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The Most Successful Parent/Offspring Duos In History, Ranked By Accolades

Posted: Oct 13th 2020 By: Michael Chin - TheSportster.com

Parents and offsprings in wrestling are very common. Some have seen both go on to great success, racking up major accolades over time.

Wrestling has seen second and even third generation talents featured prominently. Not all duos are created equally, though. For as great as Bruno Sammartino was as the longest-reigning WWE Champion of all time, his son David was never able to reproduce that success on any meaningful level.

While it’s a fun bit of trivia that Carmella is a second-generation star, her accomplishments plus her father’s journeyman career doesn’t land in the echelons of great parent/offspring duos. However, some of these pairs of parents and offspring have accomplished a great deal between them.

10
Jerry Lawler And Grandmaster Sexay

Jerry Lawler’s championship resume can be difficult to assess by the numbers, if only because those numbers are so overwhelming. No, he never did win a title in WWE, however, he did earn world champion status in AWA. Additionally, Lawler racked up well over a hundred other title reigns, including over seventy as the top champion of regional promotions (over fifty of them in his hometown of Memphis).

His son, Brian Christopher, who rose to national fame in WWE as Grandmaster Sexay, did win gold in WWE, with a tag title reign as half of Too Cool. He also garnered twenty-six reigns as the top champion in his father's USWA promotion and other titles for indie promotions.

9
Tully Blanchard And Tessa Blanchard

A second generation wrestler himself, Tully Blanchard had an accomplished career, chock full of winning secondary and tag team titles. Many think of him as someone who could have been a world champion, had he not grown so entrenched in a supporting role with the Four Horsemen, in addition to having personal issues.

Tully’s daughter Tessa is currently in her prime and in the process of building her wrestling resume. She’s off to a noteworthy start, including becoming the first woman to win Impact Wrestling’s world title. That’s in addition to collecting over a dozen women's titles working for smaller promotions.

8
Fritz Von Erich And Kerry Von Erich

Fritz Von Erich had the successful territory wrestler’s career, as a guy who traveled the world and collected dozens of titles. He never achieved world champion status, but had about as decorated career as he could short of that accomplishment, before going on to promoting his own company—WCCW.

Fritz famously fathered a brood of eventual wrestlers. David was arguably the most talented and earmarked for the top of the business before his tragic, premature death. Kevin was a decorated star, particularly in WCCW. It was Kerry who garnered the greatest championship resume, though, that included collecting titles across smaller promotions and, most notably, an NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign and a run as WWE Intercontinental Champion.

7
IRS And Bray Wyatt

IRS garnered five separate Tag Team Championship reigns in WWE and another for Jim Crockett Promotions. He was a WCW TV Champion as well and collected more than his share of titles on the independent circuit and for regional wrestling companies.

IRS’s most successful son, Bray Wyatt, has gone on to exceed his father’s accolades in the ring. That includes three world title reigns in WWE to date, in addition to following in his father’s footsteps as a two-time tag team champion.

6
Angelo Poffo And Randy Savage

Angelo Poffo had a respected run as a territorial wrestler, which included collecting his share of secondary and tag team championships across small promotions. It was his son who would take the family’s wrestling legacy to the next level.

While Lanny Poffo was a WWE Superstar too, it was Randy Savage who left the biggest mark, collecting two world title reigns, three years apart, the first of which ran for a full year. That’s in addition to a memorable Intercontinental Championship reign and going on to WCW, where he’d win the world title four times.

5
Stu And Bret Hart

Stu Hart is a legend of the wrestling—a classic grappler whose talent and worth to the business are difficult to quantify on paper. He scarcely collected titles but earned his place in history as not only an old school shooter, but perhaps most notably as a promoter, trainer, and patriarch of a great wrestling family.

While a number of Stu’s sons would follow him into the business, Bret reached the promised land. The Hitman became the first man to win two Tag Team Championships, two Intercontinental Championships, and two World Championships in WWE (en route to a total of five reigns as the company’s top champ). He’d extend his championship resume in WCW with another seven title reigns (including four with their world title).

4
Rocky Johnson And The Rock

Though Rocky Johnson only captured tag team championship gold, and only did so once in the WWE sphere, his work across NWA territories and independent promotions saw him collect dozens of other title reigns.

Of course, everything Johnson did would wind up overshadowed by his son’s accomplishments. Besides going on to become a movie star, the man who’d become known as The Rock racked up ten world title reigns, a Royal Rumble victory, five tag team title reigns, and two Intercontinental Championship runs.

3
Bob Orton Jr. And Randy Orton

Cowboy Bob Orton was himself, a second-generation wrestler. Though he never captured a title during his best-remembered run in WWE, he did gather up over twenty title reigns elsewhere across regional promotions.

His son Randy would go on to WWE glory, accumulating seventeen separate title reigns there to date—not least of all including nine world title reigns. He has also won two Royal Rumbles and Money in the Bank. He’s one of the most decorated performers in WWE history and continues working full time at a high level, with few obvious indications he’s slowing down.

2
Dusty Rhodes And Dustin Rhodes

Dusty Rhodes was a three-time world champion under the National Wrestling Alliance, who collected a total of over sixty championships across the NWA and regional promotions. The American Dream often had a lead creative role and believed that the money was in the chase—tending to cast himself more as a challenger than a champion.

Dusty’s son Cody has collected roughly twenty titles himself, including eight in WWE and a run as the original AEW TNT Champion. He may well arrive as Dusty's most accomplished offspring, but for now, that honor belongs to his half brother Dustin. The Natural has racked up closer to thirty titles—never achieving world champion status but scoring fifteen different title reigns in WWE and six in WCW.

1
Ric Flair And Charlotte Flair

Ric Flair is arguably the most decorated professional wrestler of all time when striking the balance between quantity and quality of title reigns. WWE recognizes him as a sixteen-time world champion between WWE, WCW, and the NWA and he has roughly forty title reigns overall across his career. He also won a Royal Rumble.

Flair’s daughter Charlotte is carrying forward the family name, accumulating over ten title reigns across WWE brands to date. She won the women’s Royal Rumble in 2020 to make her and her dad the first parent-offspring Rumble-winning pair. Charlotte is less than a decade into her wrestling career and only in her mid-thirties, and so there’s every expectation her list of accolades will continue to grow.