10 WWE Wrestlers Who Retired In Their Prime
7. The Rock
There are several moments between 2001 and 2003 that could be classed as points at which The Rock became Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in his own mind, but each elective exit finds 'The Great One' still in a seemingly never ending prime.
There's the Raw after WrestleMania X-Seven, a night removed from headlining what was then the biggest and best pay-per-view in company history. There's his summer 2002 departure after putting Brock Lesnar over clean as a sheet for the WWE Championship. He lost to Booker T, The Hurricane and Bill Goldberg as a part time heel in 2003. He gave everything to a ripper of a handicap match with Mick Foley at 2004's WrestleMania XX.
Each one selfless but no less satisfying, The Rock spent four years retiring just to ensure the company and the audience enjoyed the benefit of his presence whilst they both still could.
It took a long seven years before he came back for a three-year WrestleMania arc against John Cena that sucked in The Miz, CM Punk and others, but the Hollywood megastar that returned from the sliver screen was by this point more of a made man than any Sports Entertainment escapee in history.