Former WWE Superstar Announces His Retirement

Former WWE Superstar Adam Rose took to Instagram earlier today and announced his official full-time retirement from the ring.

"I want to announce my full time retirement from the wonderful world of professional wrestling," Rose said. "It's been one hell of a ride. I will be fullfiling all dates currently booked but not taking any more bookings going forward. Thank you to the fans who supported me, the promoters who booked me, all the good brothers and sisters who worked with me. Mainly thank you to the @wwe for letting a 9 year old South African boy live his dream. Many blessings and so much love to all. Goodbye and thank you."

Rose first announced back on March 11, 2017 that 2017 would be his last year in wrestling. He's worked some indie dates since then but now he says the ride is finally coming to an end. He noted in a 2018 interview that he continued to wrestle last year due to financial reasons.

Rose spoke to Chris Van Vliet in 2017 about why he wanted to retire that year. He said, "I feel like it's time to move onto other things. I don't want to be one of those guys that's hanging on, and hanging on, and hanging on. It's done. It's had its life, it's over with and it was fun while it lasted, and it's now time to move onto other things. Ya know, I've got a wife and I've got two kids and I got other business interests. I can't justify being there half foot in and half foot out."

The former Leo Kruger made headlines in mid-January of this year after posting on Instagram to thank WWE for helping him get sober, making a milestone of more than 415 days clean. Rose later revealed that former WWE NXT Superstar Bull Dempsey is the one who made the call to WWE to get Rose into treatment.

Rose made his pro wrestling debut back in 1995 at the age of 15, for a South African indie promotion. Rose was later signed to a WWE developmental deal and then made his debut in February 2010. He went from NXT to the main roster in May 2014, and was later released on May 23, 2016.

Below is Rose's full post on retiring:

"I want to announce my full time retirement from the wonderful world of professional wrestling. It's been one hell of a ride. I will be fullfiling all dates currently booked but not taking any more bookings going forward. Thank you to the fans who supported me, the promoters who booked me, all the good brothers and sisters who worked with me. Mainly thank you to the @wwe for letting a 9 year old South African boy live his dream. Many blessings and so much love to all. Goodbye and thank you. #wwe #nxt #raw #smackdown #shootlife #prowrestling"