3 of Triple H’s rehires that Vince McMahon would have never brought back to WWE

WrestleMania 41 - Source: Getty
Triple H at WrestleMania 41 press conference - Source: Getty

When Triple H took over WWE Creative following Vince McMahon's legal scandal, WWE went through its most seismic shift in decades. The overall on-screen product, backstage environment, critical acclaim, and commercial success soared to unprecedented levels. However, the change also opened up possibilities once considered as good as nonexistent.

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While Triple H brought back a lot of talent in 2022 that had been released during the pandemic, a lot of them being "Paul Levesque Guys" in NXT, and these were all unlikely to have come back to WWE, some signings Triple H has made wouldn't bever have brought back to WWE, primarily because of seemingly burnt bridges and issues these stars themselves had with Vince McMahon, or at least, how he ran the company.

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In this article, we shall list three such superstars that Vince McMahon would have never brought back to WWE if he were still at the helm, and to be honest, these wrestlers most likely wouldn't have come back even if Vince did consider it a possibility anyway.

#3 Naomi

Ahead of a RAW episode back in May 2022, Naomi and Sasha Banks walked out of the building before the show, citing creative differences with the planned main event, which would have involved both women in a six-pack challenge with a title shot against Bianca Belair on the line. At this time, Banks and Naomi were WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.

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This led to indefinite suspensions by Vince McMahon himself and the tag titles being vacated, and eventually, Naomi and Banks' exit. Both women reinvented themselves as Trinity and Mercedes Mone, respectively, and while Mone went on to revolutionise women's wrestling in Japan before arriving in All Elite Wrestling in 2024, while also being heavily active on the indies and simultaneously holding like a dozen titles, Trinity went on an incredible run in IMPACT/TNA before coming back home to WWE at the 2024 Royal Rumble.

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Given how she stood right next to Banks and as the latter stood up to McMahon that one night, and how Banks frequently clashed with the former WWE Chairman, it is quite unlikely that Vince McMahon would have ever brought Naomi back, especially because of her relative lack of star power and rather ordinary body of work until then.

And yet, in the time that she has been back, she has done a great job in the triangle story with Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair, before kick-starting the best run of her career as a maniacal heel. Unfortunately, though, she recently relinquished the Women's World Championship last month due to pregnancy.

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#2 AJ Lee

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AJ Lee left WWE over a year after CM Punk's infamous departure from the company. The easiest way to frame the situation would be that she was perhaps not entirely comfortable with what had gone down between her husband and the company they worked for, especially considering that Vince McMahon had fired CM Punk on the day of their wedding.

However, in her short time in WWE, she did inspire a revolution that has manifested itself into one of the greatest examples of sports and entertainment progressing to involve women right by the side of men, not out of obligation or optics, but because WWE's female talent has knocked the ball out of the park each time they have been given the opportunity.

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AJ would obviously not have returned unless CM Punk himself came back to WWE, but both of them taking a decade off from the company did inspire positive change backstage in the company, and they are now back to reap the rewards of what they helped create while with the WWE in their first run, and due to their absence as well. This obviously translates into the root point: that Vince McMahon would have never brought back CM Punk, and therefore, by extension, AJ Lee.

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#1 CM Punk

CM Punk was the man who, in response to a potential WWE return, once said, "NEVER. NEVER. NEVER EVER EVER." When he returned to professional wrestling with AEW after seven years off, it marked one of the greatest moments of all time and spawned a brilliant run for CM Punk and AEW. After that first year, Punk seemed to be the happiest he had ever been, and any odds of a potential WWE return had to have been shut down. And then... the rest, as they say, is history.

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Backstage issues led to Brawl Out, then Brawl In, and millions across the globe cried rivers of disbelief and elation when CM Punk returned to WWE in Chicago at Survivor Series: WarGames 2023, something that would have never happened with Vince McMahon at the helm.

The issues between Vince and Phil Brooks were well documented, and regardless of whether the former WWE Chairman would have been willing to CM Punk back (which he almost certainly wouldn't have), Punk has since gone on record saying that Vince McMahon's departure opened the door for his return from his own side in the first place, and that he wouldn't have been back in WWE if McMahon was still there.

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Edited by Tathya Sachdev
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