10 Wrestlers Who Risked Absolutely Everything
1. Mick Foley
Though not necessarily the first to take the kind of risks he became famous for, Mick Foley was nonetheless the one to popularise them on such a massive scale.
For years, he'd aped his hero Terry Funk and other idols from the deathmatch scene either side of the Pacific Ocean, but at King Of The Ring 1998, he absorbed two bumps that changed his career and life, in that order.
The first became a clip that still airs to this day. A moment where time genuinely stood still for all that saw it live and the literal billions that went on to catch the endless replays in video packages and tributes in the year that follows. Mankind flying through the air at the hands of The Undertaker is epic in scale, as is Foley's ability to guide his fall with relative grace.
Less appealing for the sanitised post-PG era WWE is the second, barely-controlled tumble through the cage roof to the horrifically unforgiving canvas below. Everything that could go wrong for him does right down to a stationary that bounces off his face as he lands.
It was all worth it - that much became crystal clear in the weeks, months and years that followed. But Vince McMahon himself decreed that something like that could never happen again.