8 WWE superstars who spoiled their legacy by coming out of retirement

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. This sentence not only applies for superheroes, it applies for professional wrestlers as well. Knowing when to hang up your boots is as important as knowing how to carry yourself throughout your career.

A lot of the wrestlers out there might have a Hall of fame worth career to show off but certain decisions like coming back from retirement would be enough to tarnish their image in front of the unforgiving wrestling fans. The professional wrestling business has seen a lot of such cases, and here is a look the most memorable ones.

Mick Foley

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Foley’s legacy as a hardcore legend is still relevant no matter what he does. Foley, however, has a bad reputation when it comes to coming out of retirement. Not to get the bad idea here, at certain instances, Foley’s return gave the fans some awesome matches, the WrestleMania bout that he had with Edge being the best example.

Foley’s heroics in TNA, however, had a different story. He came out of retirement to wrestle in TNA a few years back and it was the worst thing he could have done to his legacy. Although the in ring psychology was there, Foley’s health was holding him back and this ensured a forgettable run.

JBL

JBL had four major phases in his career. The first one was not any memorable as he went nowhere with his Justin ‘Hawk’ Bradshaw Gimmick. The second phase of his career saw him become a part of APA and went on to be a mainstay in the Attitude Era.

After taking a big break, JBL returned to WWE in 2004 to be a heel main event champion. It was one of the most successful reincarnations of the mid-2000s and he took the right decision by retiring after this run. The retirement, however, was short-lived as JBL returned to active wrestling in 2008. The new run was nowhere near the past two spells he had in the company. He failed to evoke proper emotions from the fans and eventually retired a year later.

Terry Funk

Terry Funk is still a legend and he is still respected around the wrestling business. Terry, however, didn’t really know when to retire. His first retirement came back in 1983 and the age of 39. Thirty years later, Funk was still taking up independent bookings.

Funk’s efforts in the ring slowed down as his age went up and he was nowhere near the man he used to be. However, his return from retirement helped get ECW in the map and apart from that, Funk did not have many lasting memories. The latest match of Funk came in December last year and once again; the match was doing no good for the impressive legacy that he built up during his prime.

Batista

After being a main event superstar in the WWE throughout the mid-2000s, Batista took a hiatus from the company back in 2010. Batista pointed out creative differences as the reason for his departure and said that he is not going to return to the company anytime soon.

The definition of ‘anytime’ in Batista’s dictionary is probably three years as he came back to WWE in 2013. WWE, assuming that he still had the star power, made him win the next year’s Royal Rumble.

This sparked off an array of reactions throughout the wrestling business and Batista ended up being one of the hottest troll topics. He took another hiatus from the company just months later and is rumored to be done with the business.

Jake Roberts

Jake Roberts was someone who sat and smiled at the epitome of in ring psychology and gimmick brilliance. He had enough talent in him to become a class act in the business but a lot of struggle with his personal demons derailed Jake’s career. The problems he had during the late 90s are well documented and it should have been the right time for Jake to hang up his boots.

Jake however went on to wrestle till 2011 where he officially announced his retirement. Jake was then inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame but that did not keep him away from the ring. He made a lot of independent appearances afterwards and though they seemed solid, it was never the right way to follow up the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony which gave him a fitting farewell.

Bret Hart

Bret Hart left WWE as a big baby face thanks to the Montreal Screwjob. The legacy he left back in WWE painted him as a legend that got screwed over. After the Montreal incident, Bret went on to have a forgettable run in WCW at the end of which, he retired.

Most of the wrestling fans out there completely ignored the time he spent in WCW and always saw him as the great wrestler he was thanks to everything he did in WWE. It would have stayed the same if he had not come out of retirement for WrestleMania 26.

More than a decade after the Montreal Screwjob, Bret had his first match in WWE and that too against Vince McMahon. Both the superstars were in no condition whatsoever to give a wrestling clinic and it ended up being an overbooked mess that no one wanted to remember. Bret later went on to win the United States Championship as well by beating Miz, but all these matches tagged Bret as a superstar who should not have returned from retirement.

Ric Flair

Ric Flair was the one responsible for NWA’s rise during the territory days. Flair, as the NWA champion drew crowd almost everywhere he went and he later morphed this success into WCW and WWE as well. Flair officially ended his lengthy wrestling career with a retirement match against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania and it was probably the best farewell that anyone got in WWE.

Flair fell into a lot of financial trouble after leaving WWE and he came out of retirement to work for TNA. What he did down at the promotion was didn’t do any good for the reputation he built up in the past and he was eventually released by TNA. I’ll say that again, released by TNA.

Hulk Hogan

And the top wrestler who did not know when to retire is none other than Hulk Hogan. Hogan is still considered as one of WWE’s legendary pillars and he did help the company a lot during the golden era. Hogan then went on to have a successful run in WCW as well which also saw the formation of nWo and his heel turn.

He then had a lot of returns and matches throughout the remaining portion of his career. These included two fake retirements which should have been real. The first one came in 1999 and Hogan was supposed to run for president after his retirement. It turned out to be a complete false alarm but his second one in 2011 sounded more credible. He was down in TNA during the time and despite his retirement announcement, Hogan came back to wrestle a match with Sting.

Hogan was physically involved in a lot of confrontations in TNA afterwards before he landed his new legend’s contract with WWE.

Edited by Staff Editor