10 Wrestlers Who Returned After Retiring

With Rey Mysterio’s ‘retirement ceremony’ set for WWE Raw tomorrow, let’s focus on what retirements actually mean in wrestling.

While Mysterio, given the circumstances, probably won’t retire come Monday, several athletes called it a day before him.

And more than dozens were lured back by a combination of money, admiration, and the bright lights of WWE.

Today we look back at 10 of the most interesting returns from retirement in wrestling history.

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10. Beth Pheonix

In 2012, Beth Phoenix’s run in WWE came to an end. The ‘Glamazon’ was frustrated with where WWE’s women’s division was going.

She decided that she would, together with her recently retired husband Edge, take time to focus on her kids rather than wrestling all across the world.

In 2017, Phoenix returned to the company when she was selected to be part of that year’s Hall of Fame class.

Since then she has started to work for WWE’s announce team and has also made sporadic appearances in the ring. Her wrestling days seem to be alive again.

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9. Ricky Steamboat

The legendary Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat retired in 1994. That is a long long time ago.

But in 2009 he could not say no when he, Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka were asked to do it one more time in a match against Chris Jericho.

The match took place at WrestleMania XXV and Steamboat looked the best out of all the legends. He was moving around like young cat that night.

His comeback worked so well that he stayed on for another month, wrestling a ten-man tag match on Raw the next night and a singles match with Jericho at Backlash.

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8. Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels would never step foot in a WWE ring after his retirement in 2010.

WrestleMania XXVI. His second WrestleMania match against The Undertaker. The stars seemed to align that night, the perfect retirement.

HBK always said he wouldn’t return. Not for anyone. So naturally he did – nine years later.

For the Saudi Arabia crowd HBK and Triple H teamed up one more time to face The Undertaker and Kane in an, as they themselves have admitted, awful matchup.

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• retirement
• rey mysterio
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