Top 10 WWE Superstars and Others Who Betrayed Their Current Boss To Jump To Other Promotions
10) Alundra Blayze
When Alundra Blayze appeared on WCW Monday Nitro in December 1995
fans were rightly shocked.
Blayze had been working for the WWF just days prior,
and while she was no longer with the company,
no-one expected her to join the competition so soon.
Things were taken to a whole new level though, when Blayze appeared on Nitro, using her old name Madusa
and dropped the WWF Women’s Championship in the trash,
despite being the champion.
In his book, Controversy Creates Cash,
Eric Bischoff, who had worked with Blayze in the AWA,
said how he was very pleased with the infamous moment, saying:
“I took every advantage, and ended with a big ol’ smile on my face. It was just another one of those
in-your-face punk you WWE moves that I liked. It spoke to the attitude and the aggression that I wanted our brand to have.”
The trash-can incident caused Blayze to be blacklisted from the WWE for decades
, until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015,
where she removed the title from the trash,
showing all was forgiven.
9) Rick Rude
As a manager, Paul Jones had his best success with the team of Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez,
helping the pair capture the NWA World Tag Team Championships
from the Rock and roll express in 1986
Together, Rude and Fernandez had major success with the titles,
until Vince McMahon came knocking at Rude’s door, promising him so much more.
Realising there was much more money to be made as a singles star with McMahon,
than as a tag-star in the NWA, Rude quickly left, not even having the time to lose the title.
To get around this, the match where The Rock and Roll Express won the titles back never happened,
with the team just showing up at shows one day as the new champions.
It wasn’t exactly a classy move from McMahon to steal one of the NWA’s top stars
and just over a decade later, Vince would get his comeuppance
though we’ll get to that later…
8) Buzz Tyler
Unless you grew up watching southern wrestling during the 1970s and 80s,
you may never have heard of Buzz Tyler.
But during those decades, Tyler was a huge star in the NWA
in both their Mid-America and Central State territories,
with the Tennessee star’s natural charisma making up for any lacking in-ring skill.
This personality even allowed Tyler a reign in Jim Crockett Promotions
as the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight championship,
with Tyler feuding with some of the all-time greats in his career
including Ric Flair
Tully Blanchard
and Dusty Rhodes.
However, in July 1985, Tyler would forfeit the title, after he left the NWA, but would refuse to hand
over the physical belt, claiming Rhodes
who was also working as a booker at the time, was refusing to pay him.
Instead of investigating further
a new title belt was made,
which was won by Krusher Krushchev in November that same year, at the third ever Starrcade event.
7) Lex Luger
In 1995, WCW
were all ready to launch their new show Monday Nitro
which would go head-to-head with WWF RAW,
in what would become the Monday Night Wars.
All that Nitro head Eric Bischoff needed
was a huge shock to sway audiences,
and he found just that in Lex Luger.
After working for the WWF since January 1993,
Luger was working on a hand-shake basis with the company,
and when his real life friend Sting found out
he suggested a meeting between Luger and Bischoff.
Despite being offered less than a third of the amount he
had earned during his initial run with the company,
the master of the Lex Express agreed to join,
appearing on the pilot episode of Nitro,
just a day after working with the WWF.
As you can imagine, this didn’t go down well with Vince McMahon
who didn’t give Luger a contract
when he bought WCW in March 2001.
Perhaps in a sign of forgiveness,
McMahon did end up hiring Luger to work on their Wellness Policy in 2011
with Lex saying he hopes he can help the Superstars of tomorrow
avoid the path of drugs
and steroid abuse that
so many stars did years ago.
6) The Junkyard Dog
As a member of the WWF roster,
the Junkyard Dog was a fun-loving babyface,
who was able to bust skulls in the ring,
and bust a move with the fans.
But if you grew up watching Bill Watts’ mid-south wrestling
you’d know that the Dog was a truly phenomenal star.
With his natural charisma with the fans,
as well as his in-ring talent,
JYD became a huge star with Watts,
which naturally drew the interest of Vince McMahon.
Signing with the WWF in 1984
it was poor form from Dog that he left the company very quickly,
leaving many main-event feuds completely unusable.
When confronted by Watts,
McMahon reportedly told him that he did not tell Dog to no-show several house show events,
though given McMahon’s past record , if Watts believes him,
he’s either incredible stupid or naïve.
5) Brian Pillman
One of the smartest minds in wrestling,
Flyin’ Brian Pillman knew exactly how to get what he wanted in the sport.
One such example of Pillman’s brilliance was when he orchestrated
a master-plan feud alongside Eric Bischoff.
The plan, at least what Bischoff knew of it
would be for Pillman to break kayfabe
which he did at Superbrawl 1996,
where he referred to his opponent Arn Anderson as the company’s booker.
After the match, Pillman marched backstage, screaming at everyone on the roster,
with only Pillman and Bischoff knowing that this was just an act to increase Pillman’s notoriety.
In fact, Pillman was even able to convince Bischoff to fire him for real,
with Bischoff thinking that Pillman would return in a matter of months,
after becoming a much bigger star.
Upon his fake-real release though
Pillman revealed that he hated working for WCW,
and had used the story to fool Bischoff into firing him,
, releasing him from his contract.
Returning to ECW,
Pillman watched as the WWF and WCW launched a bidding war over him,
with the erratic one eventually signing with the WWF,
for much more money than he’d ever earned before.
4) Boris Zhukov
As the owner of the American Wrestling Association,
Verne Gagne struggled in the 1980s
as his promotion was ransacked by the growing WWF.
Fortunately for Gagne though,
when a young James Harrell appeared, things were seemingly turning around
with Harrell’s stereotypical Russian character ‘Boris Zhukov’
battleing with AWA World Champion Rick Martel
and the Pro-USA star Sgt. Slaughter.
Things continued to get better for Gagne,
when Zhukov won the AWA Tag Team Championships with Ustimov,
in a victory that no-doubt drew the ire of the pro-America crowd.
Sadly though, things would come crashing down quickly,
as Zhukov was quickly snatched up by McMahon,
with the Soviet star leaving for the WWF
while being a tag team champion.
As if that wasn’t enough, it wasn’t long before both Martel and Slaughter joined the WWF as well,
leaving Gagne three stars down.
3) Rick Rude, again
When Rick Rude joined the WWF
as part of the NWA World Tag Team Champions
Vince McMahon should’ve known that what comes around, goes around,
as by 1997, Rude was ready to bolt on McMahon
just like he had bolted on the NWA a decade earlier.
In the fallout of the Montreal Screwjob
many Superstars were not pleased
After Bret Hart had been so unceremoniously kicked out of the company,
several Superstars were left angry by Vince McMahon’s actions.
One Superstar who was particularly furious was Rude,
who quickly rang Eric Bischoff, telling the WCW leader
that he was coming to the show
Despite being in contract negotiations at the time,
Rude was working with the WWF on a hand-shake deal,
telling Bischoff he was free to appear on Nitro at any time.
Hoping to once again stick it to McMahon,
Bischoff had Rude appear on RAW and Nitro in the same night,
with the Ravishing One appearing on RAW first, talking about
the great D-Generation X.
This contrasted greatly with just a few hours later,
when Rude debuted as the newest member of the NWO on Nitro, with a clean-shave,
revealing that RAW had been pre-taped.
In his debut, Rude went back on everything he had said on RAW, criticising DX-leader Shawn Michaels,
who had won the title at Survivor Series from the Hitman.
One of the most shocking jumps of all time,
Rude joining WCW was a key attack in the Monday Night War.
2) Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash may hold the record for the wrestler
with the most success despite so many awful gimmicks.
Whether he be dressing up as a wizard as Oz,
trying desperately to be cool as Vinnie Vegas,
or rocking the worst haircut in wrestling as a Master Blaster,
Big Daddy Cool definitely had his worst gimmicks in WCW.
That is probably why the 7-footer was so eager to leave
and hatched a cunning plan to get out of his contract in 1993.
Taking WCW Executive Ole Anderson aside,
Nash gave a heartfelt performance, telling the horseman that he couldn’t take wrestling anymore,
and was leaving the business to return to his previous job as a bouncer.
Feeling sorry for Nash, Anderson bought his story,
granting Big Daddy Cool his release.
It therefore must have been embarrassing for Anderson
when Nash joined the WWF not much long later,
appearing as the bodyguard for Shawn Michaels.
After huge success for the WWF
including a year-long reign as world champion,
Nash did return to WCW in 1996
as part of the Outsiders,
a name very appropriate when you realise
his story to Anderson probably didn’t make him many friends backstage.
Fortunately for Nash, his major success in the WWF
meant he was practically untouchable in WCW
having control over his own booking and character,
which is probably why Nash became a
4-time WCW World Champion with the company.
1) Jeff Jarrett
When Vince McMahon revealed he had bought WCW
on RAW in March 2001, he made it very clear that he held the fate
of the WCW roster in his hands.
But in arguably the most shocking moment of the already historic broadcast,
McMahon referenced former WWF star Jeff Jarrett
and fired the former WCW Champion live on air.
This firing was a long-time coming, with McMahon still being bitter about Jarrett
leaving the company in 1999.
Back then, Double-J was the Intercontinental Champion
and was booked to lose the title to Chyna at Unforgiven,
though Vince Russo persuaded people to extend the feud a month longer.
Instead, Jarrett was now booked to lose the title at No Mercy,
despite Jarrett’s contract expiring before the show.
In her book ‘If They Only Knew’, Chyna said that
Russo and Jarrett deliberately hatched this plan,
with Double-J allegedly holding McMahon up for $300,000,
saying if he didn’t pay
he would take the title to WCW.
Fearing a repeat of the Alundra Blayze incident
McMahon paid
and blackballed Jarrett for nearly 20 years after.
Jarrett himself has denied the claims that he demanded the money to compete,
saying that the $300,000 was for money that the company already owed him,
but for whatever reason, hadn’t paid him. Regardless, Jarrett was paid,
and lost the title to the ninth wonder of the world that night,
leaving for WCW with Russo the next day.
After WCW died in 2001,
Jarrett was blacklisted from the company,
but formed TNA Wrestling a year later,
before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Well guys that's our list, can you think of any other wrestlers who betrayed their current boss to jump to other promotions?
if so, drop us a comment below and let us know
If you like this video , please check our previous video – “Top 10 Highest Rated WWE TLC Matches That WWE Wrestlers And Fans Cannot Forget”
Also check our high rated videos by clicking the link at the upper right-hand corner or down in the description field
If you like this video, please hit that Thumbs Up button, hit the subscribe button and the bell icon so that you notified everytime we post a new video
You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook Thanks for watching