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10 Wrestlers You Forgot Walked Out On Their Company

Posted: May 24th 2022 By: Kebin Antony

Every wrestler who signs with a major promotion enters their doors with the dream of achieving great things and also getting a fair monetary benefit for themselves. But not every wrestler on the roster can get an opportunity on the main event and championship pictures, having to settle for less significant spots that they're not very proud of.

Some wrestlers go on to persevere through the troublesome days in hopes of reaping the rewards later, while some take things into their own hands and simply walk away from their respective companies to seek other opportunities. Most recently, Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out on a taping of Monday Night Raw, reportedly due to frustrations with their creative direction.

With that said, let's take a look at 10 such wrestlers who walked out on their company. From WWE to WCW, some wrestlers just had enough.

10 Ryback

After years of trying out for WWE, Ryback signed his first contract with the company in 2005 and started training in their developmental territories. He then debuted as one of the rookies in the first season of NXT, which led him to make his main roster debut as part of the notorious faction, The Nexus, in 2010.

Following the end of The Nexus storyline, WWE repackaged him as Ryback and gave him opportunities to shine in the main event picture. However, things went south after he lost his push and got relegated to the lower cards.

He soon lost interest in WWE's direction for his character and had multiple disputes with the management before he walked away in May 2016.

9 Gail Kim

Gail Kim has had two runs in WWE so far, and the first one came between 2002 and 2004, during which she went on to win the WWE Women's Championship on one occasion. She got released by the company in 2004 as a cost-cutting measure.

She returned for her second run in 2008 and stayed there until 2011, and her exit from the company wasn't very eventful. She allegedly had creative differences with the company and also eliminated herself from a battle royal after creative instructed her to get eliminated within the first minute.

She walked out of the company after the event and asked for her release, but WWE didn't grant it and made her sit out the remainder of the contract, which expired in September 2011.

8 Mike Awesome


Extreme Championship Wrestling still holds a special place in the hearts of the hardcore pro wrestling fanbase. While the company managed to put on captivating content for the audience, they had some difficulties in paying their wrestlers.

Mike Awesome, who was the ECW World Champion between December 1999 and April 2000, also didn't receive most of his monetary benefits from the company. When his contract expired, he asked Paul Heyman to pay him all his overdue wages before he would sign a new deal.

Since it didn't happen, he walked out of ECW and signed with WCW while still holding the ECW World Championship. However, he reached a compromise with ECW and later returned as a WCW employee for one last match and dropped the title to Tazz.

7 Sasha Banks (2019)

Sasha Banks and Bayley made history at Elimination Chamber 2019 and became the first-ever WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. The duo thought they'd have a lengthy reign with the title, but WWE had different plans and had them lose the title to The IIconics at WrestleMania 35.

Banks was reportedly very upset with the decision and coupled with her personal struggles with depression, she walked out of the company and asked for her release.

Vince McMahon denied Banks' request and instead gave her a leave of absence to get her mind straight and reconsider her decision. She eventually reached an agreement with WWE and returned to the company after four months in August 2019.

6 PAC

Current AEW wrestler PAC is known among the WWE Universe as Neville, a former NXT Champion and a 2-time Cruiserweight Champion. He was part of WWE between 2012 and 2018 and was the face of the cruiserweight division when he chose to walk away from the company.

He was reportedly unhappy with his creative direction by the last days of his WWE tenure, and he took things into his own hands and left the company while still under contract in October 2017. WWE froze his contract in January 2018 and didn't agree to his release requests.

5 Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett's second run with WWE came between 1997 and 1999, and he had a decent stint and claimed multiple Intercontinental Championships to his name. His final reign with the title came with a victory against D-Lo Brown at SummerSlam 1999, and by the time WWE booked him to lose the title to Chyna at the No Mercy PPV, Jarrett's contract had expired.

He decided to jump ships to WCW, with the Intercontinental Championship firmly in his grasp. He demanded Vince McMahon $200,000 to compete at No Mercy without a contract, and McMahon had to give in to his demands, and Jarrett did the job to Chyna and lost the title to her at the event.

4 Raven

Raven's second run with WCW came between 1997 and 1999, at the time when the company began to lose the rating war against WWE. Frustrated with the company going south, Eric Bischoff called for a meeting with all the WCW wrestlers and vented out about how no one apart from Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper managed to draw money for the company and slammed the young wrestlers for not being grateful for what they had.

He offered to grant the release of any wrestler who would walk out the door from the meeting, and Raven, who was already unhappy with WCW, was the only person in the room to take that offer and walk away from the company.

3 Alberto Del Rio

After getting released from WWE in 2014, Alberto Del Rio returned to AAA and made his re-debut for the company at the TripleMania 22 event. He went on to capture the AAA Mega Championship from El Texano Jr in December 2014 and held it for 337 days before WWE offered to sign him back in 2015.

Del Rio made his return to WWE while still being the AAA Mega Champion, and it became evident to AAA that he would not be returning to the company to defend the title. The company ended up stripping him off the championship on November 9, 2015.

2 Eddie Guerrero

The late great Eddie Guerrero's final days with WCW in 1999 saw him forming The Filthy Animals alongside Rey Mysterio and Konnan. They feuded with the Insane Clown Posse and Vampiro and then with The Revolution stable.

However, his time with the company came to an end after WCW fired Vince Russo as head booker and replaced him with Kevin Sullivan, Guerrero walked out of WCW to sign with WWE alongside Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko.

WWE welcomed them with open arms and the rest they say is history as Guerrero went on to become an inevitable name in the company and eventually became the WWE Champion.

1 Brock Lesnar

After leaving WWE following his match against Goldberg at WrestleMania 20 to pursue a career in professional football, he tried his luck in the NFL. Things looked good for him before he got involved in an accident, resulting in a broken jaw and left hand, a bruised pelvis, and a pulled groin.

The injuries led him to not go further in his NFL career, and he got released from the Minnesota Vikings in August 2004. He then returned to wrestling in 2005 and signed with NJPW, and went on to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

However, when he couldn't return to Japan to defend the title due to visa issues, NJPW stripped him of the championship. Lesnar held on to the physical title belt and walked out of NJPW, and it wasn't until June 2007 that he dropped the title to Kurt Angle at the debut event of the Inoki Genome Federation.