10 Awesome Wrestlers Who Quit Before They Were 40
6. Lance Storm
Once heralded as one of the most underrated wrestlers in the business, Lance Storm looked to be on the verge of breaking out in WCW. He won three title belts in the company, holding them simultaneously, and was a sure-fire world champion in the making when WCW was purchased by WWE.
Even then, it was clear WWE had major plans for Storm, as it was his run-in that kicked off the Invasion angle.
Of course, the Invasion turned into a mess, and almost all of the WCW stars ended up poorly utilized. Though Storm captured the Intercontinental Title in 2001, he fell down the card after losing the belt.
He would eventually claim the World Tag Team Titles with William Regal and Chief Morley, but there was never any permanent gain from these runs. In 2003, he was the centerpiece of a highly-controversial storyline where Raw GM Steve Austin interrupted his matches to call him boring.
This ultimately led to a babyface turn for Storm, though he ended up in a lower card tag team with Val Venis.
His back bothering him, the 35-year-old Storm decided that 2004 was a good time to call it a career. He began training wrestlers for OVW, then opened up his own academy in Calgary the following year.
Though he was able to recover from his back pain with Pilates exercises, he never returned to the ring full-time - though at the age of 47, he still wrestles a select couple of matches per year.