5 times WWE quickly rehired a released Superstar

#4 Daniel Bryan gets fired from WWE for choking Josh Roberts but then returns

Daniel Bryan choking Justin Roberts

I'm sure this is the person many people thought about when they clicked on this article, as WWE infamously fired Daniel Bryan after participating in the iconic Nexus invasion debut, where he choked WWE commentator Josh Roberts with his own tie.

Bryan's actions, although perfectly helping to convey what was an intensely violent and shocking moment when Nexus debuted, attacked John Cena, and trashed the WWE arena, were seen as too violent for WWE's programming, and so the Superstar was released.

This led to a backlash from the WWE audience who felt that Daniel Bryan had done nothing wrong, and indeed there were many in the company, including the 'victim' of the choking, Justin Roberts himself, who didn't realize there was such a rule in place. Even the chairman of animal rights charity PETA wrote to Mr. McMahon to encourage him to bring Bryan back.

WWE was left with no choice but to bring the highly successful indie wrestler back, and he made a surprise re-debut at SummerSlam to become Team WWE's seventh member against Nexus.

4 years ago today saw the return of @WWEDanielBryan at Summerslam as he joined Team WWE to face The Nexus. pic.twitter.com/uGJ7i2s1Q4

— Old School Raw (@OldSchoolRaw) August 15, 2014

Bryan would go on to become one of WWE's biggest stars so the decision to bring him back to the company certainly turned out to be a good one in the end.