10 Weirdest Fake Deaths In Wrestling

Wrestling is a peculiar form of storytelling, because at its best, it sits on the razor-thin edge of reality and fantasy. The end goal? Creating compelling, entertaining viewing, peppered with shocks and memorable moments, by combining simulated combat, carefully crafted storylines, and dynamic personalities.

Naturally, over the years, the stakes need to be raised. Two competitors battle over the promotion's top prize, things get personal, and then you've got a vendetta. Sometimes loved ones or family are involved to up the ante. Aggression and tension grow with every passing exchange, every slight, every betrayal, every time one character crosses another line. To paraphrase Jim Cornette, a shooting follows a stabbing.

And sometimes, when a rivalry is meant to reach a fever pitch, the spectre of death itself looms over a storyline. And although it's intended to heighten the drama even moreso, most of the time, it just makes for a very weird evening of professional wrestling.

Programs involving deaths, whether actual deaths or ones faked for dramatic purposes, rarely turn out well. One need only look back at the Eddiesploitation of 2006 to remember that.

But today, we're focusing on the weirdest fake deaths in wrestling, where kayfabe killings and simulated slayings tried to bring the heat, but only left us cold.

(Sorry, Chikara and Lucha Underground fans, but since deaths are canon in their narrative universes, and to be expected at this point, neither makes the cut this time around.)

Let's start with the fake death that inspired this list. It's been ten years since Mr. McMahon's limo exploded in one of the most spectacular closing segments in Monday Night Raw history.

Although the storyline had to be quickly shut down after the Benoit tragedy - and led to the illegitimate son storyline where Hornswoggle was revealed as Vince's bastard son - you can't deny how eerie and effective this sequence was.

You had Vince's long, slow walk through the arena, surrounded on all sides by superstars and divas looking on, stone-faced, as the befuddled Mr. McMahon plodded through the halls. You had his nervous glances backward at the two men sitting outside the arena. And finally, that long pause when he reached for the door handle of the limo, before stepping inside.

In the aftermath, WWE stock prices took a hit because apparently some investors were unsure if Vince had really died or not.

The entire sequence was weird, but very well done. And left many of us smiling like Paul London as the show faded to black.