5 WWE Superstars who don't get along with their siblings

It’s not unusual for WWE Superstars to refer to one another as brothers and sisters. They share intense bonds they form travelling the world together and trusting one another with the safety of their bodies. Additionally, they endure shared experiences like being away from family and having to stay in extraordinary shape to continue to meet WWE standards.

But what of these stars and their real-life brothers and sisters? Sure, there are some families for which wrestling is a family pursuit and more than one sibling is involved in the business. But even that can lead to tensions over professional jealousies or differences in visions. And then there are those stars who rose from tough upbringings and have since done all they can to put their families behind them.

This article takes a look at five WWE Superstars, past and present, who haven’t always gotten along with their siblings.

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#5 CM Punk

CM Punk doesn't define family by bloodlines.

CM Punk can famously be a bit of a grump. He has admitted as much about how he behaves when he’s in a bad mood and all the more so when he feels someone has disrespected him. He’s notorious for being less-than-welcoming to fans he runs into at the airport and was known to have his share of confrontational relationships with his colleagues as well.

So, it may not be so surprising to learn that Punk has had issues getting along with his own brother, too. In the Best in the World documentary produced by WWE, Punk discussed that his brother stole money from him after they put on a backyard wrestling show.

Punk consequently made the choice cut him out of his life. He cited that he sees many of his friends from different parts of his life as brothers and sisters, but that someone who steals isn’t a brother, so he had no qualms about cutting ties.

#4 Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler and his brother's lives went in very different directions.

While Dolph Ziggler has one brother who is an aspiring wrestler, whom he was by all indications supportive of, he also has his older brother Donald Nemeth. Donald was convicted on charges of manslaughter earlier this year and was reportedly handed a fifteen-year prison sentence.

It’s wild to think about two brothers’ lives going in such different directions. Ziggler is now a two-time World Champion and WWE mainstay. Meanwhile, his brother went down a path of drug addiction and low-level crime. That road led up to what was reportedly a robbery gone wrong when he and friends purportedly got involved in a scuffle with a military veteran who had been their drug dealer and wound up inadvertently killing him.

WWE’s Show Off has by most accounts distanced himself from his brother, understandably wanting to have nothing to do with him until he has his act cleaned up.

#3 Bret Hart

Bret Hart got along with some of his brothers better than others.

Bret Hart is a legend in the wrestling world who headlined three WrestleManias and had an excellent decade-plus run with WWE before defecting to WCW. Down south, he collected, even more, World Championship gold. In more recent times, he has mended old wounds with WWE and has made recurring appearances as a legend for the company.

Hart comes from a large family and most of his brother were involved in wrestling to some extent at one time or another. As discussed in his book, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, he didn’t always get along with all of his siblings. In particular, there’s Bruce, who from Bret’s account was a glory hound always out to put himself over.

His issues were bad enough, according to Bret, that he more than once sabotaged himself when WWE might have signed him by blowing a guest spot for being too invested in coming across as the warrior hero. It’s unclear what kind of terms the brothers are on now, but after what Bret wrote and Bruce’s backlash, it’s doubtful they’ll ever trust one another completely again.

#2 Shane McMahon

No one is quite sure where the line between fact and fiction lies in the McMahon sibling rivalry.

Don’t get me wrong — Shane McMahon seems to have a functional relationship with his sister, Stephanie. The two grew up together with Shane by both of their accounts taking on a largely paternal role while their parents were often busy with business. The two worked well together behind the scenes and for business purposes when they each grew into more prominent roles on and off air.

It’s widely rumoured, however, that a competitive edge flared up between the two of them as they matured and a legitimate question arose as to which of them would be the rightful heir to Vince McMahon’s empire. Shane is thought to have left WWE when he saw the writing on the wall that Stephanie and Triple H were getting the keys to the kingdom.

When Shane returned to the company in 2016, there was reportedly real-life tension between him and Stephanie. Suspicions abounded that Vince was even pitting them against one another on purpose to tap into their competitive spirit and see what each could do.

#1 Carlito

The Colons demonstrated different personalities at the Hall of Fame.

There was a time when Carlito looked as though he might rise to the top of WWE. He was a second-generation star with great charisma and good in-ring skills. The prevailing understanding of why he failed in WWE, however, was a sense that he was lazy and unwilling to put in the effort the WWE brass wanted from him.

When his brother, Primo, was introduced to the WWE audience, it offered a brief resurgence for Carlito, particularly when the two teamed up and he got more direction for his character than he’d had in the preceding months. In the end, though, Carlito would leave WWE to go back to Puerto Rico and work for their father, leaving Primo to team with their cousin Epico in the years to follow.

We would see Carlito once more after he got his release, co-inducting his father to the WWE Hall of Fame. We got to catch a glimpse of Carlito and Primo’s real-life dynamic in this moment. Carlito gave a freewheeling, partially comedic speech that included chiding WWE for offering less time for their father’s induction than acts like The Ultimate Warrior and Razor Ramon received.

Primo, the more responsible and perhaps conservative brother, or at least the one still employed by WWE at the time, looked visibly annoyed as he cut off his bad apple (pun intended) brother.

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