10 Most Controversial WWE Exits

23 years ago today, WWE presented No Mercy, a pay-per-view most fondly remembered for the breakout ladder match between the Hardys and Edge & Christian.

The most interesting story from that show, however, came not from something that happened in front of the cameras, but rather behind it.

Jeff Jarrett - whose contract had expired - requested money owed, such as pay-per-view bonuses, be transferred into his account before he would wrestle (and drop the Intercontinental Title to) Chyna as scheduled.

In later years, this story became highly exaggerated but, regardless, Double-J 'holding up Vince McMahon' remains one of the most controversial exits of a WWE performer ever.

It stung so badly that, following the sale of WCW to WWE, Vince McMahon publicly 'fired' Jarrett live on Raw. He didn't have the power to do that, since Jeff had a guaranteed contract with AOL Time Warner until 2002, but still.

Jarrett's manner of leaving before heading to WCW, coupled with his involvement in TNA, prevented him from returning to WWE until 2018.

It's a story that would play out the same for many other WWE stars who left on less-than-preferable terms. For some of them, the way they left the company would prevent them from ever returning to the company again.

10. Lex Luger

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On September 3, 1995 Lex Luger worked a WWE house show, teaming with the Shawn Michaels to beat Tag Team Champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna (by DQ) in the main event.

Two days later, Luger showed up unannounced on the debut episode of WCW Monday Niro, shocking not only the wrestling world but also those working at Titan Towers.

Incredibly, Luger had been working for WWE without a proper contract for some time, meaning that he was legally allowed to 'jump ship' without issues.

Still, the lack of proper notice rankled with those in WWE, including Vince McMahon. The company wasn't doing incredible business in this era, and Lex was one of their bigger and more marketable stars.

WWE may have failed to make him the next Hogan-esque all-American superstar, but he was still a featured player. Losing him to WCW was a blow and also gave the competition a big victory over them on their very first Nitro, causing a lot of buzz.

Interestingly, WCW Senior Vice President Eric Bischoff didn't even want The Total Package and lowballed him during negotiations (giving any sort of offer as a favour to Luger's best friend Sting), only to be surprised when Lex settled for a fraction of the amount he was making when he left the company in 1992.

Some say that Luger's secret departure is one of the reasons that he wasn't accepted back after the sale of WCW years later.

9. Matt Hardy

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When Matt Hardy discovered that his long-term girlfriend Lita was having an affair with Edge (one of his best friends) while he sat at home recovering from major knee surgery, he was understandably upset.

Not only did he vent at the guilty parties directly, but he aired his grievances on the internet, via his own personal website and in interviews.

This built a lot of sympathy with his fans and neutrals, but not with WWE management.

In their view, Matt should have kept his private affairs private, as him leaking the details caused fans to disrupt broadcasts and shower supposed babyface Lita with abuse.

Believing that she and Edge had more potential and hadn't 'done anything wrong' in how they reacted to the airing of their dirty laundry, WWE decided to put them together as an on-screen pair - but not before firing Matt.

So, just as he was due to come back from his layoff, Matt was wished the best of luck in his future endeavours, something that only served to pour fuel onto the fire and heighten his sense of injustice.

Fans agreed and continued to hijack shows with chants of 'you screwed Matt' and 'we want Matt', until WWE eventually relented and hired him back in order to work a storyline based on the real-life drama.

2005 was not a good year for controversial WWE exits, as the company also released Dawn Marie while she was pregnant, as well as newlyweds Jackie and Charlie Haas, right after they got back from their honeymoon.

8. Brock Lesnar

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WWE were all-in on Brock Lesnar from the moment they signed him to what was then the most lucrative developmental deal in company history, back in 2000.

The NCAA Division 1 Heavyweight Champion was considered the future of the company and arrived on WWE television on the back of a monster push. The Next Big Thing beat everyone during his first year, from Hulk Hogan and The Rock to Kurt Angle and The Undertaker, as he set records and established himself as the man on SmackDown.

Less than two years into his main roster run in early 2004, however, Brock began considering his options elsewhere.

Feeling burnt out and beat up, sick of the travel and the injuries and the monotony of life on the road, Lesnar informed WWE management just days before his scheduled showdown with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX that he wanted out.

In his mind, he was going to leave wrestling and become a star in the NFL, something many experts considered a longshot at best.

But he did it, receiving his release and wrestling his last match inside Madison Square Garden at the Showcase of the Immortals. His departure was controversial for a number of reasons, with many of his colleagues feeling resentment that so much had been invested in him and he was simply walking away from a spot most WWE stars would kill for.

The situation became more controversial still when the football dream didn't work out and Brock wanted to earn a living, entering into a legal dispute with WWE over the nature of his restrictive non-compete clause.

7. Kurt Angle

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Like Brock Lesnar two years before him, Kurt Angle was suffering from burnout come the summer of 2006.

Not only that, but the Olympic Hero was physically falling apart. Not only had he broken his neck on multiple occasions, but the rest of his knackered body was starting to feel the effects of a punishing style.

Angle had proven himself to be one of the best in the world, but it had come at a cost.

The pain led to painkillers, which led to Kurt abusing those substances. He was popped with a thirty-day suspension for violating WWE's Wellness Policy, but his problems didn't stop there.

Angle continued to wrestle despite his mounting list of injuries and things got so bad that he interrupted a production meeting at a television taping, pulling down his pants to show Vince McMahon his legs and groin - which were completely black and blue - and demanded a meeting at WWE headquarters.

At said meeting, Vince produced pages of transcribed voicemails and text messages that Kurt had left for him, most of which were of a threatening nature.

Kurt, for his part, didn't remember sending them as he had done so while high on painkillers, but the meeting proved to be his end in WWE. He was either fired or quit (or both) depending on which version of events you believe, and he left WWE under a cloud of controversy and speculation as to his physical and mental state.

He wouldn't return for over a decade.

6. Randy Savage

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It wasn't so much Randy Savage's 1994 departure itself that was controversial, as what happened after it.

Savage had been transitioned from a full-time in-ring performer and one of WWE's top stars to a commentator and ambassador. for the organisation. He was still a valuable commodity, but was not content to sit on the sidelines and itched to get back to wrestling.

Vince was focused on his 'New Generation' of stars and intent on pushing younger performers, and so he let Macho Man go to WCW. On the first broadcast after he left, Vince spoke to the camera, thanking Savage and wishing him well in the future.

In the years after, however, it was clear that there was some serious animosity built up between both sides.

Some points of contention were Savage taking a lucrative Slim Jim sponsorship with him to WCW and the unflattering depiction of the 'Nacho Man' in those woeful Billionaire Ted skits.

Others point to an unsubstantiated rumour about a possible relationship between Savage and a member of the McMahon family, but whatever happened between them must have been very bad indeed, because just about everyone else who was seemingly on the outs made their way back.

Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Kurt Angle - all were thought to be persona non grata at various times, but all eventually made amends with the WWE Chairman.

Not Randy.

5. Chyna

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Chyna went from being a supporting character to one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era in just a couple of short years.

The Ninth Wonder of the World made history as the first woman to enter the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring, as well as being the first female Intercontinental Champion.

A crossover star, Chyna also appeared in the pages of Playboy and released a bestselling autobiography.

She was certainly an asset to WWE, but in 2001 the relationship between the two sides became frayed. Joanie Laurer - who was Women's Champion at the time of her exit - felt as though she should be paid as much as top stars like The Rock and Steve Austin, while also feeling that wrestling her fellow women was beneath her.

Then it was revealed that her longtime partner Triple H had been having an affair with Stephanie McMahon and, suddenly, she realised that not only was her working environment now unmanageable, but that her bargaining power had been significantly reduced.

Though her and WWE 'mutually agreed' to let her contract expire, her leaving prompted much rumour and speculation and the nature of it no doubt played a part in her never returning to the group.

4. Steve Austin

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By mid-2002, Steve Austin was running on empty.

He was feeling the effects of a career that was always on borrowed time following major neck surgery, but he was also mentally exhausted and creatively unsatisfied with his position in the company, as well as the direction of the company as a whole.

He publicly vented these frustrations, including on WWE internet show Byte This. He also no-showed the post-WrestleMania X8 Raw, which was an indication of what was to come.

A couple of months after that, Austin was asked to put over Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifying match on Raw. Not happy to lose a match that had the potential to make some serious money months down the line, the Texas Rattlesnake balked at the request and, rather than show up to work, he flew home to Texas instead.

From there, there was something of a standoff between company and performer, with WWE going on the offensive by trying to publicly assassinate Austin's character with a cutting speech from Vince McMahon on Raw as well as a hit piece on the show Confidential.

Adding to his woes, Austin's personal life began crumbling and he got into legal trouble resulting from a domestic incident with then-wife Debra.

Stone Cold would miss the remainder of the year, before finally opening up a dialogue with good friend and Talent Relations boss Jim Ross, paving the way for a return.

Austin has since said that he regrets how he handled himself at the time, but WWE didn't exactly paint themselves in glory by how they handled the situation, either.

3. The Ultimate Warrior

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The relationship between the Ultimate Warrior and WWE/Vince McMahon was tempestuous as best.

He became a huge star for the promotion and the two sides inevitably ended up going back to each other throughout the first half of the nineties, but Warrior left in controversial fashion on three separate occasions.

In 1991, Warrior sent Vince a long letter outlining a series of demands for a new contract, that included a higher payoff for his WrestleMania VII match (against Randy Savage), a more favourable royalty rate on his merchandise and improved travel accommodations when on the road.

He stated that, until he received a response, that he would remain at home.

Vince did respond and acquiesced to several of the demands, but only in order to get Warrior to wrestle, as advertised, at SummerSlam. When Warrior got through the curtain that night, he was handed a new letter that basically told him he was suspended and that he had made a mistake by trying to strongarm McMahon.

He came back in time for WrestleMania VIII, but was gone again by Survivor Series '92. This time, Warrior (along with British Bulldog) had been caught using Human Growth Hormone. He was suspended, but then no-showed events in protest and left the company once more.

The third and final Warrior exit occurred when he came back for an ill-fated run in 1996. This time, Warrior yet again missed dates that he was advertised for. His excuse was that he was grieving his father, who had recently passed away, but Vince McMahon didn't buy it and decided to cut his losses.

The eighteen years after his last exit would be dogged by legal action between the two sides, until Warrior finally returned to be inducted into the 2014 class of the WWE Hall of Fame.

2. CM Punk

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CM Punk committed what Vince McMahon considers sports entertainment's 'cardinal sin' when he walked out of the company at the post-2014 Royal Rumble episode of Raw.

The Straight-Edge Superstar reportedly had a meeting that day with Vince and Triple H and told them that he was going home. While WWE were initially hopeful that he would make a return sooner rather than later, it became clear that this was not a sabbatical and that Punk was, in fact, done.

It took the best part of a year for Punk to share his side of the story, which he did so during an explosive episode of then-friend Colt Cabana's the Art of Wrestling podcast.

On that podcast, Punk outlined the reasons for him leaving, which essentially boiled down to his unhappiness with creative but, more so, his deteriorating health.

That episode would prove to be especially controversial in its own right, resulting in a lawsuit between Punk, Cabana and WWE doctor Chris Amann. Another issue that is constantly referred to is WWE issuing Punk with termination papers on the day of his wedding, something that they deny was intentional but caused to further the bad feelings Punk had towards them.

Punk's final few months in WWE and eventual exit and had killed his passion for the business that he didn't return until over seven years later. When he did so, it wasn't for WWE but for their new competitor, AEW.

1. Bret Hart

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As the Monday Night Wars really started heating up, WCW made a play for Bret Hart, one of WWE's biggest and most reliable stars.

The Hitman didn't want to go to WCW, seeing himself as a WWE lifer and Vince McMahon as something of a father figure. In the end, the two agreed to an unprecedented twenty-year deal that would see Bret wrestle for a few years before transitioning into a backstage role.

A short time later, however, McMahon informed Hart that he couldn't afford to honour the terms of the contract and encouraged his WWE Champion to re-enter negotiations with WCW instead.

Which Bret did, signing with them for big money.

With The Excellence of Execution on the way out, WWE needed to get the title off him and decided that he should drop it to hated rival Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series pay-per-view.

Unwilling to lose (in his home country of Canada, of all places) to a man he'd had highly publicised backstage issues with, Bret refused. And he was well within his rights to do so, since his contract had a 'reasonable creative control' clause in it, meaning that for the last thirty-days he was a WWE talent he had the power to influence his booking.

This was a shrewd insurance policy, since WWE were known for trying to lower the worth of stars as they were on their way out.

While it was eventually agreed that Bret and Shawn's showdown would end in a disqualification, Vince and others secretly conspired to screw him out of the title by double-crossing him on the night.

It was a controversial end to the illustrious career of a performer who had given everything to WWE over the years, but above all else it was just sad. Bret, in retaliation, punched and knocked out Vince in the locker room afterwards.

It would take years for the wounds of the Montreal Screwjob to heal enough for the two parties to work together in any capacity.