10 Most Shocking WWE Releases Ever
7. The Ultimate Warrior
On two separate occasions, Vince McMahon has said in front of a camera that he "couldn't wait" to fire The Ultimate Warrior in 1991, but the former WWE Champion's absence was handled with such striking erasure after SummerSlam that it was more of a shock to the system to see him return several months later than to miss him in the first place.
What relatively few people knew then that everybody does now is what brought the relationship to such an impasse - Warrior's request for the same money as Hulk Hogan ahead of the August pay-per-view hadn't sat well with McMahon, who tore him to shreds in response ahead of their SummerSlam showdown.
After being the 1A to Hogan's 1 since 1989, Warrior was gone as if he'd never even been there, and before the match had even finished. With the match designed to keep Hogan (and newcomer Sid Vicious) in the spotlight, the man from Parts Unknown got the money wanted that night, but only that. Future comebacks were fleeting, because the symbiotic relationship that bonded promoter and performer was forever frayed.