"There is no age limit in the WWE."
These words were uttered by Jerry "The King" Lawler to "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan on a 2008 episode of Raw. Duggan had been contemplating retirement due to his advancing years, but was told that if he still felt the passion to wrestle, he should continue on.
As much as I am all for doing what you love, how old is too old to be wrestling?
At TNA's recent Hard Justice pay-per-view, wrestling legends Mick Foley and Kevin Nash faced off for TNA's Legends Championship.
Nash is 50 years old, while Foley is 44. I couldn't help but cringe as Nash and Foley hit each other with a multitude of weapons and proceeded to bleed.
Neither of these men have any business wrestling anymore. Foley has taken a crazy amount of bumps in his day. At this point in his life, Nash may be made of more metal than actual bone due to his numerous surgeries.
Older wrestlers have a variety of reasons why they continue to put their body on the line well into their 40s, 50s, and in some cases, 60s.
In some cases, wrestlers need the money. I'm sure many independent mainstays would have called it quits a long time ago had they had long careers in the WWE instead of wrestling their careers on the indy circuit.
A wrestler who spends his whole career wrestling in the indies will probably never make half the money of someone who wrestles just a few years in WWE.
This gap became more apparent to me when Scott D'Amore organized A Night of Appreciation for Sabu in 2004.
Sabu contracted a virus while nursing an injury and was unable to pay the outstanding medical fees by himself. It's no wonder he continues to wrestle on the independent circuit today at 44 years of age.
Anyone who has seen Sabu wrestle knows that he has also taken his fair share of bumps. From having his neck broken by Chris Benoit, to having his bicep torn open in a match with Terry Funk, where he proceeded to continue the match with his bicep duct taped together, by all means, Sabu's career should have been over about 10 years ago.
Whether you believe it is a sport or not, wrestlers have to endure more pain and a tougher schedule than any other athlete. There comes a time when a wrestler has taken so many bumps that their bodies will never really be back to 100 percent.
It is becoming more and more common for the older wrestlers to take extended breaks and work lighter schedules, but is this really enough?
Undertaker and Shawn Michaels put on a classic match at Wrestlemania 25 earlier this year at aged 44 and 43.
From the way they performed, no one would be able to tell that Undertaker's knees are quickly giving out on him, or that Michaels once had a back injury that kept him away from the ring for five years.
Soon after, both men took long breaks from the business, with Michaels only returning this past Monday, and with Undertaker yet to be seen. One has to wonder how much longer these two will hold up due to their age and mounting injuries.
Current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar was just 25 years old when he won his first WWE Championship. In an interview with ESPN, Lesnar said it was at this time that he was wrestling non-stop, and the injuries were piling up. It got to the point where he was taking Vicodin with Vodka to suppress the pain.
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