10 Crazy WWE Stunts (And How They Did Them)

Despite its reputation for being "fake", most of the genuinely jaw-dropping stuff you see in and around a WWE ring actually happens for real.

Take, for example, the many times that Mick Foley and Shane McMahon have leaped or been pushed from a great height. There's no camera tricks there, and in most cases no crash-pad waiting for them below either. The spot simply relies on a human being being prepared to undergo intense physical pain in the aid of entertaining a crowd.

But not all WWE stunts are quite so authentic. Actually burying someone up to their eyes in dirt, or having them sit inside a limousine as it's blown up, would likely result in death - something that even the most committed wrestlers tend to shy away from. As such, the production crew must come up with clever ways to make something appear real while keeping the performers safe.

Needless to say, the company itself would never actually reveal its secrets, but thanks to a combination of testimony of industry insiders and online fan theories, we can in many cases take a pretty good guess at how they pulled it off.

This is a pretty easy one to start with. The segment in which Vince McMahon "died" in a limousine explosion simply switches from a live feed - the camera behind him as he approaches the vehicle - to a pre-recorded one: the wide-shot of him opening the door and climbing inside.

Apart from being pretty obvious (since there's no way they'd actually attempt something this ambitious - and potentially dangerous - live) there are also a couple of continuity errors which give the game away.

For one thing, there seems to be a puddle in front of the limo from the wide view which isn't visible as he's walking towards it. He also appears to be a couple of steps further along in the first shot compared to the second. You might even point to the extra production truck in the back for the live bit (although that could be the camera angle).

Of course, none of this really mattered once the distasteful angle involving the chairman of the board became a mere footnote in the overall story of Chris Benoit's death. Now, we're destined to remember it for all the wrong reasons.