Vampiro Retires From Pro Wrestling At JCW Strangle-Mania

Vampiro has officially retired from pro wrestling, and he went out with a win, defeating PCO and Big Vito in a three-way main event of Juggalo Championship Wrestling Strangle-Mania during WrestleMania 42 weekend.

Vampiro picked up the win after 10 minutes following a Nail in the Coffin bodyslam to Big Vito, with Big Vito kicking out at 3.1. In an unusual step, Vampiro gave his retirement speech before the match and was gifted a trophy.

Vampiro explained to PWTorch ahead of the show why he decided to retire in Juggalo Championship Wrestling.

"But the friendship I have with ICP and JCW, the brotherhood, I got to say goodbye in Mexico the correct way. I kinda wanna, I'm almost not able to do this anymore at all, even at a horrible level. I wanna just one more, that one more time, 'Hey, don't I’m not asking you to come and see me. I'm asking you to let me say thank you to you," Vampiro said.

"So, JCW is the right place to do that. We've always been there for each other. Even when I was at my peak in the United States, the only ones who I would really call friends, who really took care of me, was JCW. Everybody in the wrestling world knows about me. A lot of people have blackballed me or politically gone against me for whatever reasons. Good, bad, and ugly. If I'm guilty, I'm guilty. It is what it is," he continued.

"JCW is the only place I call home. It's the only place that would, that really has given me the opportunity to do this kinda stuff and they asked me if I would be interested in doing it. And of course, why wouldn't I be? I’m blessed to have one more opportunity to go out there and to say say thank you."

After beginning his career in his native Canada, Ian Hodgkinson moved to Mexico and soon established himself as one of the biggest stars in the country during the 1990s, primarily wrestling for CMLL between 1991 and 1998, but he also wrestled for the UWA between 1991 and 1995 and had a brief 1997 run with AAA.

Vampiro signed for WCW in 1998, but he would not become a full-time wrestler on WCW Monday Nitro until March 1999. Vampiro’s WCW career would see him form a brief stable with Raven and the Insane Clown Posse, and he would later bring punk rock band The Misfits into WCW. His run is primarily remembered, though, for an infamous 2000 feud with Sting which included a critically panned Human Torch Match at Great American Bash.

Following WWF’s purchase of WCW in 2001, Vampiro would return to Mexico and he remained a top star there deep into the 2000s, performing for CMLL across two more runs until 2007.

Vampiro would sign with AAA in 2005 and Vampiro wrestled and worked behind the scenes in the promotion across several runs until 2024. This would see him be a part of Lucha Underground between 2014 and 2018, where he would primarily serve as a colour commentator, but he would also have a popular match with Pentagon Jr. at Ultimate Lucha to end season one of the show, with Vampiro revealing after the match that he was Penta’s master. Vampiro would remain a commentator but also served as a manager to Penta and later Prince Puma until the show came to an end in 2018.

Ian Hodgkinson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019, but he continued to wrestle, having another 77 matches until his retirement on Friday night.