10 Best Retirement Matches In WWE History
4. Steve Austin Vs. The Rock (WrestleMania XIX)
WrestleMania 19 hosted the third and final match of Steve Austin and The Rock’s epic WrestleMania trilogy. It wasn’t quite as electrifying as their last bout at X-Seven, but nobody expected it to be. Austin was coming off the most unproductive year of his career, having sat much of 2002 out following a public dispute with management, before eventually returning after paying a hefty $250,000 fine.
The Rattlesnake wrestled just two matches in the run up to ‘Mania, both against Eric Bischoff, and neither of them running for longer than five minutes. Furthermore, his long-standing neck problems had greatly diminished his abilities in the ring by this point. While fans didn’t know it at the time, this was to be Stone Cold’s last ever wrestling match.
Rock and Austin still put on a tremendous show. Rocky was deep into his Hollywood Rock gimmick at the time, and this made him a great foil for Austin’s gruff, no-nonsense persona. It took three Rock Bottoms for the People’s Champ to finally put Stone Cold away, earning him his first WrestleMania victory over Austin, and sending the Texan into retirement.
Bischoff “fired” Stone Cold on medical grounds the following night, and Austin later confirmed his retirement on WWE.com. He transitioned into a non-wrestling role thereafter, and while he still shows up to drink a few beers and hit a few Stunners every now and then, we’ll never see him in the ring again.