8 Biggest Talent Exoduses In Wrestling History
1. The Invasion
As far as singular talent exoduses go, nothing even comes close to the Invasion.
Sure, the outflow of WCW and ECW talent was enforced by those company’s failings (and Vince McMahon’s acquisition), but American wrestling has never seen so many wrestlers jump ship at one time, even though some of the era’s biggest stars were absent.
WCW headliners like Scott Steiner, Goldberg, and Sting opted to stay at home and sit out their lucrative WCW deals instead of accepting McMahon’s pay cuts. This lack of star power played a huge role in the Invasion’s eventual failure, but the WWF was still able to secure dozens of ex-WCW talent. Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page stood as the biggest names, but they were joined by popular midcarders like Billy Kidman and Chris Kanyon and up-and-coming stars in Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo.
On the ECW side, major players like Sabu and The Sandman were missing, but WWE still recruited talents like Justin Credible, Rhyno, and the hugely popular Rob Van Dam. WWE had never seen such a concentrated influx of talent. Their roster was left bigger and more bloated than ever before.
The Invasion eventually flopped, and without competition, the business hit a steady decline that it has never really recovered from. Some of the WCW/ECW imports prospered, but most floundered in the presence of pre-established WWE stars.
The whole affair remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in WWE history.