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Unless specifically requested, getting a release is something a WWE performer never wants to go through. Not only does it put their ability to make a living in jeopardy, as it's never a sure thing that another job will come along but, even if one does, the 90-day No Compete clause in most of their contracts puts an even further damper on those plans. It's that uncertainty that wrestlers such as Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, and Lana are going through right now (and we wish them and all the other WWE and AEW talent released today all the luck in the world.)
However, there have been plenty of wrestlers over the years who have been released from the company and used it as motivation. Performers who took their firing on the chin, so to speak, and turned it into a positive. Whether it's a wake-up call to improve their work ethic or just a desire to prove their former employer made a mistake, plenty of WWE stars have come back better than ever before.
So, we're going to look at five of those wrestlers - five wrestlers who were fired by WWE at one point or another and came back better than ever. Obviously, there are way more than five wrestlers who qualify for this, so please mention those we missed in the comments below.
And with that out of the way, let's get firing... er... going.
#5 R-Truth found success both in and out of WWE after being released
If it feels like Ron "R-Truth" "The Truth" "K-Kwik" "K-Krush" Killings has been in WWE forever, well... he hasn't. That would be ridiculous. He has, however, spent a combined total of over twenty years with the compa Be it as a heel or a babyface, R-Truth has never not been entertaining. In 2002, however, that future was seriously in doubt.
Truth - then called K-Kwik (because why not?) - signed with the then-WWF in 1999, after spending a couple of years on the independent scene. He would only spend a year in WWE's Memphis, TN developmental territory before debuting on the main roster in 2000 as the tag team partner of "Road Dogg" Jesse James. But by 2002, Killings found himself being shown WWE's exit door.
Not missing a beat (he is a musician, after all), Killings moved on to TNA-NWA (now IMPACT) Wrestling, where he became a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion - the first African-American wrestler to ever hold that championship.
Six years later, R-Truth's success in TNA regained the attention of WWE, and in 2008, he signed a new deal with the company. He's been there ever since.
Years after re-signing with WWE, Truth would mention on a podcast interview that he actually thanked Vince McMahon for firing him years earlier - claiming it gave him a chance to grow and mature.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that R-Truth has a job for life in WWE - a complete 180 since being released over a decade earlier.
#4 Jinder Mahal would win the WWE Championship from Randy Orton.... out of nowhere.
Yuvraj Sing Dhesi is better known to pro wrestling fans as former WWE and United States Champion Jinder Mahal (which is a pretty cool name, it's time we admit that). Since making his debut on the WWE main roster in 2011, Mahal's career in the company has been anything but typical.
Mahal was introduced as The Great Khali's brother-in-law, constantly berating the now-WWE Hall of Famer for not taking his wrestling career seriously. It was only a year later that the talented Canadian grappler found himself in the trio known as 3MB (Three Man Band), along with Drew McIntyre (we're getting to him) and Heath Slater (we're not getting to him). While the faction was entertaining, it wasn't enough to keep Jinder in the good graces of WWE, and in 2014, Jinder found himself released from the company.
Jinder Mahal found his way back to WWE with a new attitude and to great success
After some time on the independent circuit - in the US and Canada, as well as in India - and a lifestyle change that saw him abstain from alcohol and shedding twenty pounds off his frame, The Great Khali's brother-in-law found himself once again in the employ of WWE.
In 2016, Mahal returned to WWE as a member of the Raw roster. Over the course of the year, his biggest highlight was being eliminated from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal by eventual winner Mojo Rawley (with help from NFL star and eventual WrestleMania host Rob Gronkowski) at WrestleMania 33.
In the spring of 2017, however, Jinder found himself in a WWE Championship match against then-champ Randy Orton - and won. In fact, he would hold on to the title for six months, defending the title against both Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura before eventually dropping it to AJ Styles.
Mahal wouldn't just wander off into obscurity, however, as not long after he would also gain the United States Championship - and at WrestleMania of all shows. That reign would, sadly, only last eight days.
It wouldn't be out of line to bring up the fact that Mahal's WWE Championship reign coincided with a tour of India the company had scheduled. However, Mahal worked his Canadian butt off during his time away from WWE, as well as since coming back. He also helped introduce the main roster audience to the Bollywood Boyz/Singh Brothers, and, more recently, the team formerly known in NXT and Indus Sher.
Say what you want about Jinder Mahal's time as WWE Champion. It's not like you've ever been WWE Champion. So, maybe don't say what you want.
#3 Drew McIntyre finally fulfills his destiny as WWE's "chosen one."
While we're talking about former members of 3MB, let's turn our attention to former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. While "The Scottish Warrior/Psychopath/er... Guy" has, without a doubt, been the most decorated member of that group since it split up in 2014, it wasn't exactly an easy road to get there.
Drew - after making a name for himself on the indie scene in the United Kingdom - would make his for-real-this-time debut on the main WWE roster in 2009 (after making a few appearances in 2007), and would even be introduced to the WWE Universe by Vince McMahon himself as a "future world champion," which I'm sure put absolutely no pressure on the poor guy.
Despite winning the Intercontinental Championship (and having a banger of a theme song)...
... Drew could never get much momentum going, and soon found himself floundering in the midcard and then, worse yet, 3MB. Eventually, in 2014, WWE released McIntyre from his contract and sent him on his merry way.
"[When] I got released," Drew told me during a 2019 interview in Las Vegas, "I sat down and thought to myself, 'OK, now's your chance. I'm capable of more than [I've] been giving...' I [hadn't] been giving my all, I can admit that."
Drew returned to his given name, Drew Galloway, and started back at the beginning - the British indie scene.
With a new, bulkier look and attitude, McIntyre once again caught the eye of WWE - after winning a couple of world titles in IMPACT Wrestling - and returned to the company as part of NXT. You're probably familiar with what happened after that... NXT Championship, Royal Rumble, beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, two WWE titles reigning, and all that jazz.
At only 35 years old, Drew still has plenty of years left to make an even bigger mark on both WWE and the wrestling business as a whole. To think it would take him getting fired to get him to the point where he was able to do that.
#2 Daniel Bryan had to be fired from WWE twice before he made it big
The story of Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson's path to WWE success has been told a million times just in Sportskeeda articles alone. So, let's do the condensed version, just to save time. Also, here's a song about Bryan from the band Cheap Pop.
Bryan began his career in 1999 after training at a school co-founded by Shawn Michaels. He signed a deal with WWE in 2000 and worked in their developmental territories for 18 months before being released. Then, he went to Japan and then Ring of Honor and destroyed everybody and was eventually resigned by WWE.
Then, he was on the first season of the "Game Show" iteration of NXT and was eliminated. He returned as part of Nexus but was then fired for choking ring announcer Justin Roberts with his own necktie during the group's debut. That wouldn't last long, however, as Bryan was brought back to the company just months later at SummerSlam as a surprise member of Team WWE to help take on his former Nexus buddies.
At this point, the rest of this entry would just be "the history of Daniel Bryan in WWE", and you can just go to Wikipedia and read that. But, Bryan is an interesting case because this isn't a situation of a wrestler being released and then stepping up their game and coming back. Bryan was released a second time and continued to be awesome (no pun intended) and then WWE came back and said "errr... OK, we goofed, please come back and work for us."
It's a very satisfying story.... but not nearly as satisfying as this one...
#1 Eddie Guerrero is one of the greatest WWE comeback stories ever
When Eddie Guerrero left WCW for WWE along with the rest of his cohorts in The Radicalz in 2000, hopes were high for him. Well, they were high for all four of them, but Guerrero's skill and lineage - as well as established charisma - put him above the rest of the group as far as expectations went.
Unfortunately, a series of misfortunes looked to derail that progress.
In his first match with WWE, Eddie performed a frog splash on "Road Dogg" Jesse James - and dislocated his elbow in the process. Thankfully, the injury only put him out for a number of weeks as opposed to months, and "Latino Heat" came back as strong as ever. His pairing with fellow WWE Hall of Famer Chyna became a big hit with fans, and Eddie seemed to be going up like a rocket.
Unfortunately, a car accident he suffered a year before signing with WWE left him with an addiction to painkillers - which also led to an addiction to alcohol. Near the end of 2001, Guerrerro had been arrested for drunk driving and was soon released from the company.
It was less than a year later, after months on the independent and international scene - as well as working on cleaning himself up - that Guerrero returned to WWE. And the hits just kept on coming.
It was during this time that Guerrero really honed his "Lie, Cheat, & Steal" persona, including coming up with some of the most creative ways to win a match ever seen in pro wrestling.
He won the WWE Tag Team Championship multiple times, as well as a reign as United States Champion. Most impressive, however, was his win of the WWE Championship, which he picked up off the Beast Incarnate himself, Brock Lesnar. Let that rattle around in your head if you didn't already know that.
It was in 2005 that Eddie Guerrero passed away, but from the time he returned to WWE until his last day, Eddie Guerrero accomplished more than most wrestlers do in a lifetime.
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