WWE Official Adam Pearce has taken over as the on screen authority figure for the company and still gets asked repeatedly why he no longer wrestles. Adam took to Facebook to explain.
He started by explaining that injuries are not the reason he no longer competes in the ring. He said, “The assumption by some fans that injury forced me out of my active wrestling career has been a thing since I stepped away at the end of 2014. I had my fair share of injuries (just like anyone else who ever worked the sort of schedule that I did, by the way), injury had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Pearce explained further why he actually stopped by sharing a story. “In 2014 at the end of my 19th year of active wrestling, I was emotionally and physically tired. Working for yourself has a great number of advantages, but it’s also very difficult: Building a name reputable and marketable enough to be booked internationally is exhausting. The promotional hustle is exhausting. The networking is exhausting. The travel is exhausting. And I’m not even talking about the actual wrestling itself, or the real life outside of it, both of which can be exhausting. So yeah, I was tired.”
Furthermore, Pearce says he took an interest in being a coach and sharing his passion with others that wanted to pursue pro wrestling. He said, “Since the end of 2013 in between my bookings, I would periodically fly to the newly opened WWE Performance Center in Orlando to freelance as a coach and trainer, and eventually as a TV and Live Event Producer. I had taken it upon myself along my two decades to learn how to train/teach, how to book, live event production, and perhaps most valuable of all, how to write and produce wrestling television. I always planned for the day when I wouldn’t be taking bumps, because I love the business and knew that I wanted to be sustainable and reliable and accountable to it long after I was putting on tights and boots. I planned ahead. I put tools in my toolbox. WWE gave me the ultimate chance to use them.”
Pearce summarized by simply saying he doesn’t wrestle anymore because he does not want to. “The point of this rant is simple: I don’t wrestle full-time anymore because 45-year-old me chooses not to. And the fortuitous part of that choice is that 45-year-old me doesn’t have to. I planned ahead and put tools in the toolbox that I knew I was going to have to use in the future if I wanted to be a productive member of our industry long after I was done piledriving people and wearing ten pounds of gold. And my example is a clear one to anybody that wants a lifelong career in our industry: Amass as many skills as you can; learn from everyone you can. There is a lesson in every experience, good and bad, right and wrong. And there is always a reason to put a new tool in your toolbox.”
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