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In recent years, WWE has looked to bring back several former stars who have since been injected into current storylines.
Goldberg made his return to become Universal Champion on two separate occasions, whilst Batista made his return to be part of last year's WrestleMania in a match against Triple H. The headline story at present is the fact that Edge has been able to make his return to the ring after almost a decade on the sidelines following a career-ending neck injury.
Even Shawn Michaels has broken his own rule and made a return for a one-off match in Saudi Arabia, which seemingly opens the door to many other stars to look at ways of having one more match in WWE. Of course, whilst the door is always open for many stars, there are some that WWE wouldn't be as accepting of.
#5. Jon Moxley
Jon Moxley is a former World Champion in WWE, but when his contract expired last year he opted to leave the company and make the move over to AEW. All Elite Wrestling has given Moxley a sense of freedom since his switch and as part of his appearance on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Moxley stated all of the reasons why he left WWE and made it clear that he wouldn't make his return.
Of course, Moxley's wife Renee Young still works for WWE but she has since moved over to WWE Backstage and seemingly dropped much of her responsibility with the company.
As part of an interview with The Store Horseman, Moxley didn't seem very optimistic when it came to a future WWE return.
"I mean, you have to say, 'never say never.' And that's the answer everybody gives, you know? 'Never say never,' but it's like I cannot imagine the scenario right now."
"But also like 15 years from now, 10 years from now, the whole thing could be different. Who knows? The WWE that I left, I could never go back to. I would rather work at a grocery store."
#4. Neville
Neville was once seen as one of the hottest commodities in WWE when he was on their NXT brand as their reigning champion, but his promotion to the main roster wasn't everything that he had dreamed of, and after WWE made it clear that he would only be the face of 205 Live, Neville made the decision to walk away.
After refusing to make his return to the company for almost a year, WWE finally granted the former star his release and now he's been able to move over to AEW, where he's wrestling under the name PAC. Neville has been quite outspoken about his WWE career since his departure and made it clear that Enzo Amore wasn't the man to blame for his departure.
Neville worked hard to garner his release from WWE and the former Cruiserweight Champion definitely isn't looking to return any time soon, but he was able to reveal the main reasons for his release on his Instagram account a few months ago.
“It wasn’t really because of Enzo why I left, I don’t hate the lad he was just annoying backstage and putting the title on him was bad, especially beating me, I was worth more than being jobbed out to jobbers, that’s why I left.
#3. Brodie Lee
Luke Harper is a former Intercontinentnal Champion in WWE and someone who shocked the world when he emerged as The Exalted One in AEW a few weeks ago. Like many of the stars on this list, Harper was happy in WWE for a number of years before his booking and creative content on the show turned sour and he made the decision to request his release publicly.
Now known as Brodie Lee, he has made it public knowledge that he was frustrated whilst in WWE and even revealed that WWE decided to go one step further when it comes to his release, just to further annoy him.
"WWE released me on December 8th with a 90 day (no compete) clause. My contract would have been up on March 8th. Somehow when I got the letter in the mail it became a week later where I could not compete on that first Wednesday after it was up. Somehow it was a 94 day period. I think that was one little extra f**k you, to me.”
#2. Sunny
Whilst many of the WWE stars on this list have made the decision to never return based on their experience whilst contracted with the company, it appears that Sunny would be one female wrestler that the company won't be inviting back anytime soon.
Sunny has had her own issues outside of the company and has had a number of run-ins with the law. Whilst WWE has tried to help the former star a number of times and even paid for her rehab to help to get her on track, that didn't seem to have helped Sunny land on her feet.
The former star makes headlines on a regular basis for all of the wrong reasons and given that WWE puts a lot of emphasis on their presence online, she wouldn't be the kind of star that the company would invite back in the future.
Sunny is already a WWE Hall of Famer and has been thanked for her contributions to the company so it's believed that her chapter with the company is over, so there is no reason to ever bring her back.
#1. CM Punk
CM Punk walked away from WWE back in 2014, but he was able to make his return when he signed a contract with FOX and began working on WWE Backstage. The current job allows Punk to talk about WWE's programming and interact with WWE stars without actually working for WWE.
Whilst rumors have suggested that the former World Champion was looking to make his return to the company and a match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania was brewing, this actually wasn't the case and Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer later revealed that Vince McMahon reportedly doesn't ever want to work with the self-proclaimed 'Best in the World' again.
McMahon labeled Punk as the “one man I just can’t do business with" which makes sense since Punk went on to say some defamatory things about McMahon following his departure and was then taken to court by WWE's doctor Chris Amann.
Whilst Vince McMahon isn't open to a WWE return for Punk, it appears that both Stephanie and Triple H would be prepared to welcome the former Champion back in the future.
A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE
