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{{trope}}
It is common in fiction and reality alike for people to start off with a partner in their professional environment. This can range from perfectly normal careers, to working in stuff like [[Professional Wrestling|tag-teams]] and superhero
The problem, though, is that teams often do not stay together. Further, reality dictates that teammates cannot always share their successes after they split ways. When some of the members become notably more successful after the group dissolves while the others languish, that's a
▲It is common in fiction and reality alike for people to start off with a partner in their professional environment. This can range from perfectly normal careers, to working in stuff like [[Professional Wrestling|tag-teams]] and superhero teams -- perfectly normal regardless of situation.
This trope is very common in music, and in professional wrestling. See also [[The Band Minus the Face]], [[Breakout Character]], [[More Popular Spinoff]] and [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. Contrast with [[The Pete Best]], which is when the left-in-the-lurch character was never closely affiliated with the soon-to-be-famous group to begin with.▼
▲The problem, though, is that teams often do not stay together. Further, reality dictates that teammates cannot always share their successes after they split ways. When some of the members become notably more successful after the group dissolves while the others languish, that's a [[Breakup Breakout]]. This can be because one member is the [[Garfunkel]], but not necessarily.
▲This trope is very common in music, and in professional wrestling. See also [[The Band Minus the Face]], [[Breakout Character]], [[More Popular Spinoff]] and [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. Contrast with [[The Pete Best]], which is when the left-in-the-lurch character was never closely affiliated with the soon-to-be-famous group to begin with.
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal once featured three chefs on the box without much of an identity. At some point, two of the chefs were removed and the third was given a name (Wendell) and started playing a much bigger role in ads for the cereal.
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== Comic Books ==
* Rather common in superhero teams:
** ''[[Watchmen (
** There's the [[X-Men]], and then there's [[Wolverine Publicity|Wolverine.]]
*** Arguably this is a bit backwards as Wolverine started off as a solo character in
** [[Spider
** Really, name a group whose members stick around after breaking up. One of them will probably be a big (or at least B-list) star, many of the others will languish in obscurity.
* Part of [[Sidekick Graduations Stick]]: The sidekick becomes their own hero. At least in theory. [[Batman]]'s original Robin may be an in universe example as more [[Supporting Leader|people trust]] [[Nightwing]] than they do Batman.
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* [[George Carlin]] and Jack Burns started out as a pretty raunchy duo, but Carlin went onto superstardom after their breakup and Burns only went to mere stardom.
* The Japanese comedy duo Honjamaka originally started as a troupe of about 10 or 11 comedians, but they only became famous after everybody left except the current two members (Ishizuka Hidehiko and Megumi Toshiaki). On top of that, they both have strong individual careers.
* Rob Riggle and Rob Huebel
** It happened again to Heubel several years later when he got his biggest break to date as a member of the comedy troupe ''[[Human Giant]]'' featuring himself, Paul Scheer and [[Aziz Ansari]]. The show was critically acclaimed and all three got decent popularity as equals, but the show went on hiatus in 2008. Since then Scheer and Heubel have done well for themselves, but Ansari's popularity exploded after appearing in the film ''[[Funny People]]'', the success of his comedy records and his role on ''[[
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== Film ==
* [[Ben Affleck]] and [[Matt Damon]] were considered this for a while. Used to be that the two of them appeared together in everything - then, each going solo, Matt Damon got the ''[[
* This gets spoofed in the movie ''[[Music and Lyrics]]'', with Hugh Grant's character being the [[Garfunkel|Andrew Ridgeley]] of the Wham!-like band.
* An interesting case for the main ladies of ''[[Mean Girls]]''. After the movie, [[Lindsay Lohan]] looked like she was poised for superstardom... but [[It Got Worse|things did not turn out that way]] and she's been struggling for roles ever since. The other ladies however did well for themselves. [[Lacey Chabert]] got into a really nice voice acting
* The 1928 film ''[[Our Dancing Daughters]]'' (and its two successive entries, ''Our Modern Maidens'' and ''Our Blushing Brides'', which formed a loose trilogy) paired Anita Page, an actress with an impressive pedigree and a burgeoning career, with an up-and-coming actress who [[MGM]] had taken a liking to. The end result was that Page got upstaged by her co-star (who used the role as a launching pad to greater fame), MGM canned her three years later (despite starring in the first film with sound to win an Academy Award for Best Picture), and she more or less disappeared from acting altogether until the early 90's, whereas her co-star, [[Joan Crawford]], went on to become a superstar.
* Ted Healy decided to split from his back-up comedy players. Healy faded into obscurity. Not so for [[The Three Stooges]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* Since ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel
* After ''[[Dawson's Creek]]'' ended in 2003, Katie Holmes went on to star in films. Her friend Joshua Jackson went on to star in ''[[Fringe]]'' and ''The Affair''.
* Even [[The Muppets]] have an example of this: The short-lived ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'' introduced the comedy team of Pepe (a prawn) and Seymour (an elephant). Pepe has since gone on to appear in many later Muppet projects, while Seymour vanished without a trace.
** An [[The Muppet Show|earlier example]] can be fond to, [[Smurfette Breakout|Miss Piggy]], she gained fame quickly, even though she was originally meant to be a minor character next to Rowlf alongside Janice in the Veterinarian's Hospital sketches. While the latter two have made a comeback in recent years, it is still surprising to learn Piggy was never thought of as a major character in the beginning.
* A common theme for [[Nickelodeon]] series with young cast members:
** ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' was rebooted in the late 90's, and brought back most of the Midnight Society members from the original series. However, one of the "new" society members was played by a little-known actress named Elisha Cuthbert, who shot to stardom two years later after being cast in ''[[
** Of the teen cast members who starred on the 90's series ''[[Hey Dude]]'', only Christine Taylor (who played Melody) and David Lascher (who played Ted McGriff) had anything close to successful careers. Taylor is arguably more well-known because of her marriage to [[Ben Stiller]] and her steady stream of work over the years, while Lascher disappeared during the
** ''[[Space Cases]]''. Of the main cast, only [[Jewel Staite]] (who played Catalina in the first season) went on to become a greater star (via her roles in ''[[Firefly]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'') after the show finished. Walter Jones (of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' fame) was relegated to bit parts and one-off appearances in various series, and the rest of the cast never bothered to do much after the series ended.
** ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''. Since the end of the show, Kenan has gone on to join ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' and has been a few moderately successful films. Kel hasn't done so much.
** From the cast of ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]'' only Blake Sennett (credited as "Blake Soper") and Christine Cavanaugh had any major notoriety after the show ended. Sennett became a musician and was the co-lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band [[Rilo Kiley]]. Cavanaugh became a well known voice actor, performing the voices of lead characters for ''[[Rugrats]]'' and ''[[
* ''[[In Living Color]]'' was an incredibly successful FOX series that launched the careers of several African-American celebrities (including the Wayans brothers, Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier) who went on to decent (if spotty) careers in film and television. Yet, the two most successful cast members who emerged from the series were [[Jim Carrey|a nerdy white guy with a knack for impressions]] and [[Jennifer Lopez|a backup dancer who left after the third season]].
* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', for all its controversial storylines and [[Long Runner]] status, is more well-known for being a launchpad for Aubrey Graham (a.k.a. ''[[Drake]]'') than anything else. The only other cast member to make any impact was Shenae Grimes, who landed on [[The CW]]'s reboot of ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' after her time on ''Degrassi'' ended.
== Music ==
* Generation X had a few years of notoriety in the early days of [[Punk Rock]]. Vocalist [[Billy Idol]], on the other hand.....
* Ricky Martin and [[Appeal to Obscurity|Menudo]].
* Averted by Billy Corgan and [[
* Sting and [[The Police]].
** Referenced in a [[Milton Jones]] sketch where he is pretending to hold a police [[Waxing Lyrical|interview]] with Sting:
{{quote|
* [[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]] and [[Tomoaki Ishizuka|Pata]]. In the mid 1980s, hide was the guitarist of Yokosuka Saber Tiger and about to retire to a career of hairdresser work. Pata led his own band, Judy. A little band called [[X Japan|X]] needed a couple of guitarists, owing to their session guitarists having left. The rest can be considered [[Visual Kei]] history.
* Averted by Crosby Stills & Nash after [[Neil Young]] left. All four of them did this with their previous groups to varying extents (Stills and Young with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby with The Byrds, Nash with The Hollies).
* [[Justin Timberlake]] and N'Sync. After he split from the group, Timberlake went on a decade-plus long rise that hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, with him parlaying his fame into notable guest spots on various shows, investments in tech startups, movies and platinum-selling CD's. Lance Bass became known for being gay and wanting to participate in a space program. JC Chavez's solo career went nowhere. The rest of the members were relegated to appearances on D-list celebrity dancing competitions.
* Inverted in the case of [[Rage Against the Machine]]; Zack de la Rocha left and had one minor single, while the rest of the band got together with Chris Cornell and formed [[Audioslave]], which proved almost as popular as their previous gig. Played perfectly straight with Chris Cornell and [[
* [[The Chad Mitchell Trio]] had only one real breakout star, but it was not any of the original members of the group. [[Executive Meddling|Record execs]] felt the
* George Michael and Wham!, to the point that Andrew Ridgeley is to music what Marty Jannetty is to wrestling.
* Wynonna Judd has had nearly as many hits solo as she did during her tenure in The Judds. Wynonna's solo material includes several pop and AC hits, genres that The Judds never touched.
* Curious zig-zag: In the early 1990s, there was a band in Kentucky known as Early Tymz. Its members included brothers John Michael and Eddie Montgomery, as well as Troy Gentry. Although Early Tymz was well known in the state, they were all but unknown outside it. John Michael left and began a solo career, which included several big hits in the middle of the decade. Eddie and Troy founded the duo Montgomery Gentry, which
* 1980s trio Schuyler, Knobloch and Overstreet (S-K-O) lost Paul Overstreet after their first album. He went on to become a semi-successful solo artist (racking up nearly twice as many hits as S-K-O had), and has written several songs for other artists.
* [[Robbie Williams]] did this to [[Take That (
** Though of course, Take That had already split shortly before Robbie's debut single came out (he himself had of course been sacked from the band some time before), so they weren't likely to be putting up much competition(!) Of course, Robbie's successful solo career does stand in sharp contrast to the failure of the remaining members' post-split (pre-reunion) solo efforts.
* [[Vince Gill]] became incredibly popular in the 1990s, long after he left Pure Prairie League.
* In the same vein, [[Kenny Rogers]] left The First Edition behind to become a successful country/adult contemporary singer.
** Was attempted by the lead singer of his first group, The Scholars.
* The girl group Choice had a song "Key to My Heart" which appeared on the soundtrack for ''Kazaam''. When it broke up, Sharon Flanagan went nowhere, Chrissy Conway had fair success with Christian rock group Zoegirl, and the third girl? Alecia Moore is now known as [[
* Wild Orchid had a couple albums, and was reasonably successful. Stacy Ferguson left them to become Fergie and join the [[Black Eyed Peas]]. The rest? Some voicework and songwriting, at best.
* When [[Sonny And Cher]] split, Cher went on to have a great career in music and film. Sonny went into politics. He died in 1998, after leading the charge that led to the [[Copy Protection|Digital Millennium Copyright Act]].
* [[Michael Jackson]]. He started as a member of The Jackson 5 and later became the King of Pop.
* Michael Nesmith had (some) commercial and (lots of) critical success after [[The Monkees]] broke up.
* Dave Grohl, who after [[
* After [[Kyuss]] broke up, Josh Homme founded [[Queens of the Stone Age]] and had far more commercial success than Kyuss ever did.
* Subverted by both parties in the case of Dave Mustaine. He was kicked out of his old band, founded [[
* In a rather tragic example, when the shred metal guitar duo Cacophony broke up their two members went onto two very different career paths. Marty Friedman would go on to join Megadeth for a few years as a guitarist before going solo, moving to Japan and becoming a major figure in the Japanese music world. Jason Becker on the
* After the Amboy Dukes broke up, their guitarist [[Ted Nugent]] started a much more successful solo career.
* After progressive rock band Hawkwind kicked out Lemmy Kilmister, their bass player, he started up his own band which is far better known. That band? [[
* Possibly inverted with [[Kylie Minogue]] and [[Nick Cave]]'s
* A band called Y Kant Tori Read emerged in 1988, then broke up after being unsuccessful. The lead singer, [[
* [[
* [[Bjork]] went from being one of the lead singers of The Sugarcubes (which helped put Iceland on the music map) to having a more successful and arguably better solo career. You probably haven't heard from the other lead singer, Einar Örn, lately if you're not from Iceland.
* There was once a band called [[
* Averted by [[The Beatles (
* After White Zombie broke up, [[Rob Zombie]] replaced all the band members except the drummer and renamed the band after himself. None of the other members of the band ever did anything else of note. He then did it ''again'' when the Rob Zombie (band) guitarist and drummer, Riggs and Tempesta, split to form Scum of the Earth, which did not reach nearly the commercial success that Rob Zombie, either the man or the band, did.
** Averted with the Rob Zombie band bassist Blasko, who after leaving Zombie's band became the bassist for [[
* Tina and Ike Turner. At the time of the latter's death he was performing at small casinos, while Tina was, well, [[Tina Turner]]. Of course, Ike brought a lot of that on himself, having gone from a rock legend responsible for one of the earliest rock & roll songs ever recorded ("Rocket 88") to becoming synonymous with spousal abuse.
* After [[Eurythmics]] broke up, Annie Lennox started a very successful solo career, while Dave Stewart was limited to producing.
* Happened a lot with former members of [[King Crimson]]. Ian McDonald (Foreigner), Boz Burrell (Bad Company), John Wetton (Asia), and Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer) are probably the most famous.
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* MuteMath isn't exactly a household name, but they're enjoying a comfortable level of success. 3/4 of the band consists of former members of Earthsuit, which never made it big. Meanwhile, former Earthsuit co-frontman Adam LaClave has started no less four "solo projects" since then (along with other former members), and sadly, none of them have really worked out yet.
* The Pozo-Seco Singers were a Texas country-folk trio with a couple of minor hits in the 1960's. After they broke up, group member Don Williams embarked on a solo career. "The Gentle Giant" would notch over 50 hits on the Country Music charts, with 17 of them hitting #1.
* To some extent this happened with Portland indie rock band Heatmiser - bassist Sam Coombs formed the fairly popular and still active duo Quasi, and guitarist/vocalist Neil Gust had the less well-known band No. 2, but the major breakout was the solo career of [[Elliott Smith]].
* Most people don't even know there was a third member of the [[
* The Yardbirds, which helped launch the careers of Eric Claption, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, the latter of which formed [[
* After Cream's breakup, former producer Felix Pappalardi hooked up with blues guitarist Leslie West to form Mountain.
* Ever heard of the Wilde Flowers? Well, they were the founding band of the Canterbury Scene. Those who jumped ship before it broke up founded Soft Machine, and the rest founded Caravan. Soft Machine itself had Daevid Allen as a founder member (he left after the first single to found Gong) and was later home to Karl "Adiemus" Jenkins.
* Soft Machine vocalist/guitarist Kevin Ayers left after the band's first album and went on to found a whole series of self-named bands. The breakup of the first one these, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, freed their young bass player and occasional guitarist Mike Oldfield to begin the pioneering experiment in multi-instrumentalism that would become ''Tubular Bells''.
* Another Soft Machine alumnus, Robert Wyatt, has gone on to a respected solo career.
* Dance House Children was a sorta-techno band in the early 90s, consisting of brothers Ronnie and Jason Martin. After two albums, Jason Martin left to start the shoegazing/indie rock band [[
* In the early 1980s, there was a New Wave band in New York called the Breakfast Club. Its drummer, for a while, was a young woman from Michigan named [[Madonna|Madonna Ciccone]]. She left (recommending her boyfriend and later producer, Stephen Bray, as her replacement) for bigger and better things. The band had one hit single "Right on Track" in 1987, and then broke up the next year. While two of the members of that later lineup, [[American Idol|Randy Jackson]] and E. Doctor Smith, later distinguished themselves, the others have not.
* After country music band Boy Howdy broke up in the mid-1990s, [[Lead Bassist]] Jeffrey Steele tried a solo career that never panned out. However, he quickly made up for that as an in-demand songwriter for other people, including lots of cuts for [[
* Inverted by the alt-country bands [[Music/Giant Sand|Giant Sand]] and [[
* [[Britpop]] group Theaudience had a handful of minor UK hits in the late 90's but broke up after only one album. After the split, the band's singer, [[
* The British synthpop group D:Ream had a handful of hits in the early 90's, including a #1 single in the United Kingdom with "Things Can Only Get Better" in 1994. After the band's split, their keyboardist [[
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*** Gangrel was also The Jannetty to the next group, the Hardys, from when the two were briefly packaged as The New Brood.
** Speaking of Edge and Christian, during their indy days they were part of a stable called THUG Life which also contained Rhino Richards, Joe E. Legend, Bloody Bill Skullion and Zakk Wyld. Rhino 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.
* The Hardy Boyz - [[Jeff Hardy]] was [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] Champion while [[Matt Hardy]] had the [[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 / [[Lita]] debacle happened and Matt's career got completely derailed, and Jeff redeemed himself. Long enough to win a World Title at least.
* Inverted with The Radicalz: [[Eddie Guerrero]], [[Chris Benoit]], Dean Malenko, 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.
* [[Stone Cold Steve Austin|"Stunning" Steve Austin]] and Brian Pillman of the Hollywood Blondes. Austin became six time [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] champion and the only man to win the Royal Rumble [[Rule of Three|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, [[Anti-Hero
* The Thrillseekers: [[Chris Jericho]] and [[Lance Storm]]. Not a total example. Jericho is the more well-known of the two outside of wrestling, but Storm was certainly not a terrible wrestler himself.
* America's Most Wanted - One would go on to form an even greater tag team known as [[Memetic Mutation|BEER! MONEY!]] The other was IWC phenomenon [[Professional Wrestling/Memes|Braden Walker.]]
* [[D Generation X]] - Not a total example as [[Shawn Michaels]] was already a big star when the group started, but of the other members of the group only [[Triple H]] discovered any real long term success.
** The others were less successful due to backstage incidents and cases of [[Small Name, Big Ego]]. Oh, and one became so unpopular he became the [[Trope Namer]] for [[X
*** The New Age Outlaws tag team were massively over before and after they were in DX. Separately, not quite as much. They have both stated that they're tag team wrestlers, not singles guys.
**** Billy Gunn (er, Kip James?) was the breakout of his original tag team, the Smoking Gunns. His partner and [[Kayfabe]] brother, Bart, was derailed by the WWE's foray into "real" boxing: Having won the Brawl for All, he was pitted against Butterbean in a real boxing match. Butterbean KO'ed him in 30 seconds, and that was it for Bart Gunn.
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** Ironically, before the split, the Steiner Brothers were generally thought of as "Rick Steiner and his less-interesting brother". Then Scotty put on 100 pounds of muscle, bleached his hair, and reinvented himself as a [[Kavorka Man]] with "freaks" in every city. 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: [[Booker T]] 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. (Working for Booker at his wrestling school, actually).
* The Second City Saints: [[CM Punk]] is a six time World Champion and one of the top faces of WWE, Colt Cabana (aka Scotty Goldman) got released from [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] after a brief run as a [[Jobber]]. Oh, and did you know there's a third Second City Saint named Ace Steel?
* 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 outside the Freebirds. Buddy Roberts did next to nothing outside the tag team. 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.
* MNM: Johnny Nitro became [[John Morrison]], won the ECW Title, joined another
** Strangely, subverted with Morrison's tag team with [[The Miz]] -- ''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'', but as of this writing both have firmly established themselves as on par with the top guys of their brands. They even lampshaded it when, before Bragging Rights and a scheduled Morrison vs. Miz match, the two cut dueling promos trying to declare the other one the Janetty of their team.
*** And now, with [[John Morrison]] being moved to Raw, he and [[The Miz]] have had their successes, and as of July 18, [[The Miz]] has risen to stardom by winning the Raw Money in the Bank Ladder match at the MITB PPV, not only beating six other superstars, three being former World Champions, but also [[John Morrison]] himself...did I forget to mention that Morrison has now lost five matches to [[The Miz]] in the last year?{{when}}
**** It seemed that everything had come full circle with [[The Miz]] winning the WWE title after cashing in the Money in the Bank contract against [[Randy Orton]] the RAW after Survivor Series. However, the trope is temporarily back in subverted status after Morrison started a feud with [[Sheamus]] and beat him ''twice'', the second time in a #1 Contender's Ladder's Match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2010, which earned Morrison a WWE title opportunity in the first match of 2011. Morrison would prove a great challenge for [[The Miz]], only losing because he missed [[Finishing Move|Starship Pain]] through a table. Even though Miz has crashed through the glass ceiling, it would seem that Morrison isn't too far behind.
***** Sadly the competition is officially over by the end of 2011. And in an ironic sense, [[The Miz]], after main eventing Survivor Series with [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], beat [[John Morrison]] to start a new pursuit of the WWE Championship while the defeated [[John Morrison]], after long months of constant jobbing, was released from the company.
* [[WCW]] had Three Count, a boy band stable consisting of Evan Karagias, Shannon Moore and Shane Helms. Of the three, Helms has had a moderately successful [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] career as The Hurricane and as Gregory Helms, Moore has had a WWE career but been primarily a jobber, and Karaigas hasn't done anything. Although, Helms' status of
* This has happened with Curt Hawkins and [[Zack Ryder]] as the latter was been established as a hot new heel on [[ECW]] with his memorable [[Catch Phrase]] and [[Ear Worm|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 like Hawkins might have a shot at surpassing his partner as ECW went off the air and was replaced by NXT, [[Demoted to Extra|leaving Ryder stuck on Superstars as well]]. However, Ryder would become an underground hit when he debuted his [[Web Original]] series, [[Z True Long Island Story]]. With a huge following on the IWC, Ryder would eventually [[Heel Face Turn|turn face]] and get featured on both RAW and Smackdown as a result (Ryder recently defeated [[Dolph Ziggler]] at the WWE TLC PPV for the United States Championship), all while Curt Hawkins will occasionally make cameos on the show if he's lucky.
* Even if he had moderate success, Billy Gunn hit superstardom in comparison to what happened to Bart Gunn from The Smoking Gunns. He also outlived Road Dogg in the WWE even if they later reunited in [[TNA]].
* In a "rivals" version of this, [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]] and 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 Royal Rumble, 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.
* And of course probably the biggest example would be [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]], who was once part of the Nation of Domination, before rising to new heights which ultimately led him to Hollywood.
** However, [[Mark Henry]] has recently won the World Title, putting him in a clear second place.
* [[The
** A strange subversion here in that the WGTT actually has more drawing power than either Haas or Benjamin separately. Now that Benjamin has also been released from WWE, there's a lot of hope that the team will reunite.
*** Which they did, in [[Ring of Honor]]. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]].
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* [[Dragon Gate]] 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 recently 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 [[Butt Monkey]] 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 lost to Terry
** However, Magnus has become a prominent midcarder after teaming with Samoa Joe and winning the Tag Team titles. Terry has been working mainly as Robbie E's bouncer and Douglass Williams hasn't been on TV in a while.
* 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 is still employed in the WWE and has been repackaged as [[Dolph Ziggler]], enjoying singles success and eventually becoming a Triple Crown champion.
** Which is strange since the whole Spirit Squad gimmick was used to put over Kenny.
*** That worked to his disadvantage, as he [[Never Live It Down|forever became associated with the gimmick.]] Even years after the breakup, Kenny Dykstra was still the butt of Spirit Squad chants and jokes.
* Averted with The Acolytes/APA, as Ron Simmons (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 [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[John Bradshaw Layfield]], when he held the WWE title for almost a year.
* Played straight with Legacy, though not in the way people expected. Ted DiBiase was initially planned to be breakout with him turning face against [[Randy Orton]] and he had starred in the [[Direct to Video]] sequel to [[The Marine]]. 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 [[Ted
* The American Males: Marcus Bagwell would turn on his tag team partner Scotty Riggs to join the [[New World Order]]. 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 Raven and toil in obscurity upon that group's dissolution.
* Inverted with [[Lay Cool]]. Michelle McCool was already a big player in the women's division when the team formed but Layla was mostly just there as another heel diva. She started out as Michelle's sidekick but was [[Ascended Extra|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.
* Another example that includes Layla - Extreme Expose. The dance trio on ECW included her and [[Kelly Kelly]] who is now arguably the most popular diva on the roster. The other girl, Brooke Adams, who got released just after they split. She's in TNA now though so maybe she'll subvert the trope.
* In 2004, the tag team "Los Guerreros" was broken up after Chavo Guerrero attacked his uncle Eddie. 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, Terry and Dory Jr. While Terry is more well-known than Dory Jr. for his [[Ten
* One odd example that's not born from either a tag team or a rivalry. In 1989 a midcarder for [[New Japan Pro Wrestling]] named Keiichi Yamada was reinvented, giving him a gimmick based on a Go Nagai anime that was getting ready to air. Today, Jushin "Thunder" Liger 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.
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* Played perfectly straight with twin brothers Jose and Ozzie Canseco.
* Played straight with Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla during their Pirates days. Bonds became the single-season home run record holder even under questionable circumstances; Bonilla went floundering around teams looking for work. However, Bonilla does have a World Series ring (with the 1997 Marlins), while Bonds does not.
* Speaking of the Marlins, Wayne Huizenga broke up nearly the entire 1997 World Series team.
* Played straight with Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. While Favre is undoubtedly a Football Hall of Fame candidate, his primadonna attitude after leaving the Packers made him look worse in the end. And the Packers have already won a Super Bowl with his replacement, Aaron Rodgers.
* The stars of the St. Louis Rams "Greatest Show On Turf": Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim and Ricky Proehl. Faulk is now in the Football Hall of Fame. Warner is likely shoe-in once he's eligible. Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt are maybes. Proehl, although not as well-known as the other four, played in four Super Bowls and won two. Hakim did very little after leaving the Rams.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Even though twin brothers Yun and Yang debuted together in the ''[[
* Founding members of id Software, [[John Romero]] and [[John Carmack]], are an interesting case. On one hand, John Romero is far more well-known than Carmack. However, since Romero's split from id, compare [[Daikatana
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[[Category:Team Shuffle Tropes]]
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