I've got to go with a hybrid between Xero's answer and Jeritron's answer. TV age certainly helps a guy get perceived as "fresh," which allows them to appear younger than they actually are. Both Batista and Finlay may be older than a lot of the guys out there, but seeing as they have only been on WWE television for a few years, they seem to have a lot more shelf life than they may have had if they had wrestled for the company since their 20's.
But the thing about an old guy wrestling is that they have to do stuff that looks believable. That is what became hard about justifying Ric Flair staying around. The guy looked like hell towards the end of his run, and his match quality dropped. The guy could still bust out the occasion delayed vertical suplex to make it seem like he had strength left in his body, but overall it was hard to buy him beating someone younger than knew what they were doing.
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