9 Biggest Rivalries of All Times

Perhaps each one of us have had our fair share of rivals, arch enemies, competitors, or people we just cannot stand. However, there’s something so venomous about the 9 rivalries mentioned below, that makes them stand out either due to their enormity in terms of number of people they engulfed or the duration for which they lasted and continue to last.

1. TESLA VS. EDISON

Once an avid fan of Edison and his marvelous inventions, Nicola Tesla later came to be known as one of Edison’s arch enemies. The quest to make their individual inventions (Tesla’s AC current, and Edison’s Direct Current, or DC) the standard for electronic devices, put them at loggerheads. The feud between the two was so deep and so cold that on Tesla’s death, the New York Times quoted Edison as saying, “He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene.”

2. MAC VS. PC

The world has been witnessing the Mac-PC wars since ever since the two brands – Apple and Microsoft started flooding the markets with their awesome products. It is an excellent example of a rivalry that existed not just between the CEOs (or ex-CEO) of the two giants of the tech world, but has managed to grasp almost every user and fan of the two brands. However, more than vicious their feud has always inclined a bit more towards the funny side and has also encouraged the two companies to roll out supreme products.

3. THE HATFIELDS & THE MCCOYS

Gone down in the history as one of the biggest vendettas, the rivalry existed between the Hatfields of West Virginia who were wealthy timber merchants, and the McCoys of Kentucky, who were majorly engaged in farming and raising livestock. When the feud was at its summit the Hatfields and the McCoys families had Devil Anse and Randolph “Old Ranel” McCoy, as their respective patriarch ruler. It all started off with the murder of Randolph’s brother in 1865 and was followed by violent disputes, stabbings, and a murder (over a pig). Thankfully, the two families have now buried the hatchet.

4. THE DASSLER BROTHERS

When graveyards of two brothers are buried on opposite sides of the same graveyard, it tells a lot about the kind of relationship they may have had. The German brothers, Adi and Rudi Dassler co-owned the Dassler Brothers Shoe Company in the 1920s, which was forked into two now-famous sport brands – Puma (owned by Rudi Dassler) and Adidas (owned by Adi Dassler), after they had a falling out. Their businesses, families, and even their towns split into two hostile groups.

5. MICHELANGELO VS. LEONARDO DA VINCI

These were the two greatest artists in the history who never saw eye to eye. The loathed each other and didn’t see much worth in each other’s masterpieces. When once asked by Leonardo to explain something in detail, Michelangelo’s cold-shouldered the request by saying, “No, explain it yourself, horse-modeler that you are, who, unable to cast a statue in bronze, were forced to give up the attempt in shame.”

6. COKE VS. PEPSI

This battle of brands goes as far back as 1900s. The two cola companies have been butting heads by using commercial ads to tout their products and downplay the other’s. The original Coca-Cola contained traces of cocaine thus Pepsi won the title for being the healthier of the two drinks. However, it never stopped at that. There was the famous “Pepsi Challenge” where Pepsi proved how its taste was better than its opponent, the “Zero-Gravity” challenge where the two brands sent their cans up into space, the Fifa sponsorship competition, and so much more.

7. INDIA VS. PAKISTAN

The bitter hostility between the two countries can be attributed to an overwhelming number of political, religious, cultural, and geological reasons. Members on either sides of the feud hold the incredible ability to spring into aggressive face-offs and bombard each other with offensive remarks and expletives (and sometimes even with real bombs) at cricket stadiums, facebook posts, music competitions, battlegrounds, and almost everywhere else.

8. BARCELONA VS. MADRID

Barcelona is the most important city that represents the Catalonian region of Spain, and Catalonians are very proud of their food, culture, language, and economy. Many of them do not consider themselves a part of Spain and have been trying to gain independence from it. The conflict between Barcelona and Spain, thus extends much beyond the biannual El Clasico football games or the Real Madrid-FC Barcelona rivalry.

9. KOBE VS. LEBRON

The two football legends, Kobe and LeBron, were also each other’s biggest rivals. The matches between them were all the talk in barber shops, between kids at schools, football enthusiasts and were used as central plots for TV advertisements. The debate as to who was the greater player of the two is still open to discussion. One has a higher number of individual accolades to boast off while the other has won more championships.