5 WWE Rejects who have become huge stars in the independent circuit
WWE is the juggernaut in the business of professional wrestling. Every year, the company signs a ton of aspiring and established wrestlers. It has led to the company having a stacked roster where some wrestlers are pushed to the top while others are pushed down the pecking order.
Along with new signees, the company also releases a number of wrestlers from their contracts every year with Big Cass being the most recent example. These wrestlers are released for a variety of reasons including unprofessional conduct and behavior, the creative team not having anything for them to do or the wrestlers themselves asking for their release.
A WWE contracted when released has to serve a 30 day No compete clause. during which they are unable to compete for any other promotion. Some of them fail to stay relevant in the industry and become obscure while others go on to achieve success in another promotion and become greater stars than they were before leaving the world's biggest wrestling promotion.
Here are five Such Superstars:
#5 Johnny Mundo/Impact ( Johnny Nitro/John Morrison)
John Hennigan, also known as Johnny Nitro aka John Morrison aka Johnny Mundo (God, this man has had a lot of ring names) was the co-winner of the Third Season of Tough Enough. He debuted on the main roster on April 2005 along with this then-girlfriend Melina and Joey Mercury, collectively known as MNM. He won the WWE World Tag Team Championship with Mercury.
After splitting with MNM, he had a solid singles run capturing the ECW Championship and Intercontinental Championship on multiple occasions. He also held the WWE Tag team Championship with The Miz in 2007. Despite winning numerous tag team and singles titles, Morisson was never built as a top star in the company and was eventually released from the company in November of 2011.
After leaving the WWE, Morrison went to Mexico where he competed for AAA becoming the promotion's first triple Champion holding the AAA Mega Championship, AAA Latin American Championship, and AAA Cruiserweight Championship simultaneously. He has also been the part of Lucha Underground since it's inception and has also held the Lucha Underground Championship. He currently works for both Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling.