8 WWE superstars who spoiled their legacy by coming out of retirement

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. This sentence not only applies for superheroes, it applies for professional wrestlers as well. Knowing when to hang up your boots is as important as knowing how to carry yourself throughout your career.

A lot of the wrestlers out there might have a Hall of fame worth career to show off but certain decisions like coming back from retirement would be enough to tarnish their image in front of the unforgiving wrestling fans. The professional wrestling business has seen a lot of such cases, and here is a look the most memorable ones.

Mick Foley

Foley’s legacy as a hardcore legend is still relevant no matter what he does. Foley, however, has a bad reputation when it comes to coming out of retirement. Not to get the bad idea here, at certain instances, Foley’s return gave the fans some awesome matches, the WrestleMania bout that he had with Edge being the best example.

Foley’s heroics in TNA, however, had a different story. He came out of retirement to wrestle in TNA a few years back and it was the worst thing he could have done to his legacy. Although the in ring psychology was there, Foley’s health was holding him back and this ensured a forgettable run.

JBL

JBL had four major phases in his career. The first one was not any memorable as he went nowhere with his Justin ‘Hawk’ Bradshaw Gimmick. The second phase of his career saw him become a part of APA and went on to be a mainstay in the Attitude Era.

After taking a big break, JBL returned to WWE in 2004 to be a heel main event champion. It was one of the most successful reincarnations of the mid-2000s and he took the right decision by retiring after this run. The retirement, however, was short-lived as JBL returned to active wrestling in 2008. The new run was nowhere near the past two spells he had in the company. He failed to evoke proper emotions from the fans and eventually retired a year later.