestlemania, Piper and Bob Orton (Randy's father) were set to take on Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in a tag match. However, Piper and Orton had reservations about involving a non-wrestler in the match. Those concerns were exacerbated when Mr. T didn't put much effort into preparing for the match. Orton and Piper ended up guzzling Mr. T by putting him in real wrestling holds and not allowing him any offense at all.

Mr. T was so upset by this experience that the WWE gave him a fixed shoot boxing match against Piper at Wrestlemania 2 so T could 'hit Piper for real.' The match is considered an embarrassment and rarely referenced today.

#2 Hulk Hogan and Harley Race

Professional wrestling used to be territorial. While there were no laws on the books saying that the different promotions had to stay within geographic boundaries, it was a gentlemen's agreement that, say, CWF wouldn't book shows in Texas.

When Vince McMahon Jr. took over the then-WWF from his father, he instituted a change to this regional policy. He began booking shows in other promotion's territories.

While most of the promoters were chagrined, they took no action since McMahon was technically not doing anything illegal by violating the handshake agreement of territorial wrestling, NWA wrestler Harley Race was not going to take it lying down.

Race crashed the backstage area of a WWE show and made a beeline for Hogan. According to differing reports, Race either A. brandished a gun at Hogan or B. Threatened to beat him up terribly. In either case, a terrified Hogan escaped out the back door. Hogan would continue to avoid Race, and expressed a great deal of trepidation when he was scheduled, years later, to face King Harley Race in a match.

Fortunately for Hogan--Race was one of the few legit tough men in the sport and could handle himself quite well in a real fight--Harley went by the book and allowed Hogan to defeat him. The two seem to have since settled their beef, but we think Hogan probably still gives Harley a wide berth.

#3 Edge and Matt Hardy

Many fans are aware of this real life hatred, because it happened during the internet age.

Matt Hardy had been dating Lita for years, but when he was drafted to Smackdown Lita stayed on Raw. Spending so much time apart put strain on their relationship, and she soon began dating Edge instead. Lita admits she was still technically with Hardy when the relationship with Edge began.

The WWE caught wind of the real life beef, and their response was to fire Matt Hardy. However, the internet community discovered the reason behind Matt's firing, and quickly took up arms against the WWE. Eventually the WWE did capitulate and bring Matt back into the company, and then milked the real life animosity for a series of matches between the two.

Even though Matt Hardy at one point told Edge "I hope you get cancer," the two have reconciled their differences since, probably helped by the fact that Lita dumped Edge as well.

#4 Macho Man Randy Savage and Andre the Giant

Andre the Giant is recalled as being a relaxed, chill sort of person--unless he was angry. Randy Savage was a severe type A perfectionist who fretted over every aspect of his matches.

The two personalities were bound to clash, and they did just that. Andre was old school, and liked to make up his matches along the way during the contest. Savage would fill up an entire spiral bound notebook with intricate details of his plans for a match. They simply did not click on a professional level, and Andre was also somewhat dismayed by Savage's treatment of his real life wife Miss Elizabeth.

While they worked many matches together, everyone agrees that Andre was extra 'stiff' with the Macho Man (meaning his attacks, while still restrained, were much harder than they needed to be to sell the performance.) For his part, Macho Man put up with the stiff strikes, hair pulling, and choking, and had nothing but good things to say about Andre in the years after.

#5 Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson

Sid Vicious was seen as a potential marquee player by WCW when they signed the blonde giant. He was placed with the Four Horsemen very early in his career, in hopes that veterans like Arn Anderson could help groom him for future success.

During a European tour, the two got into a confrontation in a hotel bar. Vicious grabbed a pair of scissors from the bar and went up to Anderson's room. What follows has been disputed by both men, but is agreed that there was a violent altercation, during which Arn was stabbed twenty times with a pair of scissors. But Vicious was also injured, and suffered a punctured lung during the fight. Most people agree that Arn was the victor of that particular conflict.

Vicious was fired, which may have been a good thing for WCW, as they replaced him at the next PPV with Nature Boy Ric Flair, who came out of retirement to win the world title from Vader.

Years later Arn and Vicious shared a WCW ring, and Vicious offered Arn a handshake and an apology. Arn shook his hand, but could be seen mouthing the words 'you're still a son of a b**ch.'

#6 Hardcore Holly and Matt Mercury

On one of the most controversial segments of all time, Hardcore Holly used legitimate strikes against Tough Enough Trainee Matt Cappotelli (who would later wrestle as Matt Mercury, and win the tag team titles with Johnny Nitro as MNM.)

The segment horrified many wrestling fans, who knew that the main point was NOT to legitimately injure your opponent. Holly's unprofessional attack was treated as no big deal by the other Tough Enough trainers, who said that Matt should have protected himself better.

Matt would go on to join the WWE in an official capacity--only to suffer a concussion at the hands of Holly. The WWE quickly dissolved their feud and made certain the two never shared a ring again.

Years later, Holly admits he was on 'a lot of drugs' during the Tough Enough segment, and offered his apologies to Matt Mercury, who accepted graciously.

#7 Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels

Here's a feud that boiled over into the infamous Montreal Screw Job.

Bret Hart was the main star of WWE after Hulk Hogan's departure. HBK was an up and coming talent who had recently switched to the singles division after years of teaming with Marty Jannety in the Rockers.

The two immediately developed a dislike for each other. Bret found Michaels to be unprofessional and arrogant, while HBK thought Bret took himself too seriously and acted like he knew everything about wrestling.

Nonetheless, the two put on some of the best matches of their careers against each other, creating magic in spite of, or perhaps because of, their real life friction.

After the Montreal Screw Job, Bret swore he would never forgive HBK, but years later on Raw he did just that.

#9 Goldberg and William Regal

The year was 1998, and Goldberg was on fire in WCW. He was in the midst of his monster undefeated streak, and the list of victims was piling up.

The only problem; Goldberg was very, very green, and could not work a match longer than a few minutes. According to Regal, he was told to put on a six minute, much more competitive match with Goldberg. There was some confusion, apparently, as to the match length among the booking staff.

Goldberg quickly ran out of steam, and Regal applied legit wrestling holds such as tight headlocks to the big man in an effort to drag a better performance out of him. Once the match was over--won by Goldberg, of course, after a Jackhammer--Eric Bischoff was furious with Regal, and blamed him for the poor performance.

Though Goldberg initially stuck up for Regal, he later made statements that Regal had made the big man look foolish and hurt his credibility. Regal was fired several months later for several reasons, but among them was probably this incident.

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