Former WWE Stars Who Can't Even Main Event A High School Gym

Wrestling is a career that can never be considered stable. One minute a wrestler can be a main event level Superstar in WWE and the next they're on the Independent Circuit in the blink of an eye. It's hard to remain injury free and still be able to be seen as a star years after your prime, which could be why a number of these former WWE stars are unable to find the form that they once had, or connect with the wrestling world in a way that they did a few years ago. This can mean a career they thought would last a lifetime only winds up lasting a few years and leaves them scrambling to make a living afterward.

Being a part of controversial circumstances is another reason why a number of these stars wouldn't be able to be part of even the lowest level of high school gyms anymore since their safety wouldn't be guaranteed in front of a public crowd. It's a sad situation but it seems that this is the life that many of these stars have ended up with and now they need to take a long look at themselves and decide what career they should be moving forward into since wrestling isn't exactly the most lucrative business for them anymore.

The following list looks at just 15 former WWE stars who can't even main event a high school gym anymore, despite being able to say that they were once on WWE TV.

15 Hacksaw Jim Duggan

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Jim Duggan is a wrestling legend. He was the first man to win the annual Royal Rumble match, but sadly that's one of the biggest highlights of his career now that he has ended up at the bottom of the pile on the Independent Circuit.

Duggan's advanced age means that even though he's still able to be booked on a number of shows, he's not in the best shape of his career right now. He's 64 years old and has been wrestling now for four decades and he has reached the point in his career now where he can sit back and think about the great times that he had along the way, rather than further wrestling and ruining the legacy he has already created (and tarnished).

14 Damien Sandow

Damien Sandow was once the Intellectual Saviour Of The Masses, he has fallen quite far from those days or even the days where he was seen as The Miz's stunt double. Damien's stint with TNA showed up all of his faults and left him in a much worse position than when he left WWE.

Sandow left Impact Wrestling last year and then announced that he would be taking a break from the wrestling world to pursue a career in acting. Sandow himself knows that a career on the Independent Circuit wouldn't be a lucrative deal for the star which is why he's opted to leave the business altogether. If Sandow had never decided to become Aron Rex, it could be argued that his career on the Indy's would have been much more successful.

13 Virgil

We all know the sad story of former WWE star Virgil and the things that he has done to remain relevant over the past few years, where he would trick people into booking him and Ted DiBiase for events and then only show up on his own. LonelyVirgil became a trend online where wrestling fans would share pictures of Virgil all on his own at conventions because he has reached the point in his career where the current generation has no idea who he is.

Virgil doesn't wrestle all that much anymore but it could be argued that if he did it would probably have the same reaction as his appearances at conventions. The former WWE star tried to push the fact that he was an ex-star so much that it became old news very fast and so did he.

12 Ryback

Ryback is a former Intercontinental Champion and the man who won the first ever Elimination Chamber match for that title, but ever since his rant about the pay scale in WWE which was the last memorable thing that he did before he was released from the company, Ryback has found it hard to find his place.

He had a flurry of bookings following his WWE release but since then an ankle injury has put him on the sidelines and he is now more focused on his brand and pushing his lifestyle changes on Social Media rather than his wrestling career. It's unknown how long Ryback will be out of action with the injury, but he's another superstar that the wrestling world hasn't missed over the past few months.

11 Snitsky

Gene Snitsky is someone that the WWE Universe remember for all the wrong reasons. He was a man that Vince McMahon obviously pushed because of his size since he was never all that gifted in a wrestling ring.

Since his release, this has been proved further since he has managed to get a number of bookings off the back of his stint with WWE but his brand or his name is no longer big enough to ensure that. Instead Snitsky will always have a place on the Independent Circuit, but much like his days in WWE, he will be stuck on the mid-card of any shows that he's a part of, because he is yet to prove himself as a worker in the business that deserves to be at the main event level. Snitsky currently works as a landlord whilst he's looking for Independent bookings.

10 Yoshi Tatsu

Yoshi Tatsu will be best remembered for his stint in WWE when the company were trying to reignite the ECW brand back in 2006. Tatsu is a memorable face but he was never pushed hard enough to be a guy who could then make a lot of money off the back of his stint with the company.

Tatsu has remained on the Independent Circuit over the past few years and recently started to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Whatever hype came from his stint in WWE all those years ago has since died down and now Tatsu is stuck in a place where he has to push himself forward but he is nowhere near as good as he once was, which could be why he's struggling.

9 Gangrel

Gangrel will be remembered for his time as part of The Brood alongside a much younger Edge and Christian before it was reported that the former star got on the wrong side of Vince McMahon when he gained weight and his shirt came undone in a match, which signalled the end of his career.

He has since attempted to make a career for himself on the Independent Circuit but over the past few years, he's become another former WWE star whose light has gone out. Gangrel is still seen at a number of Indy events nowadays but he is nowhere near main event level sadly since many of the current generations of fans have no clue who he is. At 49 years old, Gangrel's wrestling career could have hit its biggest speed bump.

8 Tyler Reks

Many of the WWE Universe won't even remember Tyler Reks' brief stint on the WWE roster since he was mostly used as a jobber after his monster heel momentum ran out quite quickly. Reks made the mistake of getting on the wrong side of John Cena since there are rumours that the face of the company didn't like how similar his finisher was to his and not long after Reks was asking for his WWE release.

Reks isn't a big enough name to be able to push himself on the Independent Circuit which could be why he asked for his WWE release and then retired from professional wrestling. He has made a number of appearances since, but it seems that like many of the lower card wrestlers that WWE has featured over the past few years, Reks has become another forgettable star of that many fans wouldn't recognize today.

7 Chris Masters

Chris Masters and his Masterlock challenge was once one of the biggest things that WWE pushed forward, but Masters was unable to win any Championships as part of his WWE tenure and then found it hard to land on his feet following his release.

Whilst his former Tag Team partner Carlito is making waves on the Independent Circuit, Masters has had a number of issues which then led him to him working for Impact Wrestling last year before he announced his departure from the company last month. It wasn't a stint that did a lot for Masters when it comes to showcasing his ability since he was already finding it hard to make any kind of impact on the Independent scene before he was signed to Impact.

6 Adam Rose

Adam Rose and his Exotic Express was once a highlight of NXT TV until his booking went array and Rose's personal life left him out of favour with the company. Rose was suspended for violating the Wellness Policy twice and whilst on suspension, he was arrested for domestic violence and tampering with a witness before he then asked for his release rather than waiting for the company to fire him.

Rose then decided that it would be a good idea to sell t-shirts with his mugshot on them as a way of glorifying the situation, which only further turned fans against him. He didn't have the success that he wanted on the independent circuit after that and then announced that 2017 would be the final year that he would be part of the wrestling business.

5 Alex Riley

Alex Riley wasn't a bad in-ring performer during his tenure with WWE, which will probably be best remembered for the time where he worked alongside The Miz. Riley had issues with John Cena after the former World Champion was known to bully the former NXT star backstage which progressed to the point where Riley no longer wrestled and instead became a commentator.

It wasn't a role that Riley enjoyed and even though WWE allowed him to return to the ring briefly in 2016, he was released from the company with a number of other stars. Riley hasn't since decided to cash in on the name he created in WWE and has mostly just been forgotten by the WWE Universe who were able to keep up with his exploits on NXT.

4 Aksana

WWE's first-ever Lithuanian female wrestler was someone that Triple H was a huge fan of and he did everything he could to push her forward in a Women's Division that was pretty underwhelming throughout the years that she was part of the show.

As a former bodybuilder and model, Aksana had the look that the company liked and they thought that she would have a much better impact with the WWE Universe. Of course, Aksana wasn't good on the mic and after a botch that legitimately injured Naomi, Aksana was released from the company in 2014. The former star hasn't been heard from since and didn't decide to continue her wrestling career after she left the company which could be why she is another star who has been forgotten.

3 Marty Jannetty

Marty Jannetty has been struggling to stay relevant ever since he was kicked through that Barber Shop window. Whilst he has made a name for himself on the Independent Circuit over the past few years, his personal life has caused a lot of problems.

Marty faced a lot of backlash last year when he decided to publically ask the world if it was OK for him to have sexual relations with a woman that he thought was his daughter. He thought it was OK since the DNA proved that they weren't related but his fans thought otherwise. Needless to say, the bookings haven't been coming in thick and fast for Jannetty since, but he did learn the hard way to keep his personal thoughts private.

2 Orlando Jordan

Orlando Jordan is a former United States Champion but the biggest mistake he ever made was when he decided to join TNA and allowed the company to use his sexuality as part of his character. This completely ruined Jordan and over the past decade the former WWE star has found it hard to make any kind of impact on the Independent Circuit.

In recent years Jordan has stepped away from wrestling as a career and has instead opened two training schools along with fellow independent wrestler Luke Hawx. Jordan's schools are located in New Orleans and Melbourne, the latter of which is where the former WWE star currently resides. Jordan's Independent wrestling career was pretty much over before it begun and even though he hasn't made an appearance in almost two years, the wrestling world isn't missing him.

1 Enzo Amore

Enzo Amore was only recently released from WWE but right now the former Cruiserweight Champion can't even update a tweet without being given negative feedback. He was never a well-liked star, and didn't much care about what people thought about him. But the recent assault claim has meant that Enzo has taken himself out of the spotlight and been completely wiped out of anything relating to him when it comes to WWE's promotions.

It is thought that he will lay low while all of this gets solved in the coming months. But as for right now, there is so much heat on Enzo that he probably isn't even thinking about wrestling in a public venue again for a very long time.