Alex Coughlin‘s retirement at age 30 is one of the biggest cases of missed potential in wrestling history.
The American was forced to hang up his boots earlier this year, following a second serious neck injury. He Tweeted out a fairly informal retirement announcement, seeing more angry than upset.
Coughlin wrote, “Yeah I’m retired and it sucks now leave me the f*ck alone.” in a new-deleted Tweet from March 23rd, 2024. This was a huge shock to many, who were not even aware that he was injured at the time.
He also deleted his entire Twitter account, seemingly cutting ties with the wrestling industry in one fell swoop.
At 30-years-old, he was clearly too young to be giving it up due to age. Alex Coughlin didn’t reveal why he was retiring, but we can assume it was an injury. Rumours swirled that it was the reoccurrence of a neck injury, suffered in 2020. His only major injuries were that, as well as a calf injury two years later.
His retirement is a sad end to a blossoming young career. Coughlin started his wrestling career in 2018 for New York Wrestling Connection, before joining the New Japan LA Dojo that same year.
After three years of hard training, Alex Coughlin became a member of the NJPW main roster. He teamed with Gabe Kidd in the Bullet Club, and the two Bullet Club members held the Strong Tag Team titles last year.
Alex Coughlin’s Last Match Wasn’t The Cage Match In NJPW
The last time Alex Coughlin wrestled in NJPW was an incredible ten-man cage match on February 11th this year, but it wasn’t his last match ever.
The match saw United Empire (Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, TJP, HENARE, Francesco Akira, and Jeff Cobb) will face Bullet Club WAR DOGS (David Finlay, Alex Coughlin, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd, and Clark Connors) inside a steel cage match on February 11th, 2024.
While the Bullet Club won in what was Will Ospreay’s last NJPW match, it was also Coughlin’s final outing as a professional wrestler. The American announced his retirement a month after the bout, ending his run in the company for good.
However, it doesn’t seem like that match is why Alex Coughlin retired. This is because he actually wrestled twice more after the bout, on two different indie shows in the days following.
Coughlin wrestled in two New York City shows, six days apart from each other. The first was a “No Ring Death Match”, where he was defeated by Casanova Valentine at NFC Casanova Valentine’s Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Meanwhile, Alex Coughlin’s last ever match was at NYWC Psycho Circus 21. The former Bullet Club member teamed with Sean Wachter to defeat QGTM (Jey Mesias & Pat Fitzpatrick). Sadly, no footage of this match exists, so there is very little to go off.
However, we can look at his last televised match with NJPW as a fantastic end to Alex Coughlin’s disappointingly short career.
