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It's a renowned fact that WWE and professional wrestling as a whole is a scripted sport and everything is planned out by the powers that be. Just like every other sport, however, there are bound to be setbacks that can derail plans or even worse, end a performer's career.
Wrestlers put their lives in their opponent's hands every time they step into the ring as any wrong move or miscalculation can be fatal. While some Superstars recover from career-threatening injuries and continue to wrestle, others were forced to hang up their boots at the height of their careers.
Although serious injuries often result in the end of a wrestler's career, other stars almost found their way out of the company due to other reasons but they were saved from getting fired. Working in a large corporation such as WWE can be fulfilling, but failing to please management can lead to an immediate release from the company.
Many of WWE's top stars were in a situation that almost got them released from their contract, but they ended up becoming the stars that they are today after their release was reconsidered thanks to a good word put in by another star.
Let's take a look at the three WWE Superstars that ended another wrestler's career and two who saved a star from getting fired.
#3 Ended a WWE Superstar's career: Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks has had quite a successful year in WWE so far. The WWE Universe was introduced to 2 Beltz Banks for the first time and after years of waiting, we finally got a proper feud between The Boss and Bayley on the main roster.
While 2020 has been a career-defining year for Banks, 2017, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. A botch executed by Banks led to an incident that would haunt her for two years. At a WWE house show in late 2017, the team of Absolution, which comprised of a returning Paige with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, took on Mickie James, Sasha Banks, and Bayley.
During the match, Banks delivered a kick to Paige's back using both her legs, causing the latter to collapse on the canvas and forcing the referee to stop the bout. The injury Paige sustained forced her to retire from in-ring competition.
Sasha Banks received a ton of backlash from fans for injuring Paige. After WWE WrestleMania 35, The Boss disappeared from WWE TV for a few months. She made her return on RAW the night after WWE SummerSlam 2019 and immediately started a feud with then RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch.
Two years after the Paige incident, Sasha Banks opened up about it on WWE Chronicle and she revealed how it affected her personally.
"I just felt like... don't make me cry! So many bad things just kept happening and I didn't know how to deal with them, and I really think what really started it all, like feeling sad, was the whole Paige situation... that really s**ked (cries), and having fans like, destroy me, destroy my work... I pride myself on my work so much, and I would never intentionally try to hurt somebody. That s**ked and that made me question myself as a wrestler."
Paige is still in retirement but when it comes to pro wrestling, never say never. We saw Edge return to the ring after nine years, so perhaps one day in the future we could also see Paige back in a wrestling ring.
#2 Saved a WWE Superstar's career: Stephanie McMahon
Stephanie McMahon is an authority figure and a sporadic in-ring competitor in WWE. Besides working behind the scenes in her father's billion-dollar company, Stephanie has always been influential when it comes to what goes on in the ring.
She was WWE's head writer in 2000 and the Executive Vice President of Creative in the year 2007 before the company went PG. After WWE became a family-friendly product, a lot of things changed. The man who carried the company through the new era was none other than the 16-time World Champion, John Cena.
John Cena is one of the biggest stars in WWE history and he's also a mainstream star. All of that wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for WWE CBO Stephanie McMahon. In his early career, John Cena was about to be let go by WWE management, but Stephanie took a liking to the young star, which saved Cena from getting fired.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer revealed:
“John Cena worked OVW for a while, which is where he really learned his craft. He was called up too soon, which everyone knew, and there’s political reasons why that happened, and it nearly cost him his career. If it wasn’t for Stephanie McMahon taking a liking to him after they’d just about decided to let him go, he could’ve been gone.”
Thanks to Stephanie McMahon, the fans got to see The Doctor of Thuganomics and all the classic matches and feuds we got from John Cena.
#2 Ended a WWE Superstar's career: Seth Rollins
'The Icon' Sting made his WWE debut in 2014 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view where he helped Team Cena defeat Team Authority. This kicked off the feud between The Stinger and The Authority.
The feud seemingly ended at WrestleMania 31 after Triple H defeated Sting, but the latter returned to WWE several months later to challenge one of the members of The Authority, Seth Rollins, for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
This was Sting's first chance at the most coveted prize in the industry, so it was obviously a bid deal. He collided with The Architect at WWE Night of Champions for the title. During the match, Seth Rollins powerbombed Sting onto the turnbuckles, injuring the latter.
Rollins won the match and retained his title, but it was revealed that Sting injured his neck from the botched buckle bomb. The neck injury forced Sting to retire and the following year he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Sting denied that it was Seth Rollins' fault, but the following year, Rollins injured another wrestler with a similar move after he tried to powerbomb Finn Balor onto the barricade at SummerSlam 2016.
#1 Saved a WWE Superstar's career: Dusty Rhodes
Becky Lynch is currently a top star in WWE. She main evented WrestleMania 35 as well several other pay-per-view events during her career. There's no doubt that she'll go down as one of the greatest female Superstars in the company's history.
From portraying an Irish dancer to becoming The Man, Becky Lynch changed the landscape of the entire industry and created history along the way. If it wasn't for the late great Dusty Rhodes, however, The Man wouldn't have become who she is today.
The American Dream himself was a top wrestler during his wrestling days, and after his time in the ring was over, Dusty worked as a backstage booker and producer in NXT. He inspired and motivated a lot of young talent, including Becky Lynch.
Lynch's initial days on the developmental brand were difficult, as she struggled to do things right. Because of this, she was about to be fired, but Dusty Rhodes refused to let it happen. Becky thanked the late legend for saving her career while speaking to Kristine Leahy.
"I'd probably just cry and say, 'Thank you Dusty', cause I don't know if I'd still have a job if it wasn't for Dusty.”
Thanks to Dusty Rhodes, The Man remained in WWE and went on to become a major star.
#1 Ended a WWE Superstar's career: Samoa Joe
For any wrestler, injuring another performer or ending their career is very heartbreaking. WWE usually deals with it by banning the move that caused the injury, but the damage has already been done.
Tyson Kidd's career came to end in 2015 after being in the receiving end of a botched Muscle Buster from Samoa Joe during a dark match on Monday Night RAW. Kidd suffered a spinal cord injury, an injury he revealed only 5% of people survive.
Since he couldn't compete in the ring any longer, WWE offered him a role as a producer. After injuring Tyson Kidd with the Muscle Buster, Joe stopped performing the move and started using the Coquina Clutch as his finisher instead.
Samoa Joe is also not active in the ring at the moment due to an injury he sustained earlier this year. He's currently serving as a commentator on WWE RAW. He did reveal that he's not done wrestling though, so we'll definitely see The Samoan Submission Machine in the ring once again.
