Tyson Kidd’s final wrestling match took place a few weeks before his 35th birthday. He wrestled Samoa Joe in a dark match on RAW in the summer of 2015. During the bout, Kidd took a Muscle Buster from Joe that resulted in a career-ending spinal injury. According to comments he made recently in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Kidd tried to get back in the ring for an appearance in the Royal Rumble but the idea was shot down by Vince McMahon.
“The truth is I won’t wrestle again,” Kidd said during the interview. “I tried doing one Royal Rumble. A lot of thought went into it but it got turned down and I’m not mad at it. It was kind of funny the way Vince laid it out to me he said ‘we can control everything that we can in our power but what if something happens? What if something we don’t control happens?’”
He would later mention some dates in his story which confirm this was the 2019 Royal Rumble in Phoenix he was referring to.
“I always had it in my head to at least approach (coming back),” he continued. “Take it day by day, see how I feel with my neck and stuff. I knew the secret with the Royal Rumble was I could do it and not have to take any bumps.”
“Bumping is the thing that stops me,” he continued.
A clip of Tyson Kidd talking with Chris Van Vliet is below: