9 Times Injuries Actually Helped A Wrestler's Career

Poor Lita. Or rather, poor Lita's neck. The high-flying daredevil suffered a good many issues with her spine, the first of which didn't even occur in the ring. While filming her guest appearance on the TV series Dark Angle, Lita was supposed to perform a Hurricanrana on a stunt double, but that stunt double let go halfway through and dropped her on her neck.

This required her to be out of action for seventeen months, which, as you may be able to surmise, is a very, very long time. 

The good news is that when she came back, she looked better than ever (and we're not just talking about her sudden affinity for wearing short shorts.) Her moves had developed a certain crispness that was lacking before her injury, and she began incorporating more holds and basic mat work into her repertoire, which made all of her high-flying acrobatics pop that much more since she used them more sparingly. 

This more polished version of Lita allowed her to put on some of the best matches of her career, even if WWE's creative team spent the next couple of years proving they had literally no taste, embroiling her in a series of offensive storylines.