10 WWE Legends You Won't Believe Are STILL Wrestling
And you thought Ric Flair was too old for this s***...
2023 has reminded fans that no wrestler can work forever.
Consider this year's noble failure of a NJPW G1 Climax tournament. Respectfully, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito are in clear physical decline to an almost bleak extent. Recognising this, Gedo has overstuffed the field with midcard lifers and a wide array of new emerging acts. The 'Reiwa Three Musketeers' trio of Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita and Shota Umino have been designated as the future to both encourage the audience to invest and give the likes of the Bullet Club War Dogs a storyline reason - promotional neglect - to rampage through the company.
Gedo has framed the '23 G1 as a "step up" meritocracy, but there's a tell-don't-show element to it all and frankly, more than one average at best wrestler has dragged the whole thing down far below the seminal levels set across the 2010s. It is too ambitious, ultimately - but it's something Gedo was right to experiment with. No wrestler can work forever.
Except, incredibly, the following names...
(Now, for the purposes of this list, the word "legend" on occasion will be applied with as much stringency as WWE, which is to say, very little. Also, to warrant inclusion, the wrestler must have worked at least one date in 2023.)
10. The Warlord
Without meaning to appear too insensitive, given the Warlord's age (61), his self-confessed steroid use, and a resulting physique that was preposterous even by the standards of an era in which virtually every wrestler was artificially inflated to superhero levels, it would be equally surprising to see Martin "Farmer" Burns appear on this list.
Compounding all of the above, the Warlord was severely injured in two separate vehicular accidents after winding down his prime wrestling years, which were never great. The rule-proving exception was that unfathomably great match against the British Bulldog at WrestleMania VII. That was laid out immaculately. Lean, dramatic, economical. Go back and watch it!
You can also somehow watch the Warlord live in 2023.
The matches probably aren't great, but looking at the Cagematch records, he doesn't outstay his welcome. He worked a tight five minutes against the Rock N' Roll Express on July 1, in which neither team likely did anything, but was probably still a fun smoke and mirrors attraction.
In an incidental but not uninteresting trivia note, Warlord is mates with 50 Cent having performed bodyguard duties for him.
Who did he team with...?