WWE may have a Performance Center to grow and develop new talent, but there are loads of wrestlers who got their start on the independent scene and wrestled for other companies before signing with WWE. As a result, lots of wrestlers have histories with one another and crossed paths before finding stardom in different companies.
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For example, there’s a lot of crossover between WWE and TNA (now known as Impact Wrestling) -- and that’s not even including former TNA talents like Dexter Lumis, Mia Yim, and AJ Styles. There are also some current WWE stars who teamed with wrestlers from WWE’s longest-tenured rival.
10 Sasha Banks
It’s safe to say that most WWE fans likely don’t know that Sasha Banks wrestled before showing up on NXT, but she spent before signing, she spent a couple of years performing in the Northeastern American indie wrestling scene as Mercedes KV.
During that time, she not only captured titles in Chaotic Wrestling and Independent Wrestling Entertainment but also frequently shared the ring with Alexxis Nevaeh, who fans would come to know better on Impact Wrestling as Alisha Edwards.
9 Danny Burch
British NXT star Danny Burch got released from WWE in 2014 before returning the following year. During the time between, he wrestled all over the place, including a few matches in TNA.
But his partnership with a TNA wrestler happened before either of them got signed to majors, as Burch (as Martin Stone) had a successful tag team going with future British Invasion member Doug Williams. Together, the two wrestled all over the European scene and managed to hold Germany’s wXw tag title for over a year.
8 Angel Garza
TNA had a working relationship with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide way back in 2004, but that relationship was renewed in 2017 as AAA stars would regularly show up on Impact. This group included future WWE star Angel Garza, then known as Garza Jr.
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Garza spent much of 2017 wrestling matches for Impact, often teaming with fellow AAA talent Laredo Kid, but he also tagged with Impact stars like Johnny Impact, Sonjay Dutt, and Dezmond Xavier.
7 Roderick Strong
Roderick Strong only made it to WWE a few years ago, but he’s actually a 20-year veteran, wrestling for Ring of Honor as early as 2003. He stuck around with ROH over a decade, and as a result, crossed paths with many future TNA and Impact stars.
He actually has two notable tag teams with Impact stars, the first being Austin Aries, with whom Strong won the ROH Tag Titles. The other was with Eddie Edwards, whom Strong teamed with in both ROH and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where they were known as the Dojo Bros.
6 Ricochet
Before signing with WWE, Ricochet was already a must-see star on the indie scene thanks to his high flying moveset, and crossed paths with basically everybody cool on the indies, many of whom are stars on the majors now.
As a result, Ricochet had a few tag teams with TNA talent in promotions like Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, including Rich Swann as The Inner City Machine Guns and Matt Sydal.
5 Shotzi Blackheart
With her unique look and wild charisma, Shotzi Blackheart instantly made an impression when she began showing up on NXT, and fans of hers on the indies were certainly relieved that she made it to WWE while retaining her name and unique look.
But before that, Blackheart made some appearances for Impact Wrestling in 2018 and 2019, most notably teaming with future Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard in a tag match against Allie and Kiera Hogan.
4 Apollo Crews
Before he signed with WWE, Apollo Crews was Uhaa Nation and was tearing it up wrestling alongside Ricochet and Akira Tozawa in Dragon Gate. But he also teamed with Impact Wrestling stars during his time in the indies.
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Like his Monster Express buddy Ricochet, Crews also tagged with Rich Swann, but he also teamed up with two-time Impact Grand Champion Moose on several occasions. The most notable of these was at a 2014 show for Illinois’ High Risk Wrestling when they took on the team of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly.
3 Johnny Gargano
Johnny Gargano’s time with NXT has been pretty interesting, as he’s not only reportedly refused to move on to the main roster, but also was able to still work shows for indie promotions like Beyond, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and EVOLVE.
In 2016, Gargano and Drew Galloway -- better known as Drew McIntyre -- managed to win a tournament to become the inaugural EVOLVE Champions, which they held for 69 days. During this period, Galloway worked for TNA and even became TNA Champion during their EVOLVE tag team reign.
2 Ruby Riott
Before she was the leader of the Riott Squad, Ruby Riott was known as Heidi Lovelace on the indies and wrestled for a variety of promotions, including SHIMMER, Chikara, SHINE, AAW, and Beyond Wrestling, among many others.
Lovelace tagged with lots of future NXT talent like Evie (Dakota Kai), Nixon Newell (Tegan Nox). She also had a regular tag team in 2016 with Kimber Lee, who was in NXT for a hot second as Abbey Laith but currently wrestles for Impact.
1 Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan has seemingly wrestled everyone all over the world, but surprisingly never had a stint in TNA -- not even a random Xplosion match where he got squashed by Elix Skipper in four minutes. But that isn’t to say that he didn’t work with talent who would become famous in TNA.
In 2004, Bryan wrestled in New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Junior Heavyweight division as American Dragon, where he’d win the Junior Tag titles alongside the masked Curry Man, a.k.a. Christopher Daniels. Extra points because the Curry Man gimmick also made appearances in TNA.
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