10 Devastating Injuries That Made Wrestlers WORSE

6. Macho Man Randy Savage

Triple H Before And Way Before
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Randy Savage was an all-time great worker who fused the outsize spectacle and storytelling grandeur of the WWF main event Titan with a superb technical ability. In many ways, all of them awesome, he was the perfect composite of 1980s professional wrestling.

He was still in his athletic prime, or something close to it, when Vince McMahon decided he had no use for him as a full-time performer in the early '90s - a strange decision rendered baffling when he dusted the cobwebs off Bob Backlund. McMahon was happy to let Savage go, and Savage went to WCW. Which he wasn't happy with. Sake.

Savage was plagued by the mire of its sh*tty booking, pre-1996, but after a very respectable series with Ric Flair, he adjusted with the company on fire as a wild smoke-and-mirrors brawler working heel against DDP. But, as if to prove that the company was doomed to fail, he suffered a career-altering knee injury for which he would eventually get surgery months later. At Halloween Havoc '97, he jumped off a cage from an insane height only to perform every '80s whoops-missed-the-target punch spot you've ever seen.

This indescribably dumb spot ruined Savage as a great talent.

He subsequently overcorrected for his limitations by piling on the muscle deep into his twilight years, transitioning into a drab, near-immobile body guy drained, impossibly, of all personality.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!