One of the more decorated female stars of the British wrestling scene stepped away from the squared circle this past month. Former Progress Women’s Champion and NXT UK star Jinny announced that she would be retiring from in-ring competition due to injury. Before she officially hung up her boots, Jinny had last wrestled on a November 2021 edition of NXT UK. Jinny expressed gratitude for her wrestling memories upon her retirement and looked optimistically about “what’s next” in her future.
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While she kept her injury details close to the vest for a number of years, Jinny recently revealed that her decision to retire stemmed from concussion issues.
“This was the longest time I had been out with any injury. During the time of being injured and having the symptoms, I was like, ‘Wow, this is taking so long for my body to heal.’ It was a concussion,” Jinny told Ring The Belle (h/t Fightful). “Unfortunately, I took quite a few blows to the head, and it was the worst one I ever had. Halfway through, I was like, ‘If my body is taking this long to heal, if I get hit again, is it going to take even longer?’”
The slow recovery process made Jinny re-evaluate her entire in-ring career.
“I had to be smart about it. I love wrestling. I’m a wrestling fan. I always will be,” Jinny continued. “It was a really hard decision because if it wasn’t for that, would I be wrestling still? Yes, but your health is wealth. As difficult as it is and as much as I love this business and as much as I’m like, ‘maybe I’ll be okay,’ I had to be smart about it and make sure that I look after myself, not just for now, but in the long run as well.”
Regarding her next steps, Jinny emphasized that her headspace remains on her retirement chapter.
“Right now, I’m just coming to terms with the retirement,” Jinny said. “I left on very good terms. They were very good to me when I said I needed to step away from the ring. Who knows what is down the road. Right now, I just retired and I need to gather my bearings. There are always opportunities and stuff like that. Who knows, I might be on a TV screen in a year’s time. The world is your oyster, you just have to run with opportunities when given to you.”
Even if she doesn’t work in wrestling again, Jinny won’t be far from the industry. She is married to WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther, who competes on WWE SmackDown every Friday.
