10 Most Inspiring Wrestling Transformations
Inspirational stories behind WWE's Paige, Edge, Jeff Hardy & more.
When Daniel Bryan returned just before WrestleMania 33 in 2018, it felt as though some great karmic shift had finally occurred in WWE.
Robbed of his best years with early retirement in 2016, he'd been robbed of his best push two years earlier when the injury bug had last bitten. In a wicked twist of fate, he was forced to surrender his WWE Championship after only one programme. This, after being buried so deep the company tried to avoid going through with it before they could use this as ammo for why they were so hesitant.
The aforementioned return erased much of that ill-feeling, and happened because an incredibly healthy person worked diligently with medical science and hard graft to make it so. That WWE managed to sap that sense of inspiration so soon after that he was required to turn heel is another matter entirely, but Bryan - on balance - has at least managed to make something closer to the mark he always should have in the organisation.
It took some of these to leave the WWE system forever to do the same, and some to make ample use of the organisation's resources to keep it that way. But they've all done it. As the world remains mostly unrelenting in its misery, performers such as the ones below that remain guiding lights through the darkest of days.
10. Kurt Angle
It was all too easy to forget that Kurt Angle was battling through significant drug and alcohol addictions for much of his career, precisely because the quality of his on-screen battles masked the realities of life on the other side of the curtain.
A disagreement with WWE over his health and wellbeing in 2006 resulted in Angle shocking the wrestling world with a move to TNA. This was was supposed to be a period of convalescence for the Olympic Gold Medalist, but the switch resulted in Angle doubling down on his dosages in order to try and maintain the facade as 'The Wrestling Machine'.
Though outstanding contests exploded off the screen on a near-weekly basis during his unsurprisingly excellent TNA tenure, legal issues and DUIs told the tale of his knife-edge status before entering rehab in 2013 and remaining sober ever since. His WWE return via a Hall Of Fame induction in 2017 wasn't awash with as many memorable moments and matches, but a clean and happy Kurt was infinitely preferable to none at all.