10 Wrestlers Who Should Have Stayed Retired
6. Mick Foley
When Mick Foley stopped and stared back at the life he was walking away from at No Way Out 2000, he looked every bit like he believed he was doing it for the last time.
His autobiography said much the same - he was prepared to call it a day before being offered the right amount of money to do one more favour and go back on his word to main event WrestleMania weeks later. Leaning into just how stupid it looked, he at least accepted that as the real final outing, all until he was teased back to work with the task of elevating Randy Orton to the next level between 2003/04. The cycle repeated two years later with Edge, and just when it honestly seemed like jobs outside the ring were going to define his future, he jumped to TNA and eventually became World Champion.
Not least because of the heights of 2000, 2004 and 2006, the returns were naturally diminished. Getting by on star power and a willingness to get grisly if the stipulation called for it, Foley's TNA run was still a mixed bag at its best, but sadly served as the real end of the line. When that wrapped, all that remained was a 2011 indie date and 2012 Royal Rumble cameo.
Foley himself seemingly wanted a different closing chapter - he openly petitioned for a retirement deathmatch as a 60th birthday present to himself, but doctors stepped into nope it based on his legendarily long list of injuries.