Wrestlers Who Retired Before They Embarrassed Themselves?

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

In honor of Liger who is retiring this weekend but can clearly still go, What are some wrestlers you can think of that retired before they became a shell of themselves

HBK retiring when he did is up there. Even when he came back for the Saudi match a year ago, it still looked like he can go despite losing a step 

[deezy]

Ricky Steamboat

[thegatewaydrug]

Ted Dibiase knew when it time to wind down (Money Inc. tag team) then finally retire in 1993 after one final tour in Japan with Steve Williams, I believe.

[Venti]

Steve Austin. His run in 2002 was pretty stale and he seemed pretty out of place, but when he retired he was still an icon and massively over.

I don't know if he's technically retired, but I'd definitely say The Rock as well.

William Regal is retired, right? He was great all the way to his last run.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 3, 2020 23:19:10 GMT -5 Venti said:

Steve Austin. His run in 2002 was pretty stale and he seemed pretty out of place, but when he retired he was still an icon and massively over.

I don't know if he's technically retired, but I'd definitely say The Rock as well.

William Regal is retired, right? He was great all the way to his last run.

Well technically Austin was forced to retire 

The Rock is retired 

Regal is retired. I believe his neck or some type of injury was basically the nail and over the years he's had health issues. Even then, he was still essentially retired a few years ago as he rarely had matches unless to put someone over in NXT which I want to say Ohno was one and I forget the other

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

Dean Malenko just sort of quietly retired before the InVasion began.

Sara Del Rey would be one for the women's side.

[Joe Neglia]

Jan 4, 2020 0:04:05 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

Dean Malenko just sort of quietly retired before the InVasion began.

Dean was doing a bad James Bond gimmick where he was creeping on women just before he retired. I don't think he quite made it.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 4, 2020 0:18:15 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Jan 4, 2020 0:04:05 GMT -5 Citizen Snips Has Left said:

Dean Malenko just sort of quietly retired before the InVasion began.

Dean was doing a bad James Bond gimmick where he was creeping on women just before he retired. I don't think he quite made it.

Double Ho Seven was weaksauce but I still get a kick out of it 

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jan 4, 2020 0:22:24 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Jan 4, 2020 0:18:15 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Dean was doing a bad James Bond gimmick where he was creeping on women just before he retired. I don't think he quite made it.

Double Ho Seven was weaksauce but I still get a kick out of it 

Double Ho Seven was a decently fun Sunday Night Heat gimmick with that great Titantron of different adjectives spelling out Malenko's name.

And he still followed it up with that angle with Lita that put her over in a somewhat underrated intergender angle and progressed the Matt Hardy and Lita on screen relationship. Even if that took a bit of turn years later, he still was doing stuff in the twilight of his career.

[agent817]

Jan 4, 2020 1:06:41 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Jan 4, 2020 0:22:24 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Double Ho Seven was weaksauce but I still get a kick out of it 

Double Ho Seven was a decently fun Sunday Night Heat gimmick with that great Titantron of different adjectives spelling out Malenko's name.

And he still followed it up with that angle with Lita that put her over in a somewhat underrated intergender angle and progressed the Matt Hardy and Lita on screen relationship. Even if that took a bit of turn years later, he still was doing stuff in the twilight of his career.

What's funny about that gimmick is that Godfather had a brief angle with Malenko and he was basically a protege of his. Then he started coming out with two women, but when Godfather became The Goodfather, Malenko was still using that same gimmick, as if there was no Godfather influence.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

How was Tenryu in his final years? (after HUSTLE; I know about HUSTLE and he was amazing)

[Deleted]

Trish Stratus, retired as champion and any appearances since have been as a much loved nostalgia act who can still go. In fact women wrestlers will probably have more dignified exits from the business than the men as if they are retiring to start a family it means bowing out earlier and being less likely to step between the ropes in their 40s or 50s to prove to themselves "you've still got it" (or pay off that pesky alimony bill that popped up the other day).

Subverted by Jericho who is spending his final years in the business embarrassing himself in a wonderfully self aware fashion to create an entertaining heel character.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Shawn Michaels got out as soon as he knew that he was past the point of peaking. Let's just ignore Crown Jewel and pretend that never happened.

[67 more]

Jan 4, 2020 3:34:07 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

How was Tenryu in his final years? (after HUSTLE; I know about HUSTLE and he was amazing)

His retirement match with Okada was tough to watch. Tried to powerbomb Okada, just dropped him on his head. Basically had to stop and have a break in the corner.

[Mozenrath]

Sort of an odd example, but Blitzkrieg from WCW. He was pretty neat and briefly got on a national stage, but comfortably retired into working with computers and I think sold the gimmick to someone or something. There are certainly worse ways to retire.

[BorneAgain]

While Booker T had some very lazy performances in TNA, the guy was able to have some okay stuff in WWE afterwards and as in ring guy basically went out on a decent note.

[nisidhe]

When Bruno stopped around '86(?) he was still very capable in the ring, so he's one. Bret without the stroke would have been another; his US title reign in 2009-2010 would have been far more credible to boot (assuming he didn't have the grudge against Vince still). Hell, Backlund might _still_ be able to go (though the character is another matter.)

[autisticgeordie]

Jan 4, 2020 4:22:03 GMT -5 @selhurst said:

Trish Stratus, retired as champion and any appearances since have been as a much loved nostalgia act who can still go. In fact women wrestlers will probably have more dignified exits from the business than the men as if they are retiring to start a family it means bowing out earlier and being less likely to step between the ropes in their 40s or 50s to prove to themselves "you've still got it" (or pay off that pesky alimony bill that popped up the other day).

Subverted by Jericho who is spending his final years in the business embarrassing himself in a wonderfully self aware fashion to create an entertaining heel character.

I was going to say about Jericho, the fact he's embarrassing himself is the best part, he's like every uncool dad and midlife crisis rolled into one and it's brilliant!

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

Jan 4, 2020 7:57:05 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Sort of an odd example, but Blitzkrieg from WCW. He was pretty neat and briefly got on a national stage, but comfortably retired into working with computers and I think sold the gimmick to someone or something. There are certainly worse ways to retire.

He actually came to my mind, too. Dude was kinda phenomenal, but after a while he was like, "Okay, well, that was fun!" and went and did something safer.

Similarly, Monty Brown. He had different reasons for leaving, but he made the genuine choice of what was most important and left on his own terms.

[Phil Parent]

Rick Martel, had great matches with Booker T in WCW then got hurt, and decided that was it.

Also a great exemple of somebody who not only didn't hang around the ring for too long, but also didn't hang around the business in general for too long. Once he retired that was it. Only did a very short interview and conventions tour.