10 WWE Wrestlers Who Retired In Their Prime

4. Paige

Paige Raw Retirement
WWE.com

Modest cinema success Fighting With My Family profiled the years leading up to Paige's historic title-winning WWE debut, but there's perhaps just as much left in a slightly more challenging sequel following the heartbreaking news she was forced to deliver four years later.

Old enough to know better but young enough to not care, Paige was giving her body to wrestling before she was even born, but the 25 years she'd spent taking bumps sadly culminated in her being forced into retirement at...25.

Tragic in its timing (as if such news is ever really anything but tragic at such a young age), Paige had barely returned from an extended injury absence in late-2017 before absorbing a hard kick to the neck that reaggravated substantial problems she'd dealt with for many years.

Tear-soaked, Paige bid the ring farewell in the same building she'd debuted on the WWE main roster in 2014. The comeback had been all-too-brief for anybody to digest, though she'd at least spent long enough on the roster to ensure there'd be space for her to thrive in other roles post-retirement.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett