With rent prices the way they are these days, one of the most expensive necessities in life can be having a place to lay your weary head. The top superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment get compensated well enough they don’t need to worry about taking care of bills, but wrestlers still in the early stages of the path to fame might need some help paying the landlord. Because of this, plenty of superstars have made the choice to live with one another as they try and make it to the top of the wrestling world.
As with any other profession, the most important thing a wrestler can consider when picking a roommate is whether or not they get along in casual situations. Of course, this says nothing about how they interact with one another in the ring, which is why some of these pairings seem so out of place when all you know about the wrestlers involved is how they treated one another during their in-ring careers. Certain performers made the logical choice of living with tag team partners and onscreen allies, while others have lived with lifelong enemies, at least insofar as their wrestling personas are concerned. Keep reading to find out how they made it work anyway and learn about 15 sets of pro wrestlers you never knew used to be roommates.
15 15. Dean Ambrose and Big Cass
Considering he puts up with the enigmatic and outrageous Enzo Amore on a daily basis, fans of Big Cass probably believe he could put up with just about anybody as a roommate. For further proof to that theory, look no further than “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose, who Cass lived with for the better part of a year while both were working for Florida Championship Wrestling. The two continued living together as Ambrose was called up to WWE, until Dean moved out in 2014. Though Cass and Ambrose are roughly the same age, Ambrose had a solid seven years of experience on the independent scene that put him well ahead of Cass in terms of first hand wrestling knowledge. As such, when reflecting on the year he lived with Ambrose, Cass called it one of the best of his life, saying it was both fun and educational.
14 14. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa
When a tag team calls themselves #DIY, certain expectations can be made about their lifestyle. For one, if any two wrestlers should be expected to live with one another, it would be the group that does things on their own without the help of others. It’s still a little strange that the NXT Tag Team Champions would chose to live with one another at this point in their lives, given that both are married, and Gargano recently so. It makes more sense when you learn their wives are with them as well, all living under one roof in Orlando while the men live their dreams and attempt to become WWE superstars. Coincidentally, the wives are also in the wrestling business, with Gargano’s wife Candice LeRae a regular performer on the independent scene and Ciampa’s wife Jessie Ward a former producer for TNA.
13 13. Ric Flair and Ken Patera
Nowadays, Ken Patera looks like a mere footnote in comparison to a name like the legendary “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Back in the early ‘70s, it was the other way around, as Patera was an accomplished Olympic weightlifter when Flair was a college dropout bouncer, chasing women during his spare time. Patera was also considering a career in pro wrestling, entering Verne Gagne’s training school, which made Flair hopeful Patera could eventually help break him into the business, as well. At first, Flair and Patera simply lived together, though if the goal was for Flair to endear himself to a future coworker, he failed in classic Nature Boy tradition. According to Patera, Flair was firmly in the party animal phase of his life by the time they started living together, with every night a crazier sex party than the last. Patera mostly tried to stay out of it, still training for the Pan-American Games, which is probably why the arrangement only lasted all of five months before he couldn’t put up with it anymore.
12 12. D'Lo Brown and Chris Jericho
Smokey Mountain Wrestling quietly served as one of the most influential independent promotions of the ‘90s, with a roster filled with future superstars including Chris Jericho, Kane, D’Lo Brown, Lance Storm, and Balls Mahoney, all of whom are also notable for having once shared a home together while working for the company, affectionately known as the “Smokey Mountain Flophouse.” Since everyone involved was working for multiple companies around the globe, they would also rotate rooms based on who was in Tennessee at the time. As the last person to enter the arrangement, D’Lo usually slept on the couch, but Jericho was touring Japan one night and D’Lo was told he could use his bed. Apparently the two didn’t meet until 2:00 a.m. that morning, when Jericho arrived home early. D’Lo introduced himself and Jericho calmly replied, “I’m Chris Jericho. Now get the f*** out of my room.” Harsh language notwithstanding, Brown remembers the incident with good humor, understanding Jericho was tired after a 20 hour flight and just wanted to go to bed.
11 11. Steve Austin and "Diamond" Dallas Page
Although they only worked for the same company on rare occasions, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and “Diamond” Dallas Page have been at least casual friends since they both worked for WCW in the early ‘90s. Surprisingly, however, it wasn’t until after both of their careers in wrestling were practically over that they briefly lived with one another in Los Angeles circa 2005, shortly after both men had divorced their famous wrestling wives. Page let Austin stay in an apartment he owned when he was filming The Devil’s Rejects, roughly during the same time he and Kimberly started to split. Once the divorce was finalized, Page moved back in with Austin, discovering Stone Cold left his home a complete mess. Despite this, Page said the experience was lots of fun, solidifying their friendship for life. Page has since made somewhat of a second career out of living with other wrestlers, later inviting Scott Hall and Jake Roberts into his home to help them through their substance abuse rehabilitation.
10 10. Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze
It would be reasonable to assume Xavier Woods is closer with his partners in New Day than any other WWE superstars, but his actual best friend in WWE is The Sultan of Selfies, Tyler Breeze. The two have a long history to prove it, having previously lived together when they all performed in Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT. Viktor of The Ascension was also living with them, presumably playing tons of video games while doing so. Breeze and Woods were the closer pair of the trio, with Breeze more-or-less crediting his character’s success to Woods in an interview with Rolling Stone. Breeze knew his original character Mike Dalton wasn’t going to cut it in WWE, so he and Woods brainstormed alternatives ultimately deciding on the Breeze character. The initial vignettes for Breeze were then filmed at their shared apartment, later being presented to Dusty Rhodes and becoming NXT history.
9 9. Ricochet and Apollo Crews
Starting a career in WWE can be tough for a well-known independent wrestler, since they’ll need to end dozens of small scale commitments in order to jump head first into the WWE Universe. This doesn’t mean they need to break all of their past friendships, though, which is how Apollo Crews has continued living with his good friend Ricochet even after he made his NXT debut in 2014. Crews has since made the jump to the main WWE roster, though he and Ricochet are still roommates in Florida. Ricochet is perhaps better known to fans under his Lucha Underground persona, Prince Puma. The two have since been joined in their living arrangement by NXT superstar Tessa Blanchard, after she and Ricochet started dating. Because of these close relationships with WWE talent, fans have long speculated Ricochet will soon join WWE himself, but such rumors remain mere speculation.
8 8. Jerry Lynn and Scotty Riggs
The wrestling career of Scotty Riggs is mostly remembered only for the goofy theme song he suffered while one of The American Males, along with a short stint as an also-ran in Raven’s Flock. Jerry Lynn is far more memorable as a former ECW World Champion, in addition to a somewhat insignificant run as WWE Light Heavyweight Champion in 2001. Not long before his success, Lynn was wallowing in the midcard of WCW along with Riggs, at which point the two were also roommates. Riggs later admitted he could never keep up with Lynn in the ring, even as Lynn was known as the unsuccessful masked superstar Mr. JL and Riggs was earning a minor push. The two had little in common while they lived together, though Riggs said this actually helped the two get along as roommates, since they stayed out of one another’s business living separate lives while maintaining a cordial friendship.
7 7. Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch
Long before he went solo and took the world by storm as “The American Dream,” Dusty Rhodes was one half of a roughneck tag team known as The Texas Outlaws. His partner was Dick Murdoch, a man Rhodes also shared an apartment with while they won titles in Texas, Florida, Detroit, and even Australia, amongst various other territories throughout the world. According to Dusty, the two had a pet during their time together, namely a donkey named Zeb. Not surprisingly, Rhodes and Murdoch actually got kicked out of their apartment because of the donkey, which was apparently impossible to house train. While Dusty arguably became a much bigger star than Murdoch after the team broke up, he would long argue that his former partner was actually the better wrestler of the two, even calling Murdoch the greatest wrestler of all time during a 2013 interview with Bleacher Report.
6 6. Cody Michaels and Shane Douglas
Depending on who you listen to, some wrestling historians have credited both Shane Douglas and Cody Michaels with greatly expanding the initial prominence of ECW. Michaels’ involvement is more tenuous, only working in a handful of job matches and helping promotion in the Pittsburgh area, while Douglas was the first official ECW World Champion and a top star of the company for many years. Regardless of their influence on ECW, Michaels and Douglas also happened to be college roommates, later training under Dominic DeNucci, as well. They were joined in their class by other future luminaries such as Mick Foley and referee Brian Hildebrand. Michaels mostly left wrestling in the early ‘90s after a serious neck injury, later returning to the spotlight by organizing the 1999 indie super show Curtis Goes Home, a benefit for the previously mentioned Hildebrand, who was suffering end stage stomach cancer. Michaels and Douglas remain friends to this day, and later worked together on attempted ECW revival, Extreme Rising.
5 5. Edge and Christian
Of the many qualities required to become a great tag team, nothing is quite as important as the ability to compliment one another and turn two good superstars into one outstanding unit. There’s a reason Edge and Christian are fondly remembered as one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history, and part of it dates back to their lifelong friendship, starting when they attended high school together. Edge and Christian continued being friends through college, which is where the two were roommates, and the pairing kept growing from there by training together with Ron Hutchinson. They teamed together under dozens of names on the Canadian independent circuit and quickly took over WWE when they debuted around the same time in late 1998. Though they no longer live together, Edge and Christian remain close friends to this day, totally reeking of awesomeness all the while.
4 4. Yoshi Tatsu and Sheamus
Even without their divergent careers in wrestling, a simple look at Yoshi Tatsu and Sheamus would make most wrestling fans assume Sheamus would both be the bigger star and win in a real fight between the two. You also wouldn’t necessarily think the two would be roommates, but they were, along with Ted DiBiase, Jr., when all three were working for Florida Championship Wrestling. Despite being roommates, Tatsu and Sheamus didn’t necessarily get along and the result of their tiff proves the first assumption incorrect, as well. According to The Wrestling Observer, Sheamus was a classic example of a bad roommate, using Tatsu and DiBiase’s belongings without asking and leaving the house a mess without being willing to clean it up. After the two confronted him about it, Sheamus got angry and threw a protein shaker at Tatsu, but Tatsu caught it and beat Sheamus up in response. Chances are, they didn’t keep living together long after that.
3 3. Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson
As the two female representatives of WCW during the Invasion, Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson were inexorably linked together throughout their entire wrestling careers. It didn’t hurt that the two were also close friends behind the scenes, starting to bond when they were two of the hardest working females training under Madusa at the WCW Power Plant. After years of working together, the two became roommates around the same time their wrestling careers started winding down, moving in to an apartment in Los Angeles circa 2005. Shortly thereafter, both women left WWE and attempting careers elsewhere in entertainment, with Stacy achieving moderately greater success than Torrie. Regardless of their varying success, Torrie and Stacy always referred to one another as their mutual best friends in the business, whether that business was pro wrestling or their later attempts at acting.
2 2. Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar
“The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar is such a freak of nature it can be difficult to picture him sitting in a college dorm and studying with his roommate. The only thing making this story more palatable is the fact his roommate would later become a famous pro wrestler as well, namely WWE Intercontinental Championship Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin was also one of Lesnar’s trainers, a favor Lesnar returned by demanding WWE hire Benjamin as one of the terms of his initial contract. Prior to becoming WWE superstars, Lesnar and Benjamin went from amateurs to pros in Ohio Valley Wrestling, competing as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew and winning the OVW Tag Team Championships. The more famous Lesnar gets, the more solitary he becomes, but he and Benjamin are still close enough that Lesnar named Shelton the godfather to his two oldest children.
1 1. Daniel Bryan and Shinsuke Nakamura
“The King of Strong Style” Shinsuke Nakamura and Daniel Bryan looks like a dream match anywhere in wrestling, though one highly unlikely to ever happen thanks to Bryan’s 2016 retirement. The two had a long history together before then, however, including several years as roommates when they lived in Los Angeles and trained at the L.A. Dojo. Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida also lived with them at the time. Machida and Nakamura’s relationship was strained due to the fact neither spoke English particularly well, and Machida’s Portuguese was useless with Nakamura’s Japanese. Bryan did the best he could to translate and keep the peace, becoming good friends with Nakamura although neither Bryan nor Nakamura could get along with the contentious Machida. Nakamura and Machida were in fact so bad at times that Bryan later claimed his role often became playing peacekeeper, quietly predicting his later role as an affable General Manager.