Thursday, July 9, 2020

A List of Wrestlers Who's Retirements Actually Stuck

A List of Wrestlers Who's Retirements Actually Stuck
July 9, 2020
By Ryan Porzl

Wrestling is known for having many trademarks and tropes over the decades. One of which is wrestlers not able to retire. Sadly, as legendary as some wrestlers are, some like Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita, have become punch lines in the business due to their constant broken retirements. Surprisingly, not every wrestler who's retired has broken it and some have actually stuck to their retirement. Here now is a list of wrestler's who retired and, believe it or not, stayed retired.


                                      

Ted Dibiase- It's impossible not to mention Ted Dibiase when talking about 80s or early 90s wrestling. Competing for 19 years, Dibiase became a successful wrestler every where he went but mostly shined in promotions such as Georgia Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1970s and 80s. However, his legend was solidified with his six year run in the WWF from 1987-1993 where, as The Million Dollar Man, Dibiase became one of the greatest and most famous heels or villains in wrestling history. Unfortunately, Dibiase is one of those wrestlers who's career largely ended due to injuries. After leaving the WWF in 1993, Dibiase returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling where he only wrestled for two and a half months before having his last match on November 15, 1993, teaming with Stan Hansen in a winning effort against Abdullah the Butcher and Kimala II (not to be confused with the original Kimala/Kamala The Ugandan Giant). Right around the time of that match, Dibiase would herniate two discs in his neck and not wanting to risk permanent injury, he decided the retire. After retiring, Dibiase returned to the WWF and later would work for WCW as a color commentator and manager for stables and teams such as The Million Dollar Corporation, The nWo, and The Steiner Brothers while also working behind the scenes as a road agent. By the 2000s, Dibiase largely left the wrestling business outside of a brief run as a road agent for the WWE in the mid 2000s and appearances at legends conventions. Dibiase would come close to making a return on December 15, 2007 as he won a Gimmick Battle Royal at the RAW 15th Anniversary. However, this doesn't count as a return as Dibiase didn't enter the match till it was over, took no bumps, and only paid off winner and former partner IRS to eliminate himself to give Dibiase the battle royal. As of writing, Dibiase is now 66 years old and hasn't wrestled in 27 years so it's safe to say that the door has closed on his in-ring career.


Rick Rude- In some ways, "Ravishing" Rick Rude is like Ted Dibiase. Both were top stars during the 1980s and early 90s. Both were successes just about everywhere they went, both are among the greatest heels of all time, and both retired due to injuries. After paying his dues, Rude was a successful journeyman wrestler for the Memphis based Continental Wrestling Association, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and World Class Championship Wrestling winning titles along the way and perfected his gimmick of an arrogant, sleazy ladies man who proclaimed himself the sexiest man alive. However, Rude hit his peak for the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW winning multiple titles including the Crockett version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, the WWF Intercontinental Championship, the WCW United States Championship, and the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. Along the way, he also engaged in legendary rivalries the likes of Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and Sting. Unfortunately, like Dibiase, Rude would also see his career end abruptly. On May 1, 1994, at New Japan's Wrestling Dontaku '94, Rude challenged and defeated Sting to win the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship. However, during the match, Rude was knocked out of the ring, and Sting did an over the top rope suicide dive onto Rude. Unfortunately, many of New Japan's domed shows had the ring on a platform and when Sting dived on Rude, Rude landed on the edge of the platform crushing some of his vertabrae. Despite finishing the match, the damage was done and Rude's career was over. In some ways, Rude's retirement was more sad then Dibiase's as Dibiase was pushing 40, had a near 20 year career, and was likely near the end of his career anyway. Rude, on the other hand, was 35 years old, had only an 11 year career, and in the middle of the biggest contract of his career. After going into retirement, Rude took a three year break from wrestling not returning until 1997. For the last two years of his life, Rude appeared in the big three of ECW, WWF, and WCW in that order as a commentator and later a manager of some of the biggest stables of the time in The nWo, The Triple Threat, and D-Generation-X where he was a founding father of the latter stable. Despite this, Rude never returned to the ring before his April 1999 death outside of a tease at ECW's Heat Wave 1997 where he appeared to be a mystery partner to Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman against Jerry Lawler, Sabu, and Rob Van Dam only to immediately turn on them and abandon them. Again, like Dibiase, Rude didn't do much or take any bumps so it technically doesn't count. Rude was in an interesting situation because unlike the other names of this list, Rude actually wanted to return to the ring by the late 1990s likely to cash in on the exploding popularity of wrestling during this time but was never able to as he was collecting on a disability insurance claim from Lloyd's of London which meant he was legally not allowed to wrestle unless he or somebody else bought out the claim. Reportedly, Rude tried to get WWF and WCW to buy it out but nothing came of it. It's unknown if Rude would've been able to buy out the claim had he lived longer and made a comeback but as it stands, he never did.



Jumbo Tsuruta- Jumbo Tsuruta is another wrestler who is considered one of all time greats to ever step into the ring. Turning pro in 1973, Tsuruta, like many Japanese wrestlers, started his career on a learning excursion to America mostly working for the Funk Family's Western States Wrestling promotion in Amarillo. After returning to All Japan in the early 70s, Tsuruta quickly shot to the top becoming a successful tag team partner with promoter and top star Giant Baba winning many tag team championships as well as enjoying a successful singles run most notably winning the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship, and the 1980 Champion Carnival tournament. Tsuruta peaked from 1984-1992, during which time he succeeded Baba as All Japan's ace and went on to enjoy tremendous success having many critically acclaimed matches most notably against partner turned rival Genichiro Tenryu and his eventual successor Mitsuharu Misawa. Tsuruta made history becoming both the inaugural All Japan World Tag Team Champion with Yoshiaki Yatsu and the inaugural All Japan Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. During his peak, he also enjoyed a run with the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1984. Sadly, in late 1992, Tsuruta was diagnosed with Hepatitis B. After taking a year off, Tsuruta would return to the ring in 1993 and while he wrestled another five years, his illness clearly affected him in the ring most notably his stamina. As a result, Tsuruta would only wrestle a few times a year and only in multi-man tag matches with fellow aging wrestlers while never competing for championships or tournaments again. After having his last match on September 11, 1998, Tsuruta would announce his retirement on February 20, 1999 and had a retirement ceremony at the Nippon Budokan on March 6th. Sadly, Tsuruta wouldn't live much longer as his health declined over the next 14 months as he was diagnosed with kidney cancer which spread to his liver. After beating the liver cancer, Tsuruta sadly would pass away from complications from a kidney transplant on May 13, 2000 at the age of 49.


Nikita Koloff- Nikita Koloff was one of many international wrestlers (mostly American) who portrayed an evil Soviet wrestler during the Cold War. Only wrestling for eight years, Koloff made appearances in a variety of promotions but mostly spent his time in Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW. A top act during the 80s, Koloff originally started as an American hating Soviet who teamed with fictional uncle and wrestling legend "Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff before becoming a babyface who replaced Magnum TA as Dusty Rhodes' partner thus the two became "The Super Powers". During his time, Koloff held multiple titles including both the NWA and UWF Television Championship, the NWA United States Championship, the NWA World Tag Team Championship, the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, the NWA National Heavyweight Championship, and the 1987 Crockett Cup while also engaging in big and classic feuds with Ric Flair, Magnum TA, The Four Horsemen, The Rock n' Roll Express, Lex Luger, Sting, and Rick Rude. Koloff's retirement is an interesting one as he claimed in an interview that he didn't intend to wrestle long and retire by the time he turned 35 (March 1994). In late 1992, Koloff wrestled Vader at Halloween Havoc 1992 and some live events. During one of these, Koloff suffered a herniated disc in his neck and a hernia. While Koloff later stated his injuries weren't career ending, he didn't see a reason to return and decided rather than rehab and come back for one more year that he would retire then. Since his retirement, Koloff has mostly focused on religion as he became a born again christian in 1993 though he has made several special appearances for Impact Wrestling and NWA over the years along with occasional indy appearances and legends conventions but has stayed retired.


The Destroyer- Best known as "The Intelligent Sensational" Destroyer, Dick Beyer built an interesting 39 year career spanning both in America and Japan. Gaining fame under his real name, the Destoyer name, and later as Doctor X, Destroyer originally achieved big success earning four World Titles as he captured the Worldwide Wrestling Associates World Heavyweight Championship three times and the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once. Along with his successes in WWA and AWA, he also achieved success in Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, Lutte Internationale in Montreal, and Central States Wrestling in Kansas City. However, Destroyer also became a huge success in Japan. In 1963, his match with Rikidozan drew 70 million TV viewers which, to this day, is still one of the highest rated shows in the history of Japanese television. He then had a six year run in All Japan Pro Wrestling from 1973-1979 during which time he held the All Asia Tag Team Championship and the Pacific Wrestling Federation United States Championship four times. By the early 80s, The Destroyer went into semi-retirement until going on a retirement tour of All Japan in the summer of 1993. Competing on the Summer Action Series tour, Destroyer mostly emerged victorious against either fellow aging names like Mitsuo Momota and young rookies like Takao Omori and Satoru Asako while occasionally teaming with his son Kurt. His final match was at the conclusion of the tour on July 29th where he teamed with Giant Baba and Kurt against Haruka Eigen, Masanobu Fuchi, and Masao Inoue where he won after scoring a figure four leglock on Inoue. After retiring, Destroyer would make the occasional special appearance and at legend's conventions. He paid tribute to Giant Baba at Baba's Memorial Show in 1999 and then appeared at the New Japan/All Japan/NOAH co-promoted show All Together in 2011 where he presented the Destroyer Cup to winner Kentaro Shiga. Destroyer eventually passed away in 2019 at the age of 88.


Stan Hansen- Stan Hansen is an interesting wrestling legend as while he achieved success in his native country (United States), he achieved much bigger success in another country (Japan) where he became the most successful foreigner in Japanese Wrestling history. Hansen originally started and achieved success in his native United States appearing in promotions such as NWA Tri-State (future Mid-South Wrestling), NWA Big Time Wrestling (future World Class), Georgia Championship Wrestling, and Jim Crockett Promotion winning championships in each promotion. Hansen also had a memorable run in the WWE (then WWWF) feuding with Bruno Sammartino for the WWE Championship and headlining the 1976 Showdown At Shea Stadium show. Towards the end of his run in America, Hansen also worked for the AWA and won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship and in NWA/WCW ending Lex Luger's record setting 523 day reign as NWA United States Champion. Beginning in 1976, Hansen began traveling to Japan, first for New Japan where he competed for five years feuding with and scoring a win over New Japan top star and founder Antonio Inoki where he won the National Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship in 1980. After leaving New Japan, Hansen jumped to All Japan where he remained for nearly 20 years during which time he engaged in big matches with founder and top star Giant Baba and formed several big tag teams with the likes of Bruiser Brody, Ted Dibiase, Terry Gordy, and Genichiro Tenryu. Overall, Hansen won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship four times and the World Tag Team Championship eight times along with many other titles and tournaments. Ultimately, Hansen began slowing down by 1999 which was right around the time of his 50th birthday and eventually began suffering from back pain called lumbago. Eventually, Hansen would have his final match on October 28, 2000 at the conclusion of All Japan's October Giant Series tour teaming with Steve Williams and Wolf Hawkfield in a losing effort to Johnny Smith, Masanobu Fuchi, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Hansen would officially retire at All Japan's Tokyo Dome show on January 28, 2001 after a retirement ceremony. Since retirement, Hansen later continued working for All Japan as the commissioner of the Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body (an authority figure position) from 2001-2007 before resigning in 2007. Since then, Hansen released his autobiography The Last Outlaw in 2011 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.


Mike Awesome- Mike Awesome is someone who will go down as one of wrestling's all time great big men. Despite being 6'6 and 290 lbs. Awesome showed insane agility for a man his size and pulled off high flying maneuvers guys 50-100 lbs. less and half a foot smaller would pull off. The Florida native first cut his teeth on the independent circuit before making his mark in Japan for FMW (as The Gladiator) and in the United States for ECW where he captured their top prizes in the FMW Brass Knuckles Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship while also gaining praise with his series of matches with Masato Tanaka. Sadly, his later 2000s run was disappointing as his WCW run was poorly booked and his brief WWF/E run did see him win the Hardcore Championship in his debut but injuries and more poor booking sealed his fate there. Even returns to Japan for All Japan and NOAH didn't wield a lot of success and his MLW World Heavyweight Championship reign was a transitional one. In June 2005, Awesome returned to WWE for the ECW One Night Stand show where he reignited his rivalry with Tanaka and stole the show. However, a contract never came his way and in February 2006, Awesome announced his retirement and would go into real estate. While Awesome would later say he would break his retirement if the money was right, it never happened. Sadly, like Jumbo Tsuruta, Awesome wouldn't live much longer after his retirement and one year later on February 17, 2007, Awesome committed suicide by hanging at the age of 42. 


Kazuo Yamazaki- Many people may not be familiar with Kazuo Yamazaki but he had an interesting career. Originally trained in the New Japan dojo and turning pro in 1982, Yamazaki wrestled for eighteen years during which time he usually bounced around between New Japan and various shoot-style wrestling promotions such as UWF, Newborn UWF, and UWF-i. During his career, he won UWF's Kakuto Nettai Road "B" League Tournament in 1985 and New Japan's IWGP Tag Team Championship on three occasions while making it to the finals of the 1998 G1 Climax. Behind the scenes, he also served as a trainer for the likes of Yuji Nagata and Kendo Kashin by teaching them shoot style wrestling. By 1999, Yamazaki began to slow down and eventually had his retirement match at New Japan's yearly January 4th Tokyo Dome show (Wrestling World 2000) on January 4, 2000, losing to Nagata in a little over six minutes. Despite retiring at 37, Yamazaki has kept to his retirement as he hasn't wrestled since and has spent his time working for New Japan as a trainer and announcer.


Genichiro Tenryu- Nicknamed "Mr. Puroresu" (Mr. Japanese Wrestling), Genichiro Tenryu was one of those timeless figures in wrestling enjoying a career that spanned numerous promotions and 39 years. Trained in the All Japan dojo, Tenryu spent the first fourteen years of his career (1976-1990) in All Japan where he eventually rose to become one of the promotion's top stars and eventually became their number two star behind Jumbo Tsuruta where he enjoyed runs as United National Champion, PWF World Champion, NWA International Tag Team Champion, Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, and World Tag Team Champion as well as numerous World's Strongest Tag Determination League winner. By 1990, Tenryu would then shock many by leaving All Japan and helping to start SWS (Super World Sports). For the next 25 years, Tenryu would find success in his own promotions such as SWS, WAR, and Tenryu Project while also bouncing around various promotions including New Japan, All Japan, NOAH, and FMW enjoying big success in each promotion including main eventing New Japan's yearly January 4th Tokyo Dome show in 1994 and 2000 and FMW's May 5th Kawasaki Stadium in 1994. Along the way, Tenryu also enjoyed runs as IWGP Heavyweight Champion and IWGP Tag Team Champion in New Japan making him the first Japanese (second after Vader) to have held All Japan's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight Championship as well as winning All Japan's Champion Carnival in 2001. Tenryu also made special appearances for the WWF at Wrestlemania VII, Royal Rumble 1993, and Royal Rumble 1994 (where he was a final five in the Rumble match). However, Tenryu was another who couldn't fight Father Time and in 2015, announced his retirement from wrestling and proceeded to have his retirement at his own promoted event on November 15, 2015 where he lost to New Japan ace Kazuchika Okada. Now at 70 and reportedly having a suffered a stroke along with being retired for nearly five years, I think it's safe to say the door is closed on a comeback.



Akira Taue- Originally one of All Japan's "Four Pillars of Heaven" along with Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, and Kenta Kobashi, Taue was one of All Japan's top stars during the 90s. Originally turning pro in 1988, Taue enjoyed a twelve year run in All Japan winning the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and the 1996 Champion Carnival but mostly excelled in tag team competition winning the All Asia Tag Team Championship with Shinichi Nakano and the World Tag Team Championship seven times, once with Jumbo Tsuruta and six with Toshiaki Kawada plus two World's Strongest Tag League Tournaments with Kawada. In 2000, Taue would follow Mitsuharu Misawa to NOAH where he main evented their debut show on August 5, 2000 and enjoyed a run as GHC Heavyweight Champion. Following the death of Misawa in 2009, Taue became NOAH's president and remained in the position for several years. During his presidency, Taue decided to retire after 25 years in the ring and had his last match on December 7, 2013 where he teamed with Takeshi Morishima, Takashi Sugiura, and Genba Hirayanagi in a winning effort against Genichiro Tenryu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Kentaro Shiga, and Masao Inoue. Since retirement, Taue has stepped down as NOAH's president, battled stomach cancer, and started a steakhouse. With all that plus the mileage on his body and being 59 years old, Taue probably has no plans to break that retirement.


Rick Martel- French-Canadian Rick Martel was one of the more successful journeymen wrestlers of the 70s and 80s enjoying success in many North American territories including Pacific Northwest Wrestling in Portland, Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, Lutte Internationale in Montreal, All Star Wrestling in Vancouver, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and WWC in Puerto Rico winning titles in each promotion. However, his biggest successes came in the AWA and WWF during the 80s to 90s. In the AWA, Martel captured the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once and held it from May 1984 to December 1985. He also worked for the WWF on and off for fifteen years between 1980-1995, during which time he won the WWF World Tag Team Championship on three occasions including two with Tony Garea and one with Tito Santana as part of Strike Force. Martel also had a memorable run in the WWF under his Model gimmick. After disappearing from wrestling in the mid 90s, Martel had a brief comeback with WCW holding their World Television Championship in 1998 before a pair of injuries (ironically from brothers Booker T and Stevie Ray in one-on-one matches), Martel decided to retire following a retirement match where he defeated The Metal Maniac in Hawaiian Islands Wrestling Federation on March 23, 1999. Since retiring, Martel has not only kept to his retirement but largely stayed out of wrestling for the most part. Upon retiring, he would work for WCW as a French commentator until WCW was bought by the WWF in 2001. Since then, he's made sporadic appearances including at WWE's 2007 Vengeance: Night of Champions pay-per-view but has mostly had a quiet retirement.


Kenta Kobashi- In the late 90s/early 2000s, few were better in the ring than Kenta Kobashi. Another one of All Japan's Four Pillars of Heaven, Kobashi spent the first twelve years of his career in All Japan turning pro in 1988 and went on to win the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship three times, the World Tag Team Championship six times, the All Asia Tag Team Championship four times, the Champion Carnival in 2000, and five World's Strongest Tag Determination Leagues. Along with these achievements, Kobashi also engaged in many classic singles and tag matches against the likes of Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, and Stan Hansen to name some. Like most of All Japan's native talents, Kobashi followed Misawa to Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000 and spent his last thirteen years there enjoying a two year run as GHC Heavyweight Champion, two runs with the GHC Tag Team Championship, and was the final GHC Openweight Hardcore Champion during which time he continued having classic after classic with the likes of Misawa, Taue, Jun Akiyama, Yoshihiro Takayama, and Kensuke Sasaki. Unfortunately, Kobashi would battle many injuries during his NOAH run due to years of wear and tear and pushing himself to work hurt. On top of that, Kobashi missed eighteen months (June 2006-December 2007) due to a bout with kidney cancer. Eventually, injuries continued to get worse and after getting released by NOAH in 2012, Kobashi decided to call it a career and had his retirement match on May 11, 2013, teaming with Keiji "The Great Muta" Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki, and Jun Akiyama in a winning effort against Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Maybach Taniguchi, and KENTA. Since retiring, Kobashi still pops up at events mostly doing guest commentary and runs his own indy shows under the "Fortune Dream" name. Though Kobashi is 53 years old, the mileage on his body, and the fact he's now been retired for seven years, it feels like the door has been closed.


Sting- One of the most famous and greatest names in wrestling history is the man called Sting. Originally turning pro in 1985, Sting started as The Bladerunners with The Ultimate Warrior in Memphis' CWA and Bill Watts' UWF. Following Warrior's departure, Sting would hold the UWF Tag Team Championship on three occasions with Eddie Gilbert twice and Rick Steiner once. After the UWF was purchased by Jim Crockett Promotions (later WCW) in 1987, Sting would follow and spend the next fourteen years there. Sting's achievements in WCW were awesome including eight runs as World Champion (six WCW, two WCW International, and one NWA) and had legendary rivalries with Ric Flair, Vader, Rick Rude, Hulk Hogan, The Four Horsemen, The Dangerous Alliance, and the nWo. He main evented WCW's biggest show of the year Starrcade five times with his 1997 encounter with Hogan being the biggest match and show in WCW history. After WCW was bought by the WWF in 2001, Sting wouldn't sign and instead worked for the short lived WWA from 2002-2003 capturing their World Heavyweight Championship and an eight year run with TNA (now Impact Wrestling) from 2006-2014 where he won five more world titles (four TNA and one NWA) while main eventing the biggest show of the year Bound For Glory four years in a row (2006-2009). After leaving TNA in 2014, Sting then did the unthinkable and finally joined the WWE after decades of being considered the most famous wrestler never to have worked for the WWE. Unfortunately, Sting's WWE run only saw a handful of matches including a long awaited appearance at Wrestlemania taking on Triple H at Wrestlemania 31. During his match with Seth Rollins for the WWE Championship at Night of Champions 2015 on September 20th, Sting would suffer a neck injury after taking a bucklebomb and went on to lose the match. With his career in question, Sting would officially retire in 2016 during his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. Since that time, Sting has toyed with the idea of potentially coming back and even wanted to have the long awaited dream match with The Undertaker but it never happened. By 2020, Sting officially left WWE and now at 61 years old with a bad neck and having been retired for four years, a Sting return seems unlikely.


Steve Austin- Well, I've saved perhaps the biggest for last. It's impossible to talk about all time greats and megastars in wrestling without talking about "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The Texas Rattlesnake first cut his teeth in his native Texas and in Memphis before enjoying a four year run in WCW (1991-1995) during which he won the World Television Championship twice, the United States Championship twice, the WCW World Tag Team Championship once, and the NWA World Tag Team Championship once all the while taking part in legendary stables and teams such as The Dangerous Alliance and The Hollywood Blonds. After getting fired from WCW and going to ECW for a cup a coffee, Austin then went to the WWF in late 1995 and enjoyed a huge eight year run with the promotion. In all, Austin held the WWF Championship six times, the Intercontinental Championship two times, the World Tag Team Championship four times along with winning the 1996 King of the Ring and a record three Royal Rumbles. Austin would also main event three Wrestlemanias and his rivalries with Bret Hart, The Undertaker, The Rock, Triple H, and Mick Foley are legendary while his feud with Vince McMahon is one of the biggest in wrestling history. Not only was he one of the biggest stars of all time but Austin was unquestionably the biggest name in American wrestling from 1998-2001 and his popularity along with the McMahon rivalry saw WWF regain the lead against rival WCW. Unfortunately, as Austin was climbing the mountain, the beginning of the end took place. At Summerslam 1997, Austin would suffer a severe neck injury during a match against Owen Hart due to a botched sitout tombstone piledriver. While Austin would return later in the year, it wasn't until he went to multiple doctors to find one to clear him and even then, his neck never fully recovered even after getting spinal fusion surgery in 2000. Finally by 2003, Austin was suffering from spinal stenosis and his neck finally got to the point where he flat out was forced to retire. It got to the point where he reportedly wrestled his final match at Wrestlemania XIX on March 30, 2003 where he lost to The Rock without getting doctor's clearance. After retiring, Austin briefly continued working for the WWE in authority figure roles first as Co-General Manager with Eric Bischoff and then as the Sheriff of Monday Night RAW before leaving in 2004. Since then, Austin continues to make the special appearance and was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. Outside of WWE, Austin has dabbled in acting and hosting TV shows as well as hosting his own podcast. Like some on this list, rumors have circulated over the years about a potential return or one last match but Austin has stayed true to retirement and hasn't come back. Now, at 55 years old with a bad neck and knees, it looks as though we've seen "Stone Cold" in the ring for the last time.



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