10 Wrestlers Who Have Been "Killed" In 2020
For whom the ring bell tolls.
Yes, this is entertainment! But the hazards are real!! We were all told as doe-eyed adolescents silently gawping at WWE's cautionary video packages before, of course, piledriving our siblings or chokeslamming the cat.
It's a unique pursuit is pro-wrestling. On the one hand, it's absolutely not real at all but, on the other, it needs to appear as real as it possibly can, frequently excels when it's grounded in reality, and takes an often severe real-life toll on the men and women who make a living out of it. In fact, you can very easily make the argument that wrestling has never been more believable, more legitimate, more real than it is today.
Or rather, you could have, until a few months ago.
You see, with the need for cinematic matches to capitalise on the lack of actual crowds, WWE have allowed both the talent and the writing department to turn every single dial up to 11. The stories are insane, the matches defy time, space, or sense, and the cost of losing, well, that's now transcended a mere title-change or the humble L to see stars very lives being extinguished. Even if it's not permanent.
Enter a wrestling match in 2020, and there's mortal peril for whom the ring bell tolls.
10. Matt Hardy - Massive Cranial Trauma
Matt Hardy is dead.
We know this because Randy Orton caved his skull in during the build to WrestleMania and then, after Hardy returned the next week with his neck in a brace, Orton caved his skull in again. In the medical field - of which I am an expert - this is what's known as an Absolute Doing.
It's been months since these heinous events took place, and Hardy hasn't been seen or heard from on WWE programming. This is understandable of course as he's dead.
In fact, he was killed so hard, that his essence recently appeared on another wrestling show apparently having been revived through some sort of ethereal plane. Calling itself 'Domestos' or something, it confirmed that the entity fans once knew and loved as Matt Hardy had perished, and he had been reborn in its place.
Just in case anyone's still doubting the raw power of the Con-Chair-To, it not only murdered a 45-year-old man here, but Orton apparently hit him so hard that it sent his undying soul through all manner of alternate spiritual realities and directly onto another network. That's impressive.
Current Status: Dead, But Reborn On TNT