8 Most devastating career-ending injuries in wrestling history

Wrestling is a career with terrifying occupational hazards. On a nightly basis, wrestlers both male and female have to wrestle in dangerous matches that require them to put their lives in the hands of their opponents, literally.

And when a wrestler isn’t busy worrying if their opponent will drop them on their head accidentally, they have to be mindful of their surroundings and make sure that every move they do is both done safely and looks good on camera and for the audience.

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The biggest occupational hazard of pro wrestling is the injury. To this day, there likely isn’t a single wrestler past or present that didn’t spend time on the shelf nursing a serious injury or requiring surgery. Particularly nasty injuries take sideline a wrestler for months or even beyond an entire year depending on their severity. For the wrestlers that suffer through these kinds of injuries, they can only hope that they’ll still have a spot if/when they come back from said injury.

Then there are those that aren’t so lucky. There are some wrestlers whose careers ended in an instant due to one botch or one error in judgment in the ring. These are the wrestlers that suffered devastating injuries that not only caused them unimaginable pain but also ended up ending their wrestling career permanently.

This article will chronicle eight such wrestlers whose careers have been ended by terrible injuries, and it will serve as a warning to anyone that has the gall to think that wrestling is either easy or risk-free due to its scripted nature.

To be clear, in this article we’re talking about wrestlers whose wrestling careers ended with either a sudden injury or a diagnosis that came up completely out of left field which prevented a wrestler from wrestling any further.

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#8 Sting's wrestling career ends following a Bucklebomb

Sting's short WWE career was so short because of a sudden injury

When WWE signed Sting in 2014, it was a huge deal because many people thought it would lead to a plethora of dream matches. Unfortunately, Sting only wrestled in two matches in WWE before announcing his retirement at the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony.

The reason for this is because Sting suffered a career-ending neck injury in a WWE Championship match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions 2015, Sting took a Bucklebomb from Rollins and suffered a legitimate neck injury.

Although he did finish the match, the 56-year-old Sting was told that his neck injury would require surgery. Although he hasn’t actually undergone the surgery as of yet, Sting did announce his retirement from wrestling when being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2016.

While few people expected Sting to really put on a grappling masterpiece at his age, his presence in WWE was an ever-present sign that there was a remote possibility that he would have his dream match with the Undertaker.

#7 One stiff kick from Goldberg ends Bret Hart’s career

This stiff kick must've felt as painful as it looks

By 1999, Bret Hart’s wrestling career was approaching its end. He had spent a few years in WCW, but much of that career was mired with controversial booking decisions and questionable directions.

But one of his most successful angles involved a feud with Goldberg, which eventually led to a match between the two at Starrcade. Unfortunately, Goldberg wasn’t the safest of workers and was known for very stiff strikes.

Despite warning Bret to ‘watch the kick’ during their match, Hart wasn’t able to block the stiff side kick that Goldberg hit him with. That kick was enough to give Hart a severe concussion. It was so bad that Bret starting having trouble remembering things and began suffering from emotional issues.

Sadly, this marked the end of Bret’s in-ring career, which was far from the high note he should’ve ended on, given how much he sacrificed as a wrestler.

#6 Droz’s career ends because of a botched Powerbomb

Poor Droz lost a lot more than his wrestling career with this botch...

Droz’s untimely injury was a perfect example of why wrestling fans and spectators should NEVER try wrestling moves by themselves. On a 1999 episode of SmackDown, D’Lo Brown picked Droz up for his then-finisher, a Running Powerbomb.

However, Droz was wearing a loose shirt and wasn’t able to get a proper grip to ensure that he could take the move correctly. As a result, Droz landed on his head and fractured two discs in his neck.

The resulting botch left Droz quadriplegic, and he has been in that state ever since, with only slight recovery of any mobility below the neck. Droz was only two years into his wrestling career when this injury changed his life forever and destroyed his dream before it could be achieved.

#5 Katsuyori Shibata’s ultra-stiff head-butt ends his career

That trickle of blood you see is due to a subdural hematoma, which is enough to kill an ordinary person

Up until April 2017, Katsuyori Shibata was one of New Japan’s biggest stars having returned to the company in 2012 after a failed MMA excursion. During this second run, Shibata became notorious for being the stiffest striker in the entire company, hitting people extremely hard with every part of his body, including his head.

Many of his stiff head-butts were downright disturbing, as he would often hit his head against another wrestler’s head in a prime example of please-don’t-ever-do-this strong style. Unfortunately, this stiffness eventually caught up with Shibata at Sakura Genesis 2017.

During his match with Kazuchika Okada, Shibata head-butted Okada so hard that blood started to flow down his face. When he returned backstage, it was discovered that he suffered a subdural hematoma and was rushed to the hospital.

This injury, coupled with the extreme dehydration he suffered in his match, caused Shibata to experience some paralysis, and although he survived, the likelihood of going forward is that he will never wrestle again.

Thankfully, though, at least he is still alive and can move on his own, which is way more than what people were expecting when news of this career-ending injury first broke out.

#4 Sid breaks his leg in an awful way

This is what happens when wrestling promoters tell wrestlers to do things those wrestlers don't want to do

Sid was never meant to go off the top rope. As a tall, super-heavyweight-class grappler, he was best suited to lifting smaller opponents up and slamming them to the ground. Yet for some strange reason, WCW’s bookers thought it would be a great idea for the 300-plus-pounder to add some aerial manoeuvres to his arsenal.

This led to Sid reluctantly attempting a diving attack at WCW’s Sin PPV in 2001. Sid jumped off the top rope, landing pretty much on one leg, and awkwardly at that. The angle of the landing coupled with all of his body weight falling onto one leg caused his foot to snap in half, fracturing both his tibia and fibula.

It was a disturbing injury that was utterly gruesome to watch on PPV and left any people groaning in shock and disgust. This injury forced Sid into retirement and served as a painful reminder why bigger wrestlers rarely to diving moves (unless their name is Kane).

#3 Edge’s neck injuries catch up with him

Edge's retirement was sudden and shocking despite the circumstances around it

Edge was arguably the biggest Superstar on SmackDown for many years, and one of the biggest heels in the entire company for about a decade. Edge was excellent as both a babyface and as a heel and is one of the most decorated wrestlers in WWE history.

Unfortunately, he was wrestling on ‘borrowed time’ since 2003, after having suffered a major neck injury that required surgery. Although Edge did wrestle for many years after suffering the initial injury, most of his problems stemmed from this original injury.

Sadly, Edge’s ‘borrowed time’ ran out shortly after WrestleMania XXVII, after the pain and loss of feeling in his body had become too severe for him to ignore (if you go back and watch the Spear he hit on Alberto Del Rio’s then-bodyguard Brodus Clay, you can see him grabbing his neck, looking like he’s in extreme pain; it’s almost as if that one Spear ‘reignited’ his old injury).

A week later, Edge announced his retirement, having experienced such damage to his neck and spine that any further injury could’ve landed him in a wheelchair or worse.

#2 Yoshihiro Takayama became quadriplegic due to a neck injury

This man is a legend in Japan, but his career ended with one simple move.

Yoshihiro Takayama was an enormous star in his native Japan, winning multiple singles and tag team championships throughout his 25-year career. Although he was mainly a power-based wrestler, using stiff strikes and heaving suplexes to wear down his opponents, it wasn’t uncommon for the 276-pound Takayama to leave his feet and execute dropkicks from time to time.

Alas, it was that desire to do something ‘athletic’ that cost Takayama big-time. On May 4th, 2017, the 6’5 Takayama attempted a sunset flip and accidentally landed on his head. He ended up suffering a severe spinal cord injury which has now left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.

Sadly, he isn’t expected to recover and will likely spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Thankfully, Takayama’s close friend Minoru Suzuki (yes, that Minoru Suzuki) has set up a charity so that you can donate money to help Takayama and his family following this devastating career-ending injury.

You can find more info on that charity here.

#1 Hayabusa breaks his neck with a botched moonsault

Hayabusa's storied career ended with one of wrestling's most infamous botches...

Hayabusa was one of the greatest hardcore wrestlers and Lucha Libre wrestlers of all time. An outstanding worker, Hayabusa was the ace of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), and his wrestling style has influenced many of today’s wrestling stars, including WWE superstars Neville and Seth Rollins (the latter of which uses both the Falcon Arrow and the Phoenix Splash, two moves Hayabusa created).

Sadly, Hayabusa’s ended on October 22nd, 2001, when he botched a springboard moonsault and cracked two of his vertebrae. The injury left him, quadriplegic, almost instantly, and thus his career came to an end.

Hayabusa was said to have become depressed almost to the point of suicide, given how he went from flying around and above the ring to wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life in the span of seconds.

Although he did eventually regain some motion in his lower body, Hayabusa was never able to wrestle again after that tragic injury.

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