Professional wrestling isn’t like a lot of other professions. You can be a bank teller until you’re 80 and never miss a day of work. Grocery store cashiers can work consistently at the same store for 30 plus years. Pro wrestlers, in general, have a very limited shelf life for how long they can wrestle. Most wrestlers, like NFL quarterbacks, reach their prime as they reach their late 30s, as the pro wrestling life style begins to take a toll after decades of putting it all on the line for the entertainment of the masses.
The point here is that even the best wrestler in the world cannot physically compete for the rest of their life. There comes a point in time where a wrestler has to hang up their boots. For some, that time comes soon after quitting or being released from the WWE and they just decide to give up on wrestling, as some sports entertainers have done.
For others, that retirement comes much later in life, and leaving a big-time wrestling promotion is not the end of the world. Case in point is, there are actually still some former wrestlers from WCW that still work the occasional match, despite being well into their 50s and beyond. Being that WCW went out of business nearly 20 years ago says a lot about some wrestlers wanting to go as long as they can.
Whether all wrestlers can still go as well as they used to is another question, but these former stars, for better or for worse, are still going.
20 WWE: Wade Barrett
Wade Barrett seemed destined for greatness in the WWE. He had the look, the mic skills, the wrestling ability. He even won the first season of NXT, which guaranteed him a world championship match, and went on the be the leader of The Nexus, the hottest stable in the WWE. However, a series of bad booking decisions drove Barrett into the ground and, just as his “Bad News” gimmick was getting over, he was neutered in the League of Nations. Since his departure from the WWE, Barrett has had a successful run in different companies, becoming the on-screen general manager of Defiant Wrestling and in November 2018 as “The Lord” in Lucha Underground.
19 WCW: Kid Kash
While Kid Kash may be more known for his time in ECW, he had a considerable run in the WWE. After ECW One Night Stand in 2005, Kash remained in the WWE for a few years. He had a run with the previous incarnation of the Cruiserweight Championship, and, after losing the title, Kash formed a tag team with Jamie Noble known as The Pitbulls. After leaving the WWE in 2006, Kid Kash has had a flourishing career. In 2018, Kid Kash wrestled at an Impact event When Worlds Collide where he teamed with Ky-ote as a part of Arrow Club.
18 WWE: Paul London
Paul London is probably most famous for his tag team with Brian Kendrick. London and Kendrick held the tag titles for nearly a year, setting a record of over 330 days that would stand for nearly a decade. Brian Kendrick was eventually drafted to Smackdown in 2008, and that would split up the tag team. Paul London would be released from the company the same year. London has had a mildly successful career in the decade since his release, and he still finds work today. Most recently, Paul London was a part of The Rabbit Tribe in the third season of Lucha Underground.
17 WCW: Shinjiro Otani
Shinjiro Otani may not be the most recognizable name to casual wrestling fans, but he is important when it comes to the legacy of WCW. Otani was one of the most significant figures in establishing the WCW’s cruiserweight division, as he was the inaugural WCW Cruiserweight Champion in 1996. Otani would use this spot in the WCW’s cruiserweight division as a launching pad for his career, as Otani would go on to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and even challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. At 46 years old, Otani still wrestles, as he wrestled for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship as recently as 2017.
16 WWE: Chavo Guerrero Jr.
There are very few families that can claim to be one of wrestling’s royal families, but the Guerreros are certainly one of those families. However, Chavo Guerrero Jr. was never taken as seriously as some of his contemporaries, or even his uncle, Eddie. This is evident when you look at the strange gimmicks Chavo was given to work with in the WWE, like Kerwin White. The WWE did, however, keep Guerrero employed for quite a long time, until his release in 2011. Since then, Chavo has made quite a career for himself, as he has been a mainstay on the Lucha Underground roster since the brand’s inception in 2014.
15 WCW: La Parka
From one wrestler with latino heritage to another, La Parka was a fairly consistent wrestler during his time in WCW. He was even a part of the LWO, the Latino World Order, a group led by Eddie Guerrero meant to parody the New World Order. La Parka wrestled for WCW for four years, leaving the company in 2000. La Parka went on to wrestle all over Mexico afterwards, as he had 2 solid runs in CMLL. Additionally, while he wrestled for Triple A when the company was started before his time in WCW, he would go on to have 2 more runs in AAA, where he still wrestles today.
14 WWE: Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett could really be listed under either company on this list, as he spent a considerable amount of time in both WWE and WCW, and made a significant impact in both. Jeff Jarrett has had an extensive wrestling career even outside of those two companies, as he had a few runs in TNA/Impact Wrestling, and he even attempted to start his own wrestling company, Global Force Wrestling, which would eventually merge with TNA. Jarrett was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018, and that induction usually means that they are not allowed to wrestle for another company, but Jarrett appeared in a match at 2018’s Triplemania, where he wrestled Brian Cage and Rich Swann.
13 WCW: Shannon Moore
Just like the previous entry on this list, Shannon Moore has wrestled for both WWE and WCW, but he is much more of a WCW man, as WCW was the company that gave him his start. At only 20 years old, Moore was hired to be a part of the cruiserweight division, where he was a part of the tag team trio 3 Count, along with Shane Helms and Evan Karagias. Since WCW went under and Moore was released from his WWE contract, Moore went on to wrestle for TNA and would even be re-hired by the WWE later in his career. Moore still makes appearances today on the indie wrestling scene.
12 WWE: The Hurricane
The Hurricane was a constant fan favorite throughout his nearly ten year stint in the WWE. The main behind the gimmick was a fan of superheroes in real life, so his commitment to the gimmick was commendable and fans definitely noticed. His popularity has granted him many opportunities outside of the WWE, and he even returned as a surprise entrant in the 2018 Royal Rumble. The Hurricane made a deal with Ring of Honor to wrestle three dates in the summer of 2018, so he is still willing to wrestle, but his is likely only wrestling for indie promotions, as it appears his ROH appearances were not part of a long-term contract.
11 WCW: Shane Douglas
While Shane Douglas was never the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, he was a very important figure for the company. He was the United States Champion, the Hardcore Champion, and a 2-time World Tag Team Champion. When WCW was bought out, Douglas was one of the many wrestlers who sat out the rest of their contracts, and Douglas went to TNA shortly thereafter. He had a fairly memorable run in TNA, with matches like the hair versus hair match with Raven in 2003. He has been working on the independent scene since his release from TNA in the late 200s, and he is still working today.
10 WWE: John Morrison
John Morrison is one of the most decorated tag team wrestlers in the modern era of WWE, and is surely going to be in the WWE Hall of Fame in the future. He is a 5 time tag team champion, and even won the ECW World Championship during the WWE’s revival of ECW. However, going by the names Johnny Mundo and Johnny Impact, he has won multiple championships. In Lucha Underground, Johnny Mundo was the second ever Triple Crown Champion. At Bound for Glory 2018, Johnny Impact defeated Austin Aries for the Impact World Championship, which, at the time of writing this article, he still holds.
9 WCW: Christopher Daniels
Christopher Daniels had a fairly uneventful run in the WCW. Daniels’ time in the WCW is most notable due to a botched springboard moonsault where he suffered neck damage. Despite this botch, Daniels was still signed to a contract, but was never used again. Since then, Daniels has made quite the name for himself in other promotions, like Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling, and he is unofficially known as the “King of the Indies”. Most recently, Daniels carried a non-wrestler – Stephen Amell, star of the television series Arrow – to a fairly good full match at All In on the first of September in 2018.
8 WWE: Justin Gabriel
When Justin Gabriel first appeared in the WWE, it was on the first season of the competition-style iteration of NXT. Later, he would make his debut on the main roster as a part of The Nexus, the hottest angle that the WWE had seen in years. As many wrestling fans know, The Nexus’s heat was never properly capitalized on, and Justin Gabriel is known best for being one of the final two that John Cena defeated at SummerSlam 2010. Since his release from the WWE, Justin Gabriel has, under his real name, made appearances on Lucha Underground and, in April 2018, Championship Wrestling From Hollywood.
7 WCW: Konnan
Konnan was one of the many WCW wrestlers to eventually join the New World Order. He also was a part of the No Limit Soldiers and is a former Television and United States Champion. However, when WCW was bought by the WWE, Konnan went to the independent circuit, eventually joining TNA and forming the team known as LAX. Since then, Konnan has wrestled for various promotions, like AAA and CMLL. Currently, Konnan has made his third return to AAA, where he is feuding with the previously-mentioned La Parka, and his first return to Impact Wrestling, where he is still the leader of LAX .
6 WWE: Gillberg
Even though Goldberg, the man that he was created as a parody of, has retired from pro wrestling, Gillberg is still an active wrestler. For those who don’t know, Gillberg was created in the early 1990s by the WWE as a parody of the wildly popular Goldberg, who was wrestling for WCW at the time. He won the Light Heavyweight Championship but was mostly treated as a joke. On WWE programming, James Ellsworth was repeatedly compared to Gillberg, and the comparisons were apparently noticed by Gillberg because, in 2018, Gillberg and James Ellsworth faced each other in February and formed a tag team in April.
5 WCW: Yuji Nagata
Yuji Nagata is one of the multiple wrestlers who are also trained in legitimate Greco-Roman wrestling. While many fans who only watch local wrestling may not know him, Nagata is very well known in the world of Japanese wrestling. During his stint in WCW, he often worked with fellow countrymen, like Kensuke Sasaki and Último Dragón. Nagata left the WCW in 1998 and has been a mainstay in NJPW since returning to the company in the same year. He has done practically everything that there is to do in NJPW, as he has won the G1 Climax, the New Japan Rumble, the New Japan Cup, and has held the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship twice.
4 WWE: Jack Swagger
Jack Swagger, despite his fluctuating popularity in the WWE, Jack Swagger is a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and a former ECW World Champion, a championship he won during the WWE’s revival of the ECW brand. Additionally, Jack Swagger won the Money in the Bank Ladder Match in 2010.
Conflicting stories from the man himself and the WWE vary on when he was actually released, but it was definitely sometime in March of 2017. Since then, Swagger has debuted for Lucha Underground, going under the new name “The Savage” Jake Strong. Swagger also competed for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship in November 2018 under his real name, Jake Hager.
3 WCW: Meng
Meng’s time in the WCW was fraught with bad booking. Initially, Meng was a part of the laughable Dungeon of Doom, a stable that is widely regarded as the worst stable in all of professional wrestling. He did get a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match against Goldberg, but Goldberg was in the middle of his incredible undefeated streak at the time, so Meng would lose the match. In 2016, going by the name King Haku, he debuted in NJPW as a part of Bullet Club. Haku is the real-life father of Bullet Club member Tama Tonga, and Haku is currently a member of the Bullet Club OGs.
2 WWE: Camacho
Camacho was not a part of the WWE roster for long. He had a brief alliance with Hunico before Hunico became the new Sin Cara. He had a brief stint in NXT and even made a few appearances on Main Event on the WWE Network. However, most people know him better by one of his other names. Camacho had did a year in TNA/Impact Wrestling under the name Micah after winning Gut Check in 2015. Most wrestling fans know him for his work in NJPW, where he still wrestles. Camacho is currently a member of the Bullet Club OGs in NJPW under the name Tanga Loa.
1 WCW: Jushin Thunder Liger
When Jushin Thunder Liger competed for the WCW, he was already a fairly popular star in Japan. He also began his second run in the company in 2015, the same year that the film Jushin Thunder Liger: Fist of Thunder, a superhero movie about him, was released. During his times in the WCW, Liger won the WCW World Light Heavyweight Championship and even challenged for the WCW World United States Championship. In addition to his multitude of accomplishments on the independent circuit, Jushin Thunder Liger is an 11-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion in NJPW, the promotion which he still works for today.