7 Former WWE Superstars whose careers took off after leaving the company

#3 Sami Callihan (Solomon Crowe) did not thrive in WWE NXT

Remember WWE Superstar Mustafa Ali’s scrapped character of a hacker? Sami Callihan had a similar gimmick during his early days in WWE. Callihan made his first WWE appearance in 2012 before debuting on NXT under the ring name Solomon Crowe.

Callihan had the talent and charisma to make it big in the company, but he never received a big push. He was released from his WWE contract in late 2015. Chris Van Vliet asked Callihan if leaving WWE was the best decision he ever made, and he gave the following response:

“Absolutely. Because I’ll be the first to say that I wasn’t Sami Callihan when I went there. I changed who I was, walked on eggshells and for lack of better terms, I became a b—h. But I tried to change. I tried to become everything they wanted me to be instead of sticking to my guns and ride or die. But I think everything happens for a reason because now I’ve left and become one of the biggest stars in the world again despite not being backed by that WWE machine,” Sami Callihan said.

After competing in several promotions including Lucha Underground and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Callihan finally found a home in IMPACT Wrestling. He has been extremely successful in Impact Wrestling and has perfected his character in the promotion.

As a former Impact World Champion, Callihan managed to make it big after his WWE career came to an end. He is currently one of the most popular figures in the wrestling industry outside WWE.