Retirement Age: 40 For the bulk of his career, Christian - who collected more titles than almost anyone in WWE history - managed to remain relatively injury-free. A jump to TNA in 2005 could have worked against him, but instead, it allowed him to get experience as a main eventer and return to WWE as an even hotter commodity. He captured the reinstated ECW Championship, anchoring the brand as a charismatic babyface. Once ECW folded, he was drafted to Smackdown! After that, bad luck started to get the better of Christian. A torn pectoral muscle put him on the shelf for a few months, and while he came back to success (he would win the World Heavyweight Title twice), the injuries continued to mount up. Ankle and shoulder problems put him out of action for much of 2012 and 2013, and a concussion suffered in a match in March of 2014 would be the straw that broke the camel's back. Later that year, Christian appeared on Raw and was referred to as retired. When Christian was healthy, he was still as talented as ever - those healthy times, however, were becoming rarer and rarer. It was reported that due to a history of concussions and other injuries, WWE had chosen not to use him as an active wrestler any longer.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
