10 Wrestlers That Lost Titles Due To Serious Contract Disputes

9. Brock Lesnar (IWGP Heavyweight Championship)

After Brock Lesnar had quit WWE in 2004 and his professional football career didn’t take off in the way he would have liked, Lesnar eyed up a return to the squared circle to command an income he had grown accustomed to from pro wrestling. He shockingly signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2005 and won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his debut match for the company.

He made frequent appearances for the company to defend the title afterwards, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura, Akebono and Giant Bernard on big events. But in July 2006, NJPW stripped The Next Big Thing of the IWGP Championship over what they labelled as ‘visa issues’, with Lesnar rebuffing this, claiming it was really due to his refusal to return to NJPW over them not paying him his agreed-upon price.

Inoki Genome Federation promoter Antonio Inoki did cough up enough money the following year for Lesnar to return one more time to Japan for him to lose cleanly to TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle in a ‘Champion vs. Champion’ match, which would be Lesnar’s last pro wrestling match for five years until his return to WWE in 2012.