10 Times You Didn't Realise Wrestlers Were Saying 'Goodbye'

Wrestlers like Ric Flair have had more retirement matches than fans have had hot dinners. Terry Funk was another one who found it hard to properly say goodbye throughout his legendary career. It's not hard to see why. Booming pops from rowdy crowds are addictive, but it also shouldn't be forgotten that these performers love what they do too.

WWE, AEW, WCW, TNA, ECW - the rules are generally the same. If a worker's going to call time, then the promotion they work for wants to make money off it by hyping up a big pay-per-view match or putting together a video package so emotional only Creed's 'My Sacrifice' or Fuel's 'Leave The Memories Alone' would work as a soundtrack.

What about the industry outliers though?

Not everyone on this list ended their careers full stop after riding off into the sunset, but they've all got one thing in common: Not one of them had an obviously-staged exit strategy before vanishing, and they often didn't clue fans in on what plans were at all. That meant you and the dude writing this didn't even know they were waving goodbye.

Or, in some cases, should that be see you later?

It seems like Bobby Roode was working tags next to Dolph Ziggler then everybody blinked at the same time and he's retired. Genuinely, the 'Dirty Dawgs/Dogs' experience feels like it happened 10 minutes ago. In truth, Roode wrestled his last match in June 2022. His final televised effort was WWE's Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royale on the 1 April SmackDown that year.

Time flies.

Bobby disappeared from screens shortly after that, then went under the knife for major neck surgery later in the year. Online, people wondered collectively when the 'Glorious' one would return, but it wouldn't be until February 2024 that Roode revealed he was effectively retired. That was a sad update.

Some are split on whether Bobby under or overachieved in WWE. Either way, it sucks that Triple H hasn't been able to use a talent as versatile as the ex-TNA man since assuming control behind the scenes. Being dumped out of a battle royal by Madcap Moss was not saying goodbye.