AEW’s Mark Henry has commented on the recent actions of Billy Gunn on AEW Collision that many have interpreted as retirement.
On the July 22 episode of AEW Collision, House of Black put their AEW Trios Championship on the line in a match against The Acclaimed.
As previously reported, Malakai Black would get the pinfall victory over ‘Daddy Ass’ Billy Gunn. Black and Matthews both paused to say something to Gunn, who after the match, sat in the corner of the ring, unlacing his boots.
Gunn eventually took the boots off and left them in the middle of the ring, signifying his in-ring career could be over.
Recently, Billy Gunn’s wife, Paula Sopp, shared a photo on social media that seemingly confirmed Gunn’s retirement.
Austin and Colten Gunn also commented on their father’s apparent retirement following AEW Collision.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry explored Gunn’s actions, saying:
“Billy is 58 years old. He don’t look 58, but there comes a time when you just can’t do it no more — not at the level that you feel like you should be at. Or the emotions may have gotten to him. I mean, he did lose.
“Did they lose because of him? Was there something where he felt like, ‘Sh*t, if I was better, if I was younger,’ and then the emotion overwhelms you and you just make a knee-jerk reaction, maybe that’s it. I don’t know.”
Looking to the future for Gunn and what happened on AEW Collision, Henry used his own history to add:
“We’ll find out, but I’ve been there before. It wasn’t about the losing. It was about how I saw the way I looked on screen.
“I’m like, ‘Damn. I lost a step.’ And when I see it, I know the fans see it. So that was it for me.
“I didn’t ever want to look like that again, and maybe [Billy] just saw himself slip.”
Billy Gunn has, at the time of writing, not clarified whether he is actually retired from in-ring competition.
Gunn joined AEW as a coach in January 2019 and appeared in the AEW Double or Nothing pre-show battle royal in May of that year.
He would make his AEW television debut on Dynamite in November 2019 and has gone on to feature in a number of high-profile angles, most recently his alliance with The Acclaimed (Max Caster and Anthony Bowens).
Comments powered by CComment