Traditionally, wrestlers have always lost their retirement match. It’s like an unspoken rule in wrestling that whenever you’re hanging up your boots, you should go out on your back like every other wrestler before has in the past.
Recently, John Cena retired, and fans were complaining that he tapped out to Gunther. Cena later explained his decision on Cody Rhodes’ podcast, but people were still not satisfied. They wanted Cena to go out with a victory one last time. While this didn’t happen in Cena’s case, there have been numerous wrestlers in the past who have retired after winning their last match. The following are a few examples of this.
The Undertaker
A lot of people believe The Undertaker should’ve retired after his WrestleMania loss to Roman Reigns. But The Deadman eventually came back for another match. This time, he faced AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match at WrestleMania 36.
This was one of the most entertaining matches of The Undertaker’s career. It’s not surprising, because the match wasn’t recorded live. Nevertheless, The Undertaker managed to defeat AJ Styles by literally burying him and riding off into the sunset.
Sting
Sting had a way better run in All Elite Wrestling than he did in WWE. Tony Khan and Co. treated him like the legend he is. His partnership with Darby Allin was a success, and it also protected Sting, who was over 60 years of age.
Sting wrestled his final wrestling match at AEW Revolution 2024, teaming up with Darby Allin against The Young Bucks in a Tornado Tag Team Match. This bout was for The Bucks’ AEW World Tag Team Championship. Shortly after winning the title, Sting and Darby relinquished their belts.
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan ended his career in TNA. On-screen, his final match took place at TNA Bound for Glory 2011 against Sting, which he lost.
However, Hogan did wrestle two house show matches. He teamed up with Sting and James Storm against Bobby Roode, Bully Ray, and Kurt Angle. Both times, Hogan’s team won the bout.
Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin retired from wrestling following his WrestleMania 19 match against The Rock. Over the years, Steve Austin showed up on WWE programming numerous times, and there were even instances when a match was teased, but Austin never came back to the ring.
That changed in 2022, however, when Kevin Owens challenged Austin to a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania 38. The Texas Rattlesnake defeated Owens and went back into retirement.
Ric Flair
Ric Flair teamed up with his ex-son-in-law, Andrade, against Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett in his final match. This was a terrible match by all means, and Flair almost died.
Flair and Andrade didn’t win their match, but it wasn’t like anyone wanted to see The Nature Boy wrestle in the first place.
Main image credit: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.