10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Had Harsh Consequences

Nothing gets professional wrestling fans going like a world-class match. For all WWE's focus on contrived storylines, big moments, and "making history," exciting match-ups will always be the sport's backbone, and we've been spoiled for choice in 2016.

From Sami Zayn & Shinsuke Nakamura's strong style barnburner at TakeOver: Dallas to John Cena passing the torch to AJ Styles at SummerSlam, WWE's year has once again been saved by great matches. It's these stunning battles that keep fans coming back regardless of how creatively desolate the sport gets, and awesome matches can not only galvanise the fanbase, but the industry as a whole.

Where would we be without Shawn Michaels & The Undertaker's two WrestleMania classics, Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania, or Mankind vs. The Undertaker inside Hell In A Cell? A great match can come to define an era and its performers, and such contests become the business' lifeblood.

Not all great matches are created equally, though, and even the best made plans can turn to dust. It's a rare scenario, but a number of great wrestling matches have produced near catastrophic results for the wrestlers and promotions. Sometimes, there's just no accounting for disaster, and some of wrestling's greatest ever matches have brought less than desirable outcomes, particularly in WWE and WCW.

Here are 10 awesome wrestling matches that had harsh consequences.

This match is a real WWE Network hidden gem. The company usually save their best matches for high-profile pay-per-view events, and understandably so. They do have a tendency to occasionally throw a genuine Match of the Year contender on a random episode of Raw, however, and this is one such match.

Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho were two of the most exciting upper-midcard wrestlers in the company, and they excelled against two of the era’s biggest stars. This is one of the best tag team matches in modern WWE history, and the two Chrises eventually overcame the Power Trip when Hunter accidentally knocked Austin with his sledgehammer.

Unfortunately, this is also the match in which Triple H famously tore his quad. He finished the match like a trooper, but the injury sat him out for the rest of the year, and he didn’t return until January. Not only did this rob The Game of 7 months of his prime, but it prevented WWE from utilising one of their biggest assets during the Invasion, and thwarted a potential rematch between The Game and Stone Cold.

After No Way Out’s success, another Austin vs. Triple H match should have done tremendous business, and Triple H’s presence would’ve certainly helped the Invasion, particularly when his wife, Stephanie, “bought” ECW. Sadly, neither of these came to fruition.