In the territory days of professional wrestling, whenever a talent had worn out their welcome in an area or was looking toward greener pastures elsewhere, one surefire way to necessitate the move while building interest in a feud was to book a loser leaves town match. The winner would remain active in the territory while the defeated wrestler would ply his trade elsewhere. Stipulations like these were commonplace in those times. Mick Foley tells a humorous story in his first book of giving away the result of a loser leaves town match he was participating in by showing up to the arena with all his luggage packed into his car. When a rivalry has been taken to the next level and things have really gotten serious, a more risky stipulation is for a wrestler to put their entire career on the line. Two competitors square off with the loser forced to hang up his boots for good. Surprisingly enough, these retirements dont always last and are often just meant to be used as a way to hotshot an angle and attract more attention. Apparently the results of wrestling match stipulations arent enforceable by a court of law, so the wrestler returns to the ring with a blatant disregard for sportsmanship. Regardless of the permanence of the result, these matches are a great tool for stirring up emotions within the audience, whether from a desire to see someone they loathe get their comeuppance by losing their career or a fear of seeing one of their favorites be forced to say goodbye. They may not always be pretty, but theyre quite often memorable. Lets take a look at 10 of the most famous loser leaves town/retirement matches. Fair warning for those who arent fans of Ric Flair, the Nature Boy is all over this list.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
