While wrestling is staged and predetermined, no-one is under any illusions that it isnt dangerous, and injuries can crop up at any time. A mistimed collision or an errant strike is sometimes all it takes to put someone on the shelf for a number of months. Injuries arent always accidents and they arent always someones fault, as the life of a professional wrestler in WWE is a tough one. Superstars wrestle most days out of the week, and this day-to-day grind can caused injuries to build up until one day the worst happens. As WWE has entered the twenty-first century, it has improved leaps and bounds when it comes to assessing, treating and preventing injuries as best it can. While in the past they would hire a doctor in whatever town they were in, they now have a dedicated medical staff that travel to every show and know the wrestlers and their medical histories. No matter how precarious WWE and its talent are, injuries are still inevitable in such an intense line of work, and wrestlers are constantly seeking to break new ground with unbelievable maneuvers and innovative sequences. This year has seen some awful, occasionally career ending injuries, and here are ten of the worst.
Honourable Mention - Yoshi Tatsu
More recent fans of WWE might not remember Yoshi Tatsu as he hadnt been on anything other than Superstars for quite a while before being released earlier this year. He was a fast paced athletic star with a striking kabuki look that trained in the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo before travelling to America to join WWE. After being released from WWE, he returned to NJPW and set his sights on the gaijin heel faction Bullet Club, led by AJ Styles. Tatsu faced AJ Styles at the Power Struggle event earlier this month and took a nasty Styles Clash which was recently revealed to have broken two bones in his neck. AJ Styles has been doing the Styles Clash for years, but since leaving TNA there has been a storm of controversy around the move. This isnt the first person hes injured, as Kazarian, Roderick Strong and Englands Lionheart have all been on the receiving end of a Styles Clash gone wrong. At some point, AJ Styles surely needs to realise that the move is far more trouble than its worth, and retire it. As for Yoshi Tatsu, hes going to be out injured for the foreseeable future, which is a shame as hed only just returned to New Japan in mid-October.
