- 17 hours ago
Scary situations and in-ring horrors that DIDN'T linger long in the memory.
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00:00But this all ties in, doesn't it?
00:01Before we do get into the meat and bones, do not forget at the end of the day,
00:05you go to sleep and that wrestling is just somebody's job.
00:08And sometimes you go to your place of work and you fall out with your boss.
00:12And maybe the employer is right, maybe the company is right.
00:15We don't know, but it happens at McDonald's, it happens at Nike, it happens at, I don't know, Barclays Bank.
00:21We're all just human beings trying to make our way.
00:23Given that we are talking about individuals that we do see every single week on television, though,
00:28if there is a little bit of a controversy, everybody starts talking about it.
00:32And when that happens, you can't get the cat back in the shoe.
00:36And you're looking it up now, and no, that's not a saying.
00:38But the point is, these 10 wrestlers did quit over their contracts.
00:42Why?
00:44Here's why.
00:50So we shall start at number 10 with Sasha Banks and Naomi.
00:53And once again, nobody actually knows what is going on here.
00:56But when you do start to do some digging and you get into the rumor mill,
00:59not only does it sound like they stormed out because they weren't happy with creative,
01:04but it may have also tied into their contract situation.
01:06Because both are allegedly in the last few months of their contract,
01:09so I suppose if they weren't getting certain guarantees that they expected,
01:12and they weren't happy with the storyline,
01:15then Boss Glow, whatever the hell they're calling themselves,
01:18decided, I don't really think this is working out.
01:21I'm going out the door.
01:22Now the real fascinating point, and the real reason I wanted to put this in here,
01:25is that do not forget if you are a WWE contracted talent,
01:29that deal states that if you're not performing for one reason or another,
01:34WWE can freeze your deal, meaning until you fulfill your appearances,
01:38you just have to sit there and wait it out.
01:40So let's for argument's sake say the expiry date was July.
01:44Maybe it would have been a little bit better to have done a Dean Ambrose
01:47and just wait a little while before you turned yourself into Jon Moxley.
01:52But once again, I just think we all need to calm down with this,
01:56and I hope Sasha Banks and Naomi could work out their differences
01:59and go back to doing what they're flipping great at.
02:02But I ain't Stone Cold Steve Austin.
02:04Which ties into the main one that everybody is comparing this to,
02:08Stone Cold walking out in 2002.
02:11For those that don't know though,
02:12Austin did indeed not turn up to Monday Night Raw all those years ago,
02:16because he was told the plan for the evening was for him to lose to Brock Lesnar
02:19in a King of the Ring qualifying match.
02:21And understandably, the Rattlesnake thought that was stupid
02:23because the money isn't a random match on television.
02:27The money was in a big pay-per-view shindig that Brock Lesnar probably would have won.
02:31The real twist to all of this though,
02:32is that maybe, just maybe WWE did this to be a little bit vindictive.
02:37Because weeks earlier, Steve Austin had been on the WWF Bite This Show
02:41and said, well I'll tell you son, I don't really like the creative direction at the moment.
02:46And in fact, I think the riping sucks.
02:48So the powers that be didn't appreciate that
02:50and they wanted blood and all of this went back quickly.
02:53And given the relationship that Austin had with McMahon
02:55and the fact that he felt like they weren't living up to the deal
02:58or everything that he had crafted,
03:01he too got on a plane and he went home.
03:04He didn't see him for almost a year.
03:05Now Austin has admitted well after the fact that this was not the right way to handle it
03:09and he should have been more professional.
03:11But again, can anybody actually say his way of looking at things wasn't the right way?
03:16I would say no.
03:17Number 8, CM Punk.
03:18All it takes is five minutes on Google to make you realise,
03:21thank goodness CM Punk got out of WWE when he did.
03:25I mean, we can get into if, buts and maybes,
03:27but it is quite clear both his physical and mental health
03:30were taking an absolute kick in and he needed some time to rest.
03:33And this is one big reason why he did quit.
03:35Because if you're not aware, one of the things with WWE,
03:37especially back in the 2014 era,
03:40was that you were expected to return to work as quickly as possible,
03:44even if you had just had your knee reconstructed
03:46and you'd just come out of surgery.
03:48So Punk has told this story before,
03:49where he was essentially limping out of his local medical facility,
03:53where his phone rang and it was Vince McMahon saying,
03:55hey pal, need you at Raw next week.
03:58Even though hours before this, he had been knocked out with anaesthetic.
04:01I don't think that's good for anybody's brain,
04:03especially when you are trying to heal.
04:04And the reason CM Punk continues to do this,
04:07as he has mentioned, is because his hero was Harley Race
04:09and he wanted to tie it into that old school mentality.
04:12Given that eventually he did just become the walking wounded though,
04:15after the Royal Rumble, he went and found Vince McMahon in Triple H
04:17and said, I don't want to do this anymore.
04:19I too am going home.
04:21And yes, because this was a breach of contract,
04:24WWE fired CM Punk on his wedding day.
04:28Now we have talked about that a lot,
04:30but come on now, just don't do it.
04:32Number seven, The Rock.
04:34Quit may not be the right word here,
04:36but all things considered, man, what were we doing?
04:39We all remember The Rock when he went off to be a movie star
04:42and in 2022, don't forget,
04:44he's been an actor way longer than he was a wrestler.
04:47But when all this was starting and Hollywood came a calling,
04:50everybody in WWE realised what was going on,
04:52so they tried to tie all this up in a nice little package
04:55so they'd have the right to his name
04:56and they'd get some of that money from his film.
04:58What they did not anticipate, though,
05:00is that Dwayne Johnson would find so much success.
05:03So when his WWE contract did come due in 2004,
05:07they just decided,
05:09well, we're not going to renew it, we'll show him.
05:12This didn't set well with Mr. Johnson
05:13because why would it?
05:14And he was more than up for trying to come to terms
05:16on something new
05:18and this is why it would be seven years
05:19before 2011 rolled around
05:21and The Rock became the guest host of WrestleMania
05:23before he came back to the company.
05:24I mean, you'd think cooler heads
05:26would have profiled with this one
05:27and they did eventually.
05:29But yeah, WWE booted out
05:32who was going to go on to become
05:34one of the biggest stars in the world.
05:37Six Cesaro.
05:38I love this story because good for Cesaro.
05:41His contract came due.
05:42WWE sat down to negotiate with him.
05:44He put a figure on the table.
05:45They said, well, we're not going to pay you that.
05:47He said, okay, I'm done.
05:49Now, no matter what,
05:49this must have been hard
05:50because a Swiss Superman
05:51had been there for 11 years,
05:52but this is all about knowing your worth.
05:55If you'd seen a bunch of other figures
05:56being doled out to other wrestlers
05:58and you weren't being treated the same way,
06:01damn right you should stand up for yourself.
06:02I mean, we as a human race don't do this enough.
06:04It also kind of shows that WWE
06:06still don't realize what they had with Cesaro.
06:09And while I say these words,
06:10he hasn't returned to wrestling,
06:12but believe you me,
06:13wherever he does lay his hat,
06:15he is absolutely going to smash it
06:17because here's your homework for the day.
06:19Go and find a bad Cesaro match.
06:21We can't.
06:22Number five, China.
06:23The story of how China and WWE fell out
06:25is actually quite sad
06:27because do not pretend otherwise.
06:29During the Attitude Era,
06:30she was a super duper megastar
06:32and she changed the business.
06:34I mean, when it was time to renegotiate her deal,
06:37well, these people could not see eye to eye.
06:39Told best by Jim Ross on his podcast,
06:41Joni Lawler's big request
06:43when it was time for a new deal
06:44is that she wanted to be paid
06:46the same money as Stone Cold Steve Austin.
06:49Good old JR looked to her and said,
06:51well, that's never going to happen
06:52if we were an impasse.
06:53There's also the problem
06:54that China didn't really want to wrestle women anymore
06:56and exclusively wanted to wrestle men,
06:58which is not what the company wanted to do.
07:01And this is why they did say goodbye
07:02because Vince McMahon was like,
07:04well, I'm not paying her that
07:05and I want her to wrestle females.
07:07So we were done.
07:08The part that really sucks
07:09is that she never returned to WWE
07:10and only really did a little bit more in wrestling
07:12when she went over to New Japan.
07:14But what will really break your heart
07:16is that she passed away in 2016
07:18and never got to have that comeback
07:20that she so richly deserved.
07:22Now, thankfully, today,
07:23she has been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
07:25All of this could have been so much more.
07:27And before Bret Hart.
07:29I mean, do we really need to go through this one?
07:31Well, it's been talked about so many times,
07:34but seriously, how could I leave it out?
07:35Quickly, though, back in 1997,
07:37Bret the Hitman Hart and Vince McMahon signed a deal
07:39that a few weeks later, Vince said,
07:40oh, sorry, I can't afford that.
07:41So I strongly suggest you go back to WCW
07:44and try and get a bunch of money from them instead.
07:46Bret has always said, too,
07:47that he wanted to stay with the World Wrestling Federation
07:49but felt compelled to take World Championship Wrestling's offer
07:52because it was so much dough.
07:54And, of course, the way this all ties in
07:56is the Survivor Series 1997
07:58when Bret the Hitman Hart had creative control.
08:02So Vince said,
08:03well, I don't want you to have creative control.
08:05I'm just going to ignore it
08:06and I'm going to take that belt off you.
08:08So the terms of the contract were not adhered to
08:11and Bret did indeed leave and went to WCW
08:13and they had no idea what to do with him.
08:16That's a different video for a different day.
08:18Number three, Ric Flair.
08:19Picture the scene.
08:20New WCW head honcho Jim Hurd
08:23sits down the nature boy Ric Flair
08:24and says,
08:26I don't care what you've done in the past.
08:28I want you to cut your hair
08:30and I'm also going to start calling you Spartacus.
08:33And I have not made any of that up.
08:35The real kicker is that Hurd also wanted to pay Flair less money
08:38which was never going to fly.
08:40The real issue here was that WCW had decided
08:43to put somebody in charge who had no wrestling experience
08:45and was just looking at some numbers.
08:48However, this was Ric Flair.
08:49So he told Jim Hurd to shove this contract
08:51and that he'd be leaving.
08:53And he did.
08:54Not only did he quit,
08:55he went across to the WWF
08:57and he took the WCW World Championship
09:00big gold belt with him.
09:01And my word,
09:02this opened the floodgates
09:03because it was just lawsuit central.
09:05Somehow, Flair returned to WCW after all of this
09:08to a hero's welcome.
09:09And you would assume,
09:10well, I bet they never mucked him around on a contract again.
09:13But they did.
09:14Google everything that happened with Eric Bischoff.
09:16All of this was nuts.
09:18Number two, Brock Lesnar.
09:19I mean, seriously,
09:20the balls of Brock Lesnar.
09:22Because do not forget,
09:23in 2004,
09:24he was everything to WWE.
09:26He was the next big thing.
09:27He was the beast.
09:28He was our bright new star.
09:30And we were going to do everything we possibly could
09:33to ensure he got to the top
09:34and he stayed there.
09:35There's only one thing that could have derailed Brock,
09:37which was him waking up one day
09:39and deciding,
09:39you know what,
09:40I don't really like the wrestling lifestyle.
09:42And it actually happened.
09:44It was always going to cause a stink for obvious reasons,
09:46but they were able to come to an agreement
09:48in the sense they said,
09:49okay, Brock,
09:49we will let you out of your contract,
09:51but you have to sign this,
09:53a seven-year non-compete deal,
09:56so you can't go wrestle anywhere else.
09:57Lesnar was so desperate to leave,
09:59he probably would have signed his own mother away.
10:01But after he did try to get in the NFL and fail,
10:04he got offered a deal by New Japan Wrestling.
10:07And even though he did have this piece of paper,
10:09he ignored it and he went to fight.
10:11This triggered a huge lawsuit
10:12and was Lesnar completely ignoring
10:14the contract he had with WWE.
10:17But surprise, surprise,
10:18he fought them through the system
10:19and judges went,
10:20WWE,
10:22you can't enforce this.
10:23Why'd you even come up with it?
10:24This meant that Brock was a free man
10:26and also underlines how big a star he came in UFC.
10:29Because when it was time for him
10:30to make a jump back to pro wrestling,
10:33everybody was more than happy to work with him
10:36because they knew despite the past,
10:38they could do big things
10:39with the one and only Brock Lesnar.
10:41Number one, Chris Jericho.
10:43This doesn't 100% tie into a contract,
10:45but it does sum up why Chris Jericho
10:47never returned to WWE,
10:50even though he had the chance.
10:52And the big reason for this
10:53is because he felt shunned.
10:54Because way back in 2016, 2017,
10:57Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens
10:58were doing the best stuff in WWE,
11:00including the Festival of Friendship.
11:02And according to Jericho,
11:04during all of it,
11:04McMahon had sat him down and said,
11:06oh my gosh,
11:06this is great stuff.
11:08We're going to have you
11:09headline WrestleMania
11:10for the big world championship.
11:11So naturally,
11:12anybody is going to get pumped for that,
11:13even though, you know,
11:14plans can change.
11:16And then we got to that night in April,
11:18and Kevin Owens' Chris Jericho
11:19was not for a title,
11:21and it was on second.
11:23McMahon also wasn't a fan of the match,
11:24and Chris Jericho was actually insulted,
11:27mostly because he had realized,
11:29it doesn't matter how many times I go away,
11:30it doesn't matter how many times I come back,
11:32I have been pigeonholed here.
11:34This is just my status in WWE,
11:37and I don't want that.
11:39So we left.
11:39I don't want to get into it here
11:40because we've run out of time,
11:41but the wizard was correct
11:43because instead he went to New Japan,
11:44absolutely blew up those numbers,
11:46and then helped start and cement AEW
11:49to the point today,
11:51he does feel like a bigger deal than ever,
11:54you can say whatever you want about him,
11:56but he smashed it again.
11:59Now of any other wrestlers
12:00that quit over their contracts,
12:01make sure you let us know
12:02in the comments below,
12:03and don't forget to like the video,
12:04share the video,
12:05and subscribe.
12:05Then head over to whatculture.com
12:07where you can read articles like this
12:08with your eyes,
12:08make sure you come follow us on social media,
12:11we have a lot of videos,
12:12seriously a ton of them,
12:13they're lonely,
12:14go watch one.
12:15My name is Simon WhatCulture,
12:16thank you very much for joining me as always,
12:18I hope you have a lovely day,
12:20and try not to walk out over your contracts at work,
12:23it doesn't really work well in the real world,
12:25we all need that cash,
12:27goodbye.
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