15 Wrestlers That Got BANNED From WWE

Vince McMahon was embarrassed and surely furious when Lex Luger showed up on the debut edition of WCW's Monday Nitro flagship in September 1995. After all, Lex was under WWF contract, so how could that even happen?! That's the thing: Luger wasn't under contract to the fed. They'd accidentally let his deal lapse, and he decided to jump at the chance to head back south to see what all this Nitro noise was about.

Oops.

WWF chiefs were helpless to stop Luger from working a house show in Canada on 3 September, then hopping a flight to Minnesota for the debut episode of Monday Night Raw's new rival. This was a guy that McMahon had tried to cast as the 'new Hulk Hogan' from 1993 onwards, and yet here he was stabbing everyone in the back by throwing his might behind Eric Bischoff and Ted Turner. That wouldn't do.

Vince waited on revenge, and he'd get it. In 2001, he bought remnants of WCW from the ashes of corporate mergers and disinterest. In effect, McMahon had just become Luger's boss again, and he couldn't wait to tell the one time 'Total Package' that he was totally unwelcome in the federation. 'Enjoy eating some of that humble pie, ya snake!'.

Lex went from being presented as one of McMahon's premier stars to a worker who wasn't going to darken Titan Towers again anytime soon. Incredibly, Luger was on the outs with WWE until he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2025. He spent 30 long years on the 'nah' list before ice thawed.