hero-image

10 WWE superstars who went from being fired to icons

Steve Austin

Getting fired from your job is not an encouraging thing. But if one gets through the tough phase and makes a name afterwards, and then the story is worthy of a place in the history books. In short, the moral is: recovering from falls is probably the best trait of a legend.

It is turnarounds like this which separates the ordinary wrestlers from icons in the business. As you would have guessed already, this is the theme of this list. So without much suspense, here is a look at some of those iconic superstars that overcame setbacks of getting fired to become legendary names in the business.

Brian Pillman

Brian Pillman

Brian Pillman is the benchmark for all the crazy gimmicks out there including the current one of Dean Ambrose. Pillman was known for his incredible in-ring phycology and unpredictability. He was so good at it that he even confused his fellow wrestlers as most of them assumed that he was really crazy.

However, before Pillman became an icon in the business, he was fired by Eric Bischoff. Bischoff claimed that releasing Pillman was a business strategy. But there were rumors of legitimate heat between the two.

Pillman went on to have a successful career in WWE. He ended up giving us some memorable segments before his eventual death. The legendary status of Pillman would have been much bigger if he hadn’t passed away so early.

Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan

A lot of people might not agree with the inclusion of Daniel Bryan under the ‘icon’ tag. But then again, if we look back, he was one of the most over superstars in the PG era before he was captured by the claws of injury. The guy still has a big fan base and has insane wrestling skills to go with it.

The firing incident of Bryan came back during his Nexus day. Bryan and his band made their debut on Raw and started tearing everything apart.

Bryan, trying to be a good heel, choked announcer Justin Roberts with a tie, which apparently proved to be a big problem in WWE. The PG Era sponsors did not like this and WWE was forced to fire Bryan. The flying goat was resigned months later. Bryan made an entirely different legacy in his new run and ended up being successful.  

You may also like