9 Times Injuries Actually Helped A Wrestler's Career

Injuries in professional wrestling are, unsurprisingly, rather frequent. You're bound to come away with some bumps and bruises when your job involves being body slammed through tables. And despite all of the extra precautions put into place over the years, they don't seem to be going away anytime soon. 

Of course, injuries are awful. They've ended the careers of far too many promising superstars, and in some severe cases, have even ended their lives. If WWE could be rid of injuries altogether that would be extremely beneficial for everyone involved.

But from time to time, an injury can actually have a silver lining for the person sustaining it. It doesn't happen often, and it's debatable whether or not the person getting injured considers it to be worth it, but sometimes the injury has an overall positive effect on their career.

To be fair, it's always hard to play the 'What If?' game accurately, and it's entirely possible that the following superstars careers would have been just fine without the added "benefit" of broken bones and torn muscles. 

But looking back on them, it's impossible to ignore the significant upside.

Although Christian's ridiculously injury-prone last couple of years with the WWE would ultimately end up halting his career, a torn pectoral muscle in 2010 that sidelined him for a few months actually looked like a blessing in disguise.

When Christian returned to the WWE in 2009 after his stint with TNA, they seemed to have no idea what to do with him. Despite being an instantly recognizable talent, he was set to slum it in a feud with Alberto Del Rio, which would end with Christian getting pummeled and tapping out to Del Rio at Hell in a Cell.

After that...who the hell knows? They had no creative direction for him after this brief and unsatisfying feud. For all we know, he would have spent the next year jobbing to mid-carders.

Instead, Christian took a few months off to heal from his surgery, came back at Elimination Chamber, exacted some sweet revenge on Del Rio and help his friend Edge win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. After Edge made the sudden decision to retire, Christian was the natural runner-up for the title, which he won on two separate instances in 2011. Would this have happened without his time away? Probably not.