I mostly agree with Dreamer on this. The rivalry with Villa seemed a little contrived to me even in the 90s. Villa were focused on other teams in Birmingham etc. We needed to manufacture a rivalry - not saying though there wasn't an edge by the time we were relegated.
I also don't recall Sunderland being mentioned as a grudge team until very recent years - whipped up on the internet and resulting today in the Football Factory wannabes living out a few fantasies on match day.
So the question is - who is our biggest true rival?
In the early 80s I remember matches vs. Birmingham not being for the faint hearted - and for the record my involvement was limited to leaving matches early with my Dad to 'avoid the trouble.' At least that was the idea - unfortunately the hoolies had similar ideas so we naively got ourselves caught in the middle of violent fights and charging police horses. Much to my Dad's horror. I was young enough to find it pretty exciting - after all no one is really going to target a 10 year old.
Leicester I guess would be another candidate for local rivals. But I think they generally see Forest as their rival and not us.
When we drew Wolves in the League Cup in the mid 90s (we obviously lost) there was an old time hooligan a few seats down who kept pointing to their Kop end and boasting as to how he'd taken it.....so I'm sure there was some kind of rivalry there dating back to the 70s. But I don't think Wolves in any sense see us as a true rival.
I'm about to go into Grendel territory and say 'we're so shite we actually can't find anyone to take us seriously as a true rival.'
You're over analysing it. It's simply a quirk of geography. We don't have a natural rival, much like Leicester. I've not met a Forest or Derby fan who gives a toss about them. I have, however, met Leicester fans who hate us with a passion, but then others don't care that much; but it's the closest thing we have to a rivalry that's reciprocated to an extent.
Villa was fun while it lasted, but as FP said, there was definitely an edge to those games in the 90s.
Sunderland, whipped up by them over recent years. That will die away over time.