10 Wrestling Retirement Matches Where The Loser Came Back
After all, this IS wrestling...
On Tuesday's Smackdown, Dolph Ziggler challenged The Miz to a huge match at the upcoming No Mercy pay-per-view/Network special, which Miz accepted. As per the stipulation, Miz will put his Intercontinental Championship on the line, but if Dolph loses, it'll mean the end of his career. Miz was very specific on the last part of that stipulation, explicitly saying that he doesn't want to see Dolph show up on Raw or NXT, or simply come back after 30 days on the sidelines.
He has good reason to lay it out as cleanly as possible. Over the course of the past few decades, wrestling fans have seen many of their idols lose a match that forced them into retirement, only to come back. Sometimes, the return was immediate, while other times, it took years. Sometimes the retirements were meant to be legitimate, while other times, they were simply twists in an ongoing story.
Either way, it weakened the stipulation for the future.
In all likelihood, Dolph will beat Miz at No Mercy and we won't have to worry about whether or not he'll keep his word. If he does lose, though, odds are that it won't spell the end of his time in the squared circle. More likely, the No Mercy match will end up like these ten retirement matches where the loser came back:
10. Sting Vs. Magnus - Genesis 2014
Sting's reticence to sign with WWE, his desire to keep competing, and his hefty price tag meant that after WCW closed, there was only one U.S.-based promotion in which he could end up. Sure enough, he spent nearly a decade in TNA, and while he was never able to put the group on equal footing with WWE, he worked hard and became a centrepiece of the promotion.
As the years went on, Sting seemed to soften his stance on working with WWE, but TNA always managed to deliver a lucrative contract for him to sign. In early 2014, though, the company's cost-cutting meant that Sting was on the chopping block, and after years of speculation, he was finally leaving TNA. While feuding with Ethan Carter III, Sting was attacked by TNA World Heavyweight Champion Magnus, leading to a title versus career match between the two at Genesis. Magnus won, and Sting's career with TNA came to a very real end.
His wrestling career, however, continued on. After months of teases, Sting debuted in WWE at the 2014 Survivor Series. He would go on to have four matches in the company in 2015, eventually retiring for good after suffering a career-ending neck injury.