5 Wrestlers who could join WWE soon, and 5 who might leave
March 26, 2001 began a new era for pro wrestling. This was the exact date on which World Championship Wrestling was purchased by the WWE's owner and chairman, Vince McMahon Jr. While the immediate results of the purchase were obvious, such as there no longer being head to head competition on Monday nights, there are other ramifications which are more subtle and play out over a longer period of time.
One of the major ramifications was a relative stagnation of professional wrestling talent pools. Where once major stars moved about from promotion to promotion in search of the best contract, the purchase of WCW by the WWE settled things down. Men like Randy Orton, John Cena, and Batista will likely end their careers having only wrestled for a single promotion.
This was simply not the case before. But now, after almost two decades of dominance, the WWE is facing fierce competition in all directions. New Japan Pro Wrestling is trying to take a slice of the lucrative North American wrestling market. Ring of Honor has somehow managed to thrive even with most of its talent being poached by other promotions. Impact Wrestling is the zombie of wrestling shows, refusing to die no matter how many times someone tries to kill it.
And of course, there's AEW. All Elite Wrestling presents the most daunting challenge to the WWE's supremacy in many years. Thus, talent shuffling between promotions is going to become quite interesting in the coming months.
Here are five wrestlers who could sign with the WWE, including some fan favorite veterans, and five wrestlers who might leave WWE for another promotion.
#1 Might Join WWE - Jay Lethal
When you talk about who the top ten best wrestlers in the world are, one name that cannot be left off the list is Jay Lethal. Lethal got his start wrestling on television at the tender age of eighteen when he signed with TNA Wrestling. He adopted the Black Machismo character based off of advice from Kevin Nash and became a mid-card sensation.
But when it was time for Jay Lethal to step beyond the X Division, it just never came together for him. Despite memorable feuds and moments with legends like Ric Flair, Lethal was never a main event player in TNA/Impact for long.
So Lethal left TNA, who had begun focusing on established veteran stars like Bully Ray, and joined ROH. He wound up winning both of the Ring of Honor singles belts and defended them simultaneously, sometimes wrestling twice in one night. While Lethal is treated well in Ring of Honor, he's also in his thirties and has to start considering a WWE run if he's going to have that happen in his career.