Why WWE Won’t Rehire These Current Wrestlers

There’s an old saying in wrestling that individuals at all times appear to forget when something unimaginable happens: never say never. Through the years, wrestlers have not just burnt bridges; they’ve blown them up while the person they’ve an issue with is standing in the course of it. They’ve done things to one another and said a number of the worst possible things about each other, and yet, when the time calls for it and the cash is correct, everyone seems to be in a position to get along just high quality.

Out of each wrestling company, that sentiment has never been more true than in WWE. We have seen Vince McMahon publicly screw Bret Hart to the purpose where it remains to be talked about today, CM Punk get fired on his wedding day, and Stone Cold Steve Austin literally walk out of the corporate in the course of a show, and to be publicly buried for it. With all that said, not only have all three of those men made returns to WWE, but they’ve all been heralded and celebrated as a number of the best WWE Superstars of all time. With a view to be exiled or blacklisted from WWE must take loads, but there are some wrestlers who’re still working today that WWE is not exactly probably the most welcoming towards.

Those wrestlers are who we’re here to discuss today. The celebrities from the past and present that, for one reason or one other, WWE seems to have washed its hands of them and never brings them back into the fold. So sit back, chill out, and join us on a journey through a number of the most troubled and strained relationships in all of wrestling as we undergo a listing of wrestlers that WWE will most probably never bring back, and the explanations behind each decision.

There was a cut-off date where Matt Riddle was thought to be one of the vital exciting and charismatic wrestlers in all the world, hence why WWE was all in on “The Original Bro” once they signed him to a contract with “WWE NXT” in 2018. Nonetheless, Riddle could be certainly one of those performers who would get so many second probabilities that eventually WWE had enough of him.

Riddle was let go from WWE back in September 2023, and the road that ultimately led to his exit was bumpy to say the least. He was involved in an altercation at JFK airport in Recent York when flying back from a WWE live event in India, where he claimed that a police officer sexually assaulted him. That was eventually cleared up, and Riddle even apologized for his “disorderly conduct,” but he was pulled from the next week’s episode of “WWE Raw,” and within the midst of WWE firing a variety of its stars, Riddle was also dismissed after reportedly burning through too lots of his probabilities.

The previous UFC fighter has remained lively within the two years since he was given his marching orders from WWE, winning titles in each MLW and Recent Japan Pro Wrestling, but this is not going to be enough for WWE to bring him back. Not only was there the incident at JFK airport, but he was also named within the 2020 Speaking Out movement, had multiple suspensions because of drugs, and rubbed top stars like Seth Rollins and Goldberg the improper way. He has also publicly stated how much he loved Vince McMahon’s way of storytelling, which is not going to do him any favors when Triple H is leading the creative direction in WWE. Never say never, but Riddle’s time with WWE looks to be done for good.

Former WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio is a reputation who has popped up in conversations loads in 2025 relating to a possible WWE return, and that’s all due to the corporate’s purchase of Mexican promotion AAA. On the time of the acquisition, Del Rio was the AAA Mega Champion and arguably the most important star in all the company outside of the person who would go on to dethrone him for the AAA Mega Championship, El Hijo del Vikingo. The likes of Vikingo, Mr. Iguana, and even the chaotic duo of Pagano and Psycho Clown have appeared on WWE TV to this point this yr, but there is no such thing as a sign of Del Rio.

There was some extent in May 2025 where it gave the impression of the connection between WWE and Del Rio wasn’t as bad as many believed, and that there have been people in WWE who were greater than blissful to bring Del Rio into the fold. Nonetheless, despite Del Rio himself telling other members of the AAA roster that he was going to make a grand return to WWE, and the indisputable fact that WWE considered him as an entrant for the 2025 men’s Royal Rumble match, sources inside WWE stated that there was a “distinct lack of interest” in using Del Rio and the corporate has made a conscious effort to not mention him each time AAA is involved.

A part of the explanation for that is Del Rio’s past allegations of domestic and sexual violence. He made threats of domestic violence towards his ex-fiancée, former WWE Superstar Paige, and was even arrested in 2020 for allegedly battering and sexually assaulting his girlfriend. These charges may need been dropped in 2021, but fans have been very vocal about Del Rio’s position within the business, and WWE seems to share the identical views relating to bringing him back into the mainstream.

There was a cut-off date where Enzo Amore was so over with the WWE Universe that he was in a position to cut a whole promo with no microphone, and the fans within the audience wouldn’t only chant the promo back at him, but be go wild at the identical time. Those days are long gone for the person now referred to as Real1, and it doesn’t appear like they can be returning any time soon.

The duo of Enzo Amore and Big Cass was one of the vital promising duos to come back out of “WWE NXT” within the 2010s, but once they were split up, neither man found as much success as once they were together. Each of them could be gone from WWE by the top of 2018, and while Cass was released during a time when he was battling a severe alcohol problem, Amore could be fired outright for a way more troubling accusation.

On January 22, 2018, Amore was suspended by WWE after it was revealed that he was under investigation following allegations of sexual assault against a girl by the name of Philomena Sheahan, who accused Amore of raping her in October 2017. The next day, Amore was fired by WWE for failing to inform the corporate in regards to the investigation, but it surely was later confirmed by a friend of Sheahan that she had falsified the allegations, and the investigation was closed just a number of months later.

Amore would go on to have a variety of controversial incidents, corresponding to making a scene at WWE Survivor Series 2018, getting involved in Ring of Honor and Recent Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Supercard event without NJPW knowing about it, and despite resurfacing in TNA earlier this yr, it’s unlikely WWE will ever take a probability on Amore again.

We did say within the introduction which you can never say never relating to WWE, as anything is feasible, but out of everyone on this list, The Velveteen Dream is the most probably to never show up in WWE ever again.

Dream was one of the vital promising members of the “WWE NXT” roster from 2017 onwards, along with his feuds against the likes of Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa generating plenty of buzz to the purpose where some people thought that he was on the right track to headline WrestleMania in a while in his profession. A reign with the WWE NXT North American Championship boosted his profile, and despite taking time without work in 2019 because of a back injury, Dream looked poised to be certainly one of the leading figures for “NXT” as they went head-to-head with “AEW Dynamite” within the “Wednesday Night Wars.”

All of that modified in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic when Dream, real name Patrick Clark, was accused of sending indecent images of himself to underage boys, something Clark denied immediately. Nonetheless, Clark was later named within the 2020 Speaking Out movement for allegedly sending one other explicit image of himself to an underage girl, and engaged in “inappropriate communications” with a variety of underage boys he was supposedly grooming. WWE launched an investigation into the matter and located no evidence of wrongdoing, but Dream was released by the corporate in May 2021 after being inactive for a considerable time period.

Since his release, Clark has been arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia, trespassing, and first-degree battery, and while all of those charges have been dropped, Clark was effectively blacklisted from the business until 2024, but WWE is not going to take a probability on him, irrespective of how much potential he can have had. 

In an analogous situation to Alberto Del Rio, the partnership between WWE and TNA Wrestling that was established in 2024 led some fans to consider that there was a path that Tessa Blanchard could walk that might find yourself with the daughter of the legendary Tully Blanchard appearing on “WWE Raw,” “WWE SmackDown,” or “WWE NXT,” but that wasn’t the case.

Within the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blanchard was one of the vital sought-after talents in all of wrestling due to her work in TNA when the corporate was referred to as Impact Wrestling. She became the primary woman in history to win the Impact World Championship, landing her at the highest of many year-end lists relating to women’s wrestling, as she was the one woman within the business who was crossing over and proving that intergender wrestling had a spot within the American business. 

Then 2020 arrived, and with it got here allegations of bullying and racism from various wrestlers who had shared locker rooms along with her. Puerto Rican wrestler Black Rose (also referred to as La Rosa Negra) confirmed that Blanchard had each spat at her and used a racial slur, while the likes of current WWE Superstar Chelsea Green, former WWE Superstar Priscilla “Gigi Dolan” Kelly, and former NWA World Women’s Champion Allysin Kay also confirmed that Blanchard had bullied several women through the years.

While she can have only competed for WWE briefly in 2017 as a part of the first-ever Mae Young Classic, there have been several WWE Superstars as recently as January 2025 who’ve been open to working with Blanchard. This was a part of the explanation why she ended up returning to TNA in December 2024, however the fans would typically chant “she’s a racist” at her, and now that she’s returned to CMLL in Mexico, WWE looks like they may keep their distance from Blanchard.

WWE officials really did try with Eva Marie when it comes to making her a reliable skilled wrestler, but because the old saying goes, you may lead a horse to water, but you may’t make it drink, and in Marie’s case, she simply didn’t know tips on how to drink properly.

Marie signed with WWE back in 2013 and was initially brought in as a part of the “WWE NXT” brand, but was featured totally on the “Total Divas” reality television show, which, despite its success, ended up labeling Marie as nothing greater than a reality star and never a wrestler, which didn’t help when she eventually got within the ring. When she did get within the ring, to place it simply, Marie was bad, very bad, but over time, she ended up using that lack of in-ring talent to her advantage when her 2016 gimmick saw her use every trick within the book to avoid getting within the ring. Nonetheless, that run was cut short because of a wellness policy violation, and he or she was gone from the corporate lower than a yr later.

To everyone’s surprise, WWE decided to offer Marie a second probability as she was signed to a brand new contract in late 2020 and eventually returned in the summertime of 2021. Some fans thought that perhaps Marie had learned from her first stint in the corporate and improved significantly, but that was sadly not the case, and by the point Marie returned to WWE, the ladies’s division had evolved to a degree where she simply couldn’t sustain, and he or she was released for a second time in November 2021. 

While it doesn’t appear like the thought of the third time being the charm goes to be explored by WWE, Marie is having fun with life away from wrestling, as she is an enormous advocate for mental health, and is now the founding father of a sequence of rehabilitation centers in Laguna Beach, California.

You’d think for a person who has publicly expressed his dislike for AEW CEO and President Tony Khan that WWE could be everywhere in the idea of Jack Swagger making an enormous return to WWE, but that does not look to be on the cards for the previous World Heavyweight Champion.

Swagger initially left WWE in 2017 after requesting his release from the corporate because of not being satisfied along with his creative direction on the time. From there, Swagger would bounce between his wrestling profession and a brand new journey in Mixed Martial Arts under his real name of Jake Hager. He was the ultimate Lucha Underground Champion, was undefeated in Bellator, and was making a gentle income across the independent scene when he got the possibility to realize national notoriety over again as a member of the AEW roster. Hager debuted for AEW on the conclusion of the first-ever episode of “AEW Dynamite,” and would stick with the corporate for five years before opting to not re-sign with the corporate in 2024.

In an era where WWE would attempt to benefit from anyone who departed AEW, whether it’s on good or bad terms, there was a severe lack of fan interest when it got here to Jake Hager becoming Jack Swagger again, and there was even less interest from WWE. Hager would later go on to publicly slam Khan for being an unprofessional boss, a communist, and even accuse his former boss of icing him out of AEW because of being vocal about his support of Donald Trump, but this was later discredited by current AEW stars FTR. Hager has since retired from wrestling to give attention to his trucking business, and while he still is perhaps in adequate shape for an additional run in wrestling, that run won’t be in WWE.

Bryan Danielson concluded his full-time profession at AEW WrestleDream 2024, with the emphasis being on “full-time” as fans are still convinced to at the present time that the “American Dragon” will at some point get back within the ring for yet another match. With that said, it is very likely that his last match won’t be in WWE despite how successful he was while wrestling as Daniel Bryan.

Danielson’s loyalty to All Elite Wrestling is essentially the explanation why WWE is more likely to never re-hire him, but Danielson has also made it clear that he’ll go wherever the wrestling business needs him. In a 2024 appearance on the “Gorilla Position” podcast, Danielson seems like he is required more in AEW because they’re a growing company who’re vital for the long run of the industry, meaning that he is not against returning to WWE. Nonetheless, his injury record can be an enormous concern.

On the time of writing, Danielson believes that he won’t ever wrestle again due to how banged up his neck is. He’s yet to have neck surgery, something he knows he needs but is attempting to avoid, as that can effectively end his wrestling profession for good. If he continues to delay surgery and stays in bad shape, WWE officials would never risk putting someone who’s one bump away from disaster on certainly one of their shows, and considering that it was the WWE doctors that enforced Danielson’s initial retirement in 2016, the very best anyone could hope for relating to a return to WWE for Danielson is a Hall of Fame induction.

It must also be noted that Danielson’s loyalty to AEW is an enormous reason why his wife, Brie Bella, has not made a full return to WWE despite her twin sister Nikki being heavily involved in the corporate over the past 12 months.

Rounding off with the person who is definitely the most probably to return to WWE by the easy factor of him being probably the most healthy and least problematic. Given the impact that The Shield had on WWE, it’s no surprise that there are still legions of WWE fans on the market who still seek advice from Jonathan Good as Dean Ambrose, versus the name everyone knows him by today, Jon Moxley.

Moxley is a hugely essential a part of WWE history due to being one-third of The Shield, and because of how successful each Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have been over the past decade, the previous AEW World Champion must know that he could be a guaranteed essential eventer if he ever decided to go away AEW. With that said, Moxley made it abundantly clear how he felt in regards to the creative process in WWE during his eight years with the corporate when he left in 2019, even revealing that he was so appalled by a author proposing the thought of constructing a joke about Reigns’ Leukemia diagnosis.

In AEW, Moxley can wrestle how he wants, who he wants, and have the liberty to travel to places like Recent Japan Pro Wrestling, CMLL, and the independent circuit while remaining as certainly one of the highest stars within the second biggest wrestling company on the planet. His current contract with AEW is anticipated to run until no less than October 2027, barring any injury time being added on at the top, but very similar to Bryan Danielson, Moxley is more likely to be an AEW lifer, and WWE is not going to supply him anything that his current employers cannot already provide.