10 Most Painful-Looking Wrestling Matches Ever

A note on the criteria:

What follows is ghoulish, horrific even, but it must involve some level of cooperation. This list doesn't cover gruesome shoots, for no reason beyond a desire to never again sit through something like Yoshiko's harrowing battering of poor Act Yasukawa in the infamous, über-distressing Stardom Incident of 2015. Act looked like a hammerhead shark in the aftermath. It wasn't a match, nor should it have been. Once it became apparent that Act was in no position to defend herself - and that Yoshiko had no intention of curbing the onslaught - an official should have intervened. There was more than enough time in which to do so. This was no flash flood; it was a sustained deluge of disgusting punishment that called an end to a career brimming with potential. That criteria doesn't preclude receipts, pro wrestling's ironic way of maintaining that cooperation, lest things turn uglier.

Does it f*ck preclude receipts.

What follows is the work of mad men and women willing to truly suffer for their art - art that at its most visceral and so subjective certain members of the old guard would chew you out, motherf*cker, for deifying it as such.

"Painful-looking" is a worked title, really, which is more than can be said for the matches that follow...

This wasn't Ken Shamrock's first rodeo; the World's Most Dangerous Man made the transition from the UFC to the WWF by way of the Japanese shoot-style scene. His journey to the work rooted in the shoot, it's little wonder his first major pay-per-view encounter unfolded as it did.

It unfolded thusly: Vader effectively beat the shoot out of Shamrock by beating the sh*t out of Shamrock in a remonstrative lesson. This was no JBL-style bully boy posturing designed to welcome the new kid into the fold; gauging by the squeals Vader emitted in the opening minute, he needed to smarten Shamrock up for the sake of his poor bloody legs, battered as they were by Ken's formally educated feet.

Though perhaps not as stiff as the most infamous snug snafus in the Land Of The Rising Sun, it's Shamrock's legit credentials that purse the lips here. He wasn't a pro wrestler doing pro wrestling harder than most; this was a very dangerous combat athlete not too far removed from his fighter prime. There was a good match here, underneath the infamous, rough-around-the-edges facade; in one great welcome to wrestling spot that served the story tremendously, Vader, his nose bloodied, unleashed a gruesome front suplex from canvas to the floor.

Shamrock did not accept the invite, instead pummelling Vader's face in with such hard knees and fists that the Mastodon, red mist descending in tandem with the red stuff, sent Shamrock flying with a brutal forearm.