8 WWE Hall Of Famers Who Couldn't Stay Retired
Sometimes, 'goodbye' is the hardest word.
Superfluous, that is what this may well be. What does retirement mean in professional wrestling anyway? Decades prior may have been a time where people thought retirement was a plausible option in the industry, but as kayfabe has slowly but surely died, so has the idea that the word 'retirement' means anything other than 'temporary hiatus'.
The WWE Hall of Fame has a grand total of 147 inductees. 100 of these were in-ring wrestlers, with 10 groups (including 29 individuals), nine celebrities, two Warrior Award inductees, and seven Legacy choices making up that number. 35 individuals have gone in after their death, and whilst some fans may scoff at the institution, needless to say it is still considered an honour by those in the professional wrestling world.
The majority of those in the HoF are names from the past, long-since retired or inactive and in no condition to change that. Or so it would appear at least, but professional wrestling isn't any ordinary industry. No, it seems to be more like a beautiful virus, a cancer that gives joy but essentially can't be eradicated.
So when some wrestlers retire, the bug is too strong and a return to the ring is inevitable. For some of these men, retirement lasted years, for others it lasted months, some just weeks. Here are eight WWE Hall of Famers who just couldn't stay away from the ring.