Ex-WWE Champion Had No Desire To Return After Controversial Exit

A former WWE Intercontinental Champion had no interest in going back to the company after leaving a few years earlier.

Marc Mero is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion, known for his talent and flamboyance during his time as Johnny B. Badd in WCW.

After debuting in WWE in the spring of 1996, Mero was pushed as a midcard babyface for a few years before turning heel when his then-wife, Sable, became more popular than he was. By early 1998, Mero was locked into the heel role he would maintain for the rest of his WWE run.

In the spring of 1999, Marc Mero walked away from WWE with his wife, Sable, who later sued the company. Mero’s last WWE match was actually in December 1998, and he had time left on his contract when he left the company.

When Sable returned to WWE after WrestleMania in 2003, she was still married to Mero, but the marriage ended within a year of her return. When Insight’s Chris Van Vliet asked Mero if he considered going back to WWE with Sable, Mero shut that idea down.

“I had no desire to go back there. I thought I was [done], but then I did do some stints at TNA for a little while. And then, of course, I was friends with Hulk, so they started the XWF, and we tried that for a little while. And then I had my last match in 2006 and then hung up the boots.”

Marc Mero Had Heat In WWE Because Of His Contract

When Marc Mero signed with WWE in 1996, he signed one of the first guaranteed contracts in pro wrestling. Because of that, some wrestlers didn’t want to work with Mero. In his interview with Van Vliet, Mero discussed why his contract and his traveling with his wife at the time, Sable, were factors in his popularity among fellow WWE superstars.

“That’s the thing, maybe it’s a great question for Vince. I don’t know, maybe my confidence wasn’t there. I thought it was very hard for me to work with guys. First of all, this is really kind of hard to talk about in the sense that I wasn’t well-liked.

My whole life, I had a lot of friends. I was always popular in sports, Captain on my teams, and then you go into this new organization where you’re not very well liked, and you didn’t really understand why.

Well, come to find out, later, I got this guaranteed contract. I have my wife flying everywhere I’m flying, so I’m not hanging out with the guys, not going to the bars. I’m not staying up and doing things with those guys, or hanging out with guys. I’m with my wife all the time.

And then I start realizing that no one really wants to work with me, you’re kind of an outcast, and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”