2021, the 10 year long year, was a weird one for wrestling. We spent some of the 12 month
decade still variously locked down, socially distanced and holding Pikachu up to our laptop
cameras so he could be in the ThunderDome - trolling, I choose you. And if as a spectator
it was bad, imagine what it must’ve been like for the wrestlers themselves? Going out
and busting your ass with no crowd to speak of, not knowing whether the indie promotion
you were working for would survive, constantly looking over your shoulder for John Laurinaitis
and his great big budget balancing abacus and axe: it’s enough to make you want to
pack it all in.
And to be fair a few people did - some called time on long illustrious careers, some got
out while the getting was good and others made the difficult decision for the sake of
their health.
I’m Laurie hailing from partsFUNknown and these are all the wrestlers who retired in
2021.
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Sabu
There are few true ECW legends currently wrestling with any regularity and after 2021 there is
one fewer as the Suicidal, Homical, Genocidal Sabu announced his retirement. During an interview
with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, Sabu revealed that he was not planning on wrestling from
that point forward. He did say, however, that he would return to the ring to wrestle Brock
Lesnar in his retirement match but considering Lesnar is a bit preoccupied with a massive
WWE contract and Sabu does not strike me as someone WWE is frothing at the mouth to call
for a one time match with the Beast Incarnate, it seems far more likely that we have seen
Sabu take his last crazy ass bump. Truthfully, Sabu had been wrestling a fairly regular schedule
pandemic not included the last few years so it is not even like he just decided not to
take his one booking every three months. No, this man was going and probably deserves a
good long rest. Time to bury the barbed wire in a little concrete pit under your garage
like John Wick and just get a dog or something.
Jake Atlas
Jake Atlas had a boatload of potential in pro wrestling but potential does not buy peace
of mind. Following his release from WWE earlier this year, Atlas took to Twitter to announce
his retirement from wrestling. In those tweets he said “I’m not concussed or ‘banged
up.’ I simply just can’t keep going anymore. Take your mental health seriously, both for
yourselves & for each other, because we only have one life to live. Thank you to anyone
who did support me for 5 years. I didn’t do much, but what I did was fun.” Atlas
had wrestled for Ring of Honor shortly before calling it quits, but ultimately made the
admirable decision to work on his own mental health. The life of a wrestler is a hard one
- antisocial work hours, long drives, lots of time away from home and a gruelling physical
grind, and ultimately sometimes it doesn’t matter how successful you are or how talented
you are or how much you want it, you’ve got to do what’s best for your brain.
Nia Jax
So here is a more recent one. Nia Jax was one of the higher profile releases from 2021,
a mainstay of the WWE women’s division, but after being let go she decided to hang
up her botos for good. Jax was released by WWE on November 4, 2021 despite being given
time off to deal with her mental health. Just your reminder that WWE is truly such a lovely
company. Jax would go on to say soon after that it was very unlikely that she would ever
step foot in the ring again. Nia was a product of the WWE Performance Center and had spent
no time on the independent wrestling scene prior to her start with the company. Of course
these decisions could change, it is wrestling after all, retirements in wrestling are like
deaths in the Xmen comics, but considering the less than amicable split between Jax and
WWE and her apparent lack of interest in working elsewhere, it seems most likely that we have
indeed seen the last of Nia Jax and her hole. Remember that? That was this year? When Nia
scooped her hoop on the apron. Where does the time go...
Awesome Kong
Awesome Kong will be best remembered for her stellar work in the early days of TNA Wrestling
as well as a wonderful body of work from her time in Japan. Otherwise injuries and other
circumstances truly robbed us of potential great runs from Kong in both WWE and AEW.
On August 28, 2021 at NWA Empowerrr, Awesome Kong announced that she would be retiring
from wrestling, having had her last match on AEW Dark in January 2020. She did it standing
across the ring from her most prolific rival, Gail Kim, with the two sharing an embrace
as Kong wept. The two defined each other with their brilliant rivalry in TNA in 2007 and
for Kong to announce that she was done, there was no one else better suited to share the
ring with her one final time.
The Brian Kendrick
After a two decade career, The Brian Kendrick called it quits on March 31, 2021. Kendrick
had made the transition to being a producer for WWE in the years before this but it was
not until he appeared on a WWE video about life after wrestling that he confirmed his
retirement. Kendrick had returned to WWE in 2015 for a match with Finn Balor in NXT before
competing in the Cruiserweight Classic and becoming the second modern Cruiserweight Champion.
Kendrick has been working on NXT and 205Live in more recent times but hopefully he has
plenty on his plate with the state of those two shows being not quite what they were when
he gave the interview. Regardless, Kendrick retires having held titles in multiple major
promotions and creating a legacy as the second best guy named Brian from his wrestling class.
Is that rude? It feels rude. I mean the other one is Bryan Danielson but still.
Sadie Gibbs
Another star to announce their retirement incredibly young, former AEW star Sadie Gibbs
announced her backing away from wrestling in April 2021 at the age of 29. Gibbs revealed
in a lengthy post on Instagram that she was ready to let wrestling go after a very confusing
last year and a half. I mean a global pandemic will make one reevaluate their priorities.
Gibbs spoke about wanting to commit to establishing her brand and aspiring to work as a life coach
so it is very clear that she is walking away from wrestling to pursue something she is
passionate about. Gibbs wrestled only three matches for AEW before parting ways with the
company due to the pandemic limiting travel between the United States and the UK.
Kenny Dykstra Former WWE World Tag Team Champion and member
of the Spirit Squad Kenny Dykstra made the announcement of his retirement on April 20,
2021 at the age of only 35 years old. Christ it makes you think about how crazy young he
was when he was wrestling the likes of Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. This is something
that he himself was pondering when he announced his retirement, stating that "I’ve decided
to retire from in ring wrestling. When I started at 13 I thought I’d retire at 40. But smart
investments overtime have allowed me to be done now. I’m in my prime, and that will
go towards my family and being a father. Thanks to the fans who stuck by me." Dykstra joined
WWE as a producer in NXT later in the year with recent Fightful Select reports stating
that he could be fast tracked to the main roster in a similar role. Good to keep busy
after retirement of course. It was this or golf, probably.
Hurricane Helms & Kane (The Men’s Royal Rumble Returns)
Ah the barrel begins to be scraped. The Royal Rumble has probably played host to the final
matches of many top stars over the years with so many people doing surprise returns late
in their career for a cheap pop and chuck over the top. This was certainly the case
in 2021, with Hurricane Helms and Kane both making appearances in the men’s Rumble matches.
Neither man has wrestled since but both seem to be the type to milk one surprise Rumble
appearance for a while before jumping in and doing another. Helms said in a 2019 tweet
that he was struggling with the idea of retirement while Kane has been too busy being mayor of
Knox County to make time to be a big flamey devil demon. It seems entirely possible that
we could see both of these men wrestle again but with both considered inactive wrestlers
and with both having wrestled their last matches in 2021, both are close enough to fit the
bill for this list and we had to stretch it to make it all fit anyway so sue us.
Jillian Hall, Torrie Wilson & Victoria (The Women’s Royal Rumble Returns)
These ones are a bit cheeky too seeing as they weren’t announced retirements like
the other entries on this list but regardless, the record books show that Jillian Hall, Torrie
Wilson and Victoria all wrestled their last matches to date at the Royal Rumble match
in January 2021. This was Jillian’s first match since 2013, Wilson’s first since Evolution
in 2018, and Victoria’s first since losing to Jordynne Grace in a match for Warrior Wrestling
in 2019. None of these women were wrestling regularly before this match so save for another
guest appearance in a WWE ring it is entirely possible that this will be the final match
of each of their careers. During the Rumble match after the return “pop” these ladies
got from the wall of iPads, none of them got an elimination and spent a combined 19 minutes
and 17 seconds in the match before being thrown out. Well, A for effort? I’m convinced they’ll
be back though, Women’s Roster in WWE is smaller than ever following the releases,
and much like this list, the Women’s Royal Rumble needs padding!
Madison Rayne, Lio Rush & ACH (The Didn’t Keep Their Word Group)
Hey we didn’t say that they would all have stayed retired. Wrestling probably has more
examples of people saying they are retired and then going back on it than any other industry.
Apart from assassin for hire with lovely family/dog/car who gets dragged back in after calling it
quits because said family/dog/car winds up dead at the hands of the Russians thriller
films. Sabu dig out the barbed wire me old china.
But hey, do whatever makes you happy and if you find yourself in a different part of your
life and realize you want to wrestle again by all means chase that passion. Especially
if you are young like these folks. Madison Rayne announced her retirement at IMPACT’s
Hard To Kill event in January 2021 but wrestled for the promotion again by the end of the
year. ACH meanwhile took to Instagram to announce that he was stepping away from Wrestling back
in July before returning to the ring, having his most recent match against JONAH at an
indie show in New Jersey. Finally you have AEW star Lio Rush who announced his retirement
due to injury after debuting at Double or Nothing. Rush ultimately returned and signed
with AEW, beginning a partnership with Dante Martin. Rush and Tony Khan have both spoken
highly of each other regarding Rush’s decision to return to the ring and it sounds like he
is currently feeling fulfilled and really, is that not the point of all of this?
So there we are those are the folks who hung up their boots, and some who put them back
on, because wrestling is something that is hard to walk away from. Which wrestling star
will you be most sad when they retire, let me know in the comments down below and click
the videos onscreen now for more awesome PFK content. Jam that jam.