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WWE is considered to be the promised land for countless wrestlers the world over. Becoming a member of the WWE roster means you've reached the pinnacle of the wrestling industry and can (ususally) expect riches and fame to follow.
That doesn't mean, however, that a wrestler is always 100% safe once they've become a WWE Superstar. Like most workplaces, Superstars are expected to bring a certain level of class and, above all else, value to the company. If higher ups begin to feel they are no longer living or performing up to their expected standards, it isn't out of the ordinary for the company to show Superstars the door. This is something we've seen countless times over the years.
Sometimes the wrestler in question will join a rival promotion. Other times, they may retire and see a release from WWE as the end of the road for their wrestling career. On some occasions, with enough improvement mentally, physically, and athletically, they may one day return to the hallowed halls of World Wrestling Entertainment to become a bigger star than in their initial run.
Here are 5 WWE Superstars who recovered after getting fired.
#5 Matt Hardy
During the early 2000s The Hardy Boyz had taken the professional wrestling world by storm, helping to innovate and popularize the now iconic Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match which, arguably, made them more famous, and almost certainly more popular, than any other tag team in the company at the time.
Fast forward a few years and Matt Hardy is enjoying a well-respected run as a singles competitior, with his brother Jeff on the sidelines dealing with some personal issues (we'll get back to that later). His "Version 1" gimmick was well-received by audiences and he was enjoying a long term relationship with fellow WWE star Lita. That is until his world was turned upside down...
Upon discovering Lita was engaging in an affair with future WWE Champion Edge, Hardy flipped and took to the internet to share his disgust with the situation in a very public manner. Unsurprisingly, this led to his immediate dismissal on April 11, 2005.
Luckily for Hardy, fan support for the man who was betrayed by his fiancee and best friend was strong at live shows, and WWE knew they needed to take advantage of the situation. They re-hired Hardy after exactly three months later, as he returned on the July 11, 2005 edition of RAW to attack his former friend. Matt's popularity exploded while feuding with real-life rival. WWE created a narrative that blurred the lines between fiction and reality that made for essential viewing.
After enjoying a successful 5-year run after his July 2005 return, he was released in 2010 and worked hard all over the world. Matt's 7-year absense led to the eventual creation of his "Broken" gimmick, which became the most talked-about thing in all of professional wrestling and attracting the attention of WWE, to which he returned with his brother in 2017. Matt's 2 different releases led to 2 separate character revitalizations, and his legacy will be stronger than ever because of it.
#4 Jeff Hardy
It seems neither of the Hardy brothers was immune to being released by WWE. Jeff Hardy immediately began to enjoy significant success after splitting from his brother Matt in 2002. His ladder match with The Undertaker for the WWE Championship is still cited to this day as one of the very best ladder matches of all time and made an overnight singles sensation of the Charasmatic Enigma.
Behind the scenes, however, Hardy was heading in a deep and dark direction which would ultimately prove to be his own undoing. After no-showing events numerours times and backstage reports of erratic behaviour and alleged drug use, Hardy was unceremoneously released from the company -- less than 1 year after his iconic match with Undertaker. This wouldn't be the end of one half of The Hardy Boyz.
After 3 years on the independent circuit, wrestling for promotions like Ring of Honor and more famously, TNA, Hardy would return to WWE and team up again with his brother Matt before embarking on a singles run once again.
In one of the most feel-good wins in WWE history, Hardy would capture the WWE Championship at Armageddon 2008 in a match that saw him defeat both Triple H and Edge.
He would go on to have multiple world title wins but was released again by WWE in 2009, reportedly for similar reasons as his first release in 2003. While he still seems to be struggling with various issues sporadically, there's no question he's one of the most entertaining and talented stars in WWE history, as he continues to come back after trials and tribulations. Much like his brother, the second time he was fired by WWE led to even more success around the world and again in TNA, where he became one of that company's top names before he and Matt returned together at WrestleMania 33.
#3 PAC
Details as to whether the former Neville's departure from WWE was amicable or forced are sketchy. Given the circumstances under which he disappeared from the promotion, it should come as no surprise that there has been little-to-no discussion on the manner of his departure by either party.
After a strong run in NXT, Neville had a rocky start on the main roster. After returning from an injury, however, he would quickly make a name for himself in the Cruiserweight division, where he won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and held onto it for the better part of a year before losing the title to an emerging Enzo Amore.
Upon learning he was due to lose once again to Enzo (who would also leave the company in less than favourable circumstances), Neville reportedly stormed out and was never seen on WWE programming again.
While WWE were keen to paint a good picture of the relationship between employer and employee, their decision to freeze his contract (effectivley preventing him from wrestling in any other promotion) seemed to be an unfair move and certainly indicated a bitter end to Neville's WWE story. The contract dispute came to and end in August 2018 after 10 long months and he was free to do as he pleased. Details on how he and WWE came to an agreement on his release have never been revealed.
He returned to his former stomping grounds in Japan, the Dragon Gate promotion, and quickly became their top champion. He held the championship for over 7 months before departing the company and joining the upstart All Elite Wrestling, which he had been in contract negotiations with for months before his championship loss. Today, you can find PAC, which was his ring name before WWE and has become his name once again after his departure, as one of the top singles competitors in AEW, where he's partaken in numerous Match of the Year contenders against, most notably, Kenny Omega. Don't expect PAC to find his way back to WWE any time soon, if ever again.
#2 Daniel Bryan
Looking at the sheer amount of success he's experienced within WWE, it's hard to believe Daniel Bryan was ever anything but a shining example of one of WWE's greatest Superstar signings.
That wasn't always the case, however; Daniel Bryan was famously fired from WWE before his career had a chance to get off the ground. After a very disappointing run in the first season of the original iteration of the NXT television show, Bryan debuted on June 7, 2010 as part of The Nexus, which was comprised of the entire cast of the NXT show which formed their own stable to take on their main roster counterparts in a shocking turn of events. The man once known as the American Dragon, and inarguably the most talented of all of the men in The Nexus, was fired after his involvement in the chaotic debut of the faction drew significant criticism (to put it lightly).
Bryan was spotted using then WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts' own necktie to choke the innocent man at ringside during the dramatic scene. This was deemed to be "too violent" for the show's PG rating and his contract was instantly terminated, only 5 months after his debut in WWE's developmental promotion at the time, FCW.
Thankfully, Bryan would triumphantly return after only a brief 2-month absence at SummerSlam on August 15, 2010, where he aided team WWE in a victory over his former Nexus stablemates. The rest is history, as he would go on to become the most popular superstar of his era, culminating in a WWE World Heavyweight Title victory in the main event of Wrestlemania XXX - one of the most iconic WWE moments of all time:
It has been speculated that WWE only fired Bryan in order to stave off bad publicity following the "tie incident" and that the company planned to bring him back as soon as the furor surrounding it died down. Be that as it may, the departure only made him more popular, and his fantastic return was a special moment that helped separate him from the pack, which is what puts Bryan on this list.
#1 Drew McIntyre
Few comeback stories in WWE history are more heartwarming than that of Drew McIntyre.
McIntyre was introduced to the fans in mid-2009 as "The Chosen One" by Vince McMahon himself, both in storyline and in actuality, at the young age of 21. After some time in a prominent role, including a run as Intercontinental Champion, a title he won 3 months after McMahon's proclamation, Drew would fail to live up to the impossible hype that had been bestowed upon him by the boss and found himself languishing in the lower midcard for years, essentially doing nothing but showing up, wrestling short, unimportant matches, collecting a paycheck -- rinse, repeat.
As his stock fell, he would find himself in the laughable, comedic stable known as the Three Man Band, or 3MB, alongside Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal. It was clear WWE no longer had interest in making a star of him, which truly hit home when he was served his papers in 2014.
McIntyre himself has admitted that his own performance and his bad attitude were to blame for his firing, but that his desire to return to WWE grew strong during his years away.
He would return in April 2017, having honed and improved his craft in TNA and across the independent scene in companies like EVOLVE and his former stomping ground, ICW, in Scotland. He would quickly go on to win the NXT Championship only 4 months after his return to the company. He would lose the title in November in a match that also saw him get injured, leaving him out of action for about 4 months. He returned from injury almost exactly one year after his NXT return, only this time he showed up on the main roster. McIntyre would continue to impress, even though he was mostly featured in the background as a supporting perfomer instead of being a leading man. He finally broke out on his own near the end of 2019 and gained a lot of steam thanks to overwhelming crowd support, leading to his astounding victory in the 2020 Royal Rumble.
He is now set to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36, which comes almost exactly 3 years after his return to WWE, and 2 years after his return to Monday Night RAW. This has been a long time coming for the Scottish Psychopath. If he wins, which many feel is the expected outcome, McIntyre will earn the distinction of being both the first-ever Scottish NXT Champion and, more impressively, the first-ever Scottish WWE Champion.
What do you think? Will McIntyre be victorious at WrestleMania? Are there any other comeback stories in WWE you've been thrilled by? Let us know in the comments.
