4 times WWE Superstars actually got hurt in the ring

"WWE is fake", how many times have you heard this, and as a wrestling fan, been tempted to Claymore Kick the ignoramus into oblivion? A thousand times I guess. Same here.

Well, WWE isn't fake, we all know it. Scripted it is, yes, but the bumps the superstars take are real. Being a competent professional wrestler requires working a match where no co-worker gets hurt while executing moves and spots. One tiny mistake, and you could end someone's entire career (see Tyson Kidd), or in some tragic cases, their life.

The superstars we see on TV or on indie shows are highly professionally trained athletes (mostly) who know how to work safely. For an example, lets take Kane - The Big Red Machine has been dubbed one of the safest workers ever born. On the other hand, there is Nia Jax, who has been on a spree, injuring multiple superstars in a short time span.

Her recent stiff punch to Becky Lynch on Monday Night RAW robbed us of what was going to be an expected mouth-watering clash against Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series. This is not a knock on Nia Jax (although it should be for working in such an irresponsible way), but it certainly put some things into perspective. Luck may not always favour her opponents.

With Rousey now costing Lynch her SmackDown Championship, her path is clear. She will probably challenge for Rousey's title at WrestleMania 35. All's well that ends well I suppose. But it still doesn't pardon Nia's recklessness.

Over the years, there have been many incidents where wrestlers actually got hurt in the ring. In this article, we take a look at the 4 times wrestlers actually hurt others in the ring.

#1 Nia Jax - Becky Lynch

Well, this is the most recent incident, and the one which truly inspired me to write this piece.

Following her turn at SummerSlam this year, Becky Lynch was on fire. The audiences refused to boo her, and she then adopted an anti-hero persona which resonated greatly with the audiences. She got over HUGE, and by huge I mean the most over superstar on the entire WWE roster.

She led the SmackDown Women's team for Survivor Series to ambush the RAW Women's team two weeks before the big event. In the melee that followed, Nia Jax hit Becky with one stiff jab, and busted her open. Although Becky continued with the fight, the damage had already been done.

She was pulled off Survivor Series, as she was diagnosed with a broken face and a concussion. She didn't even appear on the SmackDown Live after Survivor Series. While it was unfortunate that we got robbed of a potential blockbuster due to Nia's continued carelessness, the rumors circulating about this match main eventing WrestleMania somehow make up for it.

#2 Brock Lesnar - Braun Strowman

The 2018 Royal Rumble was largely a success, partly because of Nakamura and Asuka's victories in their respective RR matches. While SmackDown had put up an exciting world title match, its red counterpart faltered.

We were treated instead to a match between a plodding and ageing Kane, a disinterested Lesnar, and a not so experienced worker in Braun Strowman. The result - a catastrophe of a match.

During the course of the match, Braun was going too fast, and while hitting Lesnar with his knee, he actually did hit Lesnar on the face with his knee. This promptly got an answer from Brock, who legitimately punched Strowman twice on the side of his head and asked him to "slow the f**k down".

The match continued uneventfully, with Braun later admitting his mistake in an interview. So kids, the moral of the story is this - never ever mess with The Beast.

#3 Alberto del Rio - Sin Cara

Sin Cara was brought into the WWE with much fanfare, and rightly so. He was a Mexican megastar, and the WWE thought of him as a way to break into the Hispanic wrestling scene. And it's safe to say that little experiment bombed - big time.

Sin Cara caused a lot of problems backstage. He got into fights with his co-workers, refused to take English speaking classes for cutting promos, and botched in the ring a lot. The final straw for Vince McMahon was a match on RAW between Sin Cara and his real-life rival Alberto del Rio.

During the course of the match, Sin Cara broke his fingers. When he realised what happened, he immediately called for the referee to end the match Instead of working through the pain to an improvised, quick pin.

While any wrestler has the right to end the match if he/she is injured, they mostly work through the pain to protect kayfabe. Alberto del Rio was thoroughly incensed at what he thought was Sin Cara's unprofessional behaviour

He pushed him back into the ring, and hit him with real stiff kicks in anger. The referees pushed him away. Sin Cara was shortly released after this, and another worker was hired to carry the mantle of Sin Cara.

#4 Daniel Puder - Kurt Angle

'Tough Enough' is one of WWE's reality TV shows. The winner of the show gets a chance to make it to the WWE. One such contestant was Daniel Puder. The winner of the series became famous for all the wrong reasons.

It was an episode of SmackDown which spelled his doom. Kurt Angle, then at the peak of his standing in the company, participated in a segment in which he shoot wrestled with the contestants. They were made to eat and drink before the segment so that they felt bloated. Apparently, Puder skipped that.

In the ring, Angle also allegedly broke a contestant's ribs. Daniel Puder was up next. Everything was seemingly going according to the plan, but what Kurt Angle didn't know was that Puder had an MMA background.

Before Angle could embarrass the rookie, he was put into the Kimura lock by Puder. It was a tough spot to be in, as no selling it would lead to a broken arm, but a top star tapping out to an unknown rookie was out of the question. A referee counted to 3 even though Puder's shoulders weren't touching the mat. Angle had some choice words for him, and refused a handshake.

Daniel Puder was soon out of the company after a brutal punishment at that year's titular Royal Rumble match at the hands of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, as they hit him with the hardest chops they could muster up.

Edited by Anthony Akatugba Jr.