11 Talented Wrestlers Who Felt Forced To Quit WWE

In June, Wade Barrett will be done with WWE unless there's drastic changes. He€™s reportedly not happy with how he€™s being pushed, and who could blame him? He has the look, the in-ring skills and the poise of a main event talent. Hell, the man DID main event mutliple pay-per-views in 2010. But that was six years ago, and his current incarnation as King Barrett means almost nothing to the company. Unless there€™s something big we don€™t know about Barrett behind-the-scenes, then this is all on WWE. For a company starving for top stars, they've given him so many start-and-stop pushes that it€™s maddening to watch, let alone live through. Unfortunately, this isn€™t the first time a great talent has felt forced out of the company. Sure, they could stay employed for years, watching others leapfrog them on the roster, or they could try and make a living somewhere else, somewhere where they€™d be less frustrated and more content with their career. Hopefully this will be a bit of a notice to WWE: Don€™t keep talented people down! Yeah, that€™s probably not going to happen. So let€™s look back on 11 other wrestlers who were also unhappy, were put in bad situations, and felt forced to leave the company.

11. Christian

In a lot of ways, Christian precedes guys like Zack Ryder, and to a much larger extent, Daniel Bryan. He was a favorite of the hardcore fans and the internet crowd in late 2004, and it helped him get a push. Out of nowhere, Christian became Captain Charisma, and he transformed into an incredibly entertaining act on his own. He outgrew the shadow of Edge, and no longer needed him to be over. On the mic he stood toe to toe with John Cena...and got cheered! This was a lot rarer at the time. He had the momentum to become a star. But Vince McMahon didn€™t see it. At Vengeance 2005, Christian was put in a triple threat match against Cena and Chris Jericho in a WWE Title match. The following month, he was drafted to SmackDown, and lost to Booker T on the second match on the card. It was clear that all his hard work, and dedication to getting himself over weren€™t going to keep him at the top. He felt he deserved better, so he took a big risk and left for the much younger, and less succesful TNA. Out of all the big names who have come to TNA over the years, very few can claim to have left WWE on their own accord. That took guts on Christian's part. Since he was at the peak of his career, and receiving a lot of buzz from the jump, he defeated Jeff Jarrett in his first match for the company, winning their world title. For most of his run there he stayed in a prominent role. The gamble paid off, he continued to improve as a performer during his time away, and received a couple World Heavyweight Title runs in WWE when he returned.