10 Wrestlers Who Inflicted The Most Damage To Their Bodies

8. William Regal

Mankind Thumb
WWE.com

One mistimed spot, the injury resulting from which was never properly diagnosed - one executed by a man otherwise known as a technical master - informed a life of agony and insomnia.

The agony of a bridge gone awry in 1993, as recounted on a recent, harrowing edition of Talk Is Jericho, kept William Regal up at night and walking the aisle on plane rides. He was only ever able to sleep in short, cruel shifts. He had broken his neck without ever realising it, and almost ruined his life entirely by masking the constant pain with a painkiller addiction. In addition to working with a broken neck for effectively the entirety of his mainstream wrestling career, the nature of the business meant that Regal neglected further injuries to his bicep and pectoral muscles. As part of his well-received series with Daniel Bryan in 2013, he tore the meniscus in what he described as his "good" knee. It took who he describes as the perfect wrestler's best dark arts performance ever to obscure just how little Regal could do on the night.

What Regal described as "baseball-sized calcified jelly" had been holding his neck together for almost two decades; Regal had never created the link between this and his insomnia, thinking it was all just a byproduct of the wrestler's life.

The entire podcast is a must-listen - something the anti"safety police" crowd should heed.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!