WWE stars are on the road for around 300 days a year, which means that many wrestlers become close friends with the people they are on the road with.
Over the years, several WWE stars, past and present, have come through the ranks together and become roommates in real life. Sometimes, the best rivalries are the ones that are between real-life best friends, which is why many of these former roommates have been able to have interesting rivalries on WWE TV.
The following list looks at just ten current and former WWE stars who were once roommates but went on to have a number of matches or feuds against one another on either RAW, SmackDown, or NXT.
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#5. Former WWE stars Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler
Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler were two of the women who made their way to WWE after stints in WCW. The two women knew each other well and were both friends and enemies throughout their time together as part of the company.
The two women were close friends outside of WWE and reportedly became roommates when they both decided to buy a place in Los Angeles back in 2005. At this time, Stacy Keibler was already looking at other options after leaving WWE and Torrie Wilson was pushing herself forward on the RAW brand.
Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson have gone on to having differing careers since. Keibler is now married with two daughters and a son after a mildly successful acting career. Wilson is now a fitness instructor and married her long-time partner Justin Tupper back in September 2019. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year by Stacy Keibler.
It is surprising that even though Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson were part of WWE for an extended period of time, neither of them was able to win a Championship in the company.
#4. Former WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and Shinsuke Nakamura
Earlier this year, when Daniel Bryan was feuding with Sami Zayn over The Intercontinental Championship heading into WWE WrestleMania, he also stepped into the path of Shinsuke Nakamura.
The two men have had a few matches on WWE TV, but now that Bryan is a face and The Artist remains a heel, they will likely be involved in a lengthy feud in the future on SmackDown.
This would definitely be a show-stealing feud since Daniel Bryan and Nakamura have known each other for many years and wrestled many times. Back in the early 2000s, when Nakamura was training in Los Angeles at the LA Dojo, he was roommates with the former WWE Champion. Bryan talked about rooming with Nakamura back in 2016, where he realized that The Japanese star didn't like sweets.
"Me and Nakamura had a great time living together. So he is not a big fan of sweets. I love sweets. Like, every week of my life, I've had a cheat day. And some weeks I've gone really bad, so, like, I love cookies, cakes, that sort of thing, and so I introduced Nakamura to donuts. I don't think he [has] ever had a donut. He's like, 'I don't really like sweets'. [Bryan responded] 'no! This is going to blow your mind!' And I never met anybody like it who, he had a bite of the donut and he said, 'ew, too sweet' and I was just like, 'what? What culture do you come from where you can ingest too much sugar?'"
Bryan revealed that he was the person who introduced the King of Strong Style to donuts around 18 years ago.
#3. WWE rivals Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville
Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were recently part of an intense feud on WWE TV when their friendship came to an abrupt end. The main story of the rivalry was that Deville became jealous of the fact that everything was so easy for Rose and turned when God's Greatest Creation found out that she was trying to keep Otis away from her.
Their feud included several brawls and Deville even cutting Rose's hair before a "Hair vs. Hair match" was announced for SummerSlam. This was later changed to a "Loser Leaves WWE" match after Deville struggled with some personal issues outside the ring.
Sonya Deville commented on her feud with Mandy Rose, stating:
"What makes a great storyline, you have to put some real in there. Obviously everything is magnified and has a creative spin to it, but I think it’s very important to bring real life elements in there. When I was working on the first promo I did with Mandy, I was helping write it and threw in there that she came to my sister’s wedding with me, and she was my roommate. Those are things that maybe the writers or someone wouldn’t have known. So you’re sitting at home [and] hopefully that gives you the ability to be like, ‘Wow, this cuts deep. They weren’t just friends on TV–they are actually real-life friends and sisters.’"
The two women have been best friends since their time on WWE's Tough Enough and have been roommates throughout this time. The two women have also recently made up after Deville revealed that Rose apologized on Instagram.
#2. Mia Yim and WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Shayna Baszler
Mia Yim has recently been promoted to WWE's main roster as a member of RETRIBUTION, where she is known as Reckoning, while Shayna Baszler has been part of Monday Night RAW since February this year.
Baszler is currently one half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, but while she was down in NXT, Mia Yim put a target on her back. Baszler was the NXT Women's Champion and Yim wanted a chance to hold the gold.
Despite being arch enemies inside the ring, the former NXT Women's Champion and Yim are the best friends in real life. In fact, Mia Yim and Shayna Baszler have known each other before they even joined WWE and have faced off several times in the independent circuit
Yim and Baszler have been roommates throughout their time in NXT, along with Jessamyn Duke, who has made several main roster appearances throughout her career. The three women have become close friends throughout their time together and Yim herself has confessed that she has learned a lot from living with half of MMA's Four Horsewomen.
#1. WWE stars Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano
Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano have had some of the most intense matches in WWE NXT history over the past few years. Their feud began back in May 2017 when Ciampa did the unthinkable and turned on Gargano after the two men were unable to reclaim the NXT Tag Team Championships.
Over the years, the two men have been bitter rivals and best friends. They were even promoted to WWE's main roster together and then dropped back down to NXT.
Ciampa and Gargano have carried NXT for most of the past three years. The two men were able to have such an incredible feud because they are best friends outside of WWE.
Gargano and Ciampa were roommates until 2017 when The Sicilian Psychopath turned on his best friend and then moved out of their apartment. The two men were so close that Ciampa was even part of Gargano's wedding to Candice LeRae back in 2016, something that came through when the two men were tearing each other apart in the main event of several TakeOver events.