10 Worst Injuries Suffered In WWE Ladder Matches

Does it get any sicker than poor Joey Mercury's injuries from Armageddon 2006?

By Ryan Droste /

WWE.comMany wrestling fans will point to WrestleMania X as the birth of the ladder match in professional wrestling, and many wrestling fans would be absolutely wrong with that assertion. Not only was the famous WrestleMania X ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon not the first ladder match in wrestling history, it wasn't even the first ladder match in WWF/WWE history. That honor went to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who competed in a ladder match in 1992 that was filmed for release exclusively on home video. As Hart tells the story, he came to Vince McMahon with the idea of doing a ladder match, as he had competed in them in Stampede Wrestling early on his career. Vince was not familiar with this type of match, so Bret and Shawn went out to show Vince what kind of match a ladder match could be. There are so many memorable moments etched into our minds from all of the classic ladder matches over the years: Michaels executing a body splash off the ladder at WrestleMania X, Jeff Hardy coming off the ladder with an unbelievable swanton bomb at WrestleMania 2000, Edge jumping from a ladder and spearing Jeff Hardy mid air at WrestleMania X-7, and the list goes on and on. The match, of course, is not without its risks. For years, many thought of the cage match as the ultimate risk taking match, but once the ladder match came around it made the cage look second fiddle in the high risk department. Many wrestling stars have suffered serious long term consequences for their participation in multiple ladder matches, and many stars have suffered immediate injury from competing in a single ladder match. Today, we will look at some of the more memorable and worst injuries suffered as a result of the infamous ladder.