5 career-threatening injuries WWE Superstars sustained in the ring

#1. Shawn Michaels suffered a severe back injury at WWE Royal Rumble 1998

23 years ago today, Jan 18 1998: The @WWE Royal Rumble was held in San Jose, California.@ShawnMichaels suffers the back injury that would force his original retirement during a Casket Match where he defeated @Undertaker in a Casket Match to retain the WWF Title. pic.twitter.com/7722XLUSSn

— 🄲🄰🅂🄸🄾🅂 🄲🅄🅃 (@CasiosCut) January 18, 2021

The Royal Rumble has hosted some of the biggest matches in the history of WWE. The event has called for Superstars to take some major risks, some of which have unfortunately led to career-threatening injuries.

At the 1998 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, The Undertaker competed against Shawn Michaels in a casket match. During the contest, Michaels went for a back-body drop on the outside of the ring and hit his back on the edge of the casket.

HBK suffered a terrible back injury during the match but continued to fight on. He sustained two herniated discs and crushed the third one in the fall.

During an episode of the Grilling JR Podcast on Shawn Michaels’ career from 1997-98, Jim Ross discussed Michaels’ back injury that forced him to take a 4-year hiatus from WWE.

“All the crying wolf things start to become literally leery and gun shy,” Ross said. “How do any of us say? I’m not him, I’m not in his body. I had doubts, just like everybody had doubts. To say we didn’t have doubts would be lying but we had no proof other than the medical reports. He knew that he could never be himself again with his back in that condition. I didn’t have as much doubt.

.@ShawnMichaels and @Undertaker look back at what many consider the greatest match in @WrestleMania history. pic.twitter.com/8YDqFslJgr

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) September 29, 2019

Michaels managed to recover from the injury and returned to the WWE nearly four years later. The back injury took years off HBK’s wrestling career, but he did come back for another 8-year run before hanging up his boots for a second time.