10 Wrestlers Who Crossed Vince McMahon For Real

10. Cody Rhodes

Before proudly sporting the world’s worst neck tattoo, Cody Rhodes was a young star budding with potential in WWE. His placement in Randy Orton’s Legacy faction seemed to be laying the foundations for an eventual main event run. Instead, Rhodes was fixed with various hammy midcard gimmicks. While some of these gimmicks got over (UnDashing Cody was funny in a ridiculous kind of way), others proved to be anchors to the star’s progress.

Trapped as the Superstars-fodder Stardust character for years, Rhodes left WWE in 2016. Since then, he has conquered the indie wrestling scene, joined the Bullet Club and ultimately co-founded WWE’s first real competition since WCW.

Having mostly dominated the Wednesday Night Wars, AEW’s flagship show Dynamite continues to grow. A central character on screen and off, Rhodes has declared war on Vince McMahon and WWE as a whole. While AEW’s peak of success remains to be seen, Rhodes has made no bones about its eventual WWE-toppling ambitions. Of the many frustrated wrestlers to ditch WWE, Rhodes is amongst the most impressive over-achievers to have ever crossed the boss.