It’s a fact of life that no one can wrestle forever, and fans have seen some big retirements over the years. Sting retired last year, and John Cena is set to retire at the end of 2025, but one former WWE Champion has no plans to officially retire from in-ring competition.
Rob Van Dam is still an active in-ring competitor, and you never know when he might return to the ring. Currently RVD is 54 years old, but retirement doesn’t seem to be something that’s on his mind. Recently Van Dam spoke to Chris Van Vliet about his future, and he explained why retirement isn’t something he’s considering.
“I don’t [think I am], and I don’t think I will [retire]. That’s how I feel right now. I feel like even if I don’t take wrestling bookings anymore, I don’t think I’ll make a big deal out of retirement. Because when wrestlers retire and they end up coming back and wrestling anyway. ‘No, I want one more match.’ For me, that is completely eating up the credibility that I had in wrestling retirement matches. I doubt that I’ll ever feel like, ‘No, I’m going to be different. I never want to wrestle right now. I’m done.’ I just see me is just going with the flow. And someday, when you say, are you still wrestling? I might say, It’s been six years, and then I might have a match.
“I’ve always said also I want to price myself out and not wear myself and my value down. A lot of my peers, they were worth so much in their prime and then they are not worth as much, can’t get booked as much, so they come down and compromise and that has a cycle effect where they are worth less. But I’m not gonna do that, I’d rather have less people afford me until I don’t wrestle that way instead of wrestling myself into a grave and my last match was $5.”
Rob Van Dam last stepped into the ring when he faced off against Isiah Kassidy, Komander and Lee Johnson in a four way match on the April 20, 2024 episode of AEW Rampage.