There’s an old saying that wrestlers never truly retire. Quite a few wrestlers have even “retired” multiple times. Many of them can’t resist the urge to get back in the squared circle in front of cheering (or booing) fans one last time. Next month, it’ll happen again as the “Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant will have what he says is his final match.

Although the WWE Hall of Famer is retired, he has wrestled several times since 2022. On April 25, the 83-year-old will have one last match for NAWA Championship Wrestling at a high school in Lancaster, SC. His last match was a six-man tag match in NAWA. It has not been announced his last opponent(s) will be.

In a press release, Valiant spoke about his final match. “Yes, this will be my final dance. I’ve retired before but this is truly my last dance. I’m honored to hang up my boots after 62 years of wrestling pro. I had over 15,000 matches and drove 6 million miles on U.S. highways, plus flying getting to those matches.”

Valiant also noted that this match will mark seven decades that he has wrestled. “I want to dance down that aisle to my theme song, “Boy From New York City” one last time to make wrestling in 7 decades from 1964 to 2026 a reality for me.”

NAWA promoter, Michael Elliott, spoke on the historic match. “We are honored to have this moment be a part of NAWA. This will truly be a historic evening.”

In his career, Valiant held an array of titles including the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship, and the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship five times. Although he was a Southerner, he was billed from New York City and feuded with Jerry Lawler in Memphis. Valiant also trained former two-time AEW Men’s Heavyweight Champion, “Hangman” Adam Page.

Tickets to see Valiant dance one last time are now available for purchase.

In the history of WWE Hall Of Fame ceremonies, there have been several legends that often exceeded the time limit of their speech, with Triple H and Ric Flair most notably going over an hour in the past. However, one of this year’s inductee’s is determined to keep his speech brief, as AJ Styles recently stated on “The Phenomenally Retro Podcast” that he has no intentions of being on stage for too long, resulting in the audience to become frustrated.

“I’m going to try not to piss everybody off who has come there to see all the other inductions … there’s some guys that we’ve watched in the past you’re going holy cow, everybody’s thinking the same thing like ‘Alright man, that was good,”‘ he explained. “So, I’m going to try to make sure that I stay within the guidelines of that and not make people hate AJ Styles based on his Hall Of Fame induction speech. So, short and sweet, I think, is the best way to do it. I know there are guys who’ve tried to put a little bit more comedy in theirs, which is great. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to be or what I’m going to say, but I know I got a lot of people that I need to thank.”

Styles continued to explain that he also wants to express his appreciation to the fans for helping him achieve a WWE Hall Of Fame induction, as he feels that without his supporters, he would not be in the position he’s in today, claiming he never should’ve made it this far.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The Phenomenally Retro Podcast” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

After weeks of speculation, WWE finally revealed Brock Lesnar’s opponent for WrestleMania 42 last week, when Oba Femi stepped up to answer Lesnar’s challenge. Since then, the match has garnered plenty of anticipation, not only because it pits one of WWE’s up and coming stars against a long-time veteran in Lesnar, but because many are wondering if WWE will pull the trigger and give Femi a marquee victory so soon into his main roster career.

That is certainly the direction Rikishi would go in. On his “Off the Top” podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer was adamant that Femi go over against Lesnar at WrestleMania, citing both Femi’s work ethic in getting to the main roster, and the fact that the crowd has already begun to get behind him. As a result, Rikishi feels it would be best for WWE to strike with the former NXT Champion while the iron is hot.

“You see his entrance,” Rikishi said. “When he comes out, the wrestling fans, and I say this over and over again, if they love you, they’re going to let you know. If they don’t love you, they’re going to let you know. The last time I heard people yell ‘Oba! Oba!’, it almost kind of sounded like ‘Goldberg! Goldberg!’ 

“So what does that tell you…We’re looking a star in the making here man. This guy here, to set him off, to set Oba off on the right track, WWE, don’t kill this man right off the bat. Don’t do that to him. Let him get his run. Let him get his opportunity. Let him stand for his people that look like him. Let him have that run. And so I say my prediction is Oba up, Brock Lesnar down.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Off The Top” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription

The start of 2026 has seen AEW enter the political spectrum, with anti-ICE chants becoming a commonplace at shows thanks to rising star Brody King and his anti-ICE activism. Though AEW owner Tony Khan has said AEW isn’t a political organization, he has done little to curtail the chants or suggest King be less outspoken, believing his wrestlers have the right to express themselves.

Fellow AEW wrestler Anthony Ogogo is now doing the same when it comes to not being a fan of the anti-ICE chants. Speaking with “Inside the Ropes,” Ogogo didn’t come out against King or anyone else for anti-ICE beliefs. Rather, he feels that wrestling is a place where politics should be left out of the equation, allowing wrestling to be a brief escape from reality.

“When you start bringing up political things into the show, it then brings real life into the show, which should be an escape,” Ogogo said. “That’s one perspective to have, like there’s lots of crazy crap going on in the world, I want to avoid that and watch wrestling for two hours. However, that being said, we have lots of fans, lots of passionate fans, and it’s one of those things where people want to voice their opinions. 

“Ricky Gervais says it very well. Ricky Gervais was hosting the Golden Globes. He’d be like come up here, say thank you and p**s off. Don’t start doing monologues and this and that. It’s almost like that. Come in, wrestle, p**s off. That being said, when I was doing promo, when I was with Cody, I did a promo, five years ago, I was obviously bashing America and I was talking about ICE, so all about leaving politics out and all that, I have done it. I did it five years ago before it was cool to talk about it. It is what it is at the end of the day. Wrestling is all about emotion.”