8 Biggest Talent Exoduses In Wrestling History
6. The Independents Feel The Sting
Smaller wrestling promotions have been keeping larger companies stocked with fresh talent for decades. It’s a sad inevitability of independent wrestling that standout performers will eventually attract mainstream interest, and most likely depart for pastures new. An up and coming prospect can’t be expected to curb his/her ambition by staying on the indies forever, after all, and WWE were particularly aggressive in their independent acquisitions last year.
WWE plucked dozens of wrestlers from around the world in 2016, but two promotions had it worse than others. Ring Of Honor saw Cedric Alexander, Roderick Strong, Steve Corino, and Nigel McGuinness leave for WWE, with current champion Adam Cole expected to depart when his contract expires this May. Aside from this, ROH had already waved goodbye to ACH, Veda Scott, and former champions Kyle O’Reilly and Michael Elgin last year.
EVOLVE, meanwhile, is barely recognisable from this time last year. WWE took full advantage of their working relationship with the company to scoop up guys like Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Lince Dorado, TJ Perkins, and Chris Hero, who has returned to NXT as Kassius Ohno.
The indie talent pool is always in a constant state of flux, but things definitely accelerated in 2016. The scene has never seen such a wide-scale exodus, and if recent reports are to be believed, WWE show no signs of slowing down in 2017.