15 WWE Break-Ups That IMMEDIATELY Backfired

WWE have an undo button. Of course they do. The company has gone back on itself and put things right countless times over the years, but they don't have the luxury of making mistakes then privately deleting them with one simple click. This isn't Photoshop! Millions of people around the world see WWE's errors happen in real time, and there's often a lot of shaking heads when creative try to rectify their poorest decisions after the fact.

It's the wrestling equivalent of, 'Well look who came crawling back'.

Some WWE break-ups are genuinely heartbreaking. They're even more heart-wrenching when you don't see them coming, but a lot of splits have paid dividends in the long run. For example, Shawn Michaels needed the heel springboard of tossing old Rockers pal Marty Jannetty through a barber shop window. Without that memorable angle, HBK as we know him might not exist.

That one definitely didn't backfire, but so many other break-ups have. This pain isn't exclusive to tag teams either - there are full on factions here, as well as loved up on-screen couples who went through some hellish splits before WWE realised that they'd made a mistake by pulling the trigger far too soon or even at all.

It wasn't long until everyone glanced around the room with a nod as if to say: 'Yep, we might need to fix this and put things right pronto'. It can't be nice when writers have good intentions for the WWE roster but watch their scheming go wrong within minutes/hours/days/weeks.

These WWE break-ups all backfired for various reasons.

Naturally, a fair number of tag team splits go under the lens here. That age old trope has been done to death, but a predictable schism between former buddies can launch promising singles careers if proper thought is put into a follow-up push. Then, there's the sad tale told by Cryme Tyme (spelling for copyright is important) back in 2010. They were treated with about as much care as a used beer cup at a music festival.

Shad Gaspard attacked JTG following the pair’s 44-second loss to John Morrison and R-Truth on the 2 April 2010 SmackDown. The story to this one was that Shad didn’t think he needed his partner anymore - he could thrive on his own. Standard stuff, right? yeah, well a ’Strap Match’ between them at Extreme Rules was dull, too short to really mean anything to the pay-per-view, and it was obvious to anyone watching that the split wasn’t properly thought out in the first place.

JTG hung around the main roster until 2014, but Shad was released in 2010 and tragically died in 2020. WWE has done a heartfelt job of honouring his memory since. That's worth saying. 15 years ago, the promotion split a fun babyface tag for next to no reason though, then wondered why neither man thrived on his own.

If Gaspard was supposed to be a bruising heel who thought JTG was holding him back, then he looked foolish for immediately being demoted back down to developmental for seasoning. Meanwhile, J drifted around on the 'B' and 'C' shows before spending some time in NXT.

What a fail. Cryme Tyme dwindled in popularity instantly as soon as they went separate ways.