10 Stretches Of Punishments WWE Stars Had To Endure To Be Forgiven
The stars who came in from the cold.
As one might expect from a company ran by an erratic, tempestuous billionaire, WWE's punishments don't often fit the crime.
Titus O'Neil was dealt a nonsensical 60-day suspension ostensibly for nudging Vince McMahon in February 2016. Hell in a Cell 2009 saw World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk drop his belt to The Undertaker in just over 10 minutes, reportedly as a direct consequence of 'The Voice Of The Voiceless' violating an unwritten backstage dress code. Blading against company orders brought Batista a brutal $100,000 fine shortly after WWE's PG rating came into play in 2008, and the list goes on.
But regardless of how heavy-handed the sentence, there's usually a way out of McMahon's doghouse. The Chairman will rebuild any bridge if he thinks there's money to be made, and as a result, it's impossible to completely dismiss blacklisted ex-employees like CM Punk and AJ Lee from ever returning to the fold.
The names within aren't the only examples of jilted performers who came in from the cold, but the time served by each shows that even WWE's biggest stars aren't bulletproof in Vince's Court of Wrestling Justice, no matter how severe their crimes...
10. Paul Heyman
Crime: The December to Dismember pay-per-view and generally refusing to bow to WWE creative.
Time Served: 6 years.
Having initially come into WWE as a broadcaster during the Invasion, Paul Heyman has worn countless hats through his tenure with the company, from multi-client manager to SmackDown's lead writer, and once found himself shunted out of the promotion after disagreements stemming from their ill-fated ECW revival.
As the brand's original architect, Heyman wasn't just an on-air authority figure, but also charged with writing the weekly scripts for Vince McMahon's approval. Their differing views on how ECW should be presented and promoted eventually became unworkable. Paul felt the 'Land of Extreme' should never have been brought back as a full-time concern, and things finally came to a head the night after the historically bad December to Dismember pay-per-view, with Heyman clashing with McMahon and various other members of WWE creative at a Raw/ECW taping, then walking out.
Declining an offer to keep writing for TV and developmental, Paul left before 2006 had come to an end, not returning until his client, Brock Lesnar, "quit" the company after his Extreme Rules 2012 loss to John Cena.