12 WWE Hall-Of-Famers Who Wrestled After Being Inducted
Stone Cold could become the latest member of this not-so-exclusive club of retirees.
When an athlete is inducted into their sport’s Hall of Fame, it generally comes after a long, storied career that ended a few years earlier, as inclusion into this exclusive club is meant to symbolize the culmination of their contributions to the sport.
Of course, WWE’s version of the Hall of Fame is something decidedly different. Unlike other sports, wrestlers typically don’t retire with the same finality that most professional athletes do.
It’s rare for a player to retire and come back full-time. But trying to find an athlete who has been inducted into their sport’s Hall of Fame and made a comeback is neigh impossible.
When you look at WWE though, examples abound. Several superstars have been inducted into the company’s shrine and gone on to compete inside the squared circle. Some have wrestled for small, independent promotions, but others have stepped back in a WWE ring.
Given that Lita is about to compete for the Raw Women’s Championship and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is heavily rumored to make a comeback at WrestleMania 38, it’s only fitting to look back at other Hall-of-Famers who got back into the ring after hanging up the boots.
Whether it’s for one match or a full-blown comeback, these are some of the more notable Hall of Famers who came back to compete in WWE (sorry Sting fans, we have to draw the line somewhere). We’re leaving off those who only appeared in a Royal Rumble or sham match though.
Let’s get to it…
12. Shawn Michaels
Hall of Fame induction: 2011
Let’s start with perhaps the saddest example on this list. Shawn Michaels famously lost a retirement match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 in 2010. It was a near-perfect coda on his career, capping off an astonishing second act that many thought would never happen, and many argued was better than the first part.
Years passed, and opportunities abounded for HBK to dust off his chaps and get back in the ring, but he resisted, claiming that his retirement was for real. That is, until that sweet, sweet Saudi blood money was thrown at him, and Michaels partnered with Triple H to take on Undertaker and Kane at Crown Jewel 2018.
D-Generation X versus the Brothers of Destruction might have been a dream match 15 years prior, or even 10 years earlier, but in 2018, it was four AARP members stumbling through an embarrassment of a match that only served to damage all their legacies for one big payday.
HBK must’ve recognized how bad it was, because Michaels hasn’t wrestled since.