10 Wrestlers For Whose Passion For Wrestling WWE Killed
Grabbing the brass ring isn't easy. These wrestlers found that out the hard way.
WWE is notorious for the toll it can have on the physical and mental well-being of its performers. The work schedule is absolutely brutal, with wrestlers having to travel all across the country and work multiple shows each week.
Aside from the physical exertion, there’s also the grind of having to stay within the confines of a restrictive booking system that allows for little creative freedom on the part of the wrestlers. Worse still are the cases where management just doesn’t see what the optimum way of utilizing a certain wrestler is and books them into the ground.
Over the years, there have been numerous cases of wrestlers citing burnout, dissatisfaction and a gradual loss of passion for the sport, the business that they had dedicated their lives to. Some of these names, such as CM Punk or Dean Ambrose are rather well publicized cases, while others don’t quite get mentioned as much in these discussions.
With all that being said, the list of people whose passion for wrestling was given the AJ Styles-WrestleMania 36 treatment is still pretty lengthy and deserves some highlighting.
10. Mike Kanellis
Mike Kanellis’ story is genuinely heart-warming. The man overcame tremendous personality adversity to get himself onto the right track, and he actually credits WWE for helping him through all this.
What came afterwards though, wasn’t quite as desirable for Mr. Kanellis. Confined to the 205 Live brand and paired with wife Maria, the poor fellow has never really gotten a proper chance to shine. And even when he was given some screen time on Raw, it was in a burial angle where they tried their best to brand him as an ultimate loser.
Mike has stated a number of times that he desperately wishes to leave WWE and ply his trade elsewhere. He even went as far as to ask for his release, though rather unsurprisingly WWE were having none of it. At the end of the day, Mike Kanellis is highly unlikely to garner any kind of push in WWE and the man just wants to do what he loves doing: wrestle. For now, WWE has turned that into a source of misery for him.