10 Wrestlers Who Risked Absolutely Everything
Gambling on more than just an injury, these wrestlers put it ALL on the line.
It's worth repeating - as WWE often did during the mid-2000s - that wrestlers risk the titular "absolutely everything" whenever they step into the ring.
People can recite the injuries the performers described in those "Don't Try This At Home" vignettes to this day, and all because the dangers were real enough to resonate. There's a reason why there's always been more fans than wrestlers in the world, and it's not just because stories of Wrestler's Court put all the right-minded ones off.
The risks are scary, real, and almost entirely irrational. Falling on your back from your own height is guaranteed to hurt, let alone from the ones wrestlers are allowed to tumble from. It only gets easier with practice, which itself causes as much pain and suffering in the early days as anything endured in front of a roaring crowd.
It's all dangerous, every bit of it. Which only adds drama and a sense of added tension to those times some particular performers are willing to go even further with their bodies just to try and steal headlines, hearts and a few extra dollars from their bosses.
These are not endorsements, even if they come with a begrudging respect...
10. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin was one of the safest bets for superstardom in wrestling history in 1997, and wasn't prepared for any of that to change even after he was accidentally dropped on his head by Owen Hart at SummerSlam.
'The Rattlesnake' easily and effortlessly transitioned to simply cutting promos as he (just about) rehabilitated a neck so damaged that almost every doctor told him to retire, but even then he only took around three months off before he was back in boots and trunks and taking a modicum of revenge at a Survivor Series remembered for entirely different reasons.
Following some abbreviated battles with Hart and later The Rock, Austin's schedule extended to working tags and short main events ahead of his WrestleMania XIV WWE Championship victory over Shawn Michaels. With Austin unable to change his style until some 2000 surgery, the style simply changed for him. The risk, in the short term at least, proved worth it.