9 Wrestlers Who Got Written Off In The Worst Way Possible

Wrestlers being suddenly written off television is an accepted part of this barmy business.

A performer could be enjoying a decent enough run, perhaps even winning gold or sharing the screen with a company's biggest stars, and the next minute they just disappear. This is often due to a number of different and often unpredictable things, such as unfortunate injuries, commitments outside of the ring, or a wrestler unexpectedly deciding to call it a day. 

There's definitely a way to write a character off TV that can positively impact both the product and the wrestlers involved, while also looking after the performer being written off.

Look at Jade Cargill's recent backstage attack on SmackDown, for example. That successful angle set up an intriguing "whodunnit?" storyline for the women's division to get stuck into, has made the blue show feel like a dangerous, volatile environment, and - perhaps most importantly - has protected Cargill.

Not all departures are this effective, though. In fact, some wrestlers have been utterly humiliated or even found themselves at the centre of some truly baffling twists on their way out the door for a spell.

The comeback was thankfully much better than exit in most of these cases, but that still couldn't wash away the memories of the seriously crap ways these wrestlers were written off.

This list will contain a ton of quite bizarre, but unquestionably memorable exits. But this first entry was awful simply because of just how unmemorable it was.

After losing to Randy Orton at the Extreme Rules PLE, a heel Big Show found himself battling against Chris Jericho on an episode of SmackDown back in May 2013.

This would be Paul Wight's last match in WWE for a few months, with the giant staying off-screen for a bit before eventually returning in August and once again hopping over the heel/face divide. 

So, how would the company write him off TV here? Would Jericho perhaps "injure" his former tag partner and give him a reason to seek vengeance upon his return? Well, not quite.

Instead WWE just had Big Show be counted out after taking a Codebreaker on the outside and falling into the timekeeper's area. He was then smacked around with a steel chair for a bit before pathetically retreating to the back.

That was it.

There was no shocking angle, and it's not as though Jericho massively benefitted from such a weak finish either. Who was this for?

The whole thing just felt like it was lazily thrown together at the last minute, something that wasn't exactly abnormal back in 2010's WWE. This embarrassing exit was then barely even referenced when he ultimately made his return to kick off a feud with The Authority, and most viewers had understandably forgotten how he was written off in the first place - it was that dull.