10 Wrestlers Who Regretted Coming Out Of Retirement

At WrestleMania XXIV, Ric Flair had one of the greatest retirements in professional wrestling - the Sweet Chin Music, heralded by the impassioned “I’m sorry, I love you”, and the tears. All the tears. Flair had no idea that Shawn Michaels would deliver the now-iconic line.

Flair made a few non-wrestling appearances for WWE, and had a brief stop-off at ROH, but it was in TNA were Flair really reversed his retirement. Given the monumental way he bowed out, it was a genuine shock when Flair signed to the rival company. The fact that Flair spent one of his most memorable feuds in a wheelchair pretty much sums up the entire regrettable run.

In the past, Ric was defensive about his TNA run, with reports that one of the dominant reasons he fell out with Jim Ross was due to Ross’ criticism of the ill-fated run. Flair later confirmed what everybody (including J.R.) suspected. He did it for the money. It takes serious wealth to be the ‘Jet Flying, Limousine Ridin', Kiss Stealin', Wheelin' Dealin', Son of a Gun’ with three lots of alimony to pay and the (real-life) IRS on his tail. He told Wrestling Inc:

“I needed the money. I would have never […] gone there. Even though I got to hang around Kurt [Angle] and Sting, it was a disaster. Everything I did with Bischoff and Russo? You know what people say to me now: where would you have been if WCW hadn’t treated you like that? I get that from people that are my friends who wanna know where I would have been if they treated me with any respect whatsoever.”