10 Wrestlers Who Inflicted The Most Damage To Their Bodies
Yes, this is entertainment...but Kenny Omega, Mick Foley and more are acutely aware of the hazards.
Upon looking for a suitable thumbnail to best tell the story of the article you're reading, this candid photograph of Mick Foley stood out.
Everybody has seen the screenshot of Mankind, tooth wedged in his nostril, cracking a wide, unhinged grin at King Of The Ring 1998. It's an iconic photo because it captures the man more than any other image. Foley is a man who endured pain that was literally unimaginable - in this case, it looked quite impossible - and it fuelled him.
This lesser-seen image, its pathos underscored in black and white, subverts the meaning of its more iconic counterpart.
The maniacal laugh is gone. It isn't inextricably linked to the unforgettable audio of Jim Ross putting over Foley's legendary "intestinal fortitude". It is Foley's anguish and regret captured with a barely perceptible grimace. It's an image that underscores the very real effect of what you see on the screen when the cameras stop rolling. It's an image that reminds you that, at its most demanding, pro wrestling is barely a performance.
For the sake of good taste, obviously, very horrendous isolated accidents will not appear here; this instead is an in-depth look at the cumulative damage of the more intensive working styles.
One of these entries actually will surprise you...
10. Kenta Kobashi
Kenta Kobashi navigated a different path towards wrestling stardom than most who make it to the top level in his native Japan.
He played rugby, but wasn't a high school standout athlete. Nor did he attend and excel within college. An AJPW super-fan, the promotion rejected his first application as a result. Though he was eventually accepted into the promotion, after impressing with a phenomenally intensive gym regimen and beaming with enthusiasm when tested on the unglamorous rural circuit, this resolve to impress never left him, even after he made it to the top.
He wanted to be the very best, and after fans fell in love with his unyielding spirit following an astute, gradual push through the ranks, he was. Working with an incandescent fire and almost disturbing ability to sell convincingly, he mastered the rhythm of a big match. He was in very real pain in there - the high impact style could not be faked - and he made sure to register that every time.
After his seminal, epic reign with the GHC Heavyweight Title, that burning desire caught up to him. He had already worked through a significant knee injury suffered in 1998, a result of his blow-away awesome moonsault, and had taken over a year off in 2000.
By 2008, both of his arms had been effectively destroyed. Emergency surgery; ill-fated, premature comebacks; an absence that last almost two full years: Kobashi was spared an even more dire fate, one too insensitive to conflate here.