Retirement Doesn’t Always Take…

This week’s blog for Wrestling Mayhem Show.
We talked on Wrestling Mayhem Show 212 this week about Shawn Michaels’ retirement and how serious we should take it.  As usual, we take it all with a grain of salt.  And why shouldn’t we?  We have been tempered by retiring wrestlers coming back to crap on their own send off so many times.

1. Terry Funk – This man is the first you think about when it comes to retirement.  Because he’s done it so many times, he has to be an expert by now.  One of his fabled retirements even occurred for all to see on Beyond the Mat over ten years ago.  In searching, we find his first retirement moment came in 1983.  Funk has been listed to have wrestled as recently as January 2010 in Japan.
2. Mick Foley – Well, we can look at it this way.  Mick Foley was never retired.  Cactus Jack was.  So we still need to have retirement matches for Dude Love and Mankind somewhere down the line.
3. Ric Flair – Probably the one that stings the most.  We all watched WrestleMania 24, then the night afterwards, in what was one of the most memorable and well and beyond the call of duty for WWE.  Flair dissappeared, did some insurance endorsements, a round of appearances and autograph signings (including here in Pittsburgh where I was fortunate enough to shake his hand) and a domestic disturbance or two.  This is one that sort of breaks your heart.  For one of the longest running and most successful wrestlers in the business, he has to come back to an Australian tour, and the admittedly smaller presence of TNA, just to make up for all of those divorces.

But lets give props to the people who did it right, so far…

1. Steve Austin – The guy who knew he had nothing more to prove and made all of the money for the Attitude Era, Austin hasn’t been tempted to come back for that big money match against Hogan everyone wants.  Instead, he’s been able to parlay his success into something of a movie career, while not as big as the Rock’s still lightyears better than Hogan’s.  But he ended with a final match against his greatest rival, The Rock, at WrestleMania, and never really looked back.
2. The Rock – And speaking of.  Rock may not be quite that finished with wrestling, but lets consider him retired for the time being.  He’s turned into a leading man in a number of movies.
3. Diamond Dallas Page – Another guy who’s successfully transfered his fame into something of a movie career, and the mind behind Yoga for Regular Guys.

Anyone you can think of that sticks out as a retirement success or failure?