Despite being staged, the strangers wrestlers
face are often very real.
Today we'll have a look at 7 of the world's
worst injuries in professional wrestling history.
Number 7: Joey Mercury
To ‘botch’ in professional wrestling means
to attempt a scripted move or a scripted line
that ultimately does not come out as planned
because of a miscalculation, slip-up or mistake.
Most botches are harmless and mainly consist
of a wrestler missing his cue, improperly
delivering a line or falling before an opponent’s
move connects.
However, there are examples of botches that
have resulted in life-granding injuries and
even beth.
In late 2006 during WWE’s event Armageddon,
Joey Mercury and his partner John Morrison
took part in a creatal-four way tag team match
in which the titles were hung high above the
ring and the wrestlers could only reach them
by using ladders.
Several ladders had been brought to the ring
towards achieving the goal within the storyline.
Near the midway point of the match, however,
Mercury received a legitimate and quite graphic
injury.
During the bout, Jeff Hardy, one of Mercury’s
opponents, jumped from the ropes on to a ladder
that had been place on top of another with
the purpose of creating a type of see-saw
which was meant to hit Mercury and his partner.
Unfortunately, Mercury took a direct hit and
blend started to gush out of his face.
His nose and orbital bone were broken and
he would require more than 30 stitches.
After a few weeks, Mercury returned to the
ring wearing a protective mask.
Number 6: Steve Austin
In 1997, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin was
one of the WWE’s quickest rising stars that
had achieved a massive following due to his
rebel persona.
Although his popularity would continue to
grow, his career would forever be plagued
by an injury he sustained during an Intercontinental
Title match against Owen Hart at Summerslam
1997.
Near the end of the match Hart performed a
piledriver on Austin, which is a sit-down,
upside down slam.
However, Austin’s head was much lower than
it should have been in order for his neck
to be protected.
When Hart dropped him, Austin’s head and
neck were jammed hard into the ground and
he was immediately unable to move his shoulder
and neck muscles.
He struggled through the pain to complete
the match’s predetermined finale and even
though the fans saw him get the win, the resulting
broken neck would take him out of the circuit
for three months.
The recurring effects of the injury would
require surgical intervention in 1999 and
Austin was unable to compete for 10 months.
He had to change his finding style so that
he would not endanger his neck and spinal
cord and ultimately retired in 2003.
Number 5: Shawn Michaels
While competing in a 1998 Royal Rumble match,
Shawn Michaels, who was at the height of his
career at the time, sustained a back injury
that would cost him four years of his career.
The accident took place during a ‘casket
match’ between Michaels and the Undertaker.
The objective of the fight was for one wrestler
to put the other in a casket and close the
lid.
In order for the wrestlers to complete the
scenario, a ‘casket’ had been placed ringside.
After performing a reverse jump from the ring,
Michaels landed with his back on the edge
of the casket.
He did not realize it at the time, but the
injury resulted in one shattered and two herniated
disks in his back.
Many people, including Micheals himself believed
that he would not wrestle again.
Even though he missed four years of his prime,
Michaels made a recovery and returned to the
ring at Summerslam in 2002.
Number 4: Darren Drozdov
During a 1999 match against D’ Lo Brown,
Darren Drozdov sustained one of the most severe
injuries in professional wrestling history.
When Brown performed the running powerbomb,
his signature move, on Drozdov, he was unable
to get a proper grip on him, because the latter
was wearing a loose shirt during the match.
Drozdov also failed to acute a proper jump
to assist Brown in the lift leading up to
the powerbomb.
Drozdov landed on his head and fractured two
disks in his neck.
He was taken out on a stretcher and, despite
the extensive medical care and the efforts
to reduce the swelling in his spine, the injury
left him a quadriplegic, with essentially
no mobility below the neck.
Drozdov never blamed Brown for the tragic
end to his career and always expressed his
belief that it had been an unfortunate accident.
The injury took place during a WWE Smackdown!
taping and not before a live audience, and
the match was never aired.
Drozdov was ultimately able to gain some mobility
in his upper body and continued to work for
the WWE as a writer and a columnist.
Number 3: Mick Foley
Also known as Cactus Jack, Dude Love or Mankind,
wrestler Mick Foley was respected among his
peers and loved by wrestling fans for his
physical toughness.
Throughout his career Foley would engage in
a number of hardcore matches in which he would
go through tables, barbed wire and take multiple
chair dots to the head.
During a mid-1998 match against the Undertaker,
Foley’s tendency for always pushing his
physical limits almost produced a creatal
outcome.
The ‘Hell in a Cell’ match took place
during a WWE King of the Ring event and the
competitors faced off in steel cage measuring
15 to 20 feet that had been erected over the
ring.
The event had no restrictions on the use of
reponds as tables, chairs and even thumbtack
were allowed.
Before the crowd of roaring fans, Foley, who
was then wrestling under the name Mankind,
and the Undertaker took the fight to the top
of the steel cell.
Foley was then thrown off the cell and into
the commentators’ table, situated 20 feet
below.
The fall not only caused him to lose consciousness
but also resulted in him suffering a dislocated
shoulder and a collapsed lung.
He laid under the broken table debris for
several minutes, before the medical personnel
arrived and used a stretcher to carry him
towards an exit point.
Mick Foley then proved to the world why the
fans called him ‘The King of Hardcore’.
After a 20 foot drop that many believed had
represented the end of his career and had
caused one of the commentators to shout out,
‘Good God Almighty!
Good God Almighty!
That filled him!
As God as my witness, he is broken in half!’
a noticeably dazed Mick Foley got up from
the stretcher with a smile on his face and
rushed towards the ring.
Foley and the Undertaker quickly scaled the
cell once more and they continued to fight
on top of it.
This time the Undertaker had also brought
a chair with the intention of using it against
Foley.
He then performed a joke slam that sent Foley
down 15 feet through the top of the cell and
onto the hard mat.
Neither of the two wrestlers had expected
the cell’s roof panel to collapse and in
a later interview, the Undertaker said that
he believed the second fall had filled Foley.
Many of those watching the ‘Hell in the
Cell’ match believed the same and the commentators
urged for the match to be stopped.
The footage then showed the King of Hardcore
smiling through his greeding mouth and a lose
tooth dangling from his nose.
As he fell through the top of the cell, the
chair fell with him, landed on his face and
dislocated his jaw.
Even after the horrific drop, the match, that
many still consider to be among the most brutal
in wrestling history, continued.
Foley was later slammed by the Undertaker
into hundreds of thumbtacks, which he himself
had previously strewn onto the ring canvas.
Foley ultimately lost the match but both wrestlers
received a standing ovation at the end.
Afterwards, Foley admitted that he could not
remember most of the match.
The 1998 bout was not, however, Foley’s
first brush with Beth or this figure ment.
In a 1999 ‘I Quit’ match for the WWE belt,
Dwayne Johnson, also known as the Rock, hit
Foley 10 times in the head with a metal chair
in front of his wife and children who were
present ringside.
Aside from a massive gash on his head and
a blended face, the strikes also left Foley
with several concussions.
While on the WCW Tour in 1994, Mick Foley
sustained one of his most famous injuries.
He was wrestling in Munich, Germany under
the name Cactus Jack in a match against Vader,
his long-standing rival.
Foley got his head caught between the first
and second rope in a move called the Hangman
that would make it look as if he was joking.
Unfortunately, the ropes were too tight and
as he struggled to free himself Foley severely
damaged his right ear.
When he returned to the ring and began to
trade blows with Vader, A a large chunk of
his ear fell onto the mat.
The referee did not speak English and was
unable to tell Foley about what had happened.
Instead, he picked up his ear and handed it
to the ring announcer.
Number 2: Sid Eudy
Standing at 6 foot 9 and weighing over 300
pounds, Sid Eudy’s constitution meant that
attempting aerial maneuvers would be quite
a challenge for him.
Unfortunately, during a 2001 match for the
WCW World Heavyweight Championship, his reluctant
attempt at acuting a ’big boot’ from
the top of the second turnbuckle resulted
in a near career-ending injury.
The move consisted of him kicking with one
foot extended while landing on the other.
Eudy botched the landing and broke his leg
in half, snapping both the tibia and the fibula.
At least one of the bones reportedly broke
through his skin.
During the two-hour surgery, a 17-inch rod
was placed in his leg, and for a period of
time afterwards, Eudy used a cane to walk.
Number 1: Owen Heart
The Beth of Owen Hart inside the ring is often
cited as the most heartbreaking moment in
professional wrestling history.
It took place during a 1999 WWE event called
‘Over the Edge’.
At the time Owen Hart was wrestling under
the ‘Blue Blazer’ persona, an unpopular
and buffoonish superhero.
The plan was for Hart to be lowered from the
ceiling high above the ring with the use of
a harness and grapple line.
The harness featured a quick-release mechanism.
Hart had performed the stunt a few times before.
As soon as he would have reached the level
of the ring, he was supposed to act tangled,
release the mechanism and fall flat on his
face in the ring, in keeping with the idea
of his buffoonish persona.
In a tragic turn of events, the mechanism
was triggered too early, as Hart was being
lowered in the ring.
One theory is that he had released the mechanism
by accident while trying to get comfortable
with both his cape and the harness on.
Other theories claimed that the harness was
defective.
Hart fell to his Beth from 78 feet.
He landed chest-first on the top rope and
was thrown into the ring.
Hart received immediate medical attention
and was taken to the hospital where he succumbed
to his injuries.
The official cause of Beth was internal bleeding
caused by blunt force trauma.
The television viewers did not see the accident,
as they were shown a pre-taped vignette during
the fall.
The same footage was also displayed on the
monitors in the darkened arena.
As Hart was receiving medical attention, the
announcer told those watching the live pay-per-view
that the accident was real and not part of
a pre-fabricated storyline emphasizing the
fact that Hart was seriously injured.
The controversy that followed his Beth was
mainly aimed at the poor planning and infamous
nature of the stunt, on an allegedly defective
safety harness and on the fact that the WWE
continued the event after the creatal incident.
Hart’s family sued the WWE and settled the
case for $18 million on the 2nd of November,
2000.
