The wrestling life isn’t easy. It takes a physical toll on performers, and given the rigorous travel schedule, it often puts a strain on personal relationships and family life as well. For all of its hardships, though, it’s an all consuming enterprise, and it’s proven difficult for so many men and women to find any peace in a life away from the ring. It’s why many stars continue forth in the business well past the point that most logical human beings might suggest they ought to retire.

Darren Aronofsky’s film, The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke captured this dynamic of the wrestler as artist, athlete, and adrenaline junkie who can’t adjust to a more pedestrian life, besides, relying on sports entertainment for gainful employment. There are real professional wrestlers like that for sure, who may can’t fathom a life away from the business.

In addition to old timers who won’t hang up their boots, there are those wrestlers who combine longevity with working a dangerous style that all but invites an accident. Broken bones and chronic pain are a part of the wrestling business, but there are also those daredevils who are already lucky to still be in the business, and may well run out of their good fortune one day.

It’s not the intention of this article to wish harm upon anyone. Indeed, it comes from a place of love for the men and women who devote so much of their lives to wrestling and entertaining us fans. This article looks at 15 wrestlers we fans are sincerely worried might one day pass on in the squared circle.

15 The Undertaker

There’s no question that The Undertaker is one of the greatest legends in wrestling history. A big part of that legacy is the performer’s longevity, and how long he’s lasted in a supernatural gimmick that easily could have run its course in just a couple years.

A big part of The Deadman’s legacy comes down to WrestleMania, where he was undefeated for over 20 years. Building from his vaunted Streak, he began to make WrestleMania the only place he returned, coming back for month long angles to culminate in one match each year. For a while, that approach worked, including The Undertaker working classics with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and CM Punk. In more recent years, however, fans have observed diminishing returns from The Phenom’s returns, including WrestleMania clunkers opposite Brock Lesnar, Bray Wyatt, Shane McMahon, and Roman Reigns.

After the Reigns match, The Undertaker removed his signature garb in the ring, which seemed symbolic that he was retiring. While it was sad to imagine WrestleMania and the larger WWE landscape without him, the guy also looked pretty broken down and he seemed due for retirement. John Cena's challenge suggests he’s not done yet, though, and may never know when to quit for himself.

14 Big Van Vader

Big Van Vader was a sensational monster heel in his day, who combined power and remarkable athleticism to put on more great matches than just about anyone his size ever has.

The Mastodon has kept wrestling, in part to support his son’s fledgling efforts in sports entertainment, and in part because his love for the business is still so clear.

Things took a dark turn in late 2016, however, when he announced he’d been diagnosed with congestive hart failure and only had a couple years, at most, to live.

Vader reneged on his prognosis months later, after getting a more optimistic diagnosis. While he seems to be in a better head space and has talked about starting to heal his body with Diamond Dallas Page, he also put forth the grim proclamation that he’d like to die in the ring, likening himself to Mickey Rourke’s character in The Wrestler. Given he has still been working dates, particularly for international promotions, as recently as last year, he may well realize that fate.

13 Terry Funk

Terry Funk is 73 years old, and has been wrestling for over 50 years. In and of themselves, these are remarkable figures. It’s also worth noting that this former National Wrestling Aliance World Heavyweight Champion hasn’t always worked the safest style. Indeed, in his early fifties, he enjoyed a bit of a career renaissance when he signed with ECW. Yes, he was an elder statesman, with a veteran’s credibility to enhance the promotion. More than that, though, he was a crazy old man who still gave and received chair shots and delivered moonsaults off the top rope.

The fact that none of Funk’s retirements have stuck, and that he is still working sporadically in his 70s suggest that he may never willfully choose to end his wrestling career. While we hope for the best, Funk is a prime candidate to suffer a terrible fate in the ring.

12 Ric Flair

Ric Flair is on just about everyone’s short list for greatest professional wrestlers to have ever lived. He was arguably the last great National Wrestling Alliance traveling world champion who worked broadways against diverse talents around the country and internationally. It’s telling that he was so entrenched, too, in the eras to follow when nationally televised wrestling took hold, and that his career in the ring ultimately spanned four decades.

Flair is ostensibly retired now, and after his hero’s send off at WrestleMania XXIV, it’s safe to presume he really won’t be back in a WWE ring.

After that finale, though, he did go on to work on an international tour that Hulk Hogan marketed, and then wrestled for TNA. Flair seems to be getting his life together after a serious health scare last year, but if there’s anything his career has taught us, it’s that he can’t stay away from the ring for too long, and that may well end up being his undoing.

11 Tommy Dreamer

Tommy Dreamer started his pro wrestling career in the late 1980s and came of age in the early 1990s as part of the foundation of ECW. He’s a legend in the business now and, to his credit, has cashed in on his name value and business savvy to transition from focusing on wrestling to focusing on promoting. His House of Hardcore brand has become an indie success.

As the House of Hardcore name suggests, though, violent, plunder filled pro wrestling is at the heart of the product. The fact that Dreamer not only promotes, but after nearly 30 years still works matches for them, as well as other independents fairly regularly is pretty surprising now that he’s closing in on 50 years of age.

To be fair, Dreamer seems smart and responsible, and so will likely keep himself as safe as he can. The longer he goes, though, the more fans fear he’ll go too long.

10 The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express

The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express are undeniably legends of the professional wrestling. The tag team got started in the early 1980s, and it’s remarkable that not just one of them, but the team still tagging up to work pots at independent shows thirty five years later. A tag team like The Road Warriors may have developed greater fame overall through their imposing look and longer time spent with WWE, and with WCW during the Monday Night War era. In terms of longevity, quality of work in the ring, and ability to draw regionally in their prime, though, it’s tough for any team to compare to that of Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton.

In 2017, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express accepted an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, and looked their age.

There’s no shame in that, but as it came to fans’ attention that they were still regularly working weekends, it came across as a bit of an absurdity given their advanced age. So when will they hang up their boots? Sadly, it might not happen until one of them passes.

9 Jeff Hardy

There have been plenty of times over the last 20 years when fans feared for Jeff Hardy’s well being. The guy rose to prominence as a dare devil. Amidst a field of guys working high spots in the original tag team ladder matches, and TLC bouts, Hardy was the one taking the most dangerous leaps and bumps of all. It didn’t help matters that, as the years went on, he developed more and more of a reputation for substance abuse as well. He reached a low point when he reported for TNA’s Victory Road 2011 to work the main event under the influence, forcing the company to call an audible and have him pinned in about a minute to keep everyone as safe as they could.

Hardy seemed to get his act together post Victory Road, going through rehab, and reportedly getting into a healthier head space and family life. His return to WWE in 2017 felt like a victory lap for a career that stretched longer than anyone would have expected.

Sadly, things took another turn when Hardy got in a car accident this March and was charged with a DWI. That Hardy is still working a hardcore high spot style and still struggling with these substance issues doesn’t bode well for his story ultimately having a happy ending.

8 Jerry Lawler

Jerry Lawler rose to fame in Memphis, as a wrestler and promoter. So it was that Lawler over time earned his own opportunities at national fame, ranging from feuding with Andy Kauffman, to winning the AWA World Championship, to finally taking up residence in WWE as a wrestler, interviewer, and most famously as a color commentator.

Despite WWE generally viewing him first and foremost as a talker, it’s clear Lawler still sees himself as a wrestler, and famously even questioned his own Hall of Fame induction because he didn’t want for it to mean he was seen as retired. This debate came into sharper relief in 2012 when, after working a tag match, Lawler returned to the broadcast table and had a heart attack. There’s every possibility Lawler’s life was saved because WWE medical personnel was on hand.

Lawler has insisted he’s made a full recovery and can still go, but WWE hasn’t had him compete since, and seems committed to not having him wrestle again.

It’s a touchy matter because Lawler has continued working for smaller promotions and particularly close to home. While his WWE schedule has grown increasingly part time, he’s had more time to wrestle. For a veteran of nearly fifty years, closing in on 70 years of age, we have to hope he’ll choose to retire before his body gives out on him completely.

7  Kevin Sullivan

Kevin Sullivan rose to fame as a wrestler playing a demonic, cult leading figure, particularly in Florida, in the 1970s and 1980s. By the time he rose to national prominence, he was largely playing a caricature of that character, working with WCW as the leader of the Three Faces of Fear and then the Dungeon of Doom. As the Monday Night War intensified, he’d recede from the spotlight, in favor of rotating in and out of a role as the creative head for the company.

Oftentimes, when a person transitions from primarily wrestling to primarily booking, it’s a cue that he’s transitioning away from working in the ring itself. While Sullivan hasn’t been much of national wrestling figure since the mid 1990s with WCW, it’s worth noting that he has still been wrestling. He appeared for ROH as recently as 2016 in a mostly talking role, but has also worked actual matches on the indies as recently as last year without any clear indication of slowing down. At 68 years old, Sullivan may well be broaching dangerous territory as an in ring performer.

6 Dory Funk Jr.

Dory Funk Jr. debuted as a professional wrestler in 1963 and won the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship in 1969. Given this timeline, it’s little surprise that predated wrestling as a national phenomenon, and was a largely marginalized old timer by the time he worked WrestleMania 2, teaming with his younger brother Terry.

The remarkable thing about Dory? Not unlike his younger brother, he’s the crazy old man who has just kept going in the wrestling business.

From 2013 to 2015, he worked a high profile run in All Japan Pro Wrestling that included working matches at the age of seventy four.

Similar to his brother, Dory’s retirements never seem to stick. While his ring work has grown more and more sporadic, we have to hope he really will stop altogether before too long, as each match now seems more and more like he’s tempting fate.

5 Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett was born into the wrestling business as the son of Memphis promoter Jerry Jarrett. The familial connection both earned him opportunities, and set him up to learn wrestling psychology and fundamentals from an early age.

Jarrett was a veteran by the time the Monday Night War closed. After burning a bridge with WWE, he might have transitioned away from the ring. Instead, Jarrett started TNA with his father, positioning himself as one of the company’s top wrestlers and de facto heel world champion. He remained in the ring for them, besides working the indies for over a decade to follow and right up to recent times.

Jarrett made headlines for reporting for an independent show in an impaired state in 2017.

Fans began to worry Jarrett may be a danger to himself moving forward, not knowing when to quit, and no longer exercising good judgment. Fortunately, that issue set off an chain reaction of Jarrett checking into WWE’s rehab program, which led to a Hall of Fame induction, which led to Triple H hiring him to work backstage. If Jarrett can keep his nose clean, these recent events may well see him transition fully away from actually wrestling, and in turn save his life.

4 Shane McMahon

Many of the names on this list show up on account of their advanced age and not knowing when to retire. In his late 40s, Shane McMahon is no spring chicken, but he also rarely worked full time as a wrestler and remains in terrific shape, giving reason to believe he could still wrestle for years to come.

Fans for Shane-O-Mac grew fond of him instead because of how he wrestles. He earned respect in the Attitude Era for his willingness to take big, brutal bumps. When he returned in 2016, his first match back saw him jump off of the top of Hell in a Cell in the kind of spot that would probably be deemed too dangerous for most wrestlers. Notably, he would pull a very similar stunt again a year and a half later at Hell in a Cell 2017 opposite Kevin Owens.

McMahon is a daredevil, and more dangerous to himself than the average risk taker because of his last name. As a McMahon, he’s always going to have opportunities to perform, and it’s very hard for anyone to tell him no to his ideas. For his own good, hopefully his father, sister, or brother in law will more formally put the kibosh on the big bumps before something tragic were to happen.

3 Kevin Von Erich

Kevin Von Erich is part of one of the most famous wrestling families of all time, and alongside his brothers, looked to be part of a dynasty. He, Kerry, and David in particular looked like stars who could not only front their father’s white hot Dallas based World Class Championship Wrestling, but legitimately break out as national stars. Tragedy would befall the family, taking one brother after another. Kevin is now the last brother standing.

A part of the concern for Kevin’s well being stems from the family curse, and the odds of his wrestling story having a happy ending seeming to be stacked against him.

Beyond that, Kevin seemed to have wisely transitioned away from the wrestling business, only to get more involved again in recent years. He’s made appearances in support of his sons Marshall and Ross, and as recently as last year actually got back in the ring to wrestle with them as a special attraction. While he comes across as the most responsible, level headed of the Von Erich boys from his generation, here’s hoping Kevin can keep his act together, and not allow himself to succumb to another family tragedy now.

2 Mil Mascaras

Mil Mascaras is one of the definitive legends of lucha libre. He debuted in 1965 and, despite having minimal connection to WWE, was a big enough star to justify induction into the company’s Hall of Fame in 2012. A year and a half later, he’d be in Japan to work a main event level tag match for the Tokyo Gurentai promotion.

Mascaras has purportedly adopted his style to work around his limitations and stay safe, but now that he’s in his 70s, even the man’s biggest fans are reluctant to see him mix it up in the squared circle.

Hopefully he’ll stop before time really catches up to him, tarnishing his legacy with an ending to not only his world famous career, but his life.

1 Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon is the most successful businessman in pro wrestling history and, by his own account, he was interested in getting in the ring in his youth, only for his father to insist he needed to stay out of the action if he were to be an effective boss. A dutiful son, Vince did stay out as WWE rose to national prominence and throughout most of the 1990s. Then, however, the Montreal Screwjob cast a spotlight on him, and an intense war of words with Steve Austin caught fire, all but demanding that he step through the ropes.

McMahon is far from a polished technician in the ring, but his name recognition, physique, and willingness to take a hit all made him an entertaining part time wrestler for over a decade of WWE programming. As he continued to get older, McMahon looked as though he was done getting physical in the ring. Then, however, he got back in the fray to take a spear from Roman Reigns in late 2015, and then in the fall of 2017 committed himself to taking an especially stiff beatdown from Kevin Owens. The latter case saw a headbutt bust open McMahon, after which he absorbed a frog splash.

McMahon is a workaholic in his 70s. If his obsessive efforts in the office don’t catch up to him soon, his willingness to keep taking hits may well. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of him getting physical in the ring.