There aren't enough Loser leaves town or retirement matches in wrestling

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Undertaker, HHH, Batista, Kane, HBK, etc; none of them dudes from the attitude or ruthless aggression era did the honors of putting someone over in a retirement match.

flair's retirement tour storyline was fire and had a goat retirement match.

Why do we see them so infrequently? Cena, Rey, Lita, or Trish should have a retirement match at mania this year.

 

[MenacingMonk]

More Predictable, maybe?

 

[boriquaking]

Kurt put Corbin over.

But that was a travesty

 

[CEO of Morgan Industries]

There are no territories anymore. Hard to have as many loser leaves town matches when there's almost nowhere to leave town to and still keep wrestling.

Back in the day, you leave town in Dallas and go work in Vancouver or Shreveport or Houston or Charlotte or New York. Now, it's leave town for AEW/WWE, Mexico, or Japan, and most folks aren't thinking about pursuing those last two.

 

[Legal]

Undertaker, HHH, Batista, Kane, HBK, etc; none of them dudes from the attitude or ruthless aggression era did the honors of putting someone over in a retirement match.

flair's retirement tour storyline was fire and had a goat retirement match.

Why do we see them so infrequently? Cena, Rey, Lita, or Trish should have a retirement match at mania this year.

Because no one ever REALLY retires the way they used to anymore, and older talents aren't used to put over new talent the way they used to, either. Older talent doesn't job their way out. They go out on a high note, and then come back occasionally to mostly just go over younger talent. It really says something that Edge is one of the more generous nostalgia return acts, and is still going over most of the time.

And between people being way too aware of contract situations and pump faking, "Loser leaves" matches have lost their punch.

 

[CBoz]

I don't follow NJPW that much but didn't Jay White just lose one?

 

[boriquaking]

Because no one ever REALLY retires the way they used to anymore, and older talents aren't used to put over new talent the way they used to, either. Older talent doesn't job their way out. They go out on a high note, and then come back occasionally to mostly just go over younger talent. It really says something that Edge is one of the more generous nostalgia return acts, and is still going over most of the time.

And between people being way too aware of contract situations and pump faking, "Loser leaves" matches have lost their punch.

Yeah, the business is just too different now.

 

[Legal]

I don't follow NJPW that much but didn't Jay White just lose one?

Yeah, but there was no tension, because the stakes weren't quite equal, he lost to someone who barely wrestles in NJPW, and everyone knew he was going to lose because his contract was up. There's just too much info out there for these marches to hit the same.

 

[HipHopStan]

I guess the reason they rarely do them is because the retirement/career over stipulation doesn't stick and they always eventually come back. I think we're closing in on two years since the last one. It was Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan (Title vs. Career) on Smackdown! a few weeks after Mania. In that case, the Tribal Chief sent the GOAT (face) to AEW.

 

[CBoz]

I guess the reason they rarely do them is because the retirement/career over stipulation doesn't stick and they always eventually come back. I think we're closing in on two years since the last one. It was Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan (Title vs. Career) on Smackdown! a few weeks after Mania. In that case, the Tribal Chief sent the GOAT (face) to AEW.

Santos Escobar had one technically on NXT just before his main roster call up with Legado.

 

[TOAD99]

I think miz and dolph had a title vs career match a couple of years ago that was

 

[Legal]

I think miz and dolph had a title vs career match a couple of years ago that was

That one was pretty good. Brought back the Spirit Squad guys as part of the build and everything, if I remember correctly.

 

[CM_Burns]

It seemed like Undertaker losing to Roman was going to be a good example of this, but he still came back a few times.


Cena could potentially wrestle a limited punch/kick match 10 years from now so you don't wanna do it with him yet. Him putting over Austin Theory this year would be a big deal for Theory already.

 

[Cattle Mutilation]

Bit harder when the dirt sheets already have the low down on when someone’s leaving or retiring

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Because there arent territories to bounce around to. Contracts kinda ruined that. And dirt sheets killed it