10 Wrestlers Who Jumped Ship & Changed Absolutely... NOTHING!
These WWE, AEW, WCW, TNA and ECW jumps achieved precisely SOD ALL. Mission failed.
One of the greatest things about a wrestling war is the prospect of a given performer on one side of the divide showing up on the other. From the great AWA exodus to the many back and forth leaps of the 'Monday Night Wars', to talent jumping between WWE and AEW today, it's always fun to know that any of your favourite stars could be a turncoat.
Whilst a number of huge stars have changed the very face of wrestling by changing allegiances, other big names have tried to do this and failed spectacularly. Their defections made headlines when they first happened, but they quickly stopped being newsworthy at all.
These stars all had the potential to change the companies they joined, but most of them made little-to-no difference whatsoever. Some of them quickly discovered that the promised land wasn't so promised and ended up going back to the promotions they'd been with in the first place!
The following could be considered case studies, and they're all examples of how potential can be discarded so easily in wrestling. If you're planning on making a big defection in your own life, make sure you think it through...
10. Rick Rude
Here’s something you probably already know.
On 17 November 1997, ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude became the first notable name to appear on WWE and WCW TV shows at the same time. Outraged by the 'Montreal Screwjob', Rude defected to Ted Turner’s side. By some quirk of fate, his final pre-taped appearance on Raw aired the very same night as his debut on a live episode of Nitro.
Rude’s best in-ring days were long gone, but he had still been a prominent part of federation programming. He was a member in the original incarnation of D-Generation X, serving as a bodyguard to Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna; because nothing screams "anti-authority" quite like a middle-aged bloke in a suit.
The man with the famous moustache never wrestled for WCW, but he was part of the New World Order. He lasted 2 years in the promotion before leaving in April 1999, sadly just a few weeks before his untimely death.
There wasn't much WCW could've done with Rude from an in-ring perspective, but he was still a big name who had joined under newsworthy circumstances. A little bit more would have been nice.