Professional wrestling can be a very fickle business. There are some in the industry that will quite literally wrestle for decades and others whose careers are over before they even reach the age of 30. There are a lot of factors at play when it comes to the longevity of a performer's career. For starters it should be pointed out that pro wrestling is a sport unlike any other, especially when it comes to how long the athletes within the industry can go on for. When it comes to sports such as football and soccer performers rarely make it beyond the age of 40. Pro wrestlers on the other hand can tweak what they do in the ring and how often they perform in order to lengthen their careers.

The likes of The Undertaker, Triple H, John Cena and AJ Styles are all terrific examples of stars who would likely have been forced to retire by now if they had excelled in another sport. In wrestling though nothing is guaranteed. One wrong move, accident or slip-up and your career could end just like that. It happens all too often in wrestling and is heart breaking when it does. Paige is a classic example of someone having to retire way too soon but more on that a little later in the article. The former Divas' Champion will be included on the recently retired side of this list as well as being joined by eight Superstars who really should consider retiring.

17 Recently Retired: Christian

Edge's retirement from in-ring competition will forever be remembered as one of the saddest and most shocking moments in WWE history. Shortly after successfully defending the World Title against Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania XXVII The Rated R Superstar appeared on Raw and broke the news to the WWE Universe. His tag team partner and lifelong best friend Christian didn't have the retirement that Edge had.

The former Impact Wrestling star's retirement happened slowly over a long period of time and after a number of references to it dating back as far as 2014.

The man himself didn't officially announce that he was retired for almost three years after that and even then it was only a passing comment. Christian briefly explained on his and Edge's podcast that he had to retire at around 40 because of all the concussions he had suffered.

16 Should Retire: Terry Funk

Terry Funk may have had the longest in-ring career in the history of professional wrestling. In fact despite being 73 years old at the time of typing this he still hasn't finished. The wrestling legend made his in-ring debut all the way back in 1965 so has wrestled in six different decades, seven if he manages to push on for another two years. While Funk was obviously a terrific wrestler for the majority of his career, who should have been able to make a living off of it for as long as he has, he has become famous for something else. That something else is the sheer amount of time he has 'retired'. It has effectively become his gimmick at this point as he first retired over 20 years ago. Since then he has retired countless times but obviously can't bare to tear himself away. One of these days though his next match really has to be his last.

15 Recently Retired: Damien Sandow

Damien Sandow will forever be known by a large chunk of WWE fans as one of the greatest missed opportunities in the modern era. Despite it being right under their noses Vince McMahon and co failed to see just what they had with Sandow. The culmination of his incredible work with the company came when he was paired with The Miz and acted as The Awesome One's stunt double. It felt like the angle was leading to a huge blow off feud between the two and one that would establish Sandow as a major player, but that blow off never really came.

Sandow was released from WWE shortly after that and spent a little time at Impact Wrestling.

He has since left them too and no longer wrestles at all, choosing to focus on his acting career instead.

14 Should Retire: Jerry Lawler

The wrestling business can be pretty hard going on those who compete within it, especially those who wrestle for year after year after year. Professional wrestlers are renowned for leaning on all kinds of vices from drink to pills to things even worse than that in some cases. Not Jerry 'The King' Lawler though. The Memphis legend has never dabbled with banned substances despite wrestling since the 1970s and becoming one of the most famous names in the industry.

Despite the lack of substances in Lawler's life he has encountered a lot of health issues.

Just recently King suffered a stroke and there was of course his heart attack live on Raw. Despite all of that he continues to wrestle from time to time, probably not the best idea in the world.

13 Recently Retired: Mark Henry

While there are a lot of Superstars who have competed under WWE's banner for a number of years, there are only a very select few whose stays with the company end up completely unbroken. Mark Henry is one of those few and may very well be one of the most underrated wrestlers in the history of the business.

Since we're on the topic of retirements we would be remiss not to talk about the greatest angles in Henry's career, his fake retirement.

The World's Strongest Man gave an emotional in-ring speech on Raw claiming he was done only to reveal that it was all a ruse in order to get his hands on John Cena. Henry is retired for real now though and was recently and deservedly inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame.

12 Should Retire: Alberto El Patron

Alberto Del Rio, Alberto El Patron, however you know him it's hard to deny that the Mexican wrestler isn't a tremendous talent. The work he did during his first run as a WWE Superstar is often overlooked and under-appreciated. Del Rio hung in the WWE Title scene during a time that John Cena and CM Punk were the company's top guys and were tussling over its most prestigious prize. On top of that he has basically been a World Champion everywhere that he's gone. However if he didn't continually lose his temper and get in his own way Del Rio could be an even bigger star. His comments about higher ups at WWE likely means he will never be able to return to them and it seems he may have just done something similar with Impact Wrestling.

11 Recently Retired: Gail Kim

The first ever women's Royal Rumble match earlier this year brought a lot of former female Superstars out of the woodwork. WWE needed some returns in order to fill out all 30 spots in the match and the women who returned deserved that moment as they laid the groundwork for the female wrestlers of today. Although a lot of familiar faces returned there were still some glaring omissions. Victoria was nowhere to be seen, Awesome Kong did not return, and neither did Gail Kim. Although Kim spent the majority of her career at Impact Wrestling she was still a champion in WWE and a damn good one at that. She wasn't even officially retired at the time as she competed in her last match a week after the Rumble, but she has hung up her boots for good now.

10 Should Retire: Big Show

Harking back to wrestlers who have shown an unwavering loyalty now, we arrive at the Big Show. Ever since The World's Largest Athlete made the move to WWE from WCW he has been an employee of theirs, aside from a very short spell in 2007, and has basically done anything they have asked of him. Show has taken hits from Floyd Mayweather, sumo wrestled at WrestleMania, and even dressed up as a baby. He really is a company guy. For the longest time now though fans have been taunting show with chants telling him he should retire. Those chants have become more few and far between to be fair now that Show is in much better shape, and that's why he should grab the opportunity with both hands to go out at his best. If Show retires soon then he will be fondly remembered whereas if he pushes on for a few more years who knows what state his career may be in.

9 Recently Retired: Rich Swann

This entry lands in something of a grey area as the wrestler in question is not officially retired just yet. Rich Swann has had a pretty tumultuous six months or so. The former Cruiserweight Champion was suspended from WWE after breaking one of their no-tolerance rules. The charges were dropped against Swann but clearly the damage had been done between he and WWE and a little while later he was released from the company. Swann broke his silence on social media by revealing that he had been overwhelmed with the amount of independent bookings he had received since leaving WWE, but once he is done with the ones he has already accepted he will be retiring from in-ring competition. So he is still wrestling at the moment, but not for long.

8 Should Retire: Kane

WWE often get a lot of stick for some of the characters they have created, especially the career based ones during the early 1990s. There are a couple of cases though where personas that must have seemed ridiculous on paper were brought to life and turned out to be absolutely outstanding ideas. A prime example of that is Kane. A seven foot Superstar who was assumed to have died in a fire set by his brother and wears a mask to hide his hideous burns, who comes up with something like that? Well from night one of Kane's run in WWE it was clear that it was a great idea and he made one of the most memorable debuts of all time. Today's Kane is a far cry from the one who debuted in 1997 though and with a political career on the go it really is time for The Big Red Machine to step away.

7 Recently Retired: Brie Bella

In February of 2016 Daniel Bryan took to the ring and gave one of the most emotional speeches in the entire history of Raw. The former World Champion was being forced to retire due to a build up of injuries long before he ever envisioned having to step away from the ring. A couple of months later his wife Brie Bella also retired, presumably so she could finally start a family with her husband with them both off the road with WWE. Unsurprisingly they had their first child soon after that. Now though Bryan is back of course and is once again a full time WWE Superstar, but what about Brie? She returned for the first ever women's Royal Rumble but could we see her return to the ring on a more permanent basis some time soon?

6 Should Retire: Kurt Angle

Throughout the history of WWE there have been bridges burned between Vince McMahon and various wrestlers that at one point appeared to be beyond repair. The likes of Bret Hart, Bruno Sammartino, Ultimate Warrior, the list goes on. Another man that fans thought they would never see back in a WWE ring is Kurt Angle. However in 2017 the Olympic gold medalist led that year's Hall Of Fame class and clearly had visions of continuing his wrestling career upon his return. We had to wait a while but in October of that year it finally happened. Since then Angle has wrestled twice more but on all three occasions it has been in tag team matches. Clearly Angle is not what he once was in the ring and perhaps the next matches he has should be his last, maybe as part of a retirement tour.

5 Recently Retired: Bubba Ray Dudley

Sticking with wrestlers who have recently been inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame, on to Bubba Ray Dudley. He and his kayfabe brother D-Von were deservedly welcomed into the hall this year and together they are the most decorated tag team in all of wrestling history. Despite being famous for his runs with ECW, WWE and Impact Wrestling though Dudley did not retire with any of those companies. Now his final match as an in-ring talent was last year at Ring Of Honor's Final Battle. Bubba has done some tremendous work with the promotion and his retirement angle was the cherry on the cake. He isn't done yet either and even though he no longer competes in matches he remains a part of ROH as an enforcer.

4 Should Retire: Brock Lesnar

Earlier this year Roman Reigns cut one of the best promos of his career to date. Brock Lesnar no-showed an episode of Raw and The Big Dog went off on him, revealing a lot of home truths and what are likely his real feelings about The Beast Incarnate. Most of Reigns' thoughts and feelings revolved around Lesnar's lack of respect for the business, his colleagues, and the fact that he is barely around despite being champion. Those are all the same reasons why fans are starting to get sick of him too. Most of us expected Lesnar to lose at WrestleMania 34 and return to UFC and were likely a little disappointed when that didn't happen. At this point we'd even be happy to see Reigns take the title from him and send him packing back to the octagon.

3 Recently Retired: Paige

The last two years of Paige's life have been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for the first ever NXT Women's Champion. The British Superstar was suspended twice, had her personal photos and videos leaked, and underwent a pretty serious neck surgery. She overcame all of that though and returned to the ring. Shortly after that though Paige was re-injured and this time it was recently revealed that there was no way back. On the Raw After WrestleMania Paige confirmed all of our worst fears and announced that she had to retire from in-ring competition despite being just 25 years of age. The Norwich native had no time to dwell on it though and just 24 hours later Shane McMahon announced that Paige would be the new General Manager of SmackDown Live.

2 Should Retire: The Undertaker

When it comes to Superstars with long tenures in WWE there is none, and likely never will be, like The Undertaker. The Deadman made his WWE debut in November of 1990 and he remains on the roster until this day. Considering the beating The Phenom's body has taken over the years it's a minor miracle that he can continue to compete, but at times that wear and tear has shown. Some may argue that Taker's career should have ended along with his streak at WrestleMania XXX. He didn't look great in that match and the shocking moment would have been an incredible segment. Clearly though The Deadman seems intent on stepping into the ring until he can barely walk anymore. He competed at WrestleMania 34 and is booked to take on Chris Jericho later this month.

1 Recently Retired: Sting

Despite the fact that they have never competed against one another, apart from in a throwaway match decades ago before The Undertaker was in WWE, it's hard not to mention Sting when you talk about The Deadman. The Icon was effectively WCW's answer to The Undertaker as he showed tremendous loyalty to the promotion even when times were at their hardest. Even when WCW went under Sting didn't jump ship to WWE and we had to wait until late in 2014 for him to arrive in Vince McMahon's company. He wrestled Triple H, Big Show and Seth Rollins and we finally thought we would see that elusive dream match against The Undertaker. Unfortunately less than a year after his debut Sting suffered a career ending injury and that dream match will forever remain in the heads of fans around the world.