10 Harrowing Wrestling Matches That Are Incredibly Difficult To Watch
2. Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle - WWE SmackDown September 9, 2004
Eddie Guerrero was in a bad way by late 2004.
Both he and Kurt Angle, himself an almost broken husk, look apprehensive before the opening bell. He nails Angle with a picture perfect dropkick in an early exchange. When he tries to follow up by clotheslining him over the top rope and onto the babyface lumberjacks on the outside, his body betrays him. Angle has to elevate himself over it using his own, transparent momentum. Eddie then takes a high back body drop, crumpling in agony. Something is amiss. Eddie soldiers on at a conspicuously low intensity.
The remainder of the match is cloaked in a grim irony. Angle again has to vault himself out of the ring to facilitate a comedy spot in which the lumberjacks carry him into the ring, at which point Eddie ensnares him in a half Boston crab. He lets out an anguished howl, even though he is ostensibly applying the pressure. Eddie is so damaged that the spots he could usually sleepwalk through - a front flip from a running knee to the midsection - see him fall gracelessly to the mat below. When he gets thrown to the lumberjacks, he yells, loudly, "don’t touch me!"
The wincing nature of the match is almost fittingly understated. There are moments wherein you wouldn’t guess that searing pain was coursing through him; this resonates as a subtle reminder of the tortuous grind that is pro wrestling, where the relentless circuit chews up even the proudest and most professional of them all.