10 Wrestlers Who Were Recklessly Dangerous
Safety First
WWE's stranglehold on wrestling history has its pros and cons.
The Network is perhaps the finest technological innovation in the history of the industry. Not that streaming and on demand services are creations that escaped from Titan Tower (despite what the company would have you believe during the relentless post-launch advertising campaign), but the company amassing an archive big enough to have one themselves reflects shrewd use of back catalogues both owned and purchased.
Beyond an admittedly clunky exterior, a world awaits. Its through this portal fans born in the '80s can find wrestling before Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan rechristened it in 1984. Attitude Era casuals can learn how 1997 was essential in creating 1998 and millennials can see exactly why they had their childhood John Cena cheers drowned out by overtly angry adults.
It also allows fans of all those ages (and older, and younger) to indulge in the life and career of Bret Hart.
'The Hitman's personal collection is rivalled by few. An immaculate professional, his precision, control and understanding of pro wrestling's rich artistry made him uniquely captivating to audiences that didn't yet understand why they loved him so. His opponents were grateful too. Hart never caused a single injury to one of his opponents throughout his illustrious career. He made his fake art look realer than most without ever even inadvertently crossing the line.
A very few can boast such a record. A very select few almost made the exact opposite an art-form in itself...
10. The Ultimate Warrior
WWE's problematic 2017 'Unleash Your Warrior' campaign was derided for its hypocrisy in the face of some questionable personality traits of the deceased party in question. Warrior's iconography being posthumously used to aid cancer victims in the literal fight of their lives was rightfully pulled apart by those that remembered his caustic attitude towards Bobby Heenan during his own battle with the disease. Or, for that matter, his caustic attitude towards anything that didn't jive with his "destrucity".
One of those things, by most accounts, was his respect for professional wrestling. Warrior got in by getting big, and got big by getting huge. His neon artificiality captivated millions, but his ascent came at the expense of his need to respect his craft. Jobbers were left in broken heaps after television squashes, whilst Andre the Giant, Heenan himself and countless others paid the penalty for his in-and-out-of-character recklessness.
'The Brain's WrestleMania V press slam bump is perhaps Warrior's worst offence. Raising Bobby above his head as he ordinarily did men twice his size, Heenan barely went up before crashing six foot down hard onto his arm, shoulder and already-dodgy neck. Andre was once able to curb Warrior's unnecessary roughness with a single fist to the face, but Heenan was sadly no Giant.