10 Disturbing Wrestling Bumps That Nearly Went Badly Wrong
2. Kota Ibushi's Disgusting Landing
Watching the rest of the Kota Ibushi Vs. Tetsuya Naito thriller at Dominion '19 - a match mired in such controversy that Dave Meltzer, who loves a good neck bump even more than attending PWG live in 2016, refused to rate it - you'd have sworn that Kota Ibushi did it in purpose.
"It" refers to that disgusting neck bump Ibushi took on the apron, in which the side of his head just clipped the apron and his neck bent back on itself at an horrific angle. Kevin Kelly could only react with a burst of blasphemy - "Jesus! Oh my God!" - as Ibushi lay crumpled. But, whether through instinctive genius or the most calculated of risks, Ibushi completed the match. This was a feat in itself, but the quality of the match was spellbinding. Ibushi sold his neck and fought back at an absorbing, organic pace so consistent with the injury that it resonated as a work. It couldn't have been a work. That bump was too harrowing and stupid to fake.
Ibushi told Meltzer concurrently, when Meltzer questioned his decision to bump on concrete (if anybody was going to chance that risk...) "I know how to take bumps," as if bumping on concrete is something that can be worked. Japanese wrestlers specifically train their neck muscles to withstand the physicality of the style.
Ibushi uses this training to bump with millimetre precision, but at Dominion, surely, he was one millimetre away.