10 Wrestlers Who Brought WWE Careers Back From The DEAD

WWE nearly gave these workers the boot. Then, something AMAZING happened!

LA Knight Halloween
WWE

From rags to riches.

That easily could've been the tagline here, because it'd sum things up well. The wrestlers featured somehow managed to sidestep WWE's exit doors, turn around and shout: 'I will succeed here!'. Then, remarkably, they did. There's a special surprise waiting at the end of this piece too - he stands alone.

Pretty much everybody else showed enough stubbornness to keep on kicking out even when company creative appeared to have given up on them. One last roll of the dice was often enough to convince folks backstage that hey, maybe there was some value in *insert performer we'd written off here* after all.

Timely gimmick changes helped, of course, and there was often a healthy dose of luck involved. Luck only takes a person so far though. Everyone showed incredible resolve to keep showing up and showing out until they became undeniable, and that deserves a ton of praise.

It takes some serious determination to bring WWE careers back from the brink, but this collection of one-time possible flops achieved it and hit heights nobody could've expected from them when they were floundering...

TO (UNLIKELY) SUCCESS!

10. Chad Gable

LA Knight Halloween
WWE.com

One Chad Gable has never really been taken all that seriously by WWE's writers even though he's a wonderful in-ring technician. Years ago, he suffered the indignity of being called "Shorty G" (it gets worse the more you say it) and bizarrely acknowledging he'd been bullied for a lack of height despite...being roughly the same size as many of his peers.

Yeah, that idea sucked.

Hopes weren't high for Chad when he formed a tag-team alongside fellow straggler Otis, but they've become one of the most impressive acts on WWE TV. The group has since added Maxxine and Akira Tozawa to their lineup, but the glue holding everything together is Gable.

He's really been fantastic in the role, and managed to charm fans enough that Alpha Academy went from outright heels to sympathetic babyfaces. Now, recent reports from several wrestling sites online claim Chad will only go from strength-to-strength in 2024. The guy has made a living from saying "SHOOSH!" to non-believers.

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood.