8 Biggest Talent Exoduses In Wrestling History

8. WWE Raid NJPW

As New Japan Pro Wrestling’s answer to WrestleMania, Wrestle Kingdom 10 was a huge success. Highlighted by a blockbuster pair of main events in AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, it took place on January 4th, 2016, and set an impossibly high bar for the rest of the wrestling calendar.

Before fans even had a chance to let the night’s action sink in, however, some earth-shattering news broke. Just a few hours after WK10, it was announced that four of NJPW’s biggest stars - AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows - were on their way out of the company. Their destination? WWE.

It was a massive story, particularly as Nakamura and Styles were considered among the company’s cornerstones. Gallows & Anderson, meanwhile, had been a steady presence in their heavyweight tag division for years All four would leave a gaping hole on NJPW’s roster.

It proved to be a good move for all involved, however. AJ Styles has become SmackDown’s franchise player and a former WWE Champion, while Nakamura has accomplished similar feats in NXT. Gallows & Anderson, meanwhile, are the current Raw Tag Team Champions, and NJPW are doing just fine on their end.

They’d probably rather still have the quartet on their roster, but the exodus allowed them to build new stars in Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito throughout 2016, and business has barely wavered.