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Post by Cyno on Apr 16, 2022 11:25:31 GMT -5
Drew McIntyre from WWE to TNA and then back to WWE. His original WWE run was awful, but he did a lot to develop as a talent both in-ring and as a personality in TNA. He took that back to WWE and while his return heel run was pretty bad, he became a real star with his face turn.
Cody Rhodes has raised his stock every time he jumped promotions outside of really never getting over in NJPW with the Japanese audiences the same way other featured Bullet Club gaijin did. He was a midcarder wasting his career away by the time first WWE run ended. He put in the work to rebuild his image and got pretty over in TNA and especially ROH, became one of the featured players in AEW, only to come full circle and get the superstar treatment upon his return to WWE.
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Post by karl100589 on Apr 16, 2022 11:29:57 GMT -5
Bully Ray went from tag team specialist to one of the hottest heels in the business when he went from WWE to TNA
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Post by oxbaker on Apr 16, 2022 12:11:47 GMT -5
Foley from ECW to WWE.
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Post by Jacy Derangement Syndrome on Apr 16, 2022 12:24:29 GMT -5
Christina going to TNA in 2005. Made him one of my all time favorites. Big agree, especially after he turned heel. Christian Cage is probably one of my favorite top heels of all time cause dude was just the worst person on Earth and it stung extra hard because he'd get his ass kicked but his win/loss record was almost flawless. I don't think he actually took a pinfall loss until over a year in to his run. Also watching it all back a decade plus later, The Christian Coalition was such a good group. Literally the Always Sunny stable.
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Post by Cyno on Apr 16, 2022 12:38:49 GMT -5
Bully Ray was like, the one good thing to come out of the disaster that was Immortal. Well, that and Jeff Hardy being a surprisingly good heel when he wasn't high as a kite.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Apr 16, 2022 18:26:05 GMT -5
Mean Mark leaving WCW to become The Undertaker.
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Post by Ultra Magnus Black on Apr 17, 2022 14:21:55 GMT -5
Johnny Polo leaving the WWF to become Raven in ECW, then being elevated even further by joining WCW.
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Post by Gremlin on Apr 17, 2022 15:08:17 GMT -5
Chris Harris from TNA to WWE.
What? Fight me.
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Post by 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger on Apr 17, 2022 15:57:24 GMT -5
Chris Harris from TNA to WWE. What? Fight me. Well. Bigger is a pretty factual statement
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Apr 17, 2022 20:22:02 GMT -5
AJ Styles to NJPW
Yes, he was already a known name and the defacto face of TNA Wrestling but he was never given the keys to the Kingdom. His NJPW run showed how really damn good he is when you put the driving force behind him he basically became undeniable
You can really argue his NJPW/WWE runs in general made him a much bigger star as a combined force but his NJPW run started that up
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Post by Citizen Snips Has Left on Apr 18, 2022 11:47:48 GMT -5
It’s sort of a grey area since he was always under WWF contract but Al Snow’s jump to ECW did wonders for his career.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2022 11:58:26 GMT -5
We're going to sit here and make a list of almost every wrestler?
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Apr 18, 2022 13:48:49 GMT -5
AJ Styles to NJPW Yes, he was already a known name and the defacto face of TNA Wrestling but he was never given the keys to the Kingdom. His NJPW run showed how really damn good he is when you put the driving force behind him he basically became undeniable You can really argue his NJPW/WWE runs in general made him a much bigger star as a combined force but his NJPW run started that up Absolutely agree. AJ never gets to WWE without his NJPW run, they had zero interest in him when he left Impact. I don’t even think they talked when he was a free agent
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MolotovMocktail
Grimlock
Home of the 5-time, 5-time, 5-time, 5-time 5-time Super Bowl Champion 49ers-and Wrestlemania 31
Posts: 13,968
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Post by MolotovMocktail on Apr 18, 2022 13:57:40 GMT -5
Stunning Steve Austin was a good midcard heel in WCW, but was never going to be the top guy. His breakout came in the Dangerous Alliance, but that was clearly built around Rick Rude. He went to the WWF and became Stone Cold, becoming arguably the biggest star in wrestling history.
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Apr 18, 2022 14:01:18 GMT -5
AJ Styles to NJPW Yes, he was already a known name and the defacto face of TNA Wrestling but he was never given the keys to the Kingdom. His NJPW run showed how really damn good he is when you put the driving force behind him he basically became undeniable You can really argue his NJPW/WWE runs in general made him a much bigger star as a combined force but his NJPW run started that up Absolutely agree. AJ never gets to WWE without his NJPW run, they had zero interest in him when he left Impact. I don’t even think they talked when he was a free agent I think AJ said their wasn’t a ton of interest from WWE when he left TNA At the very least, if he did come to WWE after TNA they would not have treated him like the star he has been treated like. WWE and NJPW put AJ on a pedestal that TNA failed to do consistently
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 27,976
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Post by chazraps on Apr 18, 2022 14:37:21 GMT -5
Absolutely agree. AJ never gets to WWE without his NJPW run, they had zero interest in him when he left Impact. I don’t even think they talked when he was a free agent I think AJ said their wasn’t a ton of interest from WWE when he left TNA
At the very least, if he did come to WWE after TNA they would not have treated him like the star he has been treated like. WWE and NJPW put AJ on a pedestal that TNA failed to do consistently This is true. In his January 2014 shoot 'Leaving an Impact' (which is a fantastic watch and one of the best shoots of the decade, and yes it covers the Clair Lynch saga in detail) he says WWE had made no contact with him whatsoever.
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CMWaters
Ozymandius
Rolled a Seven, Beat the Ads.
Bald and busy
Posts: 63,078
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Post by CMWaters on Apr 18, 2022 15:25:28 GMT -5
Stunning Steve Austin was a good midcard heel in WCW, but was never going to be the top guy. His breakout came in the Dangerous Alliance, but that was clearly built around Rick Rude. He went to the WWF and became Stone Cold, becoming arguably the biggest star in wrestling history. Though the pit-stop he did in ECW helped him, as "Superstar" Steve Austin was pretty much a proto Stone Cold. Though he had to hold that back a bit as The Ringmaster...
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Post by buckethead on Apr 18, 2022 23:19:35 GMT -5
Rick Rude Going to the WWF did wonders for him.
On the other hand, he was clearly moving up a few notches in NWA/WCW...bailed out while being tag champs with Raging Bull.
I hated them at the time but in hindsight that was shaping up to be a killer team.
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