11 WWE Stars Who Made Appearances For Other Promotions
7. Mankind
On 9 September 1997, Mankind wrestled on Monday Night Raw in an Intercontinental title tournament match, where he lost to Brian Pillman. Just two days later, he was in action again, but this time it wasn't under the WWE banner. Mankind—despite very much being a Vince McMahon creation—was instead appearing on an independent show being run by his buddy Terry Funk. Though this wasn't just any old indie show.
This was the grandly-titled WrestleFest 1997, an event celebrating "50 years of Funk" in reference to Dory Funk Sr. and his move to Amarillo, Texas in 1947, where he'd eventually settle and establish the Amarillo territory.
A star-studded card saw plenty of ECW talent involved, including Sabu—the very man Mankind would defeat that evening via disqualification—while there was also space for another WWE guy to get in on the action. The aforementioned Bret Hart (we told you he got around, didn't we) faced Terry Funk himself in a 25-minute, no-DQ main event that garnered a four-star rating from Dave Meltzer.
Incidentally, this was billed as a retirement match for Funk, and yet two decades later, he's slated to appear at a Big Time Wrestling show on 22 September of this year.