10 Wrestling Romances that Worked Out

#1. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

Pictured: some of the biggest heels in the history of professional wrestling looking like anything but that

The gold standard for successful wrestling couples is also the business's most prominent, and one of the most improbable.

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon first connected onscreen with a less-than-tasteful story that seems to be left out of the couple's history during the PG era. On the night Stephanie was to wed Test on a 1999 edition of Monday Night RAW, Helmsley interrupted the ceremony to show footage of Stephanie's bachelor party; after losing consciousness thanks to a suspicious drink, Stephanie was next shown in the passenger seat of Triple H's car at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas. Helmsley in the video provided Stephanie's part of the wedding vow in a falsetto voice, while Helmsley in the arena bragged about wedding night activities that would land him on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Those videos turned out to be a storyline ruse as, either due to the long-term plan or due to pressure over Stephanie's implied lack of consent, it was revealed that she was in on the scheme the whole time, turning on her dad in December to turn heel with her kayfabe husband.

Real-life Paul Levesque was still romantically involved with Chyna at this point, but eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed a sharp decline in Joanie Laurer's screen time over the coming year and a half as Levesque and McMahon's onscreen relationship increased their offscreen quality time (the fact that Levesque was already heavily involved in the company's creative process at the time did not hurt his opportunities to spend more time with the Billion Dollar Princess).

Far better than a Las Vegas drive-thru and/or an arena full of jeering fans.

The onscreen marriage has ebbed and flowed, but in recent years has morphed to match the real-life marriage, which became official in October of 2003 (ironically in the same week that McMahon fought her father in an "I Quit" match, which was less-than-welcome wedding prep for the bride-to-be). Fans have long crowed about the effects that this relationship and marriage might have had on The Game's career opportunities, but far more good has resulted from this union than bad, especially for wrestling fans.

A deeper connection with the McMahon family helped Levesque sharpen his business acumen, earning him a spot as WWE's Chief Operating Officer and, most importantly, the mastermind behind WWE's revamped developmental system, which has been nothing but a gift for fans, especially in the WWE Network era.

The couple has three daughters, and regularly make non-kayfabe posts about their family on social media (although the revamped storyline history of their relationship might call into question what is and is not a part of the show); further, Levesque and McMahon share a love of physical fitness, and make their workout routines a significant part of their public image.

For fans, though, the most successful wrestling romance of all time gives longtime followers of the product hope for the future, as it seems to have set up a line of succession should WWE's longtime creative force, Vince McMahon, ever have to step away.