The 5 Worst WWE injuries

For as much as professional wrestling is a form of entertainment that is based around predetermined outcomes and storylines, companies like WWE mean it when they warn fans not to try it at home. It’s a dangerous enterprise for which bodies really do absorb physical punishment—even if the performers know it’s coming and plan for it. Moreover, even trained professional can make mistakes sometimes.

WWE is the largest wrestling company world. Many casual fans look at the company as synonymous with pro wrestling, period, and for anyone who started watching in the last seventeen years, it’s almost a certainty that WWE represented their first encounter with the business. With all of that attention and all of its resources, WWE is under a lot of scrutiny. Yes, the company can afford to hire the best of the best, but they also take a more conservative approach to wrestling than a lot smaller companies, including mostly banning potentially dangerous moves like the piledriver.

Accidents have happened over the years just the same. This article takes a look at five of the worst injuries to go down in a WWE ring.

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5. Tyson Kidd’s Career Ended With A Muscle Buster

Even the most skilled professionals can't escape the potential for disaster

Hardcore fans recognize Samoa Joe and Tyson Kidd as two of the most proficient in ring performers of their generation. Joe honed his craft around the world before earning his shot with WWE not based on his look or his youthful potential, but rather his undeniable talent. Kidd was seen as one of the last legitimate graduates of the Hart Family Dungeon, and an accordingly skilled technician and aerial artist. Were it not for his relatively small size, he may well have been a breakout star in WWE.

Sadly, Kidd’s career came to an end with Joe hit his signature Muscle Buster move on him during a dark match. Despite both men’s skill and it being a relatively routine spot, Kidd wound up with a nasty neck and spine injury. Those close to the situation have said Kidd was lucky not to wind up wheelchair bound, but regardless isn’t expected to ever work a match again.

4. The Rocker Dropper Gone Wrong

A move gone tragically wrong changed an enhancement talent's life

The Rockers were a popular and highly skilled tag team who got by and speed, agility, and finesse despite being much smaller than most of the other major acts in WWE in their day. Despite generally being regarded as safe, and Shawn Michaels in particularly being widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, they did have one big black mark to their name in WWE.

In late 1990, Marty Jannetty hit the Rocker Dropper on enhancement talent Chuck Austin and broke his neck. Accounts diverge as to whether it was Austin’s mistake, he was misdirected on how to take the move, or if Jannetty actually did something wrong in the execution. Regardless, Austin wound up suing WWE in the years to follow and was awarded an eight figure sum on account of the paralyzing injury that has reportedly caused ongoing pain and health issues for him ever since.

3. Joey Mercury’s Face Explodes

Even in the most skilled hands, ladders are dangerous in a wrestling ring.

Any match with a great deal of plunder carries some very real risk to the performers in the ring. Ladders can prove a particularly dangerous implement of destruction, not just for the big bumps they facilitate, but for the unwieldy size and weight of them when used as blunt objects.

Joey Mercury was a rock solid in ring performer, and the Armageddon 2006 PPV saw him engage in ladder match with his similarly skilled partner Johnny Nitro, and skilled, experienced opponents The Hardy Boyz, Dave Taylor and William Regal, and Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Despite the fact that the men involved were all trustworthy, they were nonetheless working a dangerous match style.

In an absolutely brutal spot, Mercury had a ladder see-sawed straight into face, immediately reducing him to the proverbial crimson mask. The injury fortunately didn’t have a huge effect on his long-term career but was one of the more brutal in the moment injuries ever aired to fans live on PPV.

2. Brock Lesnar Breaks Hardcore Holly

For as tough as Hardcore Holly was, the human neck can only take so much

Brock Lesnar is and always has been an extraordinary physical specimen for WWE, particularly for his unreal power and musculature. It’s his unique body type that, for example, saved him from disaster at WrestleMania 19 when he botched a shooting star press and leapt from the top rope only to land on his head. While stunned, Lesnar was able to finish the match and not miss any significant time.

One of Lesnar’s opponents, Hardcore Holly, was not so fortunate, and suffered the brunt of Lesnar’s brute strength. In a freak accident, Lesnar slammed Holly hard in a botched powerbomb that badly injured his neck, and put him out of action for over a year. Holly is notorious for being a tough guy who doesn’t tolerate complaining. The severity of this injury was clear when Holly needed assistance and wound up sidelined from WWE action for as long as he was.

1. Steve Austin Takes A Nasty Piledriver

Steve Austin was on a white hot run when a pilderiver nearly cut off his career altogether

Though Owen Hart is generally a revered figure for his technical prowess and keen character work, he was only human and wound up responsible for one of the ugliest and worst timed mistakes in WWE history.

At SummerSlam 1997, Hart was due to put over ascending megastar Steve Austin for the Intercontinental Championship. Hart used a sit down tombstone piledriver as a regular part of his arsenal at the time, but when it came time to deliver this move to Stone Cold, he held his body too low, and sent Austin’s skull legitimately crashing to mat. Austin was momentarily paralyzed and severely weakened in the aftermath. The experienced pair of wrestlers just barely managed to finish the match, but Austin was out of action for a bit due to the injury, and the ramifications of that terrible bump would haunt him for the rest of his career.