7 Wrestlers Who Got Brutally Injured And Still Finished Their Match

Professional wrestling is one tough sport and every time these guys step into the ring they put their lives at risk.

Injuries happen and they happen often but it takes a true bad ass to get injured during a match and go on with the show. Listed below are some of the most infamous matches in which this type of situation occurred.

Let’s take a look.

7. Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar is known as a beast because of his size, strength and superior wrestling ability. This former WWE and NCAA champion isn’t limited whatsoever inside the ring. As a matter of fact he’s one of the more diverse wrestlers in terms of ability to ever step foot in the squared circle. There’s not much that Brock Lesnar can’t do but at WrestleMania 19 he found out that he definitely can’t do a shooting star press.

Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had already put on a lengthy wrestling clinic in their WrestleMania 19 main event but Brock decided he wanted to take it one step further and hit a shooting star press. A shooting star press is a move that’s designed to be used by cruiserweights, something Brock definitely is not. He ends up not rotating correctly and the entire weight of his body lands on his head and neck giving him a brutal concussion.

Brock later stated that he didn’t remember much after that and you can clearly see it in his eyes as the referee raises his hand. A documentary that was originally released with the WrestleMania 20 DVD shows backstage footage of Brock after the match in a tarnished mental state as he shoves away anyone who tries to help him and lashes out in anger due to his confusion from the concussion. We always knew Brock was tough but this just confirmed it.

6. John Cena

You can say what you want about John Cena but you’d be full of shit if you tried to convince yourself or anyone else that this guy’s not tough. John Cena can take a lot of pain but if you thought the WWE’s resident Superman was invincible then guess again.

Here in this match against Mr. Kennedy which took place on an episode of Raw from 2007 John Cena sustains a brutal injury after doing a quite simple move. About a minute and half into the match Cena goes for an arm drag on Kennedy and manages to tear his pectoral muscle right off the bone. What’s impressive is the fact that he just keeps going and you can barely even tell he’s in pain until he gets to the end of the match.

When the match finally ends, take a look at John Cena’s face as he explains to the referee what happened to him and you can clearly tell it’s not good. Still not impressed? After finishing the match he engages in a brawl with Randy Orton which includes Orton giving him a RKO on a table…which doesn’t break.

5. The Undertaker

The Undertaker is an unstoppable force. It takes a lot to keep him down and there’s not much that can do it, not even a broken orbital bone. If you’re not sure what the orbital bone is to make a long story short it’s basically the part of your skull that holds your eye in place. Yeah, imagine having that broken. Not fun.

In a match against Rey Mysterio which took place on an episode of Friday Night Smackdown, Rey goes for one of his signature moves but there’s one problem, it goes terribly wrong. All of Rey’s weight is placed upon Taker’s face as he lands on him full force which is what causes the bone to shatter. But like a true professional The Undertaker swallows his pain and finishes the match with his face covered in blood.

4. Shawn Michaels

Everyone is familiar with Shawn Michaels’ long history of back problems and a 1998 casket match at the Royal Rumble VS The Undertaker is the match that really altered his career. Shawn Michaels is the showstopper and although he may stop the show, the show will never stop him.

Coming off the ropes HBK runs right into a back body drop by The Undertaker that sends him flying out of the ring…and right onto the casket outside. It’s one of those blink and you’ll miss it moments but it had a huge impact on Shawn’s career. One crushed disc and two herniated discs later Shawn continues to wrestle the match at full capacity. Not only did he finish this match but he stuck around another few months to finish out WrestleMania season.

3. Steve Austin

Steve Austin and Owen Hart are both legends in their own right but their match at Summerslam 1997 provided us with what is now one of the most talked about moments in professional wrestling history. This match is one of the greatest examples of why the piledriver is banned in WWE today.

Although the piledriver was quite common during this era of wrestling on this night Owen Hart would attempt to do the move on Steve Austin only for it to go terribly wrong. Owen ends up driving Steve’s head directly into the mat and the move left him paralyzed for a brief period. Austin eventually regains control of his body and manages to win the match but due to the injury he missed out on quite a few months of his career and was forced to relinquish the Intercontinental Title.

He managed to make his way to the back with the help of a few referees and thanks to hard work and determination he later returned at Survivor Series. Steve Austin sustained a brutal neck injury on this night but rumor has it that his career turned out ok.

2. Triple H

It doesn’t take much to convince you that Triple H is a bad ass and his quad tear is one of the most infamous injuries in all of professional wrestling. During a tag team match where he teamed with Steve Austin to take on Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit he tore one of his quads and carried on like a true tough guy.

Odds are that you won’t see too many people that continue on in any physical sport after tearing one of their quads but the odds are much lower that you’ll see someone willingly be put in the Walls of Jericho with that type of injury. After sustaining the injury Triple H clearly has a hard time moving around but the fact that he’s moving at all is a true testament to how tough this guy is.

Triple H goes on to finish the match but unfortunately he lost almost a year of his career because of this injury. He did manage to come back even stronger and to one of the loudest pops in WWE history when he returned to Madison Square Garden and announced he would be entering the Royal Rumble…which he won.

1. Mick Foley

Where do we even begin with Mick Foley? He’s had his ear ripped off, he’s bruised his kidney, he’s broken his ribs, suffered multiple concussions and even managed to get one of his teeth stuck in his nose. All of those injuries sound brutal on their own but during his Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at King of the Ring he sustained 4 out of the 5 we just mentioned.

After falling an estimated 16 feet from the top of the cage and crashing through the announce table Mick Foley decided that just wasn’t enough. Being the crazy bastard that he is. he climbed back to the top of the cage to fight The Undertaker once more only to fall through the top and crash down to the ring below. As if that wasn’t enough he gets slammed onto a large pile of tacks multiple times. The jury is still out on whether or not Foley is human or not because after all of this, he walks away on his own two legs.