10 Ways Wrestlers Got Out Of WWE Contracts
Walkouts, defections, lawsuits and other wild ways talent have left WWE...
Sometimes, wrestlers want out. It seems to happen rather a lot in WWE.
Whilst many are prepared to roll with the punches, and go along with the plans that Vince McMahon and the creative team set for them, there are others who see the pending direction their career path takes as a bit of an insult. When a wrester is adamant that their persona will not go that way, but the powers that be say, 'yep, you're doing it anyway', it's easy to understand where the desire for greener pastures comes from.
This is nothing new. Keep in mind that during certain spells in the 90's, WWE was not the only big thing going in wrestling!
In other instances, people just need a change of scenery. Such is life. So how do superstars go about escaping, premature to their contract running out? Such insubordination unquestionably warrants a big old frown from Vincent K, but that doesn't mean certain heads don't try. Here's are some of the ways wrestlers managed to make a beeline for the exit with their posteriors relatively in tact.
10. Defecting To The Competition
We're very much enjoying the neatly scripted brand-hopping that the likes of Kenny Omega are undergoing at present. However, when this sort of thing happened in the 90s, it wasn't always so mutual, and a hell of a lot messier. Yet it was great fun for the viewer.
Eric Bischoff's hell-bent quest to make WCW number one in the mid-90s was nothing short of a triumph, at least at the beginning, and with it came a notable swathe of underhanded tactics. One such ploy was blatant talent-grabbing. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's invasion of WCW and the subsequent formation of nWo is now the stuff of legend, but Lex Lugar's defection a year earlier was arguably sneaker.
The gap between Lugar's last WWE appearance and his returning WCW reveal was only one day apart, and legally the deal had already been sealed. Prior to his appearance under the Turner/Bischoff brand, Luger had already signed the contract with WCW, making his return to the company fully legit. Bischoff had pulled the wool over WWE's eyes, with not the slightest glimmer of remorse.