10 Wrestlers Who Couldn’t Legally Wrestle!
2. Brock Lesnar
When Brock Lesnar shockingly gave his notice to WWE at a SmackDown taping in 2004 a week before his major match with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX - in the hope of pursuing an NFL career - it came with some consequences.
Lesnar was handed an extensive ‘non-compete’ clause by WWE which prohibited him from wrestling for a lengthy period of time. This wasn’t an issue for Lesnar at the time, but after his NFL career came to an end in August 2004, Lesnar needed to work to satisfy the lifestyle he was living. Lesnar started looking into his wrestling options.
He filed a lawsuit in February 2005 against WWE asking a court to rule the non-compete clause unenforceable, which in turn was his legal loophole to wrestle for NJPW, debuting in October 2005 and winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship immediately. Lesnar wrote in his autobiography regarding the matter:
"I had never thought about wrestling in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, because WWE had me sign that non-compete agreement which said I could only wrestle for Vince, and I thought I was on the shelf until 2010. I also guessed that Vince McMahon was going to do everything in his power to stop me from making a living. I figured going to Japan would be a great experience. I’d pick up some excellent coin, eat some fresh sushi, have some good times with Brad (Rheingans), and deliver a great big ‘screw you’ to Vince."