The drama in the wrestling business tends to be stronger than any other sporting field. We frequently read stories about various talents having issues with each other due to silly reasoning most of the time. It's often more high profile when it comes to the guys, given how many male wrestlers on the roster have to share the same locker room and work with so many different opponents over time. However, the opposite sex can also have their issues. Female wrestlers in wrestling having fewer members on the roster meaning tensions can easily rise with the competition being closer between them all vying for the few noteworthy spots.
WWE, TNA and any other promotion to have a deep roster of women’s wrestlers have seen the talent get as petty as the men. That has given us plenty of backstage rivalries through the years. Most of them don’t make their way on the screen however. The juicy stories go down behind the scenes, but get leaked from sources backstage or the talent themselves in shoot interviews. We’ll look at the most fascinating issues to go down between some of the best female performers in the business. These are fifteen pairs of women's wrestlers who hated each other behind the scenes.
15 15. Sunny and Sable
The first big stars in the WWE to usher in the era of “Divas” were Sunny and Sable. Diva could be used as a branding term or as a reference to their backstage attitudes. Both women were stunning and hugely popular with the fans. Sunny and Sable competed for the spot as the top female in the WWE for quite some time.
Sable eventually won out with the opportunity to pose in Playboy and hold the WWE Women’s Championship. Sunny’s career in the WWE faded out with her leaving to work for ECW and later WCW. Sunny's various shoot interviews over the years have featured her trashing Sable constantly. Everyone with first-hand experience working with them admits the two Divas got into backstage bickering battles constantly. Sable has refrained from participating in tell-all interviews, but all the evidence points to her hating Sunny as much as Sunny hates her.
14 14. Dana Brooke and Lana
A recent instance of drama between women on the WWE roster featured Lana getting frustrated with Dana Brooke. The two apparently worked together training at the Performance Center as Lana hoped to move into a role as a full-time in-ring wrestler. On Total Divas, Lana accused Brooke of stealing a move she worked on in training. The cartwheel splash was planned to be Lana’s finishing move until she saw Dana start using it on Raw.
Lana went off backstage, ranting to Natalya about Brooke stealing her idea. Total Divas is scripted most of the time, but Dana isn’t part of the show and played no other role in the story other than being referenced. Brooke ranted on social media saying:
The Raw locker room is home to two women that clearly can’t stand each other due to a single wrestling move.
13 13. Chyna and Stephanie McMahon
The love triangle between Triple H, Chyna and Stephanie McMahon changed the lives of all three people. Triple H and Chyna were an item for many years until he started a storyline on television where he married Stephanie. The on-screen story started to become real-life as Triple H left Chyna for Stephanie. Not only did Chyna lose her man, but the WWE stopped negotiating her contract, essentially firing her in fear of drama backstage.
Before her recent passing, Chyna spoke out against both Triple H and Stephanie for many years with the implication that they started her downward spiral after the heart break. Stephanie tried to come off as the bigger woman by never addressing Chyna directly. However, the WWE never reached out to bring Chyna back into the company despite her legacy as a major legend and pioneer. Stephanie’s feelings towards Chyna were likely a major reason for that.
12 12. Francine and Dawn Marie
ECW didn’t have a women’s wrestling division, but they did have a few female performers on the roster. The ladies were typically used as managers rocking scantily clad outfits and battling it out in cat fights. Two of the few female performers to last many years in the company were Francine and Dawn Marie. Francine was the manager of Shane Douglas for most of her career and Dawn is remembered for managing The Impact Players tag team.
Considering both women were arguably the only popular female stars in the company, they started to battle for the top spot. Francine and Dawn had arguments during their time working together and clearly didn’t get along. Each lady has insulted the other in shoot interviews following the ECW run. There was almost a fight at ECW’s One Night Stand reunion PPV when Dawn felt disrespected by Francine refusing to greet her.
11 11. Awesome Kong and Reby Sky
The TNA locker room is always viewed as being up and down. TNA tends to have uncertainty surrounding it at all times and it puts people on edge. A backstage incident in the women’s locker room saw the hatred between Awesome Kong and Reby Sky come to a head. Kong insulted Sky before they both worked in TNA via a shoot interview, claiming Sky was disrespectful.
Reby responded with more insults online, implying allegations of Kong having an addiction to drugs. This all led to the TNA fight with Kong going after Sky and allegedly throwing her around. Some stories claim that Reby’s infant son Maxel was in the room when it happened. TNA let Kong go and continued to employ Sky as part of Matt Hardy’s storylines. The two clearly can’t coexist in the same locker room ever again.
10 10. Summer Rae and Lana
Lana is regarded as one of the more controversial women backstage due to her inability to get along with multiple Superstars. One of her other enemies was revealed to be Summer Rae. They actually worked against each other during one of the worst storylines of 2015. Lana left Rusev to become a face character and Summer became his new manager and love interest.
Something apparently happened between the two that caused a rift. Rae made a very rude comment about Lana on social media following one of Enzo Amore’s promos, insulting Lana. This led to Lana making a few small insults back and liking tweets of people criticizing Summer. Social media always tells the story and the story is Lana and Rae developed a strong disdain for each other at some point.
9 9. Melina and Candice Michelle
Melina is another women’s wrestler that had a negative reputation in the WWE for getting involved in backstage wars with other female performers. The impressive talent of Melina made her a noteworthy star in the women’s division, but she developed a huge ego due to it. One of her backstage rivals turned out to be Candice Michelle. Many considered Candice to have quite the ego as well and they clashed.
Michelle accused Melina of stealing one of her moves and Melina responded with a scathing blog. Melina called Candice jealous and took shots at her for not being considered a credible wrestler in the division. The two exchanged insults online for a few months. It led to them actually working a storyline later on with the intensity of their dislike playing out on television.
8 8. Brooke Adams and Angelina Love
Two of the most successful female wrestlers in TNA history happen to hate each other, as Angelina Love and Brooke Adams could not stand each other. The public aspect of their rivalry started when Adams made a comment insulting women with visible tattoos. Love has a number of tattoos and decided to respond to Brooke by implying she didn’t know the difference between classy and trashy.
Both women traded subliminal insults regarding the appearance of the other. Love’s friend and tag team partner Velvet Sky stepped into the fray and started defending Angelina. Adams went on the defense towards The Beautiful People by suggesting they weren’t so beautiful. It had to be an awkward workplace environment backstage considering the three women were core members of the small women’s roster.
7 7. Sunny and Ashley Massaro
Most of the stories featuring two women loathing each other in wrestling revolve around issues taking place when they worked together. Sunny left the WWE many years before Ashley Massaro won the Diva Search and landed a job with the company. Their feud actually started when both women were semi-retired just making occasional independent wrestling appearances.
Sunny kept taking personal jabs at Massaro referring to a rumor that Ashley took part in a high paying escort service. Massaro had enough of the rude comments towards her and responded in the most savage of ways. Sunny offered sex chats on Skype to those wanting to pay for it and someone apparently sent an unflattering screenshot to Ashley. Revenge was served when Massaro posted a photo of it on social media insulting her enemy for the world to see.
6 6. Ivory and The Kat
Stacy “The Kat” Carter represented everything many of the athletic female talents hated about women’s wrestling in the WWE. As the wife of Jerry Lawler, WWE hired her with no experience due to her looks. Most of the matches Kat appeared in featured her stripping or partaking in sexual antics. WWE pushed her to the moon as the top face in the division for most of 2000.
One person that resented her for it was Ivory. The two apparently had personal issues backstage and Ivory blasted her in shoot interviews years later. Jim Ross asked Carter about this on his Ross Report podcast. Kat had no idea Ivory hated her that much until hearing all the shoot interview quotes. According to Kat, the issues between them started when she offered Ivory at chocolate bar with Ivory upset an unhealthy snack was being passed around the locker room.
5 5. AJ Lee and Stephanie McMahon
Stephanie McMahon has been the most powerful woman in the WWE from the day she started working for the company. It was clear from day one that she would become one of the people running the companym with Vince McMahon believing in her. Stephanie has essentially been the second most powerful person in the WWE behind her father over the past fifteen years.
Most wrestlers would be terrified to speak out against her. One of the few to do so while working for the WWE was AJ Lee. The personal hatred between Triple H and CM Punk spilled over to their significant others. Lee still worked for WWE after Punk walked out, but she didn’t walk on eggshells. Following a tweet from Stephanie about gender equality, AJ publicly replied asking why the female performers didn’t receive the same television time and financial opportunities as the men. It was the first major shot taken at Stephanie and showed the personal disdain between the two.
4 4. Nikki Bella and Maria Kanellis
The success of Total Divas has changed the landscape for many female performers in the WWE. Some of the women’s wrestlers to appear on the show have developed a new fan base of people watching the reality show series. WWE introduced the show with Nikki Bella and Brie Bella being the vocal points after coming back to the company.
Rumors indicated WWE planned to bring back The Bella Twins, Maria Kanellis, Kelly Kelly and Maryse but the ladies all wanted to wait for a better contract offer regarding the show. The story goes that The Bellas signed with the WWE and abandoned the plans of the other women. Maria went to social media to trash Nikki specifically for her role in the debacle. At one point, the brother of The Bellas insulted Maria to continue the feud. Maryse returning to the WWE for the Total Divas show and this past story being referenced likely proved Maria had reason for her anger towards Nikki.
3 3. Melina and Mickie James
Mickie James is one of the rare faces in wrestling that doesn’t have a lot of enemies. The majority of her co-workers talk about James with a high level of respect for her as a wrestler and as a person. One of the very few women in the locker room to have issues with Mickie was Melina. As referenced earlier, Melina had a strong history of rubbing people the wrong way.
Before either woman even made it to the WWE roster, Melina and Mickie had issues in the developmental system. Melina wrote a long blog trashing James citing her past making risqué appearances on television shows and adult material before signing with the WWE. James never publicly fired back but the stories continued to come out about the huge drama between the two. Melina and Mickie ended up having great matches on the main roster and buried the hatchet after leaving the WWE.
2 2. Paige and Lana
Lana is back on the list yet again for her most high profile war with another female performer on the roster. Paige is currently in the dog house due to various issues with WWE but at this point in the timeline, she was generally viewed as one of the more popular ladies that got along with everyone. That ended when Lana took shots at her on social media.
The accusations saw Lana claim Paige bullied her back in NXT and that Paige was a complete phony. Rumors indicated that Lana received heat backstage with many of the wrestlers thinking less of her for insulting Paige. The popular belief is Lana was trying to get attention at the expense of someone she didn’t like. Paige and Lana claimed to have made peace shortly after, but with volatile personalities like those two have, you can never be sure.
1 1. AJ Lee and The Bella Twins
The Bella Twins and AJ Lee had one of the more intense rivalries that went beyond the ring in the recent history of WWE’s women’s division. Nikki Bella and Brie Bella are often criticized for being models entering wrestling for fame who received opportunities due to their relationships with John Cena and Daniel Bryan. Lee went after them for this in promos using her real feelings to absolutely trash them.
Some of the promo battles between AJ and The Bellas became a little awkward to watch. Nikki recently claimed the reason for a lot of her online hate is due to Lee convincing fans of negative perceptions being true. The Bellas definitely love working for the WWE but Lee questioned their love of wrestling. Both sides have interesting viewpoints that led to a strong hatred. AJ’s book coming out in 2017 could lead to the feud intensifying with her likely putting some unfiltered thoughts about Brie and Nikki in there.