History BreakupBreakout / ProfessionalWrestling

* 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 person 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.

** About a decade earlier, there was a team of UnrelatedBrothers in the New England-based ICW/IWCCW promotion, 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 Tommy Dreamer, GQ disappeared.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling, so much so that they were the former TropeNamer (it used to be called "TheJannetty"). 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.

* 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 was repackaged 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.

* 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.

* 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/{{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.

* 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 Wrestling/{{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 Wrestling/{{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.

* 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 Wrestling/{{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.

* 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 Wrestling/{{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.

* 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/{{HUSTLE}} 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/DanielBryan, 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]].

** 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 Wrestling/{{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.

* Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s The Gathering in Wrestling/{{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/DanielBryan.

* 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.

* 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 wasn't even kept around long enough to feud with and lose to Mabel.

* 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 1995[[/note]].

** Ambrose also outshined his tag partner in the Switchblade Conspiracy, Sami Callihan. 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.

* 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 Aleister Black, 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.

* 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, Riggs 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.

* 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]]]

* Edge & Christian - Wrestling/{{Edge}} has had three times the amount of World titles Wrestling/{{Christian}} has, and in a bigger company at that. Although 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). However, they've both gone on to far, far more success than their original leader in the days of the Brood, [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]].
** Speaking of Edge and Christian, during their indy days they were part of a stable called [=THUG Life=] which also contained [[Wrestling/{{Rhyno}} Rhino Richards]], Joe E. Legend, Bloody Bill Skullion and Zakk Wyld. 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, and Skullion and Wyld never did anything important enough to warrant having a Wikipedia article.

* Edge & Christian - Wrestling/{{Edge}} has had three times the amount of World titles Wrestling/{{Christian}} has, and in a bigger company at that. Although Christian has held more independent titles and is a first generation Grand Slam Champion, the one accomplishment that Edge never managed though he did manage to (retroactively) become a second generation Grand Slam champion. However, they've both gone on to far, far more success than their original leader in the days of the Brood, [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]].

** Edge and Christian is also a "rivals" version of this with the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boys, 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 WWE Hall of Fame. The Hardy Boyz would've been their equal, especially Jeff Hardy, 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 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/{{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 Perry Saturn. 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.

* 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. Road Dogg 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.
** Billy Gunn 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 Road Dogg 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 Wrestling/{{TNA}} and became a WWE champion in 2016, 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.

* [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] started out as part of Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination alongside [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]], [[Wrestling/DLoBrown D'Lo Brown]], 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 Attitude Era, leading to induction in the WWE Hall of Fame), 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.

* 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 Wrestlemania, Ted was given [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase his father's]] gimmick and failed to get over even with Virgil and later 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.

** Wrestling/DanielBryan, 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 ''CM Punk and John Cena''. Now, he's arguably the most over wrestler since Stone Cold and 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's starting to regain momentum thanks to a revived Wyatt Family and won the WWE title in 2017.

** 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, though he had his push rebooted by the end of the year and became the Intercontinental champion in 2015. However, 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 Paul Heyman 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 Wrestling/ThreeMB, composed primarily of jobbers that broke up after Jindar and Drew got released. However Slater is a very popular EnsembleDarkhorse.
*** Ironically, both Jinder Mahal and Drew [=McIntyre=] got hired back later and surpassed Slater 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 Dolph Ziggler, with whom he won the Raw Tag Team Championships.
** Wrestling/CMPunk doesn't count, as while he ascended superstardom after dissolving what was last of the Nexus, he was already well-established beforehand by being a three-time world champion at the time, and he remains the group's most successful member. Neither does John Cena, for that matter. Although he's far more successful than any other Nexus member, he was much more established than Punk was and had been a superstar for years.

* Wrestling/TheShield broke up in 2014. Wrestling/RomanReigns is being pushed as the next top babyface and Wrestling/SethRollins joined the Authority 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-John Cena clothing offered by WWE[[/note]] went on to feud with with fellow almost-but-not-quite main eventer Bray Wyatt 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 Grand Slam Champion.
** Speaking of Seth 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.
** Dean Ambrose also outshined his tag partner in the Switchblade Conspiracy, Sami Callihan. 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.
* Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s The Gathering in Wrestling/{{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 UsefulNotes/TheNoughties, 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/DanielBryan.

* 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 in both NXT ''and'' the main roster multiple times, 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 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.

* 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.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling, so much so that they were the former TropeNamer (it used to be called "TheJannetty"). 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' hard-partying lifestyle, that's saying something.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling, so much so that they were the former TropeNamer (it used to be called "TheJannetty"). 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.

* 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). 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.

* 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.

** 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 with9out 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.

** 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.

* Wrestling/EnzoAndCass: While it may be too early to tell since they only broke up a short time ago as of this writing, it is almost universally agreed that Big Cass will be the breakout. Despite Enzo Amore being more charismatic and a better talker than Cass (though many fans find him to be annoying and obnoxious), Cass is the better wrestler of the two and more likely to get a big push since he's [[TheGiant 7 feet tall]] (and you can't teach that!) and Vinny Mac's love of big guys is legendary (not to mention that Enzo is a reportedly a heat magnet backstage) Then again, Cass got hurt shortly after their feud ended and Enzo was moved to the cruiserweight division and then turned heel, which many agree is better suited for his character. Though that boost didn't last, as Enzo was fired in January 2018 after rape accusations started surfacing and he refused to inform WWE about the investigations.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Wresting/BobbyHeenan "That coward tried to jump out the window!"]]]]

* 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/TommmyDreamer, who were mostly there for the nostalgia factor.

* 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 in both NXT ''and'' the main roster multiple times, 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 LoveDodecahedron StoryArc involving her, Wrestling/DolphZiggler, [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev, and Lana]] before getting injured in 2016 and released a year later.
* 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 toss-up between Wrestling/TheMiz, Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, Wrestling/JohnMorrison, and Wrestling/BobbyLashley. Wrestling/{{Christian}} and Wrestling/MattHardy 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.

* 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.

* 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, Jushin Liger, 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, now that the latter is TNA World Champion.

* 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 in both NXT ''and'' the main roster multiple times, 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 LoveDodecahedron StoryArc involving her, Wrestling/DolphZiggler, [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev, and Lana]] before getting injured in 2016 and released a year later.

* The Rockers are the most infamous example of this in professional wrestling. 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.

* Edge & Christian - Wrestling/{{Edge}} has had three times the amount of World titles Wrestling/{{Christian}} has, and in a bigger company at that. Although Christian has held more independent titles and is a first generation Grand Slam Champion, the one accomplishment that Edge never managed though he did manage to become a second generation Grand Slam champion. However, they've both gone on to far, far more success than their original leader in the days of the Brood, [[Wrestling/DavidHeath Gangrel]].

* Wrestling/TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam: Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. 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.

** The only other members to have any real success were W, and Michael [=McGillicutty=], who joined the group months into its existence and eventually became Paul Heyman 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 Wrestling/ThreeMB, composed primarily of jobbers that broke up after Jindar and Drew got released. However Slater is a very popular EnsembleDarkhorse.

* 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 multiple Women's championships in both NXT ''and'' the main roster combined, while Summer's main roster tenure is mostly remembered for her being the valet of Wrestling/{{Fandango}} and the disastrous LoveDodecahedron StoryArc involving her, Wrestling/DolphZiggler, [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev, and Lana]] before getting injured in 2016 and released a year later.