History BreakupBreakout / ProfessionalWrestling

[[quoteright:350:[[Wrestling/ShawnMichaels https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janettyd.jpg]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan "That coward tried to jump out the window!"]]]]

When a wrestling tag team or stable are inevitably split up, it's almost a guarantee that this trope will come into play.

'''NOTE:''' In the case of a female wrestler or valet becoming the breakup breakout to the male wrestler(s) she managed/teamed with, that is SmurfetteBreakout.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling, so much so that they were the former TropeNamers (it used to be called "The Jannetty"). Wrestling/ShawnMichaels is one of the biggest stars of all time. Wrestling/MartyJannetty hasn't been relevant in years, and what he's most famous for is being the man that the left behind half of any broken up tag team is compared to. His name is currently used in a redirect to the Breakup Breakout article. In Jannetty's defense, relegating him to irrelevancy while pushing Michaels wasn't the original plan. At the time The Rockers broke up, Michaels and Jannetty were considered equals in ability and charisma, and the WWF expected to get ''two'' singles stars out of the breakup. However, a couple of poorly timed injuries hamstrung Jannetty's biggest pushes and his partying lifestyle ended up getting the better of him. And considering Michaels' antics at times in his career, that's saying something.
** The impact of this breakup is so prevalent that to this day, the rise of any hot new WWF/E {{tag team}} will inevitably result in speculation about which member will end up as "The Jannetty" when they inevitably breakup. There are some wrestling fans who attribute the floundering of modern tag team wrestling (both within and without the WWE) to this speculation of betrayal the moment two wrestlers form a pair and, by extension, the Rockers. In some circles, the phrase "Shawn Michaels killed tag teams" is uttered without irony.
* In 1996, Jannetty teamed with Leif Cassidy to form the New Rockers. The team wasn't successful and Jannetty ended up being released after losing a WWF Championship match to his former partner Shawn Michaels. Cassidy was sent to Wrestling/{{ECW}} after the breakup and went back to his original persona as Wrestling/AlSnow. He became a main eventer in ECW and was a moderately successful mid-carder during the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, while the high point of Jannetty's post-WWF career was losing a PPV match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title against Wrestling/ChrisJericho.
* During their Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA and Wrestling/{{A|mericanWrestlingAssociation}}WA days, Terry Bollea and Ed Leslie were a tag team of {{kayfabe}} brothers, known alternately as Terry & Ed Boulder, and Hulk & Dizzy Hogan. Bollea, of course, became Wrestling/HulkHogan. Ed Leslie became best known as either [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake]], or "that guy with no talent who only has a job because he's friends with Hogan".
** Fortuitously, Brutus Beefcake would go on to play host to the break up of the Rockers, as Shawn Michaels's heel turn happened on his barbershop set (note the barbershop pole in the image above).
* The Blade Runners were a tag team between 1985 and 1986, a pair of former bodybuilders trying to break into wrestling named Steve Borden and Jim Hellwig, who you may know as {{Wrestling/Sting}} and Wrestling/UltimateWarrior. Although both men became huge, Sting is arguably the breakout star. Sting became one of the biggest stars of WCW and one of the main draws in TheNineties and early noughties, Warrior was a big success in TheNineties, but is now best known for his controversial personal life and a series of crossover episodes between WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall and WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment. They were simultaneously World Heavyweight Champions in 1990. Sting simply accomplished more because he was more stable.
* Before the Blade Runners, Sting and Warrior (or "Flash" and "Justice", as they were then known) came into wrestling as part of a five-man group of bodybuilders-turned-wrestlers known as Power Team USA. The other three members ("Commando" Mark Miller, "Glory" Garland Donoho, and "Fury" Ed Brock) went on to do absolutely nothing. Wrestling/JimRoss joked that they retired to "Parts Unknown."
* The Hart Foundation - OK, this team had Wrestling/BretHart, who went on to become a multiple-time world champion and hall of famer, and... Who?[[note]]It was at first his brother-in-law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, later on it was his brother [[Wrestling/OwenHart Owen]][[/note]] [[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling Exactly]][[note]]"Who" was a gimmick used by Neidhart in 1996[[/note]].
* Wrestling/{{Edge}} & Wrestling/{{Christian}} have multiple examples of this relating to them.
** Christian has had an extremely successful career and would have been the Breakout had he been teaming with anybody besides Wrestling/{{Edge}}, who became one of the most successful wrestlers of ''all time''. Edge has had three times the amount of World titles Wrestling/{{Christian}} has, and in a bigger company at that. Christian has held more independent titles and is a first generation Wrestling/GrandSlamChampion, the one accomplishment that Edge never managed (though he did manage to become a second generation Grand Slam Champion, albeit retroactively).
** They've both gone on to far, far more success than their original leader in the days of the Brood, [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]]. Despite being the leader of the Brood, Gangrel was never expected to become a future superstar like E&C though - he was brought in so they got the benefit of working with a veteran.
** During their indy days, E&C were part of a stable called [=THUG Life=] which also contained [[Wrestling/{{Rhyno}} Rhino Richards]], Joe E. Legend, Bloody Bill Skullion and Zakk Wylde. Rhino (without the "Richards") had a successful career and held the ECW World Title although he didn't come close to the success that E&C did. On the other hand, Legend only had a short stint in WWF as Just Joe. Neither Skullion or Wylde ever did anything important enough to warrant having a Wikipedia article, but Skullion bounced around the Canadian indies for a decade and a half while Wylde last wrestled in 2002.
** Edge and Christian is also a "rivals" version of this with the Hardy Boyz and Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys, at least on a collective scale. Of those three teams, E&C have gone on to have the greatest amount of success, sharing over a dozen world titles between each other and one of them even being inducted into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame. The Hardy Boyz would've been their equal, especially Wrestling/JeffHardy, who is arguably the most popular singles performer out of all three teams, had it not been their notoriously troubled personal lives, which put them in second place. The Dudley Boys are in a firm third place, and while they've had their share of singles success (particularly Bubba / Bully Ray, who is multi-time world champion in TNA), they've always been more concerned with their success as a team than any individual accomplishments. Considering how E&C won both of the trio's TLC matches, those matches become oddly prophetic in hindsight.
* The Hardy Boyz -- Wrestling/JeffHardy was Wrestling/{{WWE}} Champion (and a two-time World Heavyweight Champion later on) while Wrestling/{{Matt|Hardy}} had the WWE platinum phoenix version of Wrestling/{{ECW}} Championship which is relatively meaningless in comparison. Earlier in the decade it looked like Matt was the one who would become the breakout star, as he started the immensely popular Version One character while Jeff got fired. But then the Matt / Edge / Wrestling/{{Lita}} debacle happened and Matt's career got completely derailed, and Jeff redeemed himself long enough to win a World Title at least. History would repeat itself when the two would both move on to [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]. Both would let their personal demons get the best of them, but Wrestling/MattHardy would go on to get himself blacklisted from the company by faking a suicide while Jeff Hardy got a second chance and managed to [[TheAtoner redeem himself]] and become a mainstay in the main event scene. As of early 2014, Matt had been getting himself back on track, and got himself back into the wrestling scene, eventually getting a tag team title run in TNA with Jeff. His comeback continued into 2016 with his first TNA world title, his loss of said title, his subsequent (kayfabe) mental break leading to the incredibly popular "Broken Matt Hardy" persona, eventually getting a second TNA tag title run with Jeff, a brief ROH tag title reign (after their departure from a near-broke TNA) and the team's return to WWE at Wresltemania 33, wherein they won the Raw tag titles in their first match back. If anything, Matt has been the driving force of the brothers' renewed success.
* Inverted with The Radicalz: Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn. Yes, the first two went on to become major stars. Guerrero died. Benoit killed his entire family and himself. Malenko retired in the early 2000's and is still respected for a wrestler of his build and skill. Saturn disappeared, was homeless for quite awhile, and is just now granting public interviews.
** Saturn was previously the breakout star of Wrestling/TheEliminators, his tag team in ECW. Saturn had runs in WCW and later WWE, and while he barely did anything in either company it's a lot more than his partner John Kronus ever got.
* [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin "Stunning" Steve Austin]] and Wrestling/BrianPillman of the Hollywood Blondes. Austin became six time Wrestling/{{WWE}} champion and the only man to win the Royal Rumble [[RuleOfThree thrice]]. To be fair, the main reason for this was Pillman's untimely death at age 35. At the time, both Pillman and Austin were both very over high mid-carders (Austin being only a few months into developing the foul-mouthed, beer-swilling, [[AntiHero anti-hero]] we know him as today). In fact, Pillman's death came [[WhatCouldHaveBeen at the beginning stages of a feud between the two]].
* The Thrillseekers: Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/LanceStorm. Not a total example. For one thing, they teamed very early in their careers and the team broke up before either of them became famous. Also, Lance Storm became quite a star - he briefly held every undercard title in WCW ''at the same time'' and he's still very respected within the business. However, Jericho would become a multiple time WWE World Champion, and acquire fame outside of wrestling as the lead singer of his band Fozzy.
* America's Most Wanted - [[Wrestling/JamesStorm One]] would go on to form an even greater tag team known as [[MemeticMutation BEER! MONEY!]] The other was Chris Harris, who went on to become IWC phenomenon [[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling Braden Walker]], who is only remembered for looking stupid during his insanely brief one-month run in WWECW.
** In fact, Beer Money (James Storm and Wrestling/BobbyRoode) is possibly the most Breakup Breakout team in pro wrestling. Both of its members were Breakup Breakout themselves (Storm from AMW, Roode from [[ForeignWrestlingHeel Team Canada]]), and when they split, it did the impossible by launching both into the main event (although Roode perhaps more than Storm, making it fit this trope more).
* Wrestling/DGenerationX - Not a total example as Wrestling/ShawnMichaels was already a big star when the group started, but of the other members of the group only Wrestling/TripleH discovered any real long term success. Wrestling/RoadDogg and Wrestling/BillyGunn both got stale and couldn't get over either as singles wrestlers or with other tag team partners, Wrestling/{{Chyna}} had one of the most notorious falls from grace in wrestling history, and [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac]] became the {{Trope Namer|s}} for XPacHeat.
** Wrestling/BillyGunn did alright with Chuck Palumbo as Billy & Chuck, but the team relied on their pseudo-homosexual partnership gimmick, which after it ended didn't take them very far. But, yeah, nothing's going to stack up to his run with Wrestling/RoadDogg as the New Age Outlaws.
* During the last days of WCW, Wrestling/AJStyles was half of a tag team with a guy named Air Paris. Styles is a multi-time champion in TNA and eventually became a two-time WWE champion, whereas Paris hasn't had so much as a stint in any of the "big six" (WWE, TNA, [[Wrestling/RingOfHonor ROH]], Wrestling/{{CZW}}, [[Wrestling/ProWrestlingGuerilla PWG]], Wrestling/{{Chikara}}). Paris has done well for himself in some Wrestling/{{N|ational Wrestling Alliance}}WA promotions but then, Styles has done so too.
* The Steiner Brothers: Wrestling/ScottSteiner (''[[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling HUH?]]'') became a Wrestling/{{WCW}} Champion in 2000 (''[[VerbalTic HUH?]]'') and worked in the WWE (''HUH?'') and in TNA (''HUH?''), while Rick (''HUH?'') is currently (''HUH?'') in a local school board (''HUH?''). Ironically, before the split, Rick Steiner was considered the better of the two. Then Scotty put on 100 pounds of muscle, bleached his hair, reinvented himself as a KavorkaMan with "freaks" in every city, and started giving insane promos (likely fueled by the stuff that gave him that 100 pounds of muscle). Rick, on the other hand, floundered about in the upper midcard and then turned heel. Although he was a pretty good face, as a heel he was a complete heat vacuum.
* Harlem Heat: Wrestling/BookerT becomes a six-time, six-time, six-time, six-time, six-time, six-time World Heavyweight Champion, and who knows what Stevie Ray is doing currently. [[note]]Working for Booker at his wrestling school, actually.[[/note]]
* The British Bulldogs broke up when Wrestling/DynamiteKid had to retire due to chronic back injuries and a falling out with his tag partner (and [[WrestlingFamily real-life first cousin]]) Wrestling/DaveyBoySmith. Smith renamed himself to The British Bulldog and had a fairly long run as an upper midcarder in WWF. However, outside of WWF/E, Dynamite Kid is a legend for all the right(great wrestler, great feuds, many accomplishments, made lots of money), and wrong([[TheNapoleon Napoleon sydrome]], domestic disputes) reasons.
* The Second City Saints: Wrestling/CMPunk is a six-time World Champion and was one of the top faces of WWE before leaving for an [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA]] career, Wrestling/ColtCabana (aka Scotty Goldman) got released from Wrestling/{{WWE}} after a brief run as a {{jobber}}. Oh, and did you know there's a third Second City Saint named Ace Steel? Though Colt did eventually become a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, so there's that.
* Punk was also this to the heel stable The New Breed in 2007 -- which he, admittedly, joined for all of two weeks. By that point everyone knew that Punk was the only one of them that had any future in the company as a wrestler. Matt Striker was the only one who lasted a notable length of time, and he did so as a TV personality, having not wrestled in ''years'' by the time he was released in 2013. Elijah Burke has had reasonable success in TNA as the Pope, and is easily the second-most successful member of the group. Even then, his success is nothing compared to Punk's - his membership and feud with the New Breed is barely a footnote in the face of his ascension to superstardom, while Burke, for all his success, is stuck in mid card hell at TNA.
* A third example relating to Punk: His debut in professional wrestling was as part of a tag team called The Chick Magnets alongside CM Venom in a tiny promotion that ran shows out of a warehouse called Lunatic Wrestling Federation. Venom never made it out of the LWF.
* The Fabulous Freebirds were actually notorious for their refusal to break up - if a promoter tried to split the team up all of them would leave the promotion. However, Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy both had notable careers following the breakup of the Freebirds, whereas Buddy Roberts did nothing afterwards. And when the team finally did break up for good, it was with Hayes and Gordy turning {{face}} on Roberts. Hayes and Gordy went on to mixed success elsewhere, and Roberts retired. Buddy Roberts was the oldest member and already well-established in the wrestling world as half of the original Hollywood Blonds (not the Steve Austin/Brian Pillman team) long before he joined the Freebirds. He was brought in because Michael Hayes was considered a great talker but a poor wrestler.
* El Bronco #1 and Rico Suave, Los Compadres, were both very successful on the Caribbean circuit in their own ways before and after teaming up. However, in 2003 they took on two valets, Wrestling/BlackRose and Destiny. Black Rose became one of Puerto Rico's top women wrestlers in the wake of La Tigresa's [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor arrest]](rivaling Génesis, La Amazona and Killer Kat), managed several other successful wrestlers besides Bronco(Los Fugitivos de la Calle, La Zona Illegal, Huracán Castillo Jr), got television work outside of pro wrestling and has done...decently in other regions. Destiny disappeared.
** Among Tigresa's "successors", Rose and Amazona are the best known due almost all fifty state or foreign women in WWC during their "era"(Roxxi Laveaux, Melissa Coates, Wrestling/{{Sar|ahStock}}ita, Wrestling/MickieJames, Serena Deeb) being pitted against Rose(only Sara Jay went after Killer Kat insead) while Amazona defeated [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Moxley Mox]] for IWA PR's Hardcore Title belt. Between them, Amazona was the breakout in IWA PR, where they had been a tag team but Rose is the breakout elsewhere.
* Dark Angel Wrestling/SarahStock is the breakout to Christie Ricci from their "Sexy Girls" tag team and to [[Wrestling/TheaTrinidad Rosita]] from their time as Las Primas. Ricci has done pretty well for herself and has been featured on television specials in Mexico, but Dark Angel is considered one of the greatest luchadoras of all time. Rosita's career highlight basically was being Sarita's partner. This could however be changing soon, as Rosita is now in WWE as Zelina Vega, valet to Cien Almas. Concerning her other team with Wrestling/TaylorWilde, it's debatable who the breakout was(definitely Wilde in TNA but Stock out of it) but Io Shirai was the breakout to Stock concerning their time in Planet.
* [=MNM=]: Johnny Nitro became Wrestling/JohnMorrison, won the ECW Title, joined another successful tag team, and was an upper-midcarder on ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'' being primed for the big time. Joey Mercury... had a few spots returning to ROH, and later joined the Straight Edge Society. Even their valet Wrestling/{{Melina}} did better than Mercury, wining the Women's Title on a couple of occasions. Whether or not she was bigger than Morrison, she arguably was until he became Wrestling/LuchaUnderground Champion ''and'' a [[Wrestling/{{AAA}} Triple A]] Triple Crown Champion.
* Subverted with Morrison's tag team with Wrestling/TheMiz -- ''everyone'' figured Miz would be lost in the midcard on Raw after the tandem broke up while Morrison moved on to bigger and better things on [=SmackDown=]. However, The Miz became the breakout star of the two, winning the WWE Championship in 2010. Morrison left the company the following year. But then Miz got dropped back down the mid card and Morrison won the aforementioned belts and more outside of WWE, ended up still pretty even with Miz wrestling wise. Miz continues to get more media appearances outside of wrestling due to being more PR friendly and being in far fewer behind the scenes disputes. His run since Wrestlemania 32 has been considered the best of his career, playing the perfect obnoxious heel, with multiple IC title reigns and feuds that have re-elevated the championship back to its historical prestige.
* Wrestling/{{WCW}} had Three Count, a boy band stable consisting of Evan Karagias, Wrestling/ShannonMoore, and [[Wrestling/GregoryHelms Shane Helms]]. Of the three, Helms has had a moderately successful Wrestling/{{WWE}} career as The Hurricane and as Gregory Helms, Moore was mostly a jobber in WWE but had some tag team success in TNA, and Karaigas hasn't done anything. Although, Helms' status of Breakup Breakout came during his WCW days, when he started using the Vertebreaker as his finisher and was given an elaborate entrance and custom theme song.
* This has happened with Curt Hawkins and Wrestling/ZackRyder as the latter was established as a hot new heel on Wrestling/{{ECW}} with his memorable {{catchphrase}} and [[{{Leitmotif}} theme music]], while the former completely disappeared from WWE television and returned to FCW. Hawkins would later return as part of a very unmemorable tag team with Vance Archer which would later break up with Hawkins going nowhere on Superstars while Archer got released. However, it was during that short period of time that it would look like Hawkins might have a shot at surpassing his partner as ECW went off the air and was replaced by NXT, [[DemotedToExtra leaving Ryder stuck on Superstars as well]]. However, Ryder would become an underground hit when he debuted his WebOriginal series, WebVideo/ZTrueLongIslandStory. With a huge following on the IWC, Ryder would eventually [[HeelFaceTurn turn face]] and get featured on both RAW and Smackdown as a result (Ryder defeated Wrestling/DolphZiggler at the 2011 WWE TLC PPV for the United States Championship), all while Curt Hawkins made sporadic appearances as a jobber-to-the-stars before getting released. Hawkins came back to WWE in 2016, but never came close to the heights his former tag team partner had reached five years earlier, or even where he was now.
* Even if he had moderate success, Billy Gunn hit superstardom in comparison to what happened to Bart Gunn from The Smoking Gunns. Bart Gunn won the (real fighting) Brawl For All tournament, then lost to Butterbean in 30 seconds and was immediately fired - he hasn't worked in the USA since. Billy also outlived Road Dogg in the WWE even if they later reunited in TNA. Bart Gunn actually did fairly well for himself, but in Japan. Since Bart knocked out Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams in the Brawl For All and Williams was a very big name in Japan, he gained instant credibility, and he received decent pushes in both Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and NJPW.
* In a "rivals" version of this, Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr and Wrestling/{{Psicosis}}. They debuted together, feuded all through Mexico, Japan, ECW, WCW... then 2001ish WCW released all their luchadors except for Mysterio (and Juventud Guererra). Mysterio later got scooped up by WWE and eventually became a World Champion. Psicosis, on the other hand, got a short WWE run and nothing to show for it. When they met in a Wrestling/RoyalRumble, Mysterio just kinda backhanded Psicosis out of the ring. Mysterio's still a major superstar. Psicosis isn't as big in his native Mexico as Mysterio is in the US.
* [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] started out as part of Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination alongside [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]], Wrestling/DLoBrown, [[Wrestling/CharlesWright The Godfather]], and Wrestling/MarkHenry. Rocky of course first became arguably the most popular wrestler of all time, and then made it into Hollywood. The Godfather never really did much in the ring (although his post-Nation gimmick made him a favorite during the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, leading to induction in the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame), and D'Lo Brown was a successful upper midcarder during the Attitude Era, but never broke into the main event and his star faded around 2003 or so. Wrestling/MarkHenry won the World Title in 2011, putting him in a clear second place.
* Wrestling/TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam: Charlie Haas and Wrestling/SheltonBenjamin. After the team split up Shelton got three consecutive victories over Wrestling/TripleH, became a three time Intercontinental champion, a former United States Champion and was the highlight of the Money in the Bank match at every Wrestlemania (he, tied with Wrestling/{{Kane}}, appeared in more MITB matches than any other superstar). Charlie Haas was primary used as a jobber-to-the-stars and occasionally part of an unsuccessful make-shift {{tag team}}. He was even released and re-hired a couple times before being released for good in 2010. A strange subversion here in that the WGTT as a tag team actually has more drawing power than either Haas or Benjamin separately. When they reunited in Ring Of Honor, the Fandom Rejoiced.
* Not to say that Chuck Palumbo has had an extraordinarily successful career, but he's had a better one than that of his tag partner in The Perfect Event, Shawn Stasiak. Palumbo had a good run as WWE Tag Team Champion with Billy Gunn, was later part of the WWE incarnation of the Full Blooded Italians, and was part of the Voodoo Murders stable in AJPW. Stasiak got to play a gimmick where he was deliberately clumsy, and now works as a chiropractor.
* Wrestling/DragonGate had a stable called the Royal Brothers, with Anthony W. Mori, Henry III Suguwara, and Phillip J. Fukamasa. Fukamasa barely lasted an entire year, leaving Mori and Suguwara a tag team. Then Suguwara turned heel on Mori (and started using his real name Takuya Suguwara). Mori won their feud fairly heavily, and Suguwara was fired for unrelated reasons, leaving Mori as the breakup breakout. But since then, Suguwara re-invented himself on the Japanese indy scene while Mori slid down the rankings to jobber-to-the-stars. Suguwara returned to Dragon Gate after a half a decade absence, and is now somewhere between upper midcarder and main eventer, and leading the Real Hazard stable. A rare case of the breakup breakout situation reversing itself.
* The British Invasion: Brutus Magnus, Doug Williams, and Rob Terry. Terry, the ButtMonkey of the stable, went on to become TNA Global champion and thus far the longest reigning champion in the belt's history. Doug Williams is a two-time X-Division champion and one of the top guys of the division. Magnus has been taken off television following his PPV loss to Terry. However, Magnus has become a prominent midcarder after teaming with Wrestling/SamoaJoe and winning the Tag Team titles. Terry has been working mainly as Robbie E's bouncer and Douglas Williams hasn't been on TV in a while. Magnus would go on to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion, after Williams had left the company and Terry had been established as a career upper midcarder. By 2015 Magnus was the only one of the three remaining in TNA, and despite being out of the title scene retained a prominent role on Impact.
* WWE had the Spirit Squad, a five-man stable consisting of male cheerleaders Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey. Out of the five only Nicky has been continuously employed in the WWE, having been repackaged as Wrestling/DolphZiggler, enjoying singles success and eventually becoming a Triple Crown champion. Ironically, the whole Spirit Squad gimmick was used to put over Kenny. That worked to his disadvantage, as he [[NeverLiveItDown forever became associated with the gimmick.]] Even years after the breakup, Kenny Dykstra was still the butt of Spirit Squad chants and jokes. Mikey, although never as popular as Ziggler, had a solid career on the independent scene as Mike Mondo. Kenny and Mikey eventually [[HesBack returned to the WWE]] as midcarders in 2016, but still never came close to Ziggler's popularity.
* Averted with The Acolytes/APA, as Wrestling/RonSimmons (aka Faarooq) was already a former WCW Champion prior to the team's creation. However, after the APA's second breakup in 2004, Bradshaw reinvented himself as the CorruptCorporateExecutive Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield, when he held the WWE title for almost a year.
* Played straight with Legacy, though not in the way people expected. Wrestling/{{Ted DiBiase|Jr}} was initially planned to be breakout with him turning face against Wrestling/RandyOrton and he had starred in the DirectToVideo sequel to ''Film/TheMarine''. [[MisaimedFandom/ProfessionalWrestling The plans got derailed when Orton's popularity caused him to be booked as a face against DiBiase and Rhodes.]] After ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 26'', Ted was given [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase his father's]] gimmick and failed to get over even with Virgil and later Wrestling/{{Maryse}} by his side. Meanwhile, Wrestling/CodyRhodes was drafted to Smackdown and became [[DistractedByMyOwnSexy "Dashing"]]. Cody's been a mainstay of the show, winning the WWE tag team championship for the fourth time with Drew [=McIntyre=], being in World title contention, getting another gimmick overhaul, and winning a Wrestling/WrestleMania match against Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}. Rhodes won the Intercontinental Championship on an episode of [=SmackDown=] on August 12, 2011 and has become one of the top heels in the WWE. [=DiBiase=] left wrestling in 2013, while Rhodes later found success as a face and with a new heel gimmick "Stardust" before leaving in 2016. Since then? ROH World Champion and Executive VP of his own promotion Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling.
* The American Males: Marcus Bagwell would turn on his tag team partner Wrestling/ScottyRiggs to join the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder. The newly rechristened Wrestling/BuffBagwell would become a capable hand in the [=nWo=] and would enjoy a run in the upper-midcard upon the group's dissolution until WCW was bought out by WWE. Scotty Riggs would join The Flock as a job guy for Wrestling/{{Raven}} and toil in obscurity upon that group's dissolution. After Riggs jumped from WCW to ECW, he was put in an angle with Wrestling/RobVanDam and it looked like he might avert this, but the match between Riggs and RVD was underwhelming, and ECW folded not too long afterwards.
* Inverted with Wrestling/LayCool. Wrestling/MichelleMcCool was already a big player in the women's division when the team formed but Wrestling/{{Layla}} was mostly just there as another heel diva. She started out as Michelle's sidekick but was [[AscendedExtra eventually promoted to an equal]]. When they split it was played straight since Layla retired Michelle and became the top face on Smackdown, until an injury took her out. Layla got hurt (torn ACL and MCL) the same night she retired Michelle. Sitting out for a year recovering killed her momentum and even though she was made Divas Champion when she came back, she was never as over as she was with Michelle.
* Another example that includes Layla - Extreme Expose. The dance trio on ECW included her and Wrestling/KellyKelly who was arguably the most popular diva on the roster. The other girl, Wrestling/BrookeAdams, got released just after they split. However, Brooke joined TNA in 2010, becoming a three-time Knockouts Champion, arguably the best wrestler of the three, and the only one still active since Kelly and Layla have now retired. Much like the Edge and Christian scenario, Brooke is the breakout in terms of in-ring accomplishments, but since Kelly and Layla worked on the bigger stage, the are the ''de facto'' breakout stars.
* In 2004, the tag team "Los Guerreros" was broken up after Wrestling/ChavoGuerreroJr attacked his uncle Wrestling/{{Eddie|Guerrero}}. Their feud culminated at the Royal Rumble, with Eddie winning. About a month later, both of them became successful at No Way Out, with Chavo winning the Cruiserweight Championship and Eddie winning the WWE Championship. Chavo never quite became as successful as his uncle in the long run (Eddie was already more popular anyway), but was nevertheless a good wrestler.
* Averted with the Funk brothers, Wrestling/{{Terry|Funk}} and Dory Jr. While Terry is more well-known than Dory Jr. for his [[TenMinuteRetirement inability to stay out of the ring]] and his [[GarbageWrestler hardcore matches,]] both were equally successful singles stars in their primes.
* One odd example that's not born from either a tag team or a rivalry. In 1989 a midcarder for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling named Keiichi Yamada was reinvented, giving him a gimmick based on a Go Nagai anime that was getting ready to air. Today, Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger is one of the most celebrated, accomplished and innovative wrestlers in history while the anime series his gimmick is based on, Anime/JushinLiger, is practically a footnote known more for spawning his gimmick than anything else.
* Despite showing equal charisma as singles stars, when [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Team 3D]] broke up, Brother Ray became Bully Ray and one of the top heels of the company whereas Brother Devon languished in the midcard, only getting a very brief push as TV Champion (the push coming a month after he won the title and being forgotten about after two months). When their contracts expired in August 2012, Ray stayed and Devon left, both with good reason: Ray was in the Bound For Glory tournament for the World Title, and Devon's Television Title was getting no television time. [[Wrestling/AcesAndEights He came back]]. He's stlll nowhere near Ray's level, as that the latter became TNA World Champion and a third of ROH's Trios Champions with The Briscoe Brothers.
* Wrestling/{{GLOW}}
** The tag team of Hollywood and Vine. After GLOW closed, Vine did nothing of note. Hollywood stayed in the wrestling business in various capacities, and is very easy to find on the Internet to this day, although most of her work is in pretaped and often NSFW matches.
** [[FunWithAcronyms T&A]] was made up of '''T'''ina Ferrari and '''A'''shley Cartier. Tina spent years in various women's promotions before arriving in WWE in 1999 as Wrestling/{{Ivory}} and would go on to become a 3x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Champion]]. Ashley never accomplished much beyond her and Tina's run with the GLOW Tag Team Titles.
*** Tina[=/=]Ivory could actually be considered the breakout member of the entire GLOW roster, as she's the only one to go on to have a respectable career in wrestling after the promotion closed its doors, and the only one to wrestle for Wrestling/{{WWE}}.
** Of Thunderbolt and Lightning, Lightning showed up more as a singles wrestler and continued to show up in post Glow promotions such as the short lived LPWA, sometimes as Cheryl Rusa.
* When Men on a Mission broke up, Mabel became King of the Ring, and then had midcard runs in WWE as Viscera and Big Daddy V. Mo on the other hand never did anything of note again - he spent several months as Mabel's manager Sir Mo, and then quietly disappeared never to return to WWF/E.
* Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli started out in the European indy scene as part of a quartet called Swiss Money Holding with Ares, Marc Roudin, and Don Heavy. Obviously, Claudio is the breakout - he got a WWE job as Antonio Cesaro. Ares, however, is a breakout compared to Roudin. Ares is currently a fairly successful indie wrestler in the States. Roudin stayed semi-active in Europe through the early 2010s before retiring, but even he's a breakout compared to Don Heavy, who only lasted a couple years and was retired by 2004.
* Same thing with the Kings of Wrestling. Cesaro actually made it to WWE TV and is getting a big push, Wrestling/ChrisHero was with NXT for about a year before being released. Ironically, Castagnoli was at best Hero's equal and at times the lackey of the Kings, one time unwillingly.
* Club 7 was a tag team in Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling formed by Wrestling/GiantSilva and Giant Singh who acted as Masahiro Chono's bodyguards. After the team's break up, the two took separate ways: Giant Singh went to became Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s uber-hyped giant, The Great Khali, while Giant Silva (a former WWF wrestler himself) joined to Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE and tried his hand in UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts before fading into the darkness. Although Silva is considered the better wrestler of the team (or, at least, is not as bad as Khali is), he unofficially retired in 2011 and only a few remember him, while Khali still enjoying his WWE fame.
* Wrestling/TheNexus. This was a fairly large stable and provides plenty of examples, so here goes:
** [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], the first to be kicked out of the group, is also the first one to win a world championship and in less than four years became the most over wrestler in the entire company, even beating out ''Wrestling/CMPunk and Wrestling/JohnCena''. Now, he's arguably the most over wrestler since Wrestling/{{Stone Cold|SteveAustin}} and [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]].
** In second place is latecomer Husky Harris, who was repackaged as Wrestling/BrayWyatt, formed Wrestling/TheWyattFamily, and got a ''huge'' push, though in 2014 he racked up a nasty PPV losing streak that hurt his momentum and credibility pretty badly. Fortunately, he regained momentum around 2016 thanks to a revived Wyatt Family and won the WWE title in 2017. And in 2019 he was successfully repackaged again, becoming insanely over as a DepravedKidsShowHost with a WrestlingMonster alter ego "The Fiend", eventually capturing his second world title a few months after his reintroduction.
** Third place goes to Wrestling/WadeBarrett, the former leader and ironically the one the stable was suppose to propel to superstardom, who became a five-time Intercontinental champion and a Wrestling/KingOfTheRing (2015) winner before leaving the company in 2016.
** Skip Sheffield, who was kicked out after breaking his leg (causing him to be out for well over a year), was repackaged as the uber-monster Wrestling/{{Ryback}}. Ultimately his success was short-lived, and by 2014 he's only on TV as a tag team jobber with Wrestling/CurtisAxel. And though he had his push rebooted by the end of the year and became the Intercontinental Champion in 2015, he pissed off management by complaining about his salary and place on the card before being taken off of TV and eventually released in 2016.
** The only other member to have any real success was Michael [=McGillicutty=], who joined the group months into its existence and eventually became Wrestling/PaulHeyman protege Wrestling/CurtisAxel. See Ryback's section above on where Curtis Axel ended up, though. The rest are either released or jobbers, the most prominent being Wrestling/HeathSlater, who formed the heel stable , composed primarily of jobbers that broke up after Jindar and Drew got released. However Slater is a very popular EnsembleDarkhorse.
** And speaking of Wrestling/ThreeMB, Wrestling/JinderMahal and Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre, who got hired back later and surpassed Wrestling/HeathSlater in the company: Jinder bulked up, became the Modern-Day Maharaja, and held the WWE Championship for 170 days; after kicking around the indies and TNA for awhile, [=McIntyre=] returned and had a reign as NXT champion before teaming with Wrestling/DolphZiggler, with whom he won the Raw Tag Team Championships.
* Brian Kendrick was briefly the breakout of Wrestling/LondonAndKendrick (although London was a more established solo star at the time of their formation); he hung around for about a year after the team split, and got a decent singles push as ''[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]]'' Brian Kendrick. Paul London, meanwhile, was released just a few months after the team was broken up.
* Wrestling/DamienSandow got his start in WWE under the name Idol Stevens as half of the Teacher's Pets. He's had a far more successful career than his tag partner KC James.
* Eric Alexander, later known as Mr. E, was a perfectly acceptable mid card wrestler in IWA Puerto Rico and WWC on his way to the main event who equaled or out shined all his tag team partners everywhere he went, excepting his Puerto Rican Nightmares tag team partner Eddie Colon in WWE. While Primo's WWE career is hardly the stuff of legend, "Eric Escobar" was seemingly called out of developmental just to reintroduce Wrestling/VickieGuerrero to WWE TV and to mock his pre WWE success.
* When the Norfolk Dolls broke apart, both Britani Knight and Melody started to slide nearly into {{jobber}} status but Knight bounced back next year and went on to win multiple title belts in many countries and get invited to Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} while Melodi wouldn't get a big break for another five years. Britani later joined WWE's FCW and formed the "Anti-diva Army" with [[Wrestling/IvelisseVelez Sofia Cortez]] as Wrestling/{{Paige}}. They broke up when NXT replaced FCW and it seemed like Sofia was going to leave Paige behind. Then Cortez got injured and released while Paige became NXT's first Women's Champion. As of 2015, Paige is a two-time Divas champion and Ivelisse [[PowerTrio a third]] of Wrestling/LuchaUnderground's first tercias champion team.
* Wrestling/TheShield broke up in 2014. Wrestling/RomanReigns is being pushed as the next top babyface and Wrestling/SethRollins joined Wrestling/TheAuthority and won the World Title at Wrestlemania XXXI. Wrestling/DeanAmbrose on the other hand, despite being arguably the most popular of the 3[[note]]his hoodie spent a few months as the best-selling piece of non-Wrestling/JohnCena clothing offered by WWE[[/note]] went on to feud with with fellow almost-but-not-quite main eventer Wrestling/BrayWyatt before being moved back into the midcard as part of the effort to revitalize the Intercontinental and United States championships. It's later subverted as in May 2015 he challenging his former Shield teammate for the WWE World Heavyweight championship and even pinned him for the title before the latter was [[CruelTwistEnding disqualified]]. By mid-2016, it was completely subverted as all three members have become world champion. [[spoiler:In fact, all three were champion within ''three minutes'' of each other. Seth won the title off the defending Roman, only for Dean to cash in his MITB briefcase (the second after Kane to do so within the same night they won it) to win the title off him. With this, the Shield officially became one of the most successful factions in the history of the company and easily the most successful since Wrestling/{{Evolution}}]]. For further proof, Dean even ended up becoming the first of the three to become a Wrestling/GrandSlamChampion.
** Speaking of Rollins, as Tyler Black, he was the breakout of several other stables/tag teams in the indies. He was this to the Black and the Brave in AAW (admittedly because a back injury put Marek Brave into retirement for four years, causing Black to pursue a singles career), and was this to the Age of the Fall, which propelled him into Wrestling/RingOfHonor's main event scene while Wrestling/JimmyJacobs languished in the upper-midcard. He's even this to the ''entire'' cast/roster of Wrestling/WrestlingSocietyX, which, while boasting what would become major names on the independent circuit, of whom none not named Ricky Banderas could compare to his success in the WWE, and Ricky had already made his name anyway, WSX hurting his reputation more than anything when the show was canceled over his use of {{fireballs}}. The closest would be Matt Sydal (Wrestling/EvanBourne), who would at least get signed to the WWE and actually win a title during his time there.
** Ambrose also outshined his tag partner in the Switchblade Conspiracy, Wrestling/SamiCallihan. Callihan did get signed to NXT as Solomon Crowe with a promising black-hat hacker gimmick, but for whatever reason WWE bookers never got behind Crowe and used him so rarely that he requested his own release. Ambrose became a major star in WWE, becoming one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster, winning numerous titles and even becoming world champion. You could argue that Ambrose is also this to Wrestling/{{CZW}} as a whole, as he has outstripped nearly every major wrestler of that promotion in success and is the first CZW alumnus to become world champion in WWE.
* Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s The Gathering in TNA is a bit of a mixed bag. Raven himself doesn't count, as he was a long-established multi-time world champion by the time the group was introduced. Wrestling/MickieJames eventually became one of the hallmark female wrestlers of [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]], being the only woman to have ever held every major women's title in the USA. Julio Dinero, however, faded into obscurity after leaving TNA. However, ''none'' of them can compare to the success achieved by the fourth and final member of the stable: Wrestling/CMPunk, who became a star that can only be matched by Wrestling/JohnCena and [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]].
** CM Punk may be the breakout compared to them but Julio Dinero, and Chris Hamrick, are the breakouts from the Hot Commodity stable compared to EZ Money and Elektra, while James is definitely the breakout from her BBOW tag team partner Candie.
* Wrestling/JayLethal was originally a member of Special K (a Ring of Honor stable full of rich kid druggie ravers) under the name Hydro. The fact that Hydro clearly had a lot more ability and potential than his stablemates was repeatedly addressed in-universe, and he was eventually adopted by Wrestling/SamoaJoe as his protege. His career went upwards from there, with a long run in TNA followed by a return to ROH as one of its top wrestlers. As for the other full-time Special K wrestlers though, who knows what Izzy, Dixie, Angel Dust and Deranged are up to these days? As of 2016, mostly semi-active or inactive.
* Crazzy Steve outlasted the other members of The Menagerie (Knux, Rebel and The Freak), and went on to become a tag team champion alongside Abyss as half of Decay. That being said, Knux and the Freak were well-established veterans at that point.
* One very notable example from Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling is the tag team of No Limit. Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito has (despite a rocky start) became one of the most popular and dastardly heels in New Japan's history, forming and leading one of the promotions top heel stables Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon and winning every major single's championship belt he was eligible for (the IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontiental and NEVER Openweight titles). Yujiro Takahashi went on to become a member of the Wrestling/BulletClub...and that's about it.
* The Latina Loca Mamis are an odd case. Shelly Martinez has had far more high profile television appearances, in and out of pro wrestling, than Wrestling/MercedesMartinez, but, for whatever reason, it hasn't translated into many pushes for Shelly. Shelly's presence in wrestling promotions tend to be fleeting and she's often treated as a {{jobber}} or subject to TheWorfEffect. Mercedes has done her fair share of Worf duty as well but is generally treated as a far more dangerous competitor and tends to rack up a far larger amount of bookings, tournament wins and title belts in regions they've both been in since breaking up.
* In 2013, NXT featured a GirlPosse PowerStable called "the Beautiful Fierce Females" or "[=BFFs=]" consisting of Wrestling/SummerRae, Wrestling/CharlotteFlair and Wrestling/SashaBanks. Since the group's split, both Flair and Banks became pillars of WWE's revitalized women's division and won the Women's championships multiple times (NXT ''and'' main roster combined), while Summer never won the Women's title on both NXT and the main roster and her main roster tenure is mostly remembered for her being the valet of Wrestling/{{Fandango}} and the disastrous Gooker-winning LoveDodecahedron StoryArc involving her, Wrestling/DolphZiggler, [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev, and Lana]] before getting injured in 2016 and released a year later.
* Wrestling/TheFunkadactyls, the TagTeam of Wrestling/{{Naomi}} and Wrestling/{{Cameron}}. The former became a two-time ([=SmackDown=]) Women's Champion and a notable player in WWE's revitalized women's division, while the latter became infamous for her troubles outside of the ring (and her prior Q & A stint on ''[[Wrestling/WWEToughEnough Tough Enough]]'' with host Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin).
* The defunct WWECW brand functioned as a proto-NXT, a place where new talent was sent to in order to get TV experience. Of its entire roster throughout its run, the most successful alumnus is Wrestling/CMPunk, who became a star comparable to Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/RandyOrton. Second place is a tie between Wrestling/TheMiz and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, who both went on to become world champions and have been on the roster for a long time, but never came close to Punk’s standing. After that is Wrestling/JohnMorrison, who never grabbed a higher title but quickly became one of WWE’s most popular stars, Wrestling/JackSwagger, who did briefly rise to the main event but fell back down quickly afterwards, and Wrestling/BobbyLashley, whose first stint in WWE was extremely brief but mostly spent near the top of the card. Guys like Wrestling/{{Christian}}, Wrestling/MattHardy, Wrestling/MarkHenry, Wrestling/BigShow, and Wrestling/{{Kane}} don't count, as they were well-established long before WWECW existed and were only sent there to carry the show for the sake of the younger talent, nor do the ECW originals like Wrestling/RobVanDam and Wrestling/TommyDreamer, who were mostly there for the nostalgia factor.
* The stable [=CrazyMAX=], consisting of core members Wrestling/{{CIMA}}, SUWA, Don Fujii and TARU, helped to put Toryumon on the map in the year 2000. C-Max split up for good in late 2005, not too long after the promotion rebranded to Wrestling/{{Dragon Gate}}. Of the four members, CIMA is the clear breakout, having consistantly been the top billed wrestler in Dragon Gate. Don Fujii may be a distant number two, having held the Open the Dream Gate Title (Dragon Gate's top title) once but been primarily an undercard act. SUWA went on to become a midcarder in NOAH and retired in the early 2010s, and TARU moved over to NJPW where he became primarily a managerial figure. The only member of C-Max to really rival CIMA's success is Shingo Takagi, who only joined the stable for the last couple months of its existence.
* Originally the breakout of Wrestling/DeuceNDomino appeared to be Deuce, as Domino was the first to be released. Deuce would adapt the name Sim Snuka and would join the Legacy stable. That never happened, though, and he was released shortly after and wrestles only sporadically. Domino returned to Ohio Valley Wrestling and found success under his real name of Cliff Compton.
* The Sumerian Death Squad, made up of Dutchmen Tommy End and Michael Dante were one of the most successful tag teams in the European circuit during the early 2010s. The team split when End went over to WWE in 2016. He quickly found success rechristened as Wrestling/AleisterBlack, winning the NXT Title and becoming one of the brand’s top stars. Dante stayed in Europe to compete as a singles star and has maintained a relatively low profile.
* British independent star Paul Robinson found himself to be roadkill for two stables he was part of. First there was the Leaders of the New School, in which Robinson found himself overshadowed by Wrestling/ZackSabreJr and Wrestling/MartyScurll (who still use the Leaders name as a duo today). He at least has done better than the fourth member of the group, Nikko Brixton, who quickly vanished from wrestling after he left them in 2008. Later, Robinson was a member of the Swords of Essex, best known as the stable that launched the career of Wrestling/WillOspreay. That being said, "The Amazon" Ayesha Raymond, one of the other members, has done OK for herself, but certainly not at Ospreay levels.
* Two of the more extreme examples from the world of independent wrestling are Wrestling/RoderickStrong and Wrestling/VelvetSky. Roderick started in the Florida independent scene with his [[UnrelatedBrothers "brother"]] Sedrick. Roderick went on to success in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], Wrestling/RingOfHonor, and Wrestling/{{WWENXT}}, while Sedrick faded into obscurity in the Florida indies. Born Jamie Szantyr, Talia Madison was a tag team champion with her "sister" Tiffany in the adult-oriented Women's Extreme Wrestling. Szantyr went on to success in TNA as Velvet Sky of Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople, while Tiffany faded into obscurity. It's possible that there are people who watched Velvet in TNA who didn't even ''know'' of The Madisons.
** About a decade earlier, there was a team of UnrelatedBrothers in the New England-based ICW/IWCCW promotion called The Madisons, T.D. and GQ Madison. They were 3x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/newengland/icw/icw-t.html ICW/IWCCW Tag Team Champions]]. T.D. later made his name in ECW as Wrestling/TommyDreamer, GQ disappeared.
* Originally known as The Interrogator, Wrestling/{{Kurrgan}} became the breakout star of The Truth Commission, eventually retiring to act in such prominent films as ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' and ''Film/ThreeHundred''. Recon (Barry Buchanan) later got a run as Wrestling/BigBossman's sidekick Bull Buchanan and he and [[Wrestling/CharlesWright The Goodfather]] held the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-world-t.html WWE World Tag Team Titles]] as [[MoralGuardians Right To Censor]]. Sniper (Luc Poirier) went back to Europe and retired.
* Wrestling/DanSpivey went through this a few times. He and Wrestling/ScottHall were a tag team in Florida as American Starship, Eagle and Coyote. Hall, of course, went on to success in WWE and WCW. Spivey also fell victim to this with '''both''' of his teammates in The Skyscrapers, [[Wrestling/SidEudy Sid Vicious]] and "Mean" Mark Callous, who became Wrestling/TheUndertaker.
* While the women better known as Wrestling/{{Ivory}} and Wrestling/{{Lita}} had made anonymous appearances as members of [[Wrestling/CharlesWright The Godfather]]'s Ho Train before they were officially introduced, [[Wrestling/LisaMarieVaron Victoria]] is the breakout from the entourage. She and Mandy (Frostee Moore) were the only ones to be named while part of the group, as part of the "Save The Hos" campaign against Right To Censor. Victoria went on to success in WWE and TNA, Mandy didn't.
* WCW in 2000 introduced a group called The Natural Born Thrillers, who were a weak UrExample of what Wrestling/TheNexus would be ten years later. With the bulk of the group (Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Sanders, Reno [Rick Cornell] and Johnny the Bull) retired, and Sean O'Haire deceased, Mark Jindrak qualifies as the breakout of the group, though it took him a while. After washing out of WWE, he went on to New Japan Pro Wrestling and eventually to Wrestling/{{CMLL}} in Mexico, where he reinvented himself as "The Golden Eagle" Marco Corleone, and won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-h.html CMLL World Heavyweight Title]] in 2017.
* Wrestling/NewJack became a bigger star than his Gangstas teammate Mustafa, though Wrestling/DLoBrown, who started as [[AscendedExtra part of their entourage]] in Wrestling/{{SMW}}, has achieved far more than either of them.
* This was double-averted by Wrestling/DickTheBruiser and Wrestling/TheCrusher, since both guys had reached legend status by the time they stopped teaming in the 1980s.
* Wrestling/EddieKingston became this to his The [=Wild Cards=] teammate "Black" Jack Marciano in Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}, due to Marciano retiring.
* Wrestling/TheBarbarian ended up as The Jannetty to Wrestling/{{Meng}}, which was why he turned on Meng, breaking up The Faces of Fear in early 1998 WCW.
* Inverted with Wrestling/ChrisAdams, since Gino Hernandez died in February 1986, two months after their team The Dynamic Duo broke up, and, outside of Texas and Mid-South, Adams was never any kind of a star on his own.
* Doom (Wrestling/RonSimmons and Butch Reed) broke up after The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) defeated them for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-t.html WCW World Tag Team Titles]] at ''WCW [=WrestleWar=] 91'', February 24, 1991.[[note]]In the kind of unbelievably dumb decision that could ''only'' have come from WCW, The Steiner Brothers had ''already'' defeated the Freebirds for the titles at a TV taping six days earlier, thus giving the Birds a negative title reign of -6 days.[[/note]] Reed disappeared in May 1991 and returned at ''WCW Clash of the Champions XX'' on September 20, 1992, when Simmons was over a month into his reign as the first African-American [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW World Heavyweight Champion]]. That night, Simmons successfully defended his title against [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]]. Reed and The Barbarian defeated Wrestling/BarryWindham and [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes]]. Shortly after this, Cowboy Bill Watts fired Reed for missing a flight. Simmons went on to success in WWE and was inducted into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame in 2012. Reed never worked for a major promotion again.
* [[Wrestling/ErnestMiller Ernest "The Cat" Miller]] was the breakout of his team with Wrestling/{{Glacier}}. While he never won a title in pro wrestling, once he split away from Glacier he got to show a lot more personality, first as a heel, then as a face.
* Wrestling/LannyPoffo was the Jannetty to his brother Wrestling/RandySavage. Savage became a 6x World Heavyweight Champion (2x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWE]], 4x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wcw/wcw-h.html WCW]]). Poffo never won a title outside of a territory or independent promotion.
* Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}'s Wrestling/JukeJointLucasCalhoun is a breakout by default. He arrived in 2014 as Volgar, a follower of Wrestling/JimmyJacobs in [[MatryoshkaObject The Flood]], the amalgamation of {{Heel}} groups out to destroy CHIKARA. He was often seen with a second masked guy named Callux, who never wrestled a match in CHIKARA since Wrestling/EddieKingston destroyed him under Jimmy Jacobs' orders.[[note]]See AndThenWhat for more.[[/note]]
* After the team of Blake And Murphy broke up, both men were stuck on jobber-to-the-stars duty for over a year. Then Buddy Murphy was moved into 205 Live, then up to the main roster, and in August 2019, put in a main event angle with Roman Reigns and has scored an upset victory over Wrestling/DanielBryan. Meanwhile, Wesley Blake is still in NXT and barely used.
---

** [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], the first to be kicked out of the group, is the only one to win a world championship and in less than four years became the most over wrestler in the entire company, even beating out ''Wrestling/CMPunk and Wrestling/JohnCena''. Now, he's arguably the most over wrestler since Wrestling/{{Stone Cold|SteveAustin}} and [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]].
** In second place is latecomer Husky Harris, who was repackaged as Wrestling/BrayWyatt, formed Wrestling/TheWyattFamily, and got a ''huge'' push, though in 2014 he racked up a nasty PPV losing streak that hurt his momentum and credibility pretty badly. Fortunately, he regained momentum around 2016 thanks to a revived Wyatt Family and won the WWE title in 2017. And in 2019 he was successfully repackaged again, becoming insanely over as a DepravedKidsShowHost with a WrestlingMonster alter ego "The Fiend".

* In 2013, NXT featured a GirlPosse PowerStable called "the Beautiful Fierce Females" or "[=BFFs=]" consisting of Wrestling/SummerRae, Wrestling/CharlotteFlair and Wrestling/SashaBanks. Since the group's split, both Flair and Banks became pillars of WWE's revitalized women's division and won the Women's championships multiple times (NXT ''and'' main roster combined), while Summer never won the Women's title (on both NXT and the main roster) and her main roster tenure is mostly remembered for her being the valet of Wrestling/{{Fandango}} and the disastrous Gooker-winning LoveDodecahedron StoryArc involving her, Wrestling/DolphZiggler, [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev, and Lana]] before getting injured in 2016 and released a year later.

* The stable [=CrazyMAX=], consisting of core members CIMA, SUWA, Don Fujii and TARU, helped to put Toryumon on the map in the year 2000. C-Max split up for good in late 2005, not too long after the promotion rebranded to Wrestling/{{Dragon Gate}}. Of the four members, CIMA is the clear breakout, having consistantly been the top billed wrestler in Dragon Gate. Don Fujii may be a distant number two, having held the Open the Dream Gate Title (Dragon Gate's top title) once but been primarily an undercard act. SUWA went on to become a midcarder in NOAH and retired in the early 2010s, and TARU moved over to NJPW where he became primarily a managerial figure. The only member of C-Max to really rival CIMA's success is Shingo Takagi, who only joined the stable for the last couple months of its existence.

* Two of the more extreme examples from the world of independent wrestling are Wrestling/RoderickStrong and Wrestling/VelvetSky. Roderick started in the Florida independent scene with his [[UnrelatedBrothers "brother"]] Sedrick. Roderick went on to success in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] and Wrestling/RingOfHonor, while Sedrick faded into obscurity in the Florida indies. Born Jamie Szantyr, Talia Madison was a tag team champion with her "sister" Tiffany in the adult-oriented Women's Extreme Wrestling. Szantyr went on to success in TNA as Velvet Sky of Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople, while Tiffany faded into obscurity. It's possible that there are people who watched Velvet in TNA who didn't even ''know'' of The Madisons.

* This has happened with Curt Hawkins and Wrestling/ZackRyder as the latter was established as a hot new heel on Wrestling/{{ECW}} with his memorable {{catchphrase}} and [[EarWorm theme music]], while the former completely disappeared from WWE television and returned to FCW. Hawkins would later return as part of a very unmemorable tag team with Vance Archer which would later break up with Hawkins going nowhere on Superstars while Archer got released. However, it was during that short period of time that it would look like Hawkins might have a shot at surpassing his partner as ECW went off the air and was replaced by NXT, [[DemotedToExtra leaving Ryder stuck on Superstars as well]]. However, Ryder would become an underground hit when he debuted his WebOriginal series, WebVideo/ZTrueLongIslandStory. With a huge following on the IWC, Ryder would eventually [[HeelFaceTurn turn face]] and get featured on both RAW and Smackdown as a result (Ryder defeated Wrestling/DolphZiggler at the 2011 WWE TLC PPV for the United States Championship), all while Curt Hawkins made sporadic appearances as a jobber-to-the-stars before getting released. Hawkins came back to WWE in 2016, but never came close to the heights his former tag team partner had reached five years earlier, or even where he was now.

** In second place is latecomer Husky Harris, who was repackaged as Wrestling/BrayWyatt, formed Wrestling/TheWyattFamily, and got a ''huge'' push, though in 2014 he racked up a nasty PPV losing streak that hurt his momentum and credibility pretty badly. Fortunately, he regained momentum around 2016 thanks to a revived Wyatt Family and won the WWE title in 2017.

* Played straight with Legacy, though not in the way people expected. Wrestling/{{Ted DiBiase|Jr}} was initially planned to be breakout with him turning face against Wrestling/RandyOrton and he had starred in the DirectToVideo sequel to ''Film/TheMarine''. [[MisaimedFandom/ProfessionalWrestling The plans got derailed when Orton's popularity caused him to be booked as a face against DiBiase and Rhodes.]] After ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 26'', Ted was given [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase his father's]] gimmick and failed to get over even with Virgil and later Wrestling/{{Maryse}} by his side. Meanwhile, Wrestling/CodyRhodes was drafted to Smackdown and became [[DistractedByMyOwnSexy "Dashing"]]. Cody's been a mainstay of the show, winning the WWE tag team championship for the fourth time with Drew [=McIntyre=], being in World title contention, getting another gimmick overhaul, and winning a Wrestling/WrestleMania match against Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}. Rhodes won the Intercontinental Championship on an episode of [=SmackDown=] on August 12, 2011 and has become one of the top heels in the WWE. [=DiBiase=] left wrestling in 2013, while Rhodes later found success as a face and with a new heel gimmick "Stardust" before leaving in 2016. Since then? ROH World Champion.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling, so much so that they were the former TropeNamers (it used to be called "The Jannetty"). Wrestling/ShawnMichaels is one of the biggest stars of all time. Marty Jannetty hasn't been relevant in years, and what he's most famous for is being the man that the left behind half of any broken up tag team is compared to. His name is currently used in a redirect to the Breakup Breakout article. In Jannetty's defense, relegating him to irrelevancy while pushing Michaels wasn't the original plan. At the time The Rockers broke up, Michaels and Jannetty were considered equals in ability and charisma, and the WWF expected to get ''two'' singles stars out of the breakup. However, a couple of badly timed injuries hamstrung Jannetty's biggest pushes and his partying lifestyle ended up getting the better of him. And considering Michaels' antics at times in his career, that's saying something.

** Saturn was previously the breakout star of the Eliminators, his tag team in ECW. Saturn had runs in WCW and later WWE, and while he barely did anything in either company it's a lot more than his partner John Kronus ever got.

* Wrestling/{{WCW}} had Three Count, a boy band stable consisting of Evan Karagias, Shannon Moore, and [[Wrestling/GregoryHelms Shane Helms]]. Of the three, Helms has had a moderately successful Wrestling/{{WWE}} career as The Hurricane and as Gregory Helms, Moore was mostly a jobber in WWE but had some tag team success in TNA, and Karaigas hasn't done anything. Although, Helms' status of Breakup Breakout came during his WCW days, when he started using the Vertebreaker as his finisher and was given an elaborate entrance and custom theme song.

* The American Males: Marcus Bagwell would turn on his tag team partner Scotty Riggs to join the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder. The newly rechristened Buff Bagwell would become a capable hand in the [=nWo=] and would enjoy a run in the upper-midcard upon the group's dissolution until WCW was bought out by WWE. Scotty Riggs would join The Flock as a job guy for Wrestling/{{Raven}} and toil in obscurity upon that group's dissolution. After Riggs jumped from WCW to ECW, he was put in an angle with Wrestling/RobVanDam and it looked like he might avert this, but the match between Riggs and RVD was underwhelming, and ECW folded not too long afterwards.

* The defunct WWECW brand functioned as a proto-NXT, a place where new talent was sent to in order to get TV experience. Of its entire roster throughout its run, the most successful alumnus is Wrestling/CMPunk, who became a star comparable to Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/RandyOrton. Second place is a tie between Wrestling/TheMiz and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, who both went on to become world champions and have been on the roster for a long time, but never came close to Punk’s standing. After that is Wrestling/JohnMorrison, who never grabbed a higher title but quickly became one of WWE’s most popular stars, Wrestling/JackSwagger, who did briefly rise to the main event but fell back down quickly afterwards, and Wrestling/BobbyLashley, whose first stint in WWE was extremely brief but mostly spent near the top of the card. Guys like Wrestling/{{Christian}}, Wrestling/MattHardy, Wrestling/MarkHenry, Wrestling/TheBigShow, and Wrestling/{{Kane}} don't count, as they were well-established long before WWECW existed and were only sent there to carry the show for the sake of the younger talent, nor do the ECW originals like Wrestling/RobVanDam and Wrestling/TommyDreamer, who were mostly there for the nostalgia factor.

* Originally the breakout of Deuce and Domino appeared to be Deuce, as Domino was the first to be released. Deuce would adapt the name Sim Snuka and would join the Legacy stable. That never happened, though, and he was released shortly after and wrestles only sporadically. Domino returned to Ohio Valley Wrestling and found success under his real name of Cliff Compton.

* WCW in 2000 introduced a group called The Natural Born Thrillers, who were a weak UrExample of what Wrestling/TheNexus would be ten years later. With the bulk of the group (Shawn Stasiak, Chuck Palumbo, Mike Sanders, Reno [Rick Cornell] and Johnny the Bull) retired, and Sean O'Haire deceased, Mark Jindrak qualifies as the breakout of the group, though it took him a while. After washing out of WWE, he went on to New Japan Pro Wrestling and eventually to Wrestling/{{CMLL}} where he reinvented himself as "The Golden Eagle" Marco Corleone, and won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-h.html CMLL World Heavyweight Title]] in 2017.

** Ambrose also outshined his tag partner in the Switchblade Conspiracy, Wrestling/SamiCallihan. Callihan did get signed to NXT as Solomon Crowe with a promising black-hat hacker gimmick, but for whatever reason WWE bookers never got behind Crowe and used him so rarely that he requested his own release. Ambrose became a major star in WWE, becoming one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster, winning numerous titles and even becoming world champion. You could argue that Ambrose is also this to Wrestling/CombatZoneWrestling as a whole, as he has outstripped nearly every major wrestler of that promotion in success and is the first CZW alumnus to become world champion in WWE.

* Punk was also this to the heel stable The New Breed in 2007 -- which he, admittedly, joined for all of two weeks. By that point everyone knew that Punk was the only one of them that had any future in the company as a wrestler. Matt Striker was the only one who lasted a notable length of time, and he did so as a TV personality, having not wrestled in ''years'' by the time he was released in 2013. Elijah Burke has had reasonable success in TNA as the pope, and is easily the second-most successful member of the group. Even then, his success is nothing compared to Punk's - his membership and feud with the New Breed is barely a footnote in the face of his ascension to superstardom, while Burke, for all his success, is stuck in mid card hell at TNA.