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Conor McGregor's headline fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 ended in a horrifying ankle break — an injury quite a few WWE performers are familiar with.
In WWE, quite a few wrestlers have broken their legs in horrifying manners during matches, or sometimes outside the ring. A broken leg is one of the most gruesome injuries for any professional athlete. For McGregor, it spelled the end of his trilogy fight in the most anti-climatic manner possible, as the fight ended via a doctor's stoppage.
In WWE, some wrestlers have done massive damage to their professional careers because of their leg injuries. While some were able to get back in the ring and continue to perform, for others, it meant the end of their careers as they knew them.
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This article will focus on five WWE Superstars who broke their ankles or legs inside or outside the ring.
Before we start with wrestlers, an honorable mention goes out to NXT referee Tom Castor. The referee was at a 2019 NXT live event in Omaha when Tyler Breeze faced Velveteen Dream in a match. During the match, the referee took a superkick and his leg snapped horribly under his own weight. Despite that, he rolled on his side to count the pinfall to end the match in an act of immense courage and fortitude.
Warning: Graphic video and photo below
Now, let's take a look at the five wrestlers who suffered horrifying leg breaks.
#5. WWE Superstars who broke their leg: Brian Pillman
Brian Pillman's ankle break is so iconic that afterward, every time a wrestler attacked another to break their ankle, it was called "Pillmanizing".
Pillman didn't actually break his ankle inside a WWE ring. He was in a car accident where, amidst multiple other serious injuries, his left ankle was completely shattered. In VICE TV's Dark Side of the Ring episode about Pillman, it was revealed that he almost had to have his leg amputated.
Despite that, he returned to the ring with his ankle permanently fixed in a 90-degree position. He had to have another surgery on his ankle early in his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
WWE wrote him off with one of the most memorable segments of 1996. Austin broke Pillman's cane on his ankle and then destroyed it with a folding chair. It was the kayfabe explanation for Pillman to take time off to have surgery.
#4. WWE Superstars who broke their leg: Ridge Holland
Ridge Holland suffered one of the more gruesome wrestling injuries in WWE in 2020. The superstar faced Danny Burch in a match on NXT. He got the win over Burch. Unfortunately, he would suffer an injury in the brawl that followed.
He fought against both Burch and Oney Lorcan after the match. Lorcan dove over the top rope, but as he tried to catch Lorcan, his legs gave away from under him, injuring both his legs. He suffered an ankle fracture and dislocation on his left leg, while he also suffered a knee patellar dislocation and a patellar tendon rupture in his right leg.
In an interview following the injury, Holland talked about how, even when he was on a stretcher, he was mentally thinking about getting ready to return to the ring. He also said that he felt the injury was a "freak accident," as he described what happened:
"It was [fracturing and dislocating] my [left] ankle, and then on my right leg, I dislocated the kneecap and ruptured my patella tendons."
Holland has been away from WWE NXT programming since his injury and is expected to return later in the year.
#3. WWE Superstars who broke their leg: Natalya
Natalya is one of the toughest veteran wrestlers in the WWE women's division. During her time in the company, much like any other wrestler, Natalya has suffered through her share of injuries. However, one of the most devastating injuries was a broken ankle.
During WWE's tour of the United Kingdom, Natalya had broken her ankle but had not realized it. The injury went undiagnosed for two months as Natalya continued to wrestle on it. Unfortunately, when her supposed 'sprain' didn't get any better, she had it checked out. She then found out that she had broken her ankle.
It was a tough year for her as WWE was finally focusing on women and had brought up Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, with the Women's Revolution well underway. She wanted to wrestle them, but the injury caused her to take a step back:
"Coming back from my broken ankle — that's why I was so devastated when I broke my ankle because I didn't want to believe, I didn't want to be hurt. I finally got back into the mix and I finally re-debuted after being out the whole summer and then I get hurt. Then I realized looking back on it now, all those things happened for a reason. Some of them I don't know the reasons for but everything that happened to me last year made me stronger," Natalya said.
She was out towards the end of 2015 but returned in January 2016.
#2. WWE Superstars who broke their leg: PAC a.k.a. Neville
During a match on WWE RAW against Chris Jericho, PAC, then known as Neville, broke his ankle in a devastating injury.
Neville tried a baseball slide in the middle of the match. Unfortunately, he tweaked his ankle and broke it in two spots. Neville later talked about how serious the injury was.
He said that his toe got caught in the mat, breaking his ankle in two places. He tried to keep working through the pain but understood he could not. Thankfully, he was in the ring with a veteran like Chris Jericho, who took quick action and ended the match soon after that. He then distracted the audience from the injury by arguing with the referee.
When Neville returned to WWE TV at Roadblock: End of the Line, he had changed his persona and his physique had become even more shredded.
He attacked Rich Swann and TJ Perkins upon his return, sending an immediate message.
Neville has since left WWE and is now a part of AEW under the name PAC.
#1. WWE Superstars who broke their leg: Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was not in WWE when possibly one of the most gruesome injuries of all time in wrestling history took place at WCW's Sin pay-per-view.
In the dying days of WCW, Sid was a part of the company and was being encouraged by the company to attempt a few high-flying moves. As one of the larger wrestlers in the company, it was not in his usual repertoire, so when he went to hit the Diving Big Boot from the middle rope at the Sin pay-per-view, things went very wrong for him.
Warning: Graphic video of Sid Vicious breaking his leg
He landed with all of his weight on his left leg and it simply broke in half on impact. The fracture was very graphic and is recognized as being one of the worst injuries in wrestling history to be broadcast.
The former WWE Superstar's horrifying leg break took a long time for him to recover from. He would never be the same again in the ring, although he did wrestle again after a few years of rehabilitation.
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