Fake sport, real pain: Major injuries suffered during WWE matches
What's the story
WWE matches might be fake and their outcomes scripted. But what the wrestlers go through is real, it needs great athleticism to perform what they do every night inside the ring. Sometimes, however, things go wrong and wrestlers suffer major injuries. Careers have ended and even lives have been threatened. Here are the 5 most brutal injuries suffered during a WWE match.
Joey Mercury
When an injury derailed a career
Armageddon 2006 saw an injury that derailed the superstar's career forever. Joey Mercury was involved in a 4-team ladder match, when a ladder hit him on the nose severely. He started bleeding profusely. With blood spurting out of him, he needed immediate medical attention. Mercury suffered numerous stitches and fractures and was reduced to a shadow of his former self.
Shawn Michaels
Superstar is forced to take a hiatus at his prime
Shawn Michaels is probably the best in-ring performer in the history of WWE. However, a massive 1998 injury forced him to quit wrestling for 4 years when he was in his prime. In a 1998 match against The Undertaker, Michaels landed on a coffin which resulted in ruptured disks in his spine. A four-hour surgery infused metal plates in his spine.
Stone Cold
The Texas Rattlesnake and his broken neck
SummerSlam 1997 saw a match between Owen Hart and Stone Cold. Hart's Intercontinental Championship was on line. When Hart delivered a reverse piledriver to Austin, it drove the beer-drinking, hell-raising Texan's head into the ground with severe force, breaking his neck. Austin thought he would be paralyzed for life, but returned three months later. He underwent several surgeries to repair his neck.
Darren Drozdov
A powerbomb leaves a wrestler paralyzed
Darren Drozdov's story is one of the most devastating ones in the entire history of WWE. At a SmackDown episode in 1999, Drozdov faced off D'Lo Brown when a powerbomb by Brown went horribly wrong. Brown slipped on a wet spot, as Drozdov landed on his head and fractured two discs in his neck. This paralyzed Drozdov and ended his career.
Owen Hart
Death of a superstar leaves the WWE universe shocked
Over The Edge 1999 witnessed the most shocking incident ever in WWE. Owen Hart, who was supposed to make a dramatic entrance, while being lowered to the ring with a harness and grapple, fell 78 feet chest-first on the top ring. JR announced later that the member of the Hart Foundation had passed away in the hospital due to internal bleeding.