So I'm they're showing Rocky movies on AMC and I'm on the IMDB board looking "Rocky Balboa," last one, (2006).  Never saw it. 
Anyway, why did they have Adrian die? Did Talia Shire not want the role this time, was she asking too much money, did she look too old, or what?
???

From Wikipedia:

Talia Shire as Adrian Balboa, was in the first few drafts of the script of what was originally called Rocky VI: Puncher's Chance. At this point, the story revolved around Rocky running a local gym for youths. However, Stallone felt that the film lacked the necessary emotional impact it needed. So, he and Shire came to an agreement that her character would be best left out of the film, as this would create an emotional chasm for Rocky from the very first moment of the film. To ensure that fans did not think she had been written out of the film because of a dispute with Stallone or because she refused to be in it, Shire made a public statement supporting Stallone's decision to kill off the character. Her character does not appear in the film except in photographs and during flashbacks, using footage from earlier Rocky films, but her name appears in the final credits.

It actually worked with the plot having her character die.  If she had of been there, it would have just seemed like Rocky 6 was being made just because it could:  Rocky fights another match, while Adrian worries.  That was done to death by Rocky IV, but I still loved all the films.

Rocky Balboa proved that the loss of a loved one cannot stop an ageing boxer from throwing in the towel.  Adrian would have wanted him to go on!