10 Wrestlers Who Escaped Certain Death
False Finishes
For the second time in as many weeks, Ric Flair posted an ostentatious health update having reportedly been as close to the brink as he'd been in his entire life. Using the first video message to shill a brand new 'I'm Not Dead Yet Motherf***ers' t-shirt line and a follow-up tweet to show him suited and booted ahead of an exclusive television interview, the 'Nature Boy' kicked out when most thought he'd finally been forced into taking a deciding fall.
He's one of many within professional wrestling that seem almost impervious to the withered touch of death's hand. After a dreadful decade of death and decay in the 2000s as the excesses of the industry in the 1980s and 1990s caught up with countless performers, the mortality rate has thankfully slowed. Those still around have gradually learned to take care of themselves, and newer generations are hopefully not making the mistakes that sent their forbearers careering to early graves.
Like Queen Elizabeth II ruling over the United Kingdom with such longevity that her own son may never even take the throne, Vince McMahon presides over his own vainglorious empire at 72 years-old with such ferocity that to even imagine a day where he isn't at the helm seems rooted in farce. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon may be establishing their own legacy under his thumb, but he too seems far to keen to evade life's gentle descent than embrace it.
Death comes to us all, but these characters staved off their early finish.
10. Bill Goldberg
Bill Goldberg's lifelong intensity has been his blessing and his curse. Transitioning from the NFL to the squared circle in 1996, less than two years later he was atop the industry thanks to an unprecedented fire that gainfully masked a host of traditional limitations.
That innate charisma was the character's drive, and buoyed by a visually impressive and physically dominant presentation, his undefeated rise to glory was a sight to behold.
It's a trait he maintains to present day, as evidenced in his absorbing clashes with Brock Lesnar at 50-years-old. Punctuated and powerful, Goldberg's contests are best kept brief, but in doing so highlight the explosive energy he emits in his displays.
Sadly, his best matches weren't the only things short and sharp in his illustrious career. A typically chaotic December 1999 edition of WCW Monday Nitro concluded with Big Bill smashing up a limousine using just his right arm.
Apparently furious following a backstage incident with Scott Hall from earlier that day, Goldberg took his rage out on the the limo's windows, but the glass fought back. Splintering violently, huge shards gashed his forearm.
Nitro went off the air to the sight of the car's white bonnet sprayed crimson, whilst the man himself had to be immediately rushed to hospital having lost upwards of two pints of blood.
The severity of the wound forced him to miss several months of action, and he later confirmed he was within a centimetre of losing full use of his arm.