8 Most devastating career-ending injuries in wrestling history

#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.