In the pro wrestling business, performers rarely stick with one promotion their entire career. While there are exceptions to this, like John Cena in WWE, there are also scores of wrestlers who work for one company for a while, quit or get released, and take their services to a rival promotion. But not everyone who does this could be considered as a top star.
There are some performers who never really “made it” in one promotion and ended up moving on to other major companies like WWE, WCW, ECW, and Impact with a similar lack of success, or worse. Let’s take a look at 10 of these wrestlers.
10 Brian Clark
Debuting in WWE in 1993, Brian Clark certainly made an impression visually as the irradiated, cartoonish heel Adam Bomb, but never gained much traction as a competitor during this two year run with the company. In WCW, he was cast as Wrath in the “Blood Runs Cold” storyline featuring Glacier and Mortis, which quickly petered out as well. The arguable biggest success of his career would be two tag title reigns alongside Brian Adams as KroniK. But KroniK were hired mercenaries and, once WCW was bought by WWE, quickly became even more of an afterthought.
9 Erik Watts
Few unsuccessful second-generation guys had the longevity of Erik Watts, the son of legendary wrestler/promoter “Cowboy” Bill Watts. Only a few months into his career when he signed to WCW in 1992 — where his father was the booker — Erik received a series of nepotistic pushes before moving on to WWE. There, he was one half of the short-lived Tekno Team 2000, remembered for their “cyber” look and little else. After brief stints in WCW and ECW, Watts ended up in TNA in 2003, where he had a forgettable run as part of a stable of second-generation wrestlers as well as becoming a forgettable authority figure for six months.
8 Matt Borne
Starting off in the Pacific Northwest before moving on to territories like Mid-South, Matt Borne spent a year in WWE in the mid-1980s as a jobber. Then, in WCW in the early 1990s, he had a short stint working a goofy lumberjack gimmick as Big Josh. Moving on to WWE, he shed the lumberjack gimmick to become Doink the Clown.
One could argue that Matt Borne found success and established a legacy as Doink the Clown in WWE, but it’s also arguable that his personal issues kept him from truly being successful. His time as Doink lasted only a year and a few months, and a run in ECW playing off of his Doink character was similarly cut short by these issues.
7 Matt Morgan
A competitor on WWE’s Tough Enough, Matt Morgan dropped out of competition early but ended up scoring a developmental contract anyway, and managed to capture the Heavyweight Title in Ohio Valley Wrestling. On the main roster he started off aligned with Brock Lesnar, but was soon hampered by a stuttering gimmick. His run with WWE would only last about three years, and in 2007 he’d debut for Impact Wrestling. There, the big man seemed like he was being set up for a major world title run, but for some reason it never materialized during his six years with the company.
6 Johnny Stamboli
Fans may not remember him, but Johnny Stamboli — a.k.a. Johnny The Bull — was a fixture of late period WCW as one half of The Mamalukes. In WWE, he briefly showed up as part of The Alliance and ended up joining up with Nunzio and Chuck Palumbo as the least well-remembered guy in The Full Blooded Italians. Making his way to Impact Wrestling in 2007, he had a new persona — the masked heel Rellik, who lost a bunch of matches and then left the company after six months.
5 The Harris Twins
Looking at their resume, one might think The Harris Twins were one of the most accomplished tag teams of all time, having spent their 18-year career working for pretty much every notable promotion imaginable, from Southern outfits in the 1980s to ECW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, WWE, WCW, and Impact. They were Crush’s goons in Disciples of Apocalypse in WWE, Vince Russo’s goons as Creative Control in WCW, and Russo’s goons again in Impact Wrestling. Despite their impressive longevity, it can’t be said that they were good or popular.
4 Brian Lee
The Harris Twins’ DOA stablemate and real-life cousin Chainz — a.k.a. Brian Lee — didn’t fare much better, either. Most of Brian Lee’s success would come in the regional-at-best Smoky Mountain Wrestling, but in the majors he was always a bit player, whether in DOA or as one of Disciples of the New Church in Impact.
Brian Lee’s biggest moment was arguably in 1994, when he portrayed an impostor Undertaker, leading to a big match between the two at SummerSlam that ended with the real Undertaker putting Lee in a casket to put an official end to the character.
3 Damien Sandow
It took about a decade of false starts and runs in developmental before the wrestler known as Aaron Stevens (sometimes Idol Stevens) found something that worked on the WWE main roster: Damien Sandow, “the Intellectual Savior of the Masses.” While he was an entertaining performer, especially as The Miz’s stunt double, he was never able to get much traction and ended up getting released in 2016. A disappointing run in Impact as the Liberace-esque Aron Rex followed, after which he eventually proved to be somewhat amusing in the National Wrestling Alliance until his retirement in 2022.
2 Shawn Stasiak
Another second-generation wrestler — this one the son of one-time WWE Champion Stan Stasiak — Shawn Stasiak debuted in WWE in 1999 as Meat, a relative jobber and sex slave of the Pretty Mean Sisters faction. After getting released from WWE at the end of the year, Stasiak was one of the many young hotshots populating the New Blood faction, and managed a few of tag team title reigns. After WWE bought WCW, Stasiak was part of WWE’s roster again, where he worked a couple of gimmicks — clumsy Steve Austin sycophant, denizen of “Planet Stasiak” — before leaving the company in 2002.
1 Lanny Poffo
In the territories, Lanny Poffo certainly enjoyed some success tagging with his brother Randy Savage and wrestling in his father Angelo Poffo’s promotion. In WWE, the same couldn’t be said, as “Leaping” Lanny Poffo worked the undercard as a babyface jobber, throwing frisbees into the crowd and delivering poetry. Even a reinvention to the proto-Damien Sandow The Genius didn’t necessarily raise his profile. Still, that was better than his WCW run, where he was signed for literal years but reportedly only wrestled once — and not on television.