Top 5 Biggest Defections In Wrestling History

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, we list our biggest defections in wrestling.

David Gibb

5. Alundra Blayze/Madusa to WCW
Madusa’s return in 1996 didn’t translate into huge business for the company or a particularly satisfying push for Deuce herself, but it did force the total dissolution and reboot of the WWF Women’s Division, opening the door for the crop of female performers who would emerge during the Attitude Era.

4. Chris Jericho (Twice!)
Jericho almost made my list at the No. 5 and 3 positions, but I averaged them into 4 for the sake of getting five different names on the list. Obviously, all eyes are currently on Jericho’s defection from WWE to New Japan and especially AEW, where he’s poised to play anchor star at the launch of the television show, but part of what makes that story so intriguing is his previous historic jump from TNT and WCW to USA and the WWF. Say what you will about Jericho, but he knows how to make an entrance.

3. Buddy Rogers to WWWF
Despite being one of the biggest stars of his era, the “Nature Boy” was generally regarded as hugely untrustworthy. One of the reasons why was because he agreed to leave the NWA with Toots Mondt and Vince McMahon and pretend his title loss to Lou Thesz had never happened. The move gave the WWWF its mythic origin story, but it was ultimately a tragic mistake for Rogers, who probably could’ve used a few of his old friends when his health began to fail and the WWWF was done with him shortly thereafter.

2. Ric Flair to WWF
Ric Flair was the face of the NWA and “real wrestling” more than any other star during the talent-packed 1980s. When he quit WCW because leadership no longer appreciated who he was and what he stood for and went full time to the WWF, it was functionally the death knell of the NWA and wrestling’s pride in its connection to its territorial roots.

1. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash to WCW
The Outsiders broke and redefined the wrestling paradigm with their initial run in WCW. While talent had always disappeared abruptly from one territory and appeared in another, the rule was typically that the losing side would simply say, “We have the best completion here and X couldn’t take the heat,” while the winning side would announce, “Look at this exciting newcomer!” Nash, Hall and Eric Bischoff’s plan to tell a metafictional narrative about why wrestlers would disappear from one nationally visible show and appear on another changed the way everyday viewers thought about wrestling and helped create the fan culture we live in today.

John Corrigan

Hulk Hogan to WWE
Bigger than his jump to WCW and gigantic compared to his jump to TNA, the Hulkster leaving AWA for McMahonland changed pro wrestling forever. Hulkamania may have been born under Verne Gagne’s rule, but it thrived in WWE, destroying the territories and elevating wrasslin’ into the mainstream consciousness.

Outsiders to WCW
If Vince McMahon would have just given Scott Hall more money, the New World Order and rise of WCW would have never happened. Kevin Nash just happened to come along for the ride.

Lex Luger to WCW
Lex Luger walking out on the first episode of Nitro shocked the world (he wrestled for WWE one night earlier) and was the first shot in the Monday Night War.

Chris Jericho to AEW
Does AEW land a deal with TNT if not for Chris Jericho? Highly unlikely. Jericho is the biggest mainstream name in the company (perhaps the only) and his defection gave the startup instant credibility.

Kurt Angle to TNA
While Christian was the first WWE Superstar to jump ship to TNA, Kurt Angle was the first legit star to make the leap. He made an immediate impact and is responsible for the most-purchased pay-per-view in company history.

Juan Bautista

Scott Hall & Kevin Nash to WCW
If these two had not made the jump, would we have ever gotten the NWO? As important as Hulk Hogan’s signing was, WCW had yet to turn up the heat and actually turn a profit. Hall and Nash coming over presented a fresh opportunity for creativity.

Antonio Inoki to NJPW
A disciple of Rikidozan, Antonio Inoki left the Japanese Wrestling Association to found New Japan Pro Wrestling, changing the landscape of the industry around the world.

AJ Styles to NJPW
Prince Devitt was heading to NXT and the Bullet Club, which was becoming white hot, needed a new leader. In came the Phenomenal One from Impact Wrestling. While some consider it Bullet Club’s finest era, it was yet another turning point for the company as a new partnership with Ring of Honor allowed New Japan stars to get exposure to the western audience.

CM Punk to WWE
While this defection would have effects in and outside ring for years to come, this was also a turning point in the indy scene. Major promotions like WWE and TNA began scooping up indy guys like Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and Nigel McGuinness.

Kurt Angle to TNA
It was the move that gave TNA credibility and solidified them as the number-two company in the United States.

Steven Jackson

Hulk Hogan to WWF
This may shock a lot of people, but Hogan’s defection to the AWA was much bigger than his defection to WCW. Had Hogan not left the AWA, who knows what would have come of this thing we call pro wrestling!

Kurt Angle to TNA
Who would have thought that Kurt Angle would defect from the WWE? Even now the announcement gives me chills and seeing Kurt confront Samoa Joe on Impact is one of the greatest debuts in wrestling history!

Randy Savage to WCW
In 1994, Vince McMahon was shaken to the core when Randy Savage left the security of the WWF and joined WCW. Out of all the former WWF stars to join WCW, Savage truly reinvented himself and in the process, had some of the best matches, promos and feuds of his career against Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and DDP.

Konnan to AAA
The early 1990s were an exciting time for lucha libre. At the center of this excitement was Konnan. A huge commodity for his drawing power and wrestling ability, Konnan shocked everyone in Mexico by turning on the legendary CMLL and defecting to newly formed AAA. So started AAA’s dominance in Mexico and with it, Konnan’s historic influence on the new talent of the day, most notably Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddie Guerrero and “Love Machine” Art Barr.

Mitsuharu Misawa and nearly all the AJPW roster to Pro Wrestling NOAH
In the world of puroresu, it was pretty set in stone that Mitsuharu Misawa was the franchise of All Japan Pro Wrestling. After the passing of company founder and president Giant Baba in 1999, Misawa was all set to take over his presidency and start ruling over the company. But a clash of opinions and decisions not only led Misawa to leave All Japan, but shockingly, the whole AJPW roster! Their solution: form Pro-Wrestling NOAH! The impact of this defection may be quite overlooked today due to AJPW and NOAH’s position in puroresu, but without it, a whole breed of new stars would have not got the start they deserved. This move changed not only puroresu, but wrestling as a whole!

Sam Gladen

1-2-3 Kid to WCW
As the sixth member of the NWO, Sean Waltman cemented himself as a legitimate wrestling superstar by betting on himself and making the jump.

Hulk Hogan to AWA
Jumping from the Northeastern territory to Verne Gagne’s AWA led to the creation of the Hulkster character that later changed the entire business.

Razor Ramon to WCW
Possibly the most notable defection on the list. Razor Ramon showing up on WCW TV established the Turner brand as a legitimate contender for WWF’s throne and kicked off the Monday Night Wars.

Bret Hart to WCW
Bret Hart, depending on who you believe, was truly screwed out of the possibility to leave WWE gracefully. Instead, he was forced to make the jump to WCW in a very public and volatile way. While his WCW run was not incredible, it was most definitely memorable if for no other reason than the way it began.

Paul Heyman to WWE
Before ECW was cold in the ground or, perhaps more accurately, had even been pronounced dead, Paul E. Dangerously graced our television screens as the newest member of the RAW commentary booth and officially signaled the reign of WWE global supremacy. The last holdout of the Monday Night Wars, ECW as a company had produced and built a company based on a real and tangible alternative to the stuffy and heavily produced product of its competitors. But it didn’t matter. Even when your fan base is as rabid and insatiable as the ECW faithful were, there is no one who can escape the wrath of Vincent K. McMahon.

Chad Gelfand

The Outsiders to WCW
This was the definitive deflection of the Monday Night War. It was shocking, edgy and it led to the formation of one the greatest factions of all time in the NWO.

Madusa to WCW
Another shocking moment and one of the biggest shots fired in the Monday Night War when she dropped the WWF Women’s Championship in the trash.

Chris Jericho to WWE
This wasn’t as shocking as the other two because it was rumored, but the way Jericho debuted in the WWF immediately elevated him to star status and it furthered showed WCW was slipping at that point.

X-Pac to WWE
X-Pac defecting was huge. He was an integral part of one of the biggest factions of all time in DX and who knows if DX would have been able to successfully transition into their next phase.

Lex Luger to WCW
Luger returning to WCW on the first Monday Nitro from Mall of America was the very first shot of the war and it was just the first taste of what that era had in store for wrestling fans.

Neal Wagner

Outsiders to WCW
This one is very obvious. At a time when WCW wanted to go to war on Monday nights with WWF, Bischoff signed over two of Vince’s top guys and his two biggest character creations of all time. (Vince has supposedly said that the Razor Ramon character was his greatest creation.) Their defection led to Hall saying, “you want a war, well, you’re gonna get one.” So much symbolism there in one line. Oh, and it began one of the biggest and most successful factions of all time with Hogan called the NWO.

John Moxley to AEW
When Dean Ambrose announced that he was leaving WWE in January, nobody would have guessed that on one of the most important nights of 2019, John Moxley would enter an AEW ring and begin a streak of chaos that would help the new war in wrestling begin.

Bret Hart to WCW
When it seemed like all was just about gone for Vince and WWE, he lost his biggest heel at the time to the competition. Bret Hart’s defection to WCW in late 1997 was big at the time. Sadly, we would find out later that Bret would be severely underutilized and have one of the worst runs any wrestler could have over a two-year span. If Hart would have worked out in WCW, then we would be seeing things differently now 22 years later.

Kurt Angle to TNA
When Angle stepped away from WWE in 2006, it was one of the most shocking events of all time. I remember going on WWE.com and just seeing it on the main screen and wondering what happened. As TNA got ready for its annual Bound for Glory show, Angle showed up on the go home show and went straight after Samoa Joe. It would be the beginning of TNA bringing away some of WWE stars. As a result, TNA’s homegrown talent took a back seat.

Cody to ROH
When Cody left WWE due to creative differences, we knew so little of what would happen just three years later. Cody made a two-year stop in Ring of Honor and would take the company to heights that it hadn’t seen. It’s easy to make the argument that had Cody not gone to ROH, and definitely if he hadn’t left WWE, then AEW would not be a thing today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oga7wSc-z0

Anthony Mahalis

Kevin Nash & Scott Hall to WCW
This is kind of tough because you could technically say that Hulk Hogan is the biggest defector. However, WCW didn’t matter yet. I guess Hogan was the first piece to getting WCW really rolling but without Hall and Nash, who knows if there ever even is an NWO, and who knows if WCW ever even makes a dent into the WWF?

Chris Jericho to WWE
Jericho was not really a huge name in WCW like Sting or the NWO, but he was popular. He may have stagnated early, but he became a huge piece of the Attitude Era.

Chris Jericho to AEW
Chris Jericho leaving WWE in favor of AEW was HUGE news. That was when I started to think, “Wow, these guys may have something here.” Now it remains to be seen how successful AEW will be, but getting a legend like Y2J to join the ranks gave the company legitimacy that maybe they don’t have otherwise.

Bret Hart to WCW
Now I say Bret Hart for a different reason. His defection to WCW actually helped the WWF. WWF couldn’t afford the contract it had just given Hart and getting out of it put Vinnie Mac and Co. in a better financial position, at least so I’ve read. Plus, the Montreal Screwjob jumpstarted McMahon as this super villain and his character was key in the Monday Night War.

The Radicalz to WWE
Even as a kid, I remember thinking how cool it was for WWF to have gotten these guys from WCW. I had seen Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit on WCW and now they were in WWF – it was wild. In retrospect, WWF was able to swipe two or three of the best pure wrestlers (apologies to Perry Saturn) that WCW had.

Jack Goodwillie

Hulk Hogan to WCW
Need I say more? In pro sports, you can trade a disgruntled superstar before his contract comes up so you don’t lose him for nothing. Not so in WWE. Hulk Hogan took massive guaranteed money to go to WCW and got everything else he wanted, too: a lighter schedule and more control over his character. This forced WWE to play some Moneyball as it looked to replace pro wrestling’s greatest cash cow. If his move to TNA back in 2009 hadn’t been such a flop, it would have definitely made this list as well, though it bears mentioning.

Kurt Angle to TNA
Lest we forget, Kurt Angle is arguably the biggest free agent acquisition in the history of TNA. Angle had become so synonymous with working at the top of WWE that it almost hurt my eyes to see him appear on TNA television for the first time. It’s kind of like staring at the sun. I was excited to see him, though, because it proved rumors of his retirement from the ring to be unfounded and opened things up for younger WWE stars to shoulder more of the load.

Steve Austin to WWE
A lot of WCW-to-WWF acquisitions are…watered down because of how WCW booked said wrestlers as enhancement talents or just misused them altogether. Triple H, William Regal, Rob Van Dam, Mick Foley and The Undertaker are all names that come to mind. However, Steve Austin has the distinction of reaching as high as the upper-mid card in WCW as Stunning Steve Austin, a Ric Flair clone with a Texas accent and more size. Why WCW gave up on him will forever be one of wrestling’s greatest mysteries, but he went to WWE where he went on to become wrestling’s biggest star of the ‘90s.

Randy Savage to WCW
“Macho Man” Randy Savage was one of the most underrated pop culture icons in the history of professional wrestling. Everybody knew who this guy was, but prior to 1994, Randy was strictly a WWF commodity. He had done it all: World Heavyweight Champion, Intercontinental Champion, King of the Ring; he even starred in and won a WrestleMania main event. Randy loved to entertain, so when WWE tried to put him out to pasture, the Macho Man sought out other opportunities, and landed a deal comparable to the one Hulk Hogan got to join WCW earlier in the year. And it was outside the WWF umbrella where Savage’s influence outside the ring skyrocketed. He landed some key movie roles and taught everybody that sometimes it’s okay to snap into a Slim-Jim.

Chris Jericho to AEW
Chris Jericho had said for years that the only promoter he would ever work for after working with Vince McMahon – was Vince McMahon. So, whenever he went on one of his various hiatuses over the years where he wasn’t under contract to WWE, we always assumed TNA wouldn’t be an option aside from the occasional Total Extreme Warfare scenario diary on the wrestling forums. Something changed over the past year or so, which opened the door for Chris Jericho to go to AEW, a defection that measured on the pro wrestling Richter scale (though did not come entirely out of left field). Time will tell if Chris can elevate AEW into a credible share of the market, and if he can, there won’t be many guys you can rank above him.