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WWE is well and truly considered as the biggest wrestling promotion in the world of Professional Wrestling today and it is almost every single wrestlers' big dream to wrestle for Vince McMahon's company someday. For years and years now, WWE has been the home to several top global superstars who initially might have started out on the Independent Circuit but eventually made their way to the big leagues, that is, the WWE.
However, despite figuring out an illustrious career with the WWE, not every single wrestler ends up having the best of runs with the company, after-all, WWE currently by far has the most stacked roster in the business and it is not always possible for the company's creative to push every single wrestler at the same time.
Also read: The Revival request release following an incident on Raw
Within these past few months, a variety of WWE Superstars reportedly requested their releases from the company and just a few hours prior to the culmination of the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up, two of WWE most talented stars in Luke Harper and Alexander Wolfe also joined that one particular doomed list of stars who have asked for their release.
Also read: Mike and Maria Kanellis request their release from WWE
Throughout the years, we have also witnessed several notable wrestlers walk out on WWE due to their differences with the creative team and amid rumors of Sasha Banks possibly trying to quit the company over WrestleMania 35 weekend, now seems like the perfect time to look back at some notable names who walked out of the WWE due to their differences with the creative team.
#5. Gail Kim
Being a former one-time WWE Women's Champion, Gail Kim certainly did have her moments in the WWE and that too during both her tenures with the company. Kim's second run in WWE began in late 2008 when she had re-signed with the company and immediately entered into the Divas Championship conversation.
Following the culmination of a few memorable storylines including the likes of Daniel Bryan and The Bella Twins, Gail Kim, infamously, exited the WWE on 1st August, 2011 when she eliminated herself from a #1 Contenders Divas Championship Battle Royal.
Shortly afterward, Kim explained that the creative team had instructed her to get eliminated within the first minute of the Battle Royal, therefore, Kim decided to take matters into her own hands and thus ended up eliminating herself.
Kim later took to Twitter and announced her departure from the WWE, as she once again returned to Impact Wrestling.
#4. Dean Ambrose
Imagine being a WWE Grand Slam Champion and still end up being frustrated with the company's creative team, well, sometimes, not all things are meant to go the right way in life.
Similarly, Dean Ambrose's WWE career came to a shocking close last week, as 'The Lunatic Fringe' prior to WrestleMania 35 announced that he would eventually depart from the company right after the culmination of WWE's biggest show of the year and the WWE Universe finally witnessed the farewell of the former WWE Champion.
After having spent 9 months out on the sidelines due to a triceps injury, Ambrose made his return as a face in August of 2018, however, with Roman Reigns announcing his battle with leukemia, WWE decided to turn Ambrose heel and ever since then things had taken an ugly turn and went downhill for 'The Lunatic Fringe'.
As a heel, Ambrose didn't really capitalize on the momentum and all he ever did was wear gas masks and cut promos against the WWE Universe and The Shield. 'The Lunatic Fringe' even dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Bobby Lashley, ending his reign right after 29 days and following The Hounds of Justice's final reunion at Fastlane, Dean Ambrose rightfully closed out on his WWE career with an emotional speech last week.
Ambrose's departure truly remains as one of the most shocking exits' in WWE history, given how over the former World Champion at one point was and also considering the fact that he was the company's biggest babyface right after The Shield had broken up in 2014.
#3. Dave Batista
After an absence of almost four years from the company, Dave Batista made his WWE return in 2014 and right almost from the get-go, Batista entered and won the 2014 Royal Rumble match.
However, in his quest to become World Champion once again, Batista was constantly booed by the WWE Universe, who certainly didn't appreciate him winning the Royal Rumble and instead were hoping to see Daniel Bryan walk out of WrestleMania as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Shortly after winning the Elimination Chamber match, Batista kept receiving torrid chants from the audience, who kept mocking the former World Champion by making "Boo-tista" chants. At WrestleMania 30, however, Bryan was eventually added to the mix and the World Championship match between Batista and Randy Orton was thus turned into a Triple Threat Match.
Having failed to capture the World Championship, Batista then reunited with Evolution and entered into a feud with The Shield. At the next Extreme Rules and Payback pay-per-views, Shield ended up defeating Evolution in two explosive six-man tag team matches and on 2nd June, 2014, Batista legitimately quit WWE on-screen due to creative differences.
#2. Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes was by far one of WWE's hottest acquisitions' of all time. The younger son of Dusty Rhodes initially started out in WWE's developmental scene, then was taken under the wing of Randy Orton as part of Legacy, broke out as a singles star, became a tag team specialist, and eventually handed his release request to the WWE management.
After debuting his new character Stardust back in 2014, Cody was treated as a mid-carder and barely did anything on WWE TV, other than being used as an enhancement talent. After having competed in a ladder match at WrestleMania 32, Cody went on a losing spree against the likes of Apollo Crews and Zack Ryder and on 21st May, 2016, Cody eventually asked for his release from the WWE due to his lack of creative direction in the company.
Cody was by far one of WWE's hottest young propositions, however, the company creative team for some odd reason failed to utilize the man who would eventually become a household name following his departure from WWE.
Now known as 'The American Nightmare', Cody is already a former ROH World Champion, NWA World Champion, and is also a former holder of the IWGP US Championship as well and became one of Bullet Club's hottest members' of all time as well. In his post-WWE career, Cody got his big break under ROH and NJPW and is currently working as the Vice Executive President of his newly inaugurated promotion All Elite Wrestling.
#1. CM Punk
After cutting his infamous pipebomb promo on Raw in 2011, CM Punk arguably became WWE's hottest star and WWE themselves didn't let Punk's momentum go to waste, as they put the WWE Championship on 'The Second City Saint' in-front of his hometown crowd in Chicago and even let him "leave" the company with the title as well.
However, on his return to the WWE (which took place exactly a week later), Punk ended up losing the title to Alberto Del Rio, only to regain it back a few short weeks after. And thus, began CM Punk's great 434-day reign as WWE Champion. Throughout his second reign as WWE Champion, Punk defeated the likes of Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Chris Jericho, and some of the biggest names WWE had to offer.
However, Punk would eventually go on to drop the WWE Championship to a part-timer in the form of The Rock, as 'The Great One' would go on to defend his title against John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 29, whereas, CM Punk faced The Undertaker earlier on in the same night.
This initially led to frustrations within Punk, as he didn't have the chance to main event WrestleMania and instead spent the Summer feuding with Paul Heyman and his guys in the form of Brock Lesnar, Ryback, and Curtis Axel. At the 2014 Royal Rumble match, Punk once again had a solid outing but was eliminated by Corporate Kane, who was already eliminated from the match and decided to eliminate Punk from the outside.
This shockingly turned out to be CM Punk's final WWE appearance, as he didn't show up for the following appearances of Raw nor SmackDown and it was quickly reported that the former WWE Champion had walked out of the company.
