Sarah Rowe Confirms Her Retirement From Pro Wrestling

Former WWE Superstar Sarah Rowe (FKA Valhalla) has confirmed her retirement from pro wrestling. After making several appearances in WWE in 2014/15, Sarah Rowe signed a deal with the company in October 2016. Her first stint ended in April 2020, when WWE released numerous talents as part of its COVID-19-related budget cuts. Following that, she announced her sabbatical from pro wrestling.

However, the former member of the Viking Raiders returned to the company at the Royal Rumble PLE in January 2022. Two years later, in April 2024, she announced that she would be taking maternity leave after informing that she and her husband, Erik, were expecting their second child.

In a recent interaction with the Wise Traditions podcast, Rowe confirmed her transition from a pro wrestler to a homesteader and a mother. Below are some highlights of her comments:

Sarah Rowe on Transitioning From Wrestling To Being a Full-Time Homesteader and Mother

“Very carefully. No, actually, I just dove right in, not carefully at all. So, when COVID happened, they let go like 150 wrestlers. I was one of those wrestlers at the time that got let go. So, my husband was still hired. I got let go. So, we were like, ‘Let’s have a baby, and let’s see about,’ like, I always wanted to grow my own food. I come from a family of farmers that used to rent land to farm on, but they were very much like traditional agriculture farming, like every corn-fed, red Angus, all the stuff. And so, I knew I wanted to get back to that, but I wanted to do it differently because I know what I know.

“And when the day I got fired, I started looking into starting a farm here because we had the land. We bought a place with like 20 acres of agricultural fields that was previously used for corn. I’m like, ‘Let’s plant some hay. Let’s get some cows. And we got some Highland cows, and we still have them today. And we slaughter and butcher everything right on our farm.”

Sarah Rowe Reveals That She First Thought of Becoming a Farmer When She Was on the Road With WWE

“So when I was on the road, and I thought about becoming a mother and becoming a farmer, you’re like, ‘Wow, that sounds so peaceful!’ Like, ‘What if I never want to come back to wrestling? What if I just want to stay at the farm?’ And like, once that happened and once I, because I got fired, had a baby, got rehired, and then I just left the company permanently. My contract just expired on the 5th, and I’m not renewing it.

“So I, when at first I was like, ‘I don’t want to come back to wrestling. Maybe I just want to start a homestead and be a farmer and a mother.’ And once that happened, my body wasn’t used to that peace. And I like, I was scared of it. And I didn’t ever, I never felt like I was doing enough.”

Check out Sarah Rowe’s comments below [from 17:15 onward]:

Sarah’s last WWE match took place on the February 19, 2024, episode of WWE RAW, where she participated in an Elimination Chamber Qualifying Last Chance Battle Royal.

Please credit the Wise Traditions podcast and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this copy.