Lance Storm hasn’t wrestled a match in roughly a decade, and anyone still hoping for one last comeback can probably stop waiting. Even with a pretty perfect retirement match sitting there for him, Storm says ten years away from the ring isn’t ending with another run.
Speaking to the Daily Star ahead of TNA Destination X, Storm was asked whether working around younger wrestlers ever makes him want to lace up the boots again. Storm admitted his body has already made that decision for him.
“My body has told me that I’m done. Well, like, I feel good for the most part. I’ve got aches and pains, but you always hear and see injuries, and you know that any bump can be your last. And it’s like, I got out in pretty good shape.”
That’s a big part of why Storm isn’t interested in testing himself again after being out of action for so long. He finished his career relatively healthy, and risking that just to squeeze in another match doesn’t make much sense to him. There’s also the issue of his own standards. Storm doesn’t want to come back after a decade away, throw on a shirt and have an “okay” match just because people would enjoy seeing him wrestle again.
“I’m very happy with what I did, and I’m very happy with what I’m doing. And my standards for myself are so high that I’m not going to put a shirt on and go out and have an okay match. So that day is behind me.”
If anything could’ve tempted Storm into breaking that retirement, Chris Jericho probably would’ve been it. The longtime friends had actually talked about having their final matches against each other, eventually turning what started as a joke into something of a pact. Unfortunately, Jericho apparently screwed up the plan by refusing to stop wrestling.
“No, the bugger lasted too long. He’s still going. I didn’t expect him to still be wrestling this long. No, that was always—again, I don’t want to say it was always the plan. It was something we always sort of joked, that, ‘Oh, we really should do our last one together.’ And then eventually we sort of made the vow. It’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that. That would be great.’”
Storm joked that Jericho has proven practically “indestructible,” while his own body eventually told him it was time to stay out of the ring.
“But I’m a little bit older than Chris, and Chris has lasted a little bit longer than I have because he’s—dude’s indestructible. He just, for whatever reason, has had so few injuries and just keeps holding together.”
Storm then made the retirement decision about as definitive as possible. He and his wife have agreed that his days as an active wrestler are finished, and he has no interest in returning after a decade just to give fans an “old-guy Lance Storm” performance.
“But yeah, no, my wife and I have decided my in-ring action is done, and so that last match with Chris Jericho, I just can’t fathom because I wouldn’t want to do just old-guy Lance Storm hanging in there, not having a Lance Storm match. That’s just not my style. So the one with Matt Hardy a decade ago is going to go down in the books as my last one.”
So after ten years away, Storm isn’t getting the comeback itch. Not even the chance to finally have that storybook last match with Jericho is enough to change his mind — because if Storm can’t come back and wrestle like Lance Storm, he’d rather not come back at all.
Would you still like to see Lance Storm come out of retirement after a decade for one final match, or is he making the right call by leaving things alone? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
