Most wrestlers who join WWE leave at some point, or they get released. Not everyone can work for the same promotion for decades. A lot of the time, wrestlers leave WWE due to creative differences or some other backstage dispute. If a wrestler is important for WWE, the management will likely hear their concerns and try to fix things.

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Some of these wrestlers still choose to leave, while others don't. In history, there have been many wrestlers fans thought would end up leaving, but they didn't. The following are some notable examples of this.

10 AJ Styles

AJ Styles Intercontinental Champion 1st Reign

AJ Styles re-signed with WWE. At that time, there were rumors that he could join the newly-formed All Elite Wrestling. Next year in April, WWE released Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (who were part of The OC). The Phenomenal One was very upset about this and blamed Paul Heyman for his friends' release. Many people thought Styles was unhappy with this whole situation and wanted to leave his contract.

9 Randy Orton

Randy Orton in the gym

While Randy Orton has said that he'll never leave WWE, there was a time when The Viper teased jumping ship to AEW. Orton reportedly used AEW as leverage to get a better contract from WWE. In November 2019, Orton confirmed that he has signed a five-year-long contract with WWE. He still has a few more years in WWE, but at this point, it's very unlikely that fans will see Orton working for another wrestling promotion.

8 Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan WWE Champion Cropped

In 2016, Daniel Bryan announced his retirement from wrestling in an emotional speech. The next year, he got cleared by his personal doctors to wrestle again. However, WWE's doctors still hadn't given him green light regarding the same. Some reports claimed that Bryan was trying to get out of his WWE contract because he wanted to wrestle again.

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Even Triple H was worried that Bryan would do something like this, and could risk his health. He was cleared by WWE doctors in 2018, and since then, he's wrestled some really great matches both in WWE and AEW.

7 Brock Lesnar

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Brock Lesnar has worked for WWE part-time since his 2012 return. Lesnar has left WWE several times over the years, but he never really "left" for another company. The Beast always returned to WWE, since they always offered him a better deal than others. Lesnar's name was also linked with AEW for a while, but nothing ever came out of it. In 2019, there were rumors that Lesnar could leave WWE to return to UFC for a fight against Daniel Cormier. Lesnar and Cormier even confronted each other at UFC 226. Their fight was reportedly set for August, but Lesnar never returned to the octagon.

6 Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler Royal Rumble 2018 Cropped

Throughout his career, Dolph Ziggler has remained a reliable mid-card wrestler, with a few main-event pushes here and there as well. Many have even compared him to Shawn Michaels, who's often regarded as the greatest wrestler of all time. In 2017, Ziggler "left" WWE by leaving his US Title on the canvas but then returned only a few weeks later at the Royal Rumble event. In 2019, reports came out that Ziggler wanted to leave WWE with some sources claiming that his contract was to expire on January 31.

5 Shinsuke Nakamura

shinsuke nakamura and aj styles

Shinsuke Nakamura was super over with the fans when he first came to the main roster. He won the 2018 Royal Rumble match and challenged AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. People were almost sure that Nakamura would win the gold at WrestleMania, but they were left disappointed. After that, Styles and Nakamura's rivalry really became all about Shinsuke kicking AJ's balls. Some reports around this time claimed Nakamura was unhappy with his booking. But in 2019, Nakamura signed a contract extension with them.

4 Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey Wins SmackDown Women's Championship WrestleMania Backlash

Ronda Rousey's first-stint in WWE was good on paper. She had a huge WrestleMania debut against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon and soon became the Raw Women's Champion. Rousey was also part of the first-ever female WrestleMania main event match. But between all this, the fans turned on her in favor of Becky Lynch.

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The Rowdy One certainly didn't take this betrayal well and blasted the fans several times. People thought that they would never see Rousey again, but she finally returned earlier this year at the Royal Rumble event.

3 Charlotte Flair

Charlotte Flair SmackDown Women's Champion WrestleMania 38

A lot of fans were convinced that Charlotte Flair was going to leave WWE last year. Her partner, Andrade, left WWE in March and Ric Flair was released in August. Charlotte also had a ton of backstage heat in WWE and all of these things further fueled the rumors. The Queen later addressed those reports and quickly blew them off by saying that she didn't work so hard to lose everything.

2 Ricochet

Ricochet Intercontinental Champion Cropped

Ricochet is a great talent, but he's never been pushed consistently in WWE. Every once in a while, WWE would book him in high-profile spots but then completely disregard him until the next time. He recently won the Intercontinental Championship but hasn't defended it much. In early 2021, there were strong rumors that Ricochet was considering leaving WWE. But the wrestler called those rumors fake.

1 Sasha Banks

Sasha Banks SmackDown Women's Champion WrestleMania 37 Cropped

After WrestleMania 35, Sasha Banks disappeared from WWE television for months. There were rumors that Banks was going to leave WWE. People genuinely believed that The Boss would no longer work for WWE, but in August 2019, Sasha made her return on an episode of Raw where she attacked Natalya and brawled with Becky Lynch. Banks had lost touch with her real-life due to her insane workload, so Vince allowed her to take some time off.