Celebrate Father's Day Pro-Wrestling Style

Jim Mitchell, also known as The Sinister Minister, has been a prominent manager on the independent scene for over two decades. While in TNA, he managed one wrestler more than anyone else. His work with that wrestler even reached a point where that wrestler referred to him as “Father Jim.”

Pro wrestling in Japan would not have ever caught on had this particular wrestler come along. He left the world of sumo wrestling and adopted concepts from American professional wrestling and created a uniquely Japanese concept called puroresu. This man went on to become a national hero that helped elevate the Japanese people out of the doldrums that plagued them in the years following World War II.

One of Vince McMahon’s supposed best traits is that he is willing to do anything and everything. Over the years, that mentality has led to some truly fantastic stories and matches and some truly dreadful ones as well. One of his most famous involved his rivalry with his own son Shane, which culminated at a father-vs.-son match at this edition of WrestleMania.

One of the most unusual storylines in recent RAW history concerned Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan. After Jordan was split from his partner Chad Gable, he floated rudderless for a while until he was paired with Angle and billed as Angle’s son. But those were enormous boots for Jordan to fill because Angle was one of the best pro wrestlers in modern history. Sadly, the pairing was dead on arrival because of how this paternal relationship was revealed.

The payoff to the Vince McMahon illegitimate child storyline was supposed to end with Ken Kennedy being revealed as Vince’s secret son and him plotting to steal WWE away from Vince’s other children. But that angle never took place, and they went with some guy revealing a list of clues about who Vince’s son was. Wrestlers left as clues were revealed until one man was left standing next to Vince. But it wasn’t Hornswoggle (the actual illegitimate son) because he was still hiding under the ring. Instead, it was this man.

There’s a certain logical progression to wrestling storytelling that posits that if a father and son face each other, the son should defeat the father. After all, it’s the best example of “student defeating the master” that you can find in wrestling. But there have also been some cases where the opposite occurs and the father defeats the son to prove something or to tell the son he still has more to learn. Of the four cases below, only one of them actually took place.

John Cena was once billed as the first and only “reverse generation” wrestler. This meant that he was the first person whose father followed in his footsteps to enter pro wrestling instead of the son following the father. John Cena Sr. spent some time working local promotions in New England until he became part of his son’s bitter feud with Randy Orton. That led to Orton attacking the elder Cena to gain monster heat leading up to a big title match. What did Orton do to the elder Cena?

WWE superstars are more than just performers or athletes; some of them become role models and important people in their communities. One of these four people has used his connections with WWE to become an exceptionally upstanding member of his community and has been especially involved in helping kids improve their lives.

So often, the shine is placed on the father paving the way for their son to get into pro wrestling. Sometimes it's the daughter though! One of these didn't have a dad in wrestling.

SmackDown during 2002 and 2003 was an interesting show. On one hand, the show regularly featured great in-ring wrestler. On the other hand, there were lots of strange storylines involving the women on that show. One of the biggest female stars in WWE at the time was Torrie Wilson, and she ended up having a fairly solid WWE career. But one of her career low points involved her real-life father, who had a relationship with this rival of Torrie’s.

The Anoa’i family from Samoa is perhaps pro wrestling’s biggest and most successful dynasty. Through three generations (including marriages and blood brother bonds), twenty people from one family became pro wrestlers and found success in pro wrestling. The family patriarch, Amituana'i Anoa'i, had many children; one of them was named Solofa. The wrestling blood must’ve been just as strong in his veins as it was in both Afa’s and Sika’s, because he fathered all but one of the four wrestlers below.

The patriarch of the fabled Hart family is one of the toughest men to ever call himself a wrestler. He was famous for his legit grappling skill, which he passed on to countless students. Although he won very few awards while an active wrestler, he earned many for his work as a trainer and promoter.

Not all wrestling promotions in Japan are as straight-laced and sports-based as the biggest ones. HUSTLE was a minor promotion that sought to bring WWE-style angles and drama to puro to create a more theatrical product. One of its most infamous stories involved one wrestler impregnating a woman through “unusual” methods. This led to that woman laying a giant egg from which Akebono hatched. We’re not making this up.

The Miz has been a heel/villain for most of his career, but there was a time not too long ago that WWE tried to make him into a hero. To help garner sympathy and support for him, WWE had this wrestler slap Mike Mizanin's real-life father on an episode of SmackDown. Naturally, an enraged Miz challenged this person to a big match, but lost at ‘Mania instead of winning as the common-sense direction would’ve suggested.

The McMahons are synonymous with pro wrestling. Many of us got introduced to it by Vince McMahon Jr. from his national expansion during the 1980s to the present. These days, Vince Jr. shares some control of the family business with his children Stephanie and Shane. But they aren’t the only McMahons to be involved in wrestling.

One of the weirdest angles/storylines in WWE history involved, to no one’s surprise, Kane. In 2004, he announced that Lita was the mother of his child, and they had even married on-screen. But all of that came to a sudden and distasteful end when this wrestler hit Kane from behind, causing Kane to fall on Lita, which caused her to “miscarry.”

Although most wrestling fans are familiar with the exploits of Bret and Owen Hart, Stu’s other sons also had wrestling accomplishments. Virtually of them were trained in amateur wrestling by their famous father, and many of them achieved success on local and regional levels. But one of them decided that hitting the mat with his hand was a better use of his time and talents than hitting it with every other part of his body.

Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka was once one of the most high-profile and influential wrestlers in North America. His high-flying style influenced an entire generation of wrestlers to become unorthodox and try the flying game instead of the grappling game. One such a wrestler was his own son, who teamed with then-partner Cliff Compton (Domino) against his father and…

Tradition is very important in Mexican culture and in pro wrestling. Lucha libre is very family-oriented, which is why so many sons follow their fathers into the wrestling business. When this happens, and both father and son wrestle together, they take on familial names. But in one of these four cases, the son in question is not the wrestler’s biological son but an adopted son.

Wrestling has long been seen as a profession that brings glamour and fame. That’s why a lot of kids follow in their fathers’ footsteps in the hopes of being as big or bigger than their fathers. And in some extreme cases, pro wrestling becomes so ingrained in a family that it gets passed down to more than two straight generations in the same family.