4 wrestlers who had to retire prematurely due to injury and 3 who came back

#3 Retired: Current WWE Producer Tyson Kidd

Tyson Kidd

Tyson Kidd (TJ Wilson) has been with WWE since 2006 but only actively wrestled for the company until 2017 when a spinal cord injury forced the extremely talented Superstar to retire.

"Good grief!"@WWEBigE got the better of this 🔥 exchange with @TJWilson 6 years ago today at #WWEPayback 2015.👀 https://t.co/ti6qFdAx0F pic.twitter.com/aNBy3McoFG

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) May 17, 2021

Prior to his retirement from the ring, Kidd had quite a successful career in WWE. Kidd won the Unified Tag-Team Titles in April 2010 with Davey Boy Smith, and in late 2014 Kidd started teaming up with Cesaro and the pair won the WWE Tag-Team Titles in February 2015.

Kidd and Cesaro were starting to establish themselves as one of WWE's top tag-teams when Kidd took a Muscle Buster from Samoa Joe during a dark match on RAW, which is how he picked up the spinal injury.

Kidd was initially announced by WWE as being out of action for over a year. However, the superstar would later clarify that the injury he suffered was so severe that usually only 5% of people survive it, and would ultimately retire from in-ring competition. He added that he needed to have sixteen stables, four screws and a rod inserted into his neck.

Kidd was hired as a producer for WWE two years later in 2017 and has been a backstage influence on WWE programming ever since. Kidd still maintains a link to the ring, though, as he often helps other superstars train and his wife Natalya has even recently said "never say never," when it comes to a potential return.