WWE's greatest families - Part 2

Bret Hart

Continuing from where we left in Part 1 when we looked back at the careers of the Guerrero, the Orton and the Rhodes families , we shall now take a look at the final three greatest families that have been the major power players in the storylines of the Stamford, Connecticut based Wrestling conglomerate.

3) The Hart Family

The Hart family from Calgary,Alberta, Canada are one of the most revered family stables that have ever stepped inside the WWE’s ring. The patriarch of the family, Stu Hart was a wrestler as well as a promoter in Calgary. But he gained fame as a trainer inside the infamous Hart dungeon. The dungeon which was basically the basement of the Hart family home where the trainees didn’t have any protection with bare walls and floors as the only things that could stop your momentum.

A wrestling family through and through, all 8 of Stu’s sons found themselves inside the ring either as wrestlers or in the case of Wayne Hart as a pro-wrestling referee. His four daughters all married pro-wrestlers as the next generation of the Hart family started to dominate the wrestling scene from the late 1980′s.

The most famous of Stu’s sons is of course Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart (the best there is, the best there and the best there ever will be. Enough said.) The second ever WWE Triple crown champion, Bret is still considered by many as the best technical wrestler that has ever wrestled in the WWE. The Hall of famer won the WWF championship 5 times. He also won the Intercontinental championship, the tag-team championship and the King of the Ring tournament twice. Bret Hart also got his hands on the US championship once and won the Royal Rumble once as well.

However, his most remembered moment was also the one that he was left most humiliated by – The Montreal Screwjob when Vince Mcmahon screwed him of the WWF championship in front of his home crowd in Montreal. Hart then joined WCW where he won the WCW World Heavyweight title 2 times, the WCW US title 4 times and the WCW Tag team championship (With Goldberg) to become the only man to have captured the Triple crown with both WWE and WCW.

Other famous Hart family wrestlers include Owen Hart, the British Bulldog and current WWE diva Natalya. Owen Hart won the King of the Ring tournament in 1994> He also won the WWF European championship(once),the WWF Intercontinental championship(twice) and the WWF Tag-team championship(4 times). Owen lost his life in a tragic accident when he fell 74 feet onto the top rope of the ring while grappling down into the ring(part of his Blue Blazer gimmick).The British Bulldog, who married Bret and Owen’s sister – Diana Joyce was a two-time Hardcore, Tag-team and European Champion. He also won the WWF Intercontinental championship once. He died of a heart attack caused by his excessive abuse of steroids and the human growth hormone.

These days the Hart family is represented by Natalya in the WWE locker room.

The Rock

2) The Ano’i clan

The Samoan clan has produce numerous brilliant wrestlers who have thrilled the crowds for around 4 decades now. The story began with High Chief Peter Maivia who was adopted by the clan. He wrestled in the WWF in the 1970′s but his real claim to fame was his appearance in the 1967 James Bond flick, You Only Live Twice, playing the driver that transports a disguised Bond to Osato headquarters.

The Wild Samoans( Aki and Sika) – the sons of Maivia ‘blood brother’ Amituanai Anoa’i and trained by Maivia himself, they were considered to be one of the most vicious and successful tag-teams of all time winning 21 tag-team championship titles in promotions around the world including the WWF where they won the title 3 times.

The next big talent who was related to thee Ano’i clan was Rocky Johnson, who married Ata Maivia the adopted daughter of Peter Maivia. Johnson was part of the first African American tag-team to hold the WWF tag-team titles. In 1992, another clan member Yokozuna, took the WWF by storm owerwhelming the scene with his rather humongous size and surprising agility. The burly Samoan(who was said to be a sumo champion from Japan) won the WWF Title and the tag-team title twice.

It was however, the next clan member who really took the WWE by storm. Making his début in 1996 in the SummerSlam PPV, Rocky Maivia went on to become the biggest superstar that the company ever saw. Don’t recognise that name, Rocky Maivia later electrified the millions in the WWE universe under the most famous moniker in the WWE till date – ‘The Rock‘. He achieved the greatest possible success in the WWE and from there went to Hollywood where he is now a proper big picture player. His rapport with the fans still hasn’t ebbed which Vince McMahon used to push up the ratings at the start of the year.

Other members of the Ano’i clan who made it big in the WWE were the brothers Rikishi and Umaga who like their cousin Yokuzuna were big guys who were quite agile. Rikishi and Umaga both won the Intercontinental championship. Rikishi also won the Tag-team titles thrice.

The Ano’i family are represented today by the Uso’s(Rikishi’s twin sons) and Roman Reigns.

The Mcmahons

1) The McMahons

Without the McMahons the WWE would never have existed. Mr. McMahon brought the company from his father and transformed the whole wrestling business in the United States as he bought out the rest of his competition. During the attitutde era he created the biggest WWE villain of all time – Mr. McMahon – basically a really bonkers version of himself who was a tyrant and a bully who feuded with the beer-drinking, finger raising, foul mouthed Texas redneck who went by the name of Stone Cold Steve Austin. McMahon and his wife take care of most of the day-to-day business of the management side of the businesss.

Vince’s son Shane also wrestled professionally becoming part of numerous storylines including the infamous Invasion storyline. Shane now is the Chairman of a China based broadband internet provider YOU on Demand Holdings.

His sister Stephanie is the current queen of the Jungle that is the WWE under the Authority storyline and has made numerous appearances over the years on WWE TV programming. Her marriage to Triple H in 2003 brought in some actual Wrestling talent into the first family of Wrestling. Triple H has won 23 championship in the WWE including the WWE championship(8 times), World Heavyweight Title and the Intercontinental Title (5 times each), as well as the Tag team titles( 3 times) and the European title(twice). Triple H is currently the Executive Vice President of Talent and Live Events.