10 Cruelest WWE Superstar Exits Ever

Of all the development talents who got called up to WWE and given awful gimmicks, perhaps none were as egregious as The Spirit Squad. Ken Doane, Mike Mondo, Nick Nemeth, Johnny Jeter, and Nick Mitchell were all repackaged as male cheerleaders, designed to be cannon fodder for babyfaces.

They quickly won the World Tag Team Titles, but a feud with the reformed D-Generation X did them no favors. The quintet was routinely manhandled and humiliated by Shawn Michaels and Triple H, and portrayed as less of a physical threat to the duo than Vince and Shane McMahon.

Less than a year after their debut, the group was written off TV permanently. Following another loss, the group was assaulted by DX, dragged backstage, and thrown in a box. Triple H instructed a delivery man to take the box away, then slapped a sticker on it that said "Destination: OVW, Louisville, Kentucky" - a clear reference for "smart" fans that the group would be sent back to development.

The young stars were completely and inexplicably buried - while DX didn't need to lose their first feud back, men like Nemeth, Doane, and Jeter had been pegged for success and shouldn't have been associated with the storyline. Only one man - Nemeth, who became Dolph Ziggler - was able to recover from the gimmick.