10 Wrestlers Who Broke Their Neck For The Business
4. Hayabusa
Long before Twitter and YouTube made any talked-about spot instantly discoverable and disposable, the injury sustained by legendary masked Japanese star Hayabusa was for weeks the pride of every grisly online treasure hunter's collection.
Slipping off the ropes and landing headfirst following a botched lionsault in an October 2001 clash for storyline control of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, Hayabusa cracked two vertebrae in his neck and was paralysed as a result of the horrifying fall. It was a desperately sad tale all around, with his immediate exit from FMW contributing to the overall real-life collapse of the organisation altogether. He'd built his reputation as an exhilarating innovator either side of the Pacific up to this point, but the nature of the slip was such that nobody could shine in the lofty shadow his exit had left looming.
Though he did eventually regain some use of his legs in later years, the prodigious flyer and FMW stalwart never wrestled again before his tragic death in 2016. The former WEW Heavyweight and Tag Team Champion suffered a brain haemorrhage at just 47 years old, in what was considered a heartbreaking loss for FMW yet again as the group attempted a revival with him as an on-and-off screen authority.