Wrestlers always choose what's best for their career. If they feel there's no place for them in a certain promotion, then they likely won't work there, if even they receive a huge contract offer. The same goes for storylines as stars with backstage pull often have more say in their feuds than most people. While these stars don't intend to sabotage their own career, sometimes they end up doing just that.
They make wrong decisions at times, which they later regret. Most of these mistakes didn't cause a ton of damage, but some ended up costing careers.
10 Cody Rhodes Regrets AEW Title Stipulation
During his Full Gear 2019 match against Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes added a stipulation that if he failed to win the title, he'd never challenge for it again. This was a very dumb thing to do, especially during his first year with the company, and fans realized that instantly. Rhodes promised he'd never go back on his words, but he still regretted this decision. Cody was one of the most popular stars in AEW, and having a World Title would've been awesome.
9 Big Swole Regrets Not Joining The Dark Order
Initially, The Dark Order was disliked by a lot of fans. Their presentation was more spooky than cult-like and people didn't care about it until Brodie Lee appeared. After his passing, former AEW wrestler Big Swole regretted not joining The Dark Order when Lee asked her to. Swole was released by Tony Khan last year, and it was a pretty controversial discussion for a while as well.
8 Steve Austin Regrets Not Facing Brock Lesnar And Walking Out
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin didn't have a long career in WWE, but he was the biggest star they ever had. Being a top star of the company, Austin had a lot of creative pull backstage. If he didn't like to do something, he'd refuse and nobody could do a thing about it.
In 2002, WWE asked Austin to put over a young Brock Lesnar in the King of the Ring tournament's qualifying match. The Texas Rattlesnake didn't see a reason to give away a match like this without building a storyline, so he walked out on the company. Austin says this is his biggest regret in wrestling.
7 Mick Foley Regrets Not Coming Out Of Retirement Sooner
There aren't many pay-per-views like WrestleMania 17. It had something for everyone and is often regarded as the greatest WrestleMania of all time. In this show, Vince McMahon faced his son, Shane McMahon, in a Street Fight and Mick Foley served as the special guest referee here. Originally, the plan was for Foley to come out of retirement and face McMahon at the Shows of Shows. Foley had just retired in 2000, and he didn't want to wrestle ever again which is why he refused to wrestle at the show. But he soon came to regret this decision, as he returned to the ring in 2004.
6 The Rock Regrets Not Having A Longer Feud With Booker T
The Rock aligned himself with Team WWF during The Invasion angle in 2001. He and Booker T fought over the WCW Championship. At the show, The Rock defeated Booker T and became the new champion. Last year, Hurricane Helms posted about this match on Twitter praising both wrestlers and wishing that they had worked more with each other. The Rock replied to the tweet and said that not wrestling Booker T more was actually one of the biggest regrets of his WWE career.
5 John Cena Regrets Taking Things Personal With The Rock
John Cena and The Rock headlined two back-to-back WrestleManias in the early 2010s. This rivalry was pretty personal, and Cena even called him a "sell out." Now years later, Cena has followed the same path as The Rock did. In a Sports Illustrated interview in 2017, Cena admitted that this was one of his regrets. The Cenation Leader has apologized to The People's Champion both in person and publicly.
4 Kalisto Regrets Not Pitching A Match
As part of the Lucha House Party, Kalisto never became a breakout star in WWE. He signed with WWE in 2013 and had an eight-year-long run. Kalisto wanted to have a Mask vs Mask match with Rey Mysterio, and Mysterio even gave his blessings to pitch this storyline. Even Paul Heyman liked this "genius" idea. However, Kalisto never shared his ideas with Vince McMahon and he called this his "biggest regret."
3 Sting Regrets Not Facing The Undertaker
Sting vs The Undertaker was a dream match for every WWE and WCW fan. They should've had this match decades ago, but it never happened (at least not in the way fans wanted). At one point, WWE pitched this idea to Sting for WrestleMania 27 but he rejected it.
This became one of his regrets in wrestling. Sting really wanted to have a match with The Deadman, but things never turned out the way he wanted.
2 Maria Kanellis Regrets Joining WWE
Maria Kanellis and her husband, Mike Kanellis, jumped ships from Impact Wrestling to WWE in 2017. According to Maria, WWE promised her a whole lot of things but never fulfilled them. She admitted that she didn't want to leave Impact Wrestling, and they even offered them more money to stay. But WWE gave a better counter-offer so the husband-wife duo decided to join the company. They were supposed to appear on Raw after WrestleMania that year, but WWE made them sit out for months. And by that time, they had already started regretting making this jump.
1 Bret Hart Regrets Going To WCW
Bret Hart had one of the most controversial exists in WWE. At Survivor Series 1997, Hart wrestled his final match for WWE before joining their rival promotion, WCW. Hart's WCW career wasn't as good as people thought it would be. A few years later, he fought Goldberg at Starcade 1999 and received a kick that ended his wrestling career. Speaking on WWE Backstage, The Hitman expressed regret over leaving WWE.