Miro Reveals He Considered Retirement After Current AEW Deal: "It Depends"

By Liam Crowley

Regardless of the promotion, Miro has been dominating inside the squared circle for nearly a decade. The Bulgarian-born wrestler debuted for WWE in January 2014 and hold an impressive undefeated streak for over a year. Then known as Rusev, the superstar reigned as WWE United States Champion on three separate occasions, made breathtaking WrestleMania entrances, and made himself one of the most popular acts on the roster with his "Rusev Day" catchphrase. Since departing WWE in April 2020, Miro went on to sign with All Elite Wrestling, capturing the AEW TNT Championship in his second year with the promotion.

Those years with AEW are far from over, as Miro recently re-signed with the company to keep him on its roster until 2026. This new contract is much longer than his initial deal, which was said to be short-term. Miro revealed that he considered retiring once his current deal was up, but noted he feels "great" now.

"After this contract, I thought I was going to be done, but I can go more. It depends. I feel great," Miro told Renee Paquette on The Sessions (h/t Fightful). "I feel my body is getting better and better, it's not hurting, especially now with working and just having a match once a week. Your body can go so much longer."

Speaking further on his once a week schedule, Miro stressed that he has no interest in going back to the WWE grind of both television tapings and live events.

"It's different, just listening to [Sheamus] and all these guys. Just knowing he's four or five days on the road, it's too much," Miro continued. "I don't want to do that, especially right now, knowing that, eventually, I want to do something else. I want to work towards that."

As for what that "something else" is, Miro has been looking to Hollywood. The Redeemer has booked several acting roles, including a pilot for a CBS show.

"I get auditions every now and again. They liked me and they wanted to book me for this New York show for a CBS pilot. Like yeah, it was my first one. I've never done this before. I had an audition, and boom, they called me," Miro said. "I was really excited and it was a great experience. I got to live in Brooklyn for two weeks. I got to experience New York, which was great for me because I used to hate New York. I just had another audition this morning. It was really cool. It was for a western movie. I still do my acting school. I go there every week with Lesly Kahn. I think everybody should do that. Everybody should have a second and a third gig."

With his schedule filling up with commitments outside of wrestling, Miro added that he did fear getting ring rust.

"I was so afraid of that, but my wife [CJ Perry] always has to remind me, 'No, you're good!' I'll go and have some tune-ups in California, have a school there, KnokX Pro, it's not mine, but I go and help the kids. Every now and again, I'll text somebody to come and get beat up," Miro said. "They'll come, I'll beat them up for 20, 30, 40 minutes and I'll get my tuning, my range, my stiffness back. AEW is cool because none of these guys that I'm working now, I've worked ever before and everything happens one time. It's not like you have house shows. Everything happens right then. I love that. I love a challenge."

Miro's last match came at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door in June, but he has been featured in vignettes on AEW programming in recent weeks.

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