10 Wrestlers Who Nearly Died
Near falls.
Wrestling's propensity for hyperbole sometimes has the opposite effect. So jaded are viewers from hearing how so-and-so is lucky to be alive following the latest high-risk low-reward stunt, that it often falls entirely on deaf ears. After all, you can only call wolf so many times - especially when the consequences tend to only last a night, if that.
The risks are very real, but as effectively highly-trained stuntman, we expect wrestlers to walk away unscathed from every incident. Thankfully, in the majority of cases, they do.
And that's not just limited to the ring.
Apparently those years learning to fall pay major dividends in the real world. There's a handful of grapplers who stared certain death in the face only to come out laughing. Mere mortals would have ate the silvery taste of scythe, but not these superstars. These are the near falls that reall got the crowd believing.
10. Tom Magee's Mar Vista Streetight
An apocryphally superlative match opposite Bret Hart - taped, but tantalisingly unearthed - earned Tom Magee his spot in WWE, but it soon became apparent that the Hitman was doing his usual fireman's job, carrying the rookie from potential disaster. It was a one off; Magee proceeded to etch his name in wrestling folklore for his particularly fake brand of fake fighting.
Footage of Magee's soft offence induced titters for latter day fans, but a very real fight involving the former bodybuilder in May 2018 was no laughing matter.
The 59-year old Magee was brutally beaten up by a gang of six men outside his Mar Vista home in Los Angeles. He suffered a broken jaw, broken eye socket and a severe concussion - all because of a disagreement over a parking spot (a seriously gruesome image was released, but it's not for the faint of heart). Two men were later arrested for the assault, from which a neighbour described Magee as being "lucky to be alive."
