10 Ways Wrestlers Got Out Of WWE Contracts

10. Defecting To The Competition

We're very much enjoying the neatly scripted brand-hopping that the likes of Kenny Omega are undergoing at present. However, when this sort of thing happened in the 90s, it wasn't always so mutual, and a hell of a lot messier. Yet it was great fun for the viewer.

Eric Bischoff's hell-bent quest to make WCW number one in the mid-90s was nothing short of a triumph, at least at the beginning, and with it came a notable swathe of underhanded tactics. One such ploy was blatant talent-grabbing. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's invasion of WCW and the subsequent formation of nWo is now the stuff of legend, but Lex Lugar's defection a year earlier was arguably sneaker.

The gap between Lugar's last WWE appearance and his returning WCW reveal was only one day apart, and legally the deal had already been sealed. Prior to his appearance under the Turner/Bischoff brand, Luger had already signed the contract with WCW, making his return to the company fully legit. Bischoff had pulled the wool over WWE's eyes, with not the slightest glimmer of remorse.