The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Kayfabe Families

The Von Erichs. The Harts. The McMahons. Wrestling has its great families who have entertained, enjoyed longevity, and provided key continuity from generation to generation in pro wrestling as both a business and in terms of storylines. But there are other families and familial connections with no basis in reality that have, nonetheless accomplished great things in the world of wrestling.

The insinuation of a family connection implies a connection deeper than friendship and the pursuit of financial gain. Shared blood make partnerships and alliances steadier. They make feuds feel all the more heated for how necessarily personal they must be. Familial connections put people together and tear them apart in organic ways that allow for long-term and compelling storytelling.

This week, I’m looking at some of the shrewdest, most effective, most famous, and most influential faux-family units in pro wrestling history. Key considerations included entertainment value, how important the familial connection was for the characters involved, and impact on wrestling. Note: I only considered families for which at least two family members were active wrestlers (so, for example, Shelton Benjamin and his mother would not be eligible) and a simple marriage of two performers does not count (so, Lita and Kane would not be eligible on their own). This should go without saying, but actual families were not in consideration (though I was open to families that had one real relation as long as the kayfabe familial connections were at least equally prominent).

#7. Edge and Christian

We never learned their last name and, over time, WWE stopped bothering with the pretense that Adam Copeland and Jay Reso were actually related. When Christian debuted as Edge’s doppleganger and accomplice in late 1998, though, the WWF promptly established that the two were brothers, and up to no good.

With their long blond hair, sunglasses, and a natural chemistry born out of having legitimately grown up together as childhood friends, it was easy enough to for the twosome to pass for brothers—first as a mysterious duo that backed Gangrel, before shifting to a comedic act that nonetheless proved electrifying and dangerous in the ring—more than worthy foils to fellow kayfabe brothers The Dudleys, and legit brother-brother pair, The Hardy Boyz.

Edge and Christian would go their separate ways and it’s telling of how far each man came that WWE felt compelled to make them more distinctive characters and do more ambitious things with them. Unlike, say, the team of Billy and Bart Gunn in which Billy never quite graduated from the mid-card and Bart dropped out of the national spotlight within a few years, Edge went on to be one of the most decorated stars of his generation and a main event mainstay, while Christian remained one of the most charismatic mid-card acts in WWE (and a bigger star in TNA) before getting his brief shot at the top of the card in 2011.

The kayfabe brotherhood of Edge and Christian helped put the pair on the map, at first making them more mysterious, then making them feel all the more suitably juvenile and annoying as a couple of kazoo playing miscreants. Finally, they outgrew the connection, and WWE rightfully let them stand on their own.

#6. The Holly Cousins

The Attitude Era had its share of faux-families, and few were as fun as Hardcore Holly, and his cousins Crash and Molly. They functioned nicely as a unit, with the two men teaming up—about equal parts hardcore and hilarity—only to be joined by Molly as their manager and sidekick. It was a successful mid-card act that garnered all three Hollys name recognition and screen time. Moreover it worked to the extent that all three could break out as successful singles acts as Hardcore remained a mid-card mainstay and (briefly) flirted with the main event opposite Brock Lesnar, while Crash became one of the best remembered and most entertaining Hardcore Champions. Perhaps most notably of all, Molly enjoyed longevity in the women’s division, establishing herself first as a Holly, before attaching herself to The Hurricane for a similarly fun run as Might Molly, before getting a successful heel run back under the Holly name, during which she most notably enjoyed two reigns as the Women’s Champion.

The Holly Cousins represent one of the best qualities of the Vince Russo style booking of The Attitude Era during which each act had a distinctive personality and purpose. The Hollys may not have ever taken home world championships, but they thrived for years in the middle of the card, in runs that were rooted in their memorable family gimmick.

#5. The Dudley Family

In one ECW’s more absurd extended backstories, The Dudleys were an unorthodox clan of professional wrestlers, all spawned by the promiscuous Big Daddy Dudley, a fictitious journeyman wrestler who spread his seed across women throughout the country to result in a markedly diverse family of at least nine brothers who congregated in Philadelphia to wreak havoc.

The brotherhood resulted in all manner of tag reams, which, of course, most famously culminated in the pairing of Bubba Ray and D-Von. This Dudley pair not only thrived in the red hot ECW promotion, but went on to tag team glory in WWE, TNA, and throughout Japan, becoming one of the most decorated pairs in wrestling history, and perhaps most remarkably of all, still running strong almost twenty years after their inception (not to mention “Bully Ray” getting a world title run in TNA). And while most of the other Dudleys wound up as relatively forgettable background players, the family did lead to one other mainstream success story in the form of Spike Dudley—never a main event star, but contributor to the ECW and then WWF mid-card as a regular presence in the Hardcore division who also picked up Cruiserweight, European, and Tag Team gold of his own, apart from his more celebrated “brothers.”

#4. The Fabulous Fargos

The Fargo name may not be familiar in 2015, but rewind through wrestling history and the pairing of kayfabe brothers Jackie and Don Fargo made waves. The tandem captured tag gold in multiple territories, most prominently Tennessee, where their wild brawls ushered in an era of violence that transcended the ring, and Jackie’s strut (that purportedly emerged concurrently but independently from Buddy Rogers’) established a new sense of style and panache in pro wrestling. Moreover, they were joined for some of these tag wars by a third kayfabe brother, Johnny Fargo (best remembered as Greg Valentine).

Jerry Lawler—the name contemporary fans tend to link most directly to Memphis wrestling—lists Jackie Fargo as his primary inspiration and mentor, and thus the legacy of the Fargo name remains alive and noteworthy.

The faux-family element of the Fargos gets muddied by Jackie going on to tag with his actual brother Sonny. This team was a success story, too, and major contributor to Jackie ultimately capturing over forty tag team championships across a range of territories.

#3. The Koloffs

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ivan Koloff earned the status of legendary heel. He not only played his Russian villain character to a tee; he beat Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Championship.

Today, a world title change is newsworthy. In 1971, it meant beating a guy who hadn’t been pinned or submitted for nearly eight years to seize the crown. History tells us that Koloff was a transitional champion, given that his reign lasted less than a month before he dropped the title Pedro Morales for his own extended run on top of the territory. Just the same, Koloff entered his name in the ranks of elite performers, and particularly elite foreigner heel acts with that title win and implied paradigm shift.

Koloff probably could have hung his hat on that accomplishment and called it a career. But thirteen years later, as part of Jim Crockett promotions he furthered his legacy with the introduction of his kayfabe nephew, Nikita Koloff. The bookers shrewdly obscured Nikita’s limitations in the early going of his career—booking him in very short squash matches where got to look imposing and develop a monster heel persona while he learned his craft. Before long, the uncle-nephew pair was going to bloody war with the Road Warriors, then comrade Krusher Kruschkev to form different permutations of the tag team, and to keep Ivan paired up while Nikita got a singles run and even made it to the main event scene to challenge Ric Flair, before settling in at the United States Championship level to most famously feud with Magnum TA.

In time, Nikita would turn face and even feud with his uncle to some success. However, The Koloffs will probably always be best remembered as a pair of dangerous heels, perfectly timed to capitalize on Cold War heat, and perfectly performed to be viable main event threats.

#2. The Anderson-Flair Clan

In this reality era, it’s easy to forget that the original kayfabe connection between Arn Anderson and Ric Flair is that they were portrayed to be cousins. Just the same, it is that faux-relation that laid the foundation for the two to first act as allies and lay the foundation for what was quite arguably the greatest, most iconic, and most influential stable of all time: The Four Horsemen.

The Anderson-Flair connection would, on its own, make the countdown. This family shores up its number two spot with the long history that preceded that.

The Anderson clan’s wrestling history dates back to the 1960s when Lars Anderson, Gene Anderson, and Ole Anderson teamed up in different permutations (most notably Gene and Ole) to form the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, which earned NWA tag gold in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as the AWA tag titles. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that Ole adopted Arn as a kayfabe nephew to revitalize the Anderson team, sub out Gene, and thus lay the foundation for the Horsemen to have their first run.

Flair is a unanimous pick on the short list of greatest wrestlers of all time, but there’s an argument to be made that he wouldn’t have been quite as good without the Andersons to back him. Thus, this kayfabe family had an impact subtly felt across decades of NWA, AWA, and WWE programming. You could easily call it wrestling’s all-time best phony family, but I have just one other group of performers who I feel edge them out.

#1. The Unholy Family of Paul Bearer, The Undertaker, and Kane

The Undertaker is on the short list of all-time great gimmick characters. He debuted as a superficially prosaic zombie. The character matured under the tutelage of fitting heel (and later face) manager Paul Bearer. Together, the pairing coasted from the Hulk Hogan era to the New Generation into the The Attitude Era.

But how would a supersized zombie fit into an era largely defined by its reality-oriented edge? Would the WWF transition the character to full-on realism?

The answer is sort of. ‘Taker would go through his biker phase when the character was most mortal, and fought for, among other things the honor of his wife. But before he got there, and before he became a surreal cult leader, he would have to deal with his brother.

The Attitude Era was reality oriented, but it also leaned heavily on amped up soap opera theatrics including Brian Pillman brandishing a gun, Val Venis pursuing other wrestlers’ sisters and girlfriends with more aggression than anyone this side of Rick Rude, Triple H’s tumultuous relationship with his in-laws. I would argue that there was no more successful combined old-school-camp and soap-opera-dramatic angle than The Undertaker coping with the emergence of his brother Kane, who ‘Taker thought he had accidentally killed in a childhood house fire.

The Undertaker and Kane would feud and partner and feud again on repeat for over a decade, with additional wrinkles that Paul Bearer was the father to Kane (which, for genetics’ sake, implies that the mother was a ripped giant…). The match quality and particulars of the storytelling varied over the years, but regardless each character enjoyed remarkable longevity and weathered changing times with aplomb, often wandering in and out of the main event scene, but never ceasing to pose a threat. And while you can argue that the execution was off and the in-ring performances were sub-par, I’d argue that the final major angle between these two in 2010 was a pretty remarkable feat in WWE storytelling, attempting to retcon the past thirteen years of storylines into coherent order to suggest it had all been part of Kane’s master plan.

The Bearer family element of The Undertaker and Kane’s characters offered invaluable support to them each emerging as viable main event mainstays for the better part of two decades (consider that The Undertaker won his first world title at Survivor Series 1991 and would be main eventing Hell in a Cell opposite Brock Lesnar in 2015; consider, too, that Kane would his first world title at King of the Ring 1998 and be challenging Seth Rollins for the world title at Hell in a Cell in 2015). Moreover, the family cemented Bearer’s own legacy as one of wrestling’s all-time great managers by giving him a signature pair of charges on wrestling’s biggest stage, after a decade of regional success as Percy Pringle.

When comes to kayfabe families, few ever approached the long-term impact of Paul Bearer and The Brothers of Destruction. Thus, they get my vote for the number one spot.

Which kayfabe families would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.