Fake professional wrestling families have been around since the golden age of professional wrestling. The Von Erich family was legendary before the sons of Fritz Von Erich took Texas by storm, but in that case, Fritz and Waldo Von Erich were not even really related. They took it one step further when a new Von Erich was introduced in the '80s named Lance, who also wasn't related to the boys. This is something that professional wrestling loved to do and something that they still do to this day.
Over the years, there have been amazing brother tandems in wrestling history. Harlem Heat and the Steiner Brothers were both real brother teams that reached amazing success. In present-day WWE, The Usos are not only brothers but twins who have worked together to carry on their family name. However, along the way, WWE has presented a number of brothers to their fans, many of which were not related in any way.
10 EDGE AND CHRISTIAN
In 1998, Edge made his debut in WWE and ran in from the audience for his matches. He was mysterious, no one knew who he was, and using the name Edge, he was clearly someone WWE could build a backstory on. During one of his matches, someone showed up in the audience with long hair like Edge and distracted him.
It turned out this was Christian and in the storyline, he was Edge's brother that he had not seen in a while. They began teaming, first as The Brood and later as just Edge & Christian, and eventually became seven-time tag champions. They were not related, though they were childhood friends and teamed together in the indies before making their way to WWE.
9 OLE ANDERSON AND ARN ANDERSON
The Anderson family in professional wrestling are legendary. Originally, brothers Gene and Lars Anderson teamed up and later two more brothers joined the world of professional wrestling in Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson. The latter two became very popular thanks to being two members of the original Four Horsemen.
However, in reality, only Gene Anderson was named Anderson. Ole Anderson is named Al Rogowski, Lars Anderson is Larry Heiniemi and Arn Anderson is Marty Lunde. To add to this fictional family, they even pretended that Ric Flair was a cousin. None of these men were related at all in real life.
8 KANE AND UNDERTAKER
When Undertaker appeared, he was originally supposed to be known as Kaine the Undertaker but WWE smartly shortened it and just called him Undertaker. He was originally a demented mortician but soon morphed into the zombie-like Dead Man. Using the mortician angle, WWE soon introduced Undertaker's brother that he thought was dead to become his new enemy.
That was Kane, who almost died when Undertaker burned down their family's mortuary. However, he lived wearing a mask to cover his burned and scarred face, and wanted vengeance. Of course, Kane and Undertaker are not really related to each other, with Undertaker portrayed by Mark Calaway and Kane by Glenn Jacobs.
7 THE DUDLEY BOYZ
The Dudley Boyz were ECW originals straight from the mean streets of Dudleyville. The story was that Big Daddy Dudley had a lot of illegitimate children. The half brothers consisted of Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Dudley Dudley, Snot Dudley, Dances with Dudley, Chubby Dudley, Little Spike Dudley, Big Dick Dudley and Sign Guy Dudley. By the time they went to WWE, it was just Bubba and D-Von, The Dudley Boyz.
The half-brothers from another mother won 23 tag team titles together. They were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018. And, they were not brothers. Mark LoMonaco portrays Bubba Ray and Devon Hughes is D-Von.
6 JACKIE AND DON FARGO
The idea of fake brothers is an age-old professional wrestling tradition. Head back to 1950 and Fabulous Jackie Fargo started his wrestling career, which included a number of tag team partners and championships -- 45 total tag team titles over his career. His name was Henry Faggart, but he wrestled as Jackie Fargo since early in his career.
In 1956, Jackie teamed with his most famous partner, Don Fargo. Unlike Jackie, Don started his career using a variety of names, including Don Juan the Magnificent. When he and Jackie teamed up, he became Don Fargo and the two worked as brothers, the Fabulous Fargos. While neither man was named Fargo, they kept the assumed names to the end of their careers.
5 THE BASHAM BROTHERS
WWE has loved to create fake brother tag teams through the years. In 2002, The Basham Brothers began working as a tag team in Ohio Valley Wrestling, the developmental territory of WWE. Known as Doug and Damaja Basham, they won the tag titles there and eventually moved up to the main WWE roster.
WWE changed the names to Doug and Danny Basham and worked as the Basham Brothers on SmackDown. However, while the word "Brothers" was in their team name and they shared a surname, they were not related. Doug Basham is Lyle Basham while Danny Basham's real name is Daniel Holle.
4 THE SMOKING GUNNS
The Smoking Gunns became tag team partners in the indies and were tag team champs in the IWF. They made their debut in WWE in 1993 at WrestleMania IX as a team of cowboy brothers. They won their debut match and started a winning streak.
As a tag team, Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn won the WWE tag team titles three times and even had Sunny as their manager at one point. However, the two men were not brothers. Billy Gunn (Monty Sopp) went on to be even more successful in the New Age Outlaws while Bart Gunn (Michael Polchlopek) lost in the finals of the Brawl for All tournament and left WWE.
3 THE MAJOR BROTHERS
The Major Brothers hold the distinction of being the youngest tag team to ever win tag titles in WWE history. The two were old friends and started working together in 2004 in the indies before signing with WWE. Using the names Brian and Brett Major, the Major Brothers won titles in the Deep Spoth developmental territory.
They kept the names for a short time until they became the Edge Heads and worked to help Edge keep his titles. That is when they stopped bring brothers and changed their names to Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins and won the SmackDown tag titles from MNM.
2 THE GODWINNS
Hillbilly Jim was one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE in the '80s. He was a close friend of Hulk Hogan and over time introduced his "family" to WWE, which included Cousin Luke and Uncle Elmer, neither of which was related to him. The fake family then moved to the next generation in the '90s.
Hillbilly Jim returned as a manager and brought in his new tag team, brothers named Phineas I. Godwinn (PIG) and Henry O. Godwinn (HOG). The two then changed their relationship to cousins and then worked as Southern Justice. In reality, Dennis Knight and Mark Canterbury were not related.
1 JIMMY AND JOHNNY VALIANT
One of the most popular brother tag teams of old-school WWE was Jimmy and Johnny Valient. The two became well-known even after they went their separate ways. Johnny Valient became a manager and took his tag team expertise and passed it on to The Dream Team. Jimmy Valiant became the charismatic Boogie Woogie Man in the NWA.
There was even a third brother named Gentleman Jerry Valiant. Jimmy and Johnny Valient were named to the WWE Hall of Fame -- the first tag team to receive an induction. None of the men were brothers and none of them had the real surname Valiant.