10 Most Painful-Looking Wrestling Matches Ever

Even without its notorious, nausea-inducing injury, Stan Hansen vs. Big Van Vader merited inclusion here.

Hansen threw his burly frame behind lariats with the force of a godd*mn madman. He was also virtually blind, adding another layer of unhinged danger to his super-realistic strand of the pro wrestling art. In the opposite corner, Big Van Vader was another big, stiff gaijin b*stard of the sort that held nothing back to put their immense physicality over to the Japanese audience. Inevitably, this was more a meeting of two stags on the plain than a simulation of combat, not least because it was barely a simulation. Hansen circled and shoved Vader away like an old, threatened predator. From there, it was proper big b*stard stuff, all pie-faces, overhead punches and jaw-rocking lariats.

With that injury, its brutality became mythical. Vader could only remove his mask, not to see what was in front of him - that might not have been possible - but to attempt to push his eye back into its socket and hold it in place by the lid.

Vader didn't stop; he and Hansen simply battered the f*ck out of each other by ringside before disappearing into the crowd like two surly patrons in a bar fight, holding no interest in the moment in doing anything but batter the f*ck out of each other.