AEW Broadcaster Excalibur Explains Retiring From Wrestling

Since the inception of AEW back in 2019, Excalibur has been the most consistent voice in the company as he has called nearly every episode of "AEW Dynamite," as well as all of the company's biggest moments on pay-per-view. The play-by-play commentator has been such a presence behind the desk in AEW that there is a whole generation of fans who probably don't know that Excalibur was at one point an in-ring performer. However, his in-ring career didn't last long, and during a special appearance on Tony Schiavone's "What Happened When?" podcast, Excalibur explained why he hung up his boots.

"I wrestled for a number of years, but in doing so, picked up a lot of injuries you know? Knees, lower back, shoulder, and then the thing that scared me the most was the head injuries, and I had quite a few concussions throughout my career. So I think it was 2008, I finally decided, just for my long-term health, I was never going to be a pro wrestler. I was–that was never going to be my full-time income, my full-time vocation that, you know, for my long-term health, it was something that I kind of needed to stop doing, and luckily I had commentary. So that kept me involved, that kind of scratched the itch, and it was–I don't want to say I never missed getting into the ring, but time went on, I realized I was a lot better at talking about wrestling than I ever was doing it, and so that made me feel a lot better."

Before he retired, Excalibur had competed for the likes of CZW, CHIKARA, and Ring of Honor, with his home promotion being PWG in California. Excalibur was one of the co-founders of PWG, and after he did decide to transition to commentary on a full-time basis, he called every PWG event until the promotion's indefinite hiatus in 2023.

Please credit "What Happened When?" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.