10 Wrestlers Who Had To Take A Break... Only To Return Better Than Ever

4. Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho, after giving his life and livelihood to wrestling for 15 years, took a crucial break in 2005. He refused to sign a contract extension with WWE at the time, being exhausted from the many years of travelling and bumps. So Jericho lost to John Cena at SummerSlam and at Raw the next night in a “You’re Fired” match. Jericho wasn’t seen in wrestling for over two years after that. Jericho said of that time:

“Yes, in 2005, SummerSlam with John Cena, I wasn’t done, done, but I was mentally burned out. I walked away. My contract was up. There were no contract negotiations. I said don’t even give me a figure because I felt they were going to give me a downgrade because of the way my career was at the time. I knew it was time to get away, I left the business for two and a half years. When I came back in 2007, it was with a completely different mindset because I had done a lot of acting and a lot of training.”

In his two years away Jericho took acting classes, trained with the famous improv troupe the Groundlings and let his body recover. He used what he learnt in improv and acting to make him a better performer in WWE when he finally returned in late 2007 and had another three-year run with the company. And what a run it was.

After shaking off the ring rust off as a returning babyface, Jericho turned heel in 2008 and had a spectacular feud with Shawn Michaels. He won the World Championship and was despised by crowds everywhere he went. He had a brilliant feud with Rey Mysterio over the Intercontinental title and won it for the record-breaking 9th time. He started partnerships with Edge and later Big Show as the highly entertaining Jeri-Show. He topped it off with a high-profile feud with Edge over the World Championship at WrestleMania 26.