10 WWE Stars' Best Non-WWE Matches

Though WWE tries its level best to convince us otherwise, wrestlers - most of the time, anyway - don't simply spawn into being the second they sign a contract with Vince McMahon.

Many (and perhaps most, in today's day and age) of its performers had past lives in other, smaller promotions before landing a spot in the WWE Performance Centre, and some produced work that arguably dwarfs anything they've done since making what is supposed to be a vertical step on the career ladder.

Whether it's TNA, ROH, NJPW or even the minor leagues, the company's biggest stars have competed elsewhere, and often put on great matches along the way. Matches, in some cases, that it's unlikely they would be free to replicate under the bright lights of WWE (mainly because of well-founded and completely necessary health and safety protocol).

But there's no reason for the company to fear us stumbling on these pre-WWE matches online; after all, there can be no better advert for the company's future events than seeing its biggest talent putting in performances that show exactly why they made it to the big league in the first place.

Fans who followed Adam Cole's turn on the independent circuit breathed a sigh of relief when he turned up on NXT alongside his former running mate Kyle O'Reilly.

First, because it ensures - as the head of a faction - he won't be lost in the shuffle, and second because it reunites him with the man he did much of his best work with in ROH.

Their best match came at December's Final Battle in 2015, where on night one Cole defeated his one-time tag team partner in a bout whose only flaw was that it was just five or ten minutes short of being a genuine, for-the-ages Ring of Honor classic.

If this is what Cole could do at the age of 26, though, we're probably going to have a lot of fun watching him over his time in NXT and beyond, during which time he's widely tipped to become one of the very best in the world.