The use of relationships in wrestling can see wrestlers benefiting from using romance as a storytelling device. Many real-life couples have worked together on-screen when either the promotion realizes they can create some interest or the wrestlers themselves pitch an idea. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon or Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth would be the standard examples of it working.
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Unfortunately, not every couple to use their real-life love on screen will benefit from it. There have been some examples of failure with either the talents not clicking together in a scripted environment or just getting placed in bad storylines. Fans need a reason to care, and not everyone provides that. Each of the following real couples were not good together on television.
10 Stacy Keibler & Test
WWE paired together Test and Stacy Keibler when they were dating in real life, and each needed something new to do on-screen. Stacy started off trying to market Test to fans in a bad storyline basically designed to create jokes about testicle puns.
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Fans never got behind Test as much as WWE expected, and Keibler was being wasted. WWE eventually had them enter a love triangle with Scott Steiner that also flopped. Everything involving Stacy and Test as a couple act failed to deliver in WWE despite the real-life romance.
9 Tay Melo & Sammy Guevara
One of the most recent instances of a couple act backfiring saw Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo mixing life and script. AEW allowed them to tell the story of their relationship, but fans actually started booing them both as babyfaces to warrant a heel turn.
Guevara and Melo worked better together as heels, but it still felt like they were hurting their careers. Both had more promising chances at success on their own before the relationship ruined both of their respective momentum stretches of progress.
8 Gorgeous George & Randy Savage
WCW allowed Randy Savage to get his new real-life love interest hired when Gorgeous George joined with no relevant wrestling experience. Madusa and Molly Holly joined Gorgeous to form the Team Madness trio in Savage’s corner during matches.
The act eventually turned into Savage and George on their own, but fans did not care one bit. Savage felt like he was having a mid-life crising during a failed push with his new look and younger love interest. George was released shortly after the relationship with Savage reached an end to confirm she was a novelty hire.
7 Emma & Madcap Moss
Another more recent relationship that felt quite pointless on television was the duo of Madcap Moss and Emma. WWE rehired Emma during Triple H’s phase of bringing back former talents and placed her with her real-life boyfriend who was already on the roster.
Moss and Emma both come off like generic characters with less depth to their relationship in the storyline so far. An argument can be made for Emma among the weakest Triple H signing since this is her only angle so far, and few fans even remember it.
6 Kristal Marshall & Bobby Lashley
TNA hired former WWE diva Kristal Marshall to work with her real-life love interest at the time. Bobby Lashley joined TNA after his first WWE run ended and got to have his wife as a manager. TNA booked them in some odd storylines to cause disappointment.
Scott Steiner trying to harass and make a pass at Marshall led to Lashley looking for revenge. TNA even planned a short-lived heel turn of Kristal hating the fans and turning Lashley against them too. However, the angle ended when both parted ways with TNA after the first failed experiment. Lashley thankfully had another run to rebuild his wrestling career.
5 Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins
One of the biggest flops for a romantic pairing saw Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins trying to bring their real-life chemistry to the squared circle. Both babyfaces won their respective world titles at WrestleMania 35, and it inspired WWE to pitch them teaming against mutual enemies.
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Two failing feuds of Rollins vs Baron Corbin and Lynch vs Lacey Evans was even worse as a tag feud. Both Seth and Becky have discussed regretting this storyline that missed the mark. Lynch kept her momentum afterwards, but this badly damaged Rollins’ Universal Championship reign.
4 Miss Elizabeth & Lex Luger
Miss Elizabeth found great success working with Randy Savage in WWE and WCW, but the plan to work with a later love interest failed badly. WCW tried to push Lex Luger and Elizabeth together as a top heel couple when they started dating in real life.
Luger felt at his worst in the final few years of WCW with a generic heel gimmick relying on Elizabeth to cheat for him to steal matches. Elizabeth felt out of place as a traditional heel that started to get more physically involved. Fans just did not care for these two legends together as a couple.
3 Sara & The Undertaker
The Undertaker is one of the most respected WWE legends, but he clearly used his influence more than a few times. WWE hired Undertaker’s then wife Sara in the Attitude Era when he wanted her to become an on-screen personality with no wrestling experience.
However, the real-life couple felt stranger than most other acts of that kind since Sara just started randomly appearing as Undertaker’s wife. WWE trying to create interest with the storyline of Diamond Dallas Page stalking Sara just made fans care less about her presence.
2 Brandi Rhodes & Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes having such great success in WWE after having ups and downs in AEW was due to multiple factors. Most fans to watch both products name Brandi Rhodes as part of the reason why Cody wasn’t nearly as beloved or over in AEW.
Brandi had a strange character often playing a heel in the women’s division, then managing her husband. The Rhodes couple had some great moments together in Ring of Honor, but it became apparent Cody was better off without a manager after the lackluster AEW time together.
1 Nikki Bella & John Cena
John Cena was easily the top WWE star of his era, and Nikki Bella was arguably the top female star of the women’s division during her time. WWE even benefited from Cena and Nikki dating to help make Total Divas a massive reality show success in the first season. However, it wasn’t until WrestleMania 33 season that Cena and Nikki worked together as a couple on WWE television.
The feud with The Miz and Maryse saw the heel couple being the more entertaining duo. Cena proposing to Nikki felt a bit forced in the moment since it was done for a WrestleMania moment and looks worse today since they broke up shortly afterwards in real life.
