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#3 Johnny Mundo (John Morrison)
It was November 28, 2011, in a falls count anywhere match where we last saw John Morrison inside a WWE ring before his high profile return in 2019.
On November 29, WWE acknowledged the end of Morrison's contract and moved his profile to the alumni section of its website.
After leaving WWE, he began wrestling on the independent circuit under his real name as well as "Johnny Mundo" and found tremendous success in doing so.
During his time in the indies, Morrison became a Lucha Underground champion, a AAA Mega Champion, a AAA Latin American Champion and he's currently the Impact Heavyweight Champion.
In 2015, Mundo revealed on Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast that WWE wanted him to sign another three-year contract, but due to a neck injury, residual pain and creative frustrations, he decided not to renew his contract, wanting more creative freedom.
Morrison returned to the WWE in 2019 has sided with The Miz in a tag team capacity ever since.
#2 Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho is one of the greatest of all time. The man is a living legend. At the age of 48, he still produces five-star classics in Japan against Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito. Not only that, he took a chance on himself and signed with AEW.
For the first time in over 20 years, Jericho has a contract with another wrestling promotion. That's massive considering the monopoly that WWE has over wrestling talent.
Jericho is proof that even for a huge star like himself he finds joy, creative freedom and success outside of the WWE.
While Jericho isn't necessarily a part of this era, at 48 years of age, he turned down a guaranteed contract and possibly a Hall of Fame induction in order to join AEW. That's something to admire. Y2J is no more, this is the Alpha of professional wrestling.
When Jericho jumped ship to the AEW, he became the inaugural AEW world champion. He continues to dominate proceedings there, similar to what he did in the WWE.
Few wrestlers can boast of the type of longevity that Jericho possesses.
