The following 10 figures are ones that wrestling fans never thought they'd hear from again,

but got the chance to through all elite wrestling.

So I am Gareth, this is What Culture Wrestling,

and here are 10 wrestlers AEW saved from retirement.

Number 10, Awesome Kong.

Many people would argue that Awesome Kong does not get the credit she deserves as a trailblazer in the women's wrestling revolution. She was tearing it up in TNA at a time when WWE was still treating its women with the respect of an Alpha Bro podcast host. Sadly, her career has been one of many stops and starts. Her incredible tenure at

TNA ended with a dicey relationship, and her 2010-2012 run with WWE as karma was mired by a long

leave of absence and an eventual departure from the company. Kong was inactive for years

following her second departure

from TNA in 2016. For a while, her role in Netflix's glow was the closest that she came to

in ring work, which if you haven't seen already, oh my goodness, what are you doing with your life?

However, all that changed in 2019 when she debuted for AEW at Double or Nothing.

Sure, her time in AEW didn't reach the levels fans would have hoped.

However, seeing her get one final run in a major company before her retirement in 2021 was

simply put, awesome.

She's now an Impact Hall of Famer, and here's hoping retirement is treating her well.

Number nine, Katsuri Shabata. Bashing people in the head is an odd job, but it's Katsyori Shabata's job, and very few people can do it better than him.

Sadly, such employment comes with considerable risk, as it almost took his life.

Shibata suffered one of the scariest injuries a wrestler has ever faced in 2017,

after experiencing a subdural hematoma following his Sakura genesis bout with Okada.

Doctors quickly linked this traumatic brain injury to his penchant for headbutting his opponent into oblivion,

leading to sure-fire doubts about the future of his career.

...