10 Wrestlers Who Quit During WWE Raw
These wrestlers decided enough was enough in the midst of WWE Raw.
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00:00 Yeah, it's been one of those Monday/Tuesdays again hasn't it?
00:03 With two of WWE's most disrespected and often underutilised talents in recent memory,
00:07 both apparently, seemingly according to reports, calling it quits on the most recent episode
00:12 of Monday Night Raw, it got me thinking.
00:14 It got me thinking about all these other legends and names and icons or just people who like
00:19 to shout 'my hole' over the years who've done the exact same midway through an episode
00:24 of Monday Night Raw.
00:25 So without further ado, I am Gareth from What Culture Wrestling and these are 10 wrestlers
00:29 who all decided to quit in the middle of Monday Night Raw.
00:32 10.
00:33 Stone Cold Steve Austin Now very much reminding the world why he is
00:36 single handedly one of the most, if not the most popular person ever to grace the world
00:41 of pro wrestling at this year's WrestleMania 38, Stone Cold Steve Austin that we saw at
00:46 that show, at that show of shows, feels like an absolute world away from the person who
00:50 was occupying the WWE landscape, the sphere, in 2002.
00:53 So clearly a little bit pissed about the way his entire feud with Scott Hall was handled
00:57 coming into Mania 18, Stone Cold Steve Austin made the decision to completely no-show not
01:02 only the post-Mania WrestleMania party, which is apparently the hottest ticket in town,
01:06 but he also chose to completely blank and power off the Monday Night Raw that was meant
01:10 to happen, obviously, the day after WrestleMania 18.
01:13 I've just noticed my nipples may fall out a lot in this video, but hey, that's the content
01:18 you came for, right?
01:19 So at this point Austin was said to be very exhausted with the way he was being handled
01:23 in WWE, his body was breaking down, he was not happy that he wasn't being presented
01:26 as the bona fide main eventer that he should have been, and this all acted as a bit of
01:30 a precursor for events that would later come to pass that we may or may not touch upon
01:34 by the end of this video.
01:36 9.
01:37 Nia Jax
01:38 Nia Jax was never too far away from the headlines during her time with Vinnie Matt's company
01:41 before eventually getting released midway through a mental health break, because WWE
01:45 are the real heroes, aren't they?
01:47 But a good couple of years before she was eventually released by WWE, Nia Jax did infamously
01:52 decide to walk out on the company in the midst of a time where she was seemingly at the forefront
01:56 of many storylines.
01:57 Well, I say many storylines, the main storyline she was a part of was the one with Alexa Bliss,
02:01 where she was being bullied but she was a friend, it was all getting a bit weird, and
02:04 it came into WrestleMania 34 and she had to overcome the bully, it was all a bit strange.
02:08 But at this point in October 2017 she was not happy with the creative direction, supposedly
02:13 she was happy with the pain she was getting at the time as well, so Nia Jax in the middle
02:17 of an episode of Monday Night Raw just said, you know what, I've had it with this, I'm
02:20 out of here.
02:21 8.
02:22 Neville
02:23 So, this is a pretty Raw period that was 2017, and to a person who was once the king of the
02:28 Cruiserweights, a person that you built the entire division a show around, only to have
02:33 Enzo Moray beat him at No Mercy.
02:36 Yeah, you got it this Vince.
02:37 And this pretty much acted as the first domino in the string of dominoes that would fall
02:42 over and lead to Neville eventually walking out on the company, because I think a week
02:45 or two after this there was an episode of Raw, I believe it was the October 9th episode
02:49 of Raw, he saw what was on the board for him on that episode, it said Neville vs Enzo
02:54 Moray in a lumberjack match and Neville, you're going to lose again.
02:58 No, I don't like it.
02:59 So understandably Neville in that moment said, nope, not fancying that, heading for the exit
03:03 door and then later on, I believe in a quote, he revealed why he did properly leave and
03:07 he said, I was not in the mood to be jobbed out by jobbers so I left.
03:11 Which is incredibly understandable because Neville, the king of the Cruiserweights, pack
03:16 the bastard, should not be losing to Enzo Moray in any match, DQ, whatever you want
03:20 to call it, he should not be losing those matches.
03:23 Number seven, Gail Kim.
03:24 And rather likes of the aforementioned Neville slash pack, whatever you want to call him
03:27 right now, saw whatever match they were going to have on Raw and thought, you know what,
03:31 yeah, I don't fancy that, I'm just going to walk out.
03:33 Gail Kim, she had other ideas that were a lot funnier to be honest, because she was
03:37 told before a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the Divas Championship
03:41 that she would be getting eliminated pretty early on and she was miffed, she was annoyed,
03:45 she was angry, but instead of just saying, nope, I'm not going to be a part of the
03:47 match, she went into the match and just got herself eliminated, just threw herself out
03:53 of the ring very early on, stormed to the back, went backstage, got in the faces of
03:57 everyone who was in charge and who had control over her contract and said, I'm done, I'm
04:02 finished with this, bye.
04:03 And I've got a little quote here that she said to PowerSlam around this time after she
04:06 did just triumphantly and epically walk out on the company, she said, it was about my
04:10 life and my happiness at that point and having control of my life again, it felt good to
04:15 know that I made that decision for myself, I wasn't going to be unhappy anymore and
04:18 most of all, I just wanted to wrestle again.
04:21 And if she was going to wrestle again, she needed to eliminate herself from that entire
04:25 scenario so she eliminated herself from the battle royal and just went back to Impact
04:29 Wrestling and was treated like the legend she undoubtedly is.
04:33 Number six, Mick Foley.
04:34 So there's no getting around this, the Montreal Screwjob had a monumental impact on the wrestling
04:38 industry, business, WWE as a whole, it changed everything, it brought forward the most successful
04:44 period in WWE history and probably the most compelling period at that too.
04:48 But it also had a massive effect on a lot of the people who were under the employment
04:52 of WWE at the time, specifically one Mick Foley.
04:56 Mick Foley was said to be so mortified and miffed at what had just gone down that he
04:59 said, nope, I'm not going to rock up to Raw, the next Raw that was going to be on after
05:03 Survivor Series, I'm not having it, I'm not doing it, I'm out of here.
05:05 But incredibly, instead of going crazy and just throwing things at the wall and being
05:09 like, that's it pal, this guy will never work here again, Vince McMahon was said to have
05:13 been really relaxed about the whole situation.
05:15 JR revealed it on his Grilling JR podcast I believe recently, he said that when Foley
05:20 did just walk out on the company, he said, well yeah, that is what it is, let him work
05:23 through that stuff, we've got people here on TV that want to be here, we'll just put
05:26 them on and when he wants to come back, we'll bring him back on TV.
05:29 And sure enough, a couple of days later, he was there, wrestling The Rock, he did it,
05:33 he came back on like a taped episode of Raw, and instead of giving Mick Foley a big fine,
05:37 a massive slap on the wrist, he just kind of went, alright, cool, good to have you back,
05:41 I'm glad you started to do that, let's keep moving on.
05:43 Number 5 - Shawn Michaels Sticking with 1997 WWE and the people, the
05:48 parts that were involved in that infamous Montreal Screwjob, now I'm going to talk about
05:52 how Shawn Michaels had quite simply had enough of WWE and its unsafe working conditions on
05:57 the back of having his hair ripped out by Bret Hart backstage.
06:02 This all came after Shawn Michaels had made his infamous Sunny Days comment on live television,
06:06 it obviously pissed off Bret Hart who cornered Michaels backstage, they'd gotten a bit of
06:09 a scrap and he yanked said hair.
06:11 And infuriating Michaels then went into Vince McMahon's office and said, you know what,
06:15 if you can't get your hitman under control, I'm out of here, I'm not going to even rock
06:18 up to work at any point in the future until that guy is controlled.
06:23 Control your hitman, Vince.
06:24 And this all went down pre-June 9th episode of Monday Night Raw, Michaels got his briefcase
06:29 and he got a ride of Just Incredible back to his hotel, he said, I've had it, I'm not
06:31 doing this anymore, and he would not appear on WWE programming again until July.
06:35 He was done, he was out, everyone was sat there like, what the hell has just happened,
06:39 the Heartbreak Kid has left the building, and he did, because when Shawn Michaels gets
06:43 his hair ripped out and he gets a bit upset, he does not go back on his word.
06:47 4.
06:48 The Rock
06:49 Now of course I'm talking about The Rock at WrestleMania 29 when he was taking on John
06:52 Cena, they had a big match, it was for the WWE title, it was a rematch from the previous
06:55 year's WrestleMania, and then in the closing moments of that match, The Rock completely
07:00 destroyed his midsection, like tore his abdomen, his abductor, he got a hernia, it was messy
07:05 stuff.
07:06 Contrary to reports around this time of The Rock just being really annoyed about the last
07:09 minute changes to the match, because apparently he was set to win again at WrestleMania and
07:13 then drop the belt to Cena at Extreme Rules, like that didn't happen, obviously that changed
07:17 to Cena winning at WrestleMania 29.
07:19 Contrary to all this, that was not the reason why The Rock didn't show up on Raw and subsequently
07:24 pretty much quit WWE and wrestling in general for the foreseeable.
07:27 No, it was more down to the fact that he just wanted to start treatment on the fact that
07:30 his entire midsection, like I said, was a bit of a car crash.
07:33 But this entire development just massively threw a spanner in the works really, because
07:37 we were supposed to apparently have a Rock vs John Cena WWE title rematch on Raw, that's
07:42 according to Booker T from what I see on IMDB Trivia, which again, not the best of sources
07:47 I'll admit.
07:48 But this would have also seen apparently, according to Dave Meltzer, Brock Lesnar attack
07:52 The Rock on this Raw and set up a WrestleMania 30 match between the two, which would have
07:56 been incredible, but obviously this all didn't happen because The Rock just said "no, I'm
08:00 dying here, I cannot be in the ring".
08:03 3.
08:04 CM Punk So a year on from dropping his belt to the
08:07 Great One, it was Royal Rumble season once again, and CM Punk felt as though he'd picked
08:12 up a concussion during the aforementioned titular match, and this then led to some very
08:17 messy stuff going down on the next night on Raw.
08:19 Because he got backstage and he was told to go through numerous tests, like concussion
08:22 tests and P tests and just loads of contracts he needed to sign, all these things, he was
08:28 getting them all thrown in his face and he was like "I've had it, I want to speak to
08:30 Vince McMahon, I want to go in his office right now and give him a piece of my mind".
08:33 So he did, he called out the fact that Dave Bautista had been brought back as a babyface,
08:36 he called out the fact that WWE didn't really want to protect all the workers, all the false
08:40 promises, he was just at his limit and he said "this is it, I'm done, I don't want
08:45 to wrestle you Triple H, you should have put me over years ago, you didn't, I'm not
08:48 going to give you me anymore, give you me, me you, CM Punk was done, he's out".
08:53 And later down the line Punk would even admit that if he did choose to stay with WWE at
08:56 this point, maybe wrestle Triple H at WrestleMania 30 and go on to stay with the company for
09:00 a bit longer, it may have been a massive risk to his health.
09:03 He's even said that he doesn't know if he would be here today because it got that
09:06 bad so thankfully he didn't decide to walk out, he said "nope, I'm not going to
09:09 do it anymore", he left the world of sports entertainment but he returned to wrestling
09:13 with AEW last year and the world is better for it.
09:16 2.
09:17 Stone Cold Steve Austin
09:18 Picking back up at the bionic redneck during a 2002 period which was a bit iffy to say
09:24 the least, because he was pitched to have a match against Brock Lesnar in a King of
09:29 the Ring qualifier, it was going to be a televised match with absolutely no build and Austin
09:34 was going to lose cleanly to Brock Lesnar and this was after he'd had like a steel
09:37 cage match with Ric Flair the night before, so Austin was like "what are we doing,
09:42 this is your next big thing, I'm Stone Cold Steve Austin, why don't we build this,
09:46 why don't we build this into a big pay-per-view match, earn loads of money", but Vince
09:50 was like "no, I'm just going to put you in this match and then throw you off into
09:52 a feud with Eddie Guerrero, it's probably going to be a mid-card thing for a little
09:55 bit and that's the best use of you buddy".
09:57 And in the wake of this infamous taking of his ball and going home and just completely
10:01 no showing role for the next couple of weeks, Vince McMahon tore Austin a bit of a new one
10:05 on television, numerous times, The Rock did it, a few other people did it, it was not
10:09 a good time for looking back on Austin's tenure in WWE.
10:12 But thankfully the two parties would make up in the end because you know, money, there
10:16 was a lot of money to be made with Austin in WWE and they're both pals really in the
10:20 grand scheme of things so they did, but this was after Vince McMahon said that he was going
10:23 to fine Austin $650,000.
10:25 Now obviously he didn't do the full fine, he got it down to just, you know, $250,000
10:32 because Austin is a shrewd negotiator, still a lot of money, but yeah, they got over it.
10:37 Number 1 - Sasha Banks & Naomi So on the back of WWE announcing a six-pack
10:41 challenge that would include the likes of Naomi and Sasha Banks, who are obviously the
10:44 women's tag team champions at this moment, those two people, those two incredibly underutilised
10:50 and disrespected people decided, no, we don't like the way this match is going and the way
10:54 you're going to present us in it, so they got the titles, they put them on John Lauranitis'
10:57 desk, they got the suitcases and they left.
11:00 And this is all according to a WWE press release that was released around the time and obviously
11:04 throughout the actual episode of Raw, they mentioned this a few times and Corey Graves
11:08 noted it was unprofessional, but in said press release, WWE said, "Monday Night Raw is
11:13 a scripted live TV show whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their
11:17 contract so kayfabe, you are now well and truly dead, once again, but this is just a
11:22 situation that leaves my brain mashed."
11:25 Because we've got numerous reports dropping all over the place saying that maybe there
11:28 was contract disputes, there was heat backstage apparently on Sasha Banks, there was loads
11:34 of things like the actual creative direction the match was going to take and that the two
11:37 felt that the titles were being massively disrespected along with themselves and felt
11:41 they weren't really getting the push that they thought they were going to get upon getting
11:44 those titles.
11:45 And this all had been building over weeks and weeks and weeks, language has said all
11:48 those other elements had come together to the point where they just went, "Nope, we've
11:51 had enough, we're going to walk out."
11:53 But again, we've not got everything, we've not got both wrestlers' side of the story
11:56 just yet, WWE have released this statement seemingly as a way to make us blame the wrestlers
12:01 for walking out, but if we've been taught one thing over the years, it's usually that
12:04 the wrestlers tend to be in the right with this situation because there's a crazy billionaire
12:08 up top who tends to make very, very strange decisions.
12:11 We don't know what's going to happen, it's crazy, I just need information, you needed
12:15 but here's what we got so far.
12:16 So that is our list, know of any other wrestlers who walked out on Monday Night Raw during
12:21 the taping of said episode then let me know about it all on the comments section right
12:26 down there, right down below, and don't forget to like, share and click on the subscribe
12:30 button while you're at it.
12:31 Also if you like this kind of thing then head on over to whatculture.com, we've obviously
12:34 got more updates on the Naomi/Sasha Banks situation as and when they drop, we've got
12:38 some brilliant writers around the clock that are going to make sure that news drops into
12:41 your eyes and faces whenever it drops.
12:43 I've been Gareth from What Culture Wrestling, follow me on Twitter @gmorgan04, I apologise
12:48 if at any point my nipples have been on show.
12:50 It's very hot in the UK today so this is the choice I went for.
12:53 And look, Sasha Banks and Naomi, see?
12:56 They were once respected and put on a t-shirt.
13:00 This is going to age fantastically.
13:01 So have the best of days and hopefully I will see you very, very soon.