- 6 minutes ago
Professional wrestling is a punishing business. While some stars get a grand farewell, others see their careers brutally cut short or quietly fizzle out. This video looks at 8 famous wrestlers, like the legendary Yokozuna and Mick Foley, whose time in the ring ended without the fanfare they deserved.
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00:00so i think every now and then we do just need to take a step back from pro wrestling remember
00:03that
00:04it is really really hard how many times you see something go awry in a match and you get somebody
00:09shouting out well what a botch that was wasn't a botch somebody just made a mistake because again
00:13wrestling is really hard it's also totally brutal on your body as well which is why sometimes
00:17wrestlers do just have to go away or to tie into the title of this video their careers brutally
00:22fade away because they don't have enough left in the tank to have a retirement match that absolutely
00:26sucks as well because look at what we did with sting in aw or even john cena in wwe i
00:31know that
00:31was a mixed bag but just seeing him go out on his own special show it made you feel warm
00:36and fuzzy
00:36so let's make sure we go through eight specific wrestlers here and give them that to you tell
00:41you my friends they were absolutely awesome number eight yoko zuna so yoko zuna is one of the best
00:46professional wrestlers that we do not talk about enough today if you're not aware of he you can
00:50see him on the screen right now and even though he was a gargantuan man he moved around like a
00:55cat
00:55one day the undertaker saw him and went to vince man and said uh excuse me boss i want to
00:59work with
01:00that guy and this is the undertaker being the undertaker he ain't just gonna ask that for
01:03anybody given how the wwf was in the mid 90s there are three specific things people do remember yokes
01:08for which of course is the awful end to wrestlemania 9 and when he got slammed by lex luger when
01:14we were
01:14trying to make sure that lex luger became the new hulk hogan yes that was as kind of bad as
01:18it sounded
01:19sadly the third one of these though that always does the rounds including in the yoko zuna documentary that the
01:24ww themselves produced he also struggled with his weight at his heaviest he was reported to be
01:29660 pounds or 300 kilograms from my european friends and his body had become so immobilized
01:34by that point eventually his body started to break down there's also another story where vader
01:38supposedly broke zunes his leg and due to his size it took a forklift to remove his body from the
01:43ring
01:44because a stretcher couldn't do the job that actually gets even more sad because this was not a
01:48legitimate injury instead it was an angle because the wwf had sat down with yoko zuna and said to him
01:53we are going to give you some time off because we desperately need you to lose some weight now
01:57yoko was able to do this because he dropped over 100 pounds in 1996 which is super impressive but
02:02for whatever reason it did not convince officials that 1998 he got let go of course what happened
02:07after this is the usual standard affair for a pro wrestler in the late 90s yoko zuna went back to
02:12the
02:12indie scene which at that time was not like it was today was pretty hard to make any money it
02:16all led
02:17to his tragic passing on the 23rd of october 2000 while on a tour of the united kingdom doing these
02:21shows and
02:22worst part is he was just 34 years old you have to imagine if he was able to keep his
02:26weight down
02:27he would have gone on to become even better still believe you me my friends that is a massive compliment
02:31go and put on a yoko zuna match today promise you you will be impressed number seven bobby fish
02:36the undisputed era was for a spell the undisputed hottest thing in pro wrestling that's the best way
02:42to summarize this and what happened to bobby fish is to go through the entire faction to see what
02:45happened since departing wwe adam cole when he debuted at aew all out 2021 was on top of the world
02:51and once
02:52again reminding you why he was one of the best wrestlers on the planet when sadly he suffered
02:56some concussion issues and a neck injury and as of me talking to you we still don't know what's
03:00going to happen to his career but as always wrestling is the most important of the least
03:04important things but just hope that guy's okay kylo o'reilly also had to overcome extensive neck
03:09problems in much more jovial news he recently did return to aew as i am talking to you and he
03:14became a trio's champion in aew 2 roderick strong was able to be the international title so that was
03:19good and really we need to put more respect on ronnie's name he somehow gets better with age
03:24i mean when do you ever see another bad match and as for bobby fish well it all kind of
03:28did go
03:28weird after he joined the elite wrestling it made perfect sense why he would go there given his
03:32friends and jump ship as well but he only lasted 10 months under tony karl's employment there's also
03:37some sort of an issue with cm punk because one during an episode of collision bobby fish kicked out
03:42of the gts at 3.5 and he then went online well let's just say he had some horrible words
03:47to say about
03:47see and punk and it felt very one-sided since that as well though it kind of feels like fish
03:51has
03:51stepped away from wrestling because he's only wrestled 14 matches across 2025 and when we poked
03:57our noses into 2026 but i don't think he's wrestled at all now maybe he has just decided to quietly
04:02hang them up which is his right but given how hot he was when the undisputed era was running wild
04:07in
04:07nxt that was just a strange old end really i think he would have gone out with more of a
04:11bang
04:11number six mick foley now it's important to say that if mick foley had it his way he would probably
04:16be
04:16retiring from pro wrestling right now in an angle whether john moxley or mdf the mixture has talked
04:21about this he has sat down had chats with both those guys and apparently they came up with one
04:25hell of a plan now we all know about his original retirement back in 2000 when triple h threw him
04:30through the hell in a cell when we needed a fourth guy for the wrestlemania main event so foley returned
04:34to tick that box you can't really blame him who the flood is going to turn down the wrestlemania main
04:39event then jump forward 20 or so years where it was reported that maybe just maybe mick foley was
04:44thinking about having his own farewell super show when he mentioned mjf when he mentioned john moxley
04:48and actually even mentioned matt cardona one of these guys could have done it now actually you can
04:52find even more rumors that john moxley and mick foley were going to go at it at summerslam 2012
04:56i'll let you google that when it was maxwell jacob freebon who came to the front because yeah
05:01both those dudes have talked about it they had a secret meeting in long island apparently they came up
05:06with the goods it feels like foley was going to pull the trigger on this too because he did start
05:09training when it all did fall down because he suffered a concussion and realized man i don't
05:14think i could do this anymore it's not worth my health it's not worth my time it's not worth what
05:19i may put my family through so it does mean that mick foley's actual last match the six minutes he
05:23spent at the 2012 royal rumble and let me tell you this if a time angle should be based on
05:28your
05:28contribution to the business or how great you were then the former cactus jack should have 42 799
05:34matches because good grief is that guy underrated some idiots like to go he just do his body off
05:39stuff no he doesn't that man told narratives with his physique and good grief did he understand pro
05:44wrestling he also paid for it too with the injuries and ailments he still does have today but mick foley
05:49is an underrated legend when you are an underrated legend it would be nice if you did have a big
05:53send
05:53off hopefully one day we can still have somewhat of a party number five china so china was finally and
05:59somewhat indirectly inducted into the ww hall of fame in 2019 as a member of d generation x but
06:05when somebody asked triple h about a solo induction well he had this to say i'm sure she will be
06:10in the
06:10hall of fame sometime on her own i think it's fitting she is in there with dx in the beginning
06:14until she started and i think it's what it should be now that is absolutely true because during d
06:19generation x part one it would not have worked if it was just triple h and sean michaels because china
06:24added the secret sauce hard to get across these days but in 1997 nobody had seen anything like the
06:30ninth wonder of the world sadly though there may be more to this though because when china did leave
06:34the wwf in 2001 well it was on super duper bare terms it also came off the back of a
06:40bunch of chat
06:40due to her personal life given that she had been dating triple h who was now seeing stephanie mcmahon
06:45but after this it just felt like the rug was pulled out from under her feet because even though
06:49she tried to make inroads when it came to acting eventually she settled on pornography too and let's just
06:54say that didn't really help given that she was dealing with a lot of personal issues too before
06:57all that though she was actually able to wrestle some matches for new japan in 2002 and made a one
07:02off appearance in 2011 for tna but sadly she tragically died in 2016 at the tender age of just 46.
07:09what really get you is that china never got her second run in the wwe and you always kind of
07:13felt
07:13like it was gonna happen now many outlets have reported maybe the issue did come from the fact she
07:17did do pornography but that is not the point if anybody deserved a big old send off what they had
07:22done
07:22for women's wrestling and women in wrestling it was china and the fact that it all ended on upsetting
07:28notes it's just not right man especially because this happens to a lot of wrestlers we got the
07:32changes number four kane so this one really does come down to his tenure in the business because kane
07:37or the big red machine debuted in 1997 and basically went all the way through to 2021 and even after
07:44that he kept popping up here and there going oh hi you remember me my name is kane i mean
07:48he had come a
07:48long way from isaac yankum which was a wrestling dentist and it's not like the real life glenn jacobs
07:53doesn't have stuff to do after retirement because he did get into politics and no we're not going to
07:56talk about that here when you do go back to the character it kind of feels like he should have
08:00got a send off like the undertaker because let's not forget they were the brothers of destruction
08:04and yeah who the flub has a 20 plus career in the wwe the answer is few and far between
08:09so we have
08:10a mc foley situation here because the last time we saw him properly was a short stint in the 2021
08:14raw
08:15rumble that just seems like such a strange way to go off into the sunset when you had such an
08:19impact
08:19on the business like kane did in the late 90s it feels like this was the plan as well though
08:23because
08:24kane was inducted into the hall of fame that year so it was a one-two punch these days we
08:29definitely
08:29don't need to see him come back we've just moved on it doesn't seem to be bothering him though so
08:33i
08:33guess it's not a problem but given how long he was with the company one day was kind of there
08:37one day
08:38kind of wallet number three bob backland so the tail end of roman reigns 1316 revolutionary title
08:44reign as undisputed wwe champion michael cole would often tell us there's only four historical
08:50figures who had a world title reign longer than roman's in ascending order it was pedro morales
08:54hulk code and bob backland bruno samartin some people are always surprised to hear that backland is
08:59in that list but i tell you my friends he was the big hero the big baby face before we
09:03got to hulkamania
09:04i mean his state is as a top guy never changed the company in the way that hulk hogan did
09:08but bob
09:09was a guy who would go on the road and work with everybody including bastion bugger in fact you can
09:13look it up now go find the record books on one night he actually did the job he's basically chosen
09:18to be the next big guy after bruno sammartino had exit stage left too so it's kind of crazy that
09:23in
09:23general wwe doesn't sing his praises higher i mean i guess you could say he was more of a vincent
09:27man
09:27senior guy but he was still the guy sometimes you don't even see him in video packages at all
09:32and the last notable thing bacton did for wwe was act as darren young's life coach between 2016 and
09:382017 because by this stage bob was nuts or somehow he made it work the equivalent to this i suppose
09:44would be getting to 2050 and roman reigns being treated like a nothing because yes once again
09:49bob bacton was placed at the top of the card and he had one hell of a title run and
09:54you get to the
09:54modern day it's almost like we forgot number two randy savage so the big sadness when it comes to
09:59matchman randy savage is that he never got that second run in the wwe there are a bunch of stories
10:04out there and i would take the majority of them with a pinch of salt but for whatever reason after
10:09he had left the world wrestling federation in 1994 vincent man decided nope we are never gonna
10:14hire the matchman back he stood by his word it quite literally never happened randy savage of course had
10:19to end his career somewhere though and actually it came down in tna this was four years after he had
10:24exited wcw when he was brought out as a surprise to close out victory road in 2004 he was then
10:29booked alongside aj styles and jeff hardy in the main event of turning point the following month
10:33where they were going to defeat the kings of wrestling which was jeff jarrett kevin nash and
10:37scott hall now even though it was 2004 most people did see this as a massive match because it was
10:42an
10:42all-star affair sadly for whatever reason randy savage just didn't feel like randy savage i mean
10:48gone with the trademark mannerisms the colorful attire and he didn't even do a diving elbow drop instead
10:53there was a guy in the ring who just looked like he had no confidence at all i love the
10:57matchup and
10:57randy savage things were the best wrestlers ever just a little bit sad really the biggest thing he
11:02did around this time too was appear in the first spider-man movie but if anybody deserved a big
11:06send-off it was randy savage of course he did eventually get inducted into the ww hall of fame
11:11but this was after he too had tragically passed away and that is just not right i'm sure if you
11:16did
11:16grow up in the hulk hogan era it was always the hulkster or macho man we could have done way
11:20better by him
11:21number one andre the giant so sometimes being a wrestling fan can be just a little bit depressing
11:26we all have our heroes in the industry and if you do watch for long enough you witness the
11:30gradual decline in their health and no wrestler better exemplifies that than andre the giant
11:34if you do not know the reason andre was so tall is because he suffered from gigantism
11:39at one point even tipped the scales at 520 pounds and made him the biggest attraction wwe had
11:45during the 80s he was a major hit with audiences of that era before he did his heel turn let's
11:50not
11:50forget he was dubbed the eighth wonder of the world but if you are wondering why china was the
11:54ninth you just found out of course it all led to that wrestlemania 3 main event against hulk hogan
11:59and there's no other way to put it that was absolutely seismic and one of the most important
12:02matches in history the same part though is that when modern audiences look this up they will see
12:06somebody that can't really move and that was not andre the giant when you find him in his peak years
12:11your jaw will hit the floor if this was a yoko zula situation how could somebody be so big move
12:17around like it was nothing everybody also used to talk about the fact that andre was in so much pain
12:21and actually he continued wrestling until a month before his passing once again there he was just
12:26in constant discomfort hence why he was mostly using multi-man tag belts given that he was under
12:31the giant though people wanted him on the show he very sadly passed away from congestive heart failure
12:36in january 1993 at just 46 once again it's andre the giant when he would be immortalized later that
12:42he is the first inductee into the newly minted ww hall of fame but we should have had a week
12:47of
12:47tribute shows for this guy because really without under the giant you probably don't have the world
12:53wrestling federation nobody other wrestlers who deserved a much better send-off that they did
12:57get make sure you let us know in the comments below before you like the video share the video
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13:04and otherwise my friends i appreciate you and i will talk to you again very soon