But pro wrestling fandom has always been comforted by the fact that pro wrestlers are trained not to injure each other, and that at the end of the match most of the time both men walk away relatively unscathed.
Then there are those times when the envelope is pushed too far for the average fan’s taste. Wrestling does not exist in a vacuum and must adjust to societal mores. For example, one almost never finds the exploitative ‘apartment wrestling’ videos for sale in reputable wrestling magazines. But promotions and the athletes themselves can sometimes misjudge how the fans will react to a particular spot or storyline.
There are also shocking moments that occur by accident, usually due to an injury suffered during the match. This brutally shatters the illusion that pro wrestling is a completely risk-free form of entertainment, and can really freak out the fans.
Here are ten wrestling moments that legitimately made the fans freak out.
#10 Mick Foley falls through the Hell in a Cell cage
In the original Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker, both men spent a lot of time on top of the cage. It seemed quite sturdy during that match, but Taker and Mankind’s combined six hundred pounds was too much for the fence to bear.
Their feet kept falling through, and then during one scary moment Taker Chokeslammed Mankind on top of the cage…which subsequently broke and sent Mankind on an unscripted twenty foot fall into the ring below.
After the fall, Foley was unconscious for a few moments. When he finally had the wherewithal to drag himself to the corner, he probed at a hole in his lip with his tongue. Fans believed that Mankind was smiling and murmured in a disturbed fashion.
#9 The Road Warriors ‘Gouge out’ Dusty Rhodes’ eye
In the late 1980s, the NWA decided to turn the Road Warriors heel. They did so by having them attack beloved babyface Sting after a six-man tag match–and the Stinger was their partner for the wrestling bout! The Warriors ‘injured’ Sting’s neck with their Doomsday Device finisher. This led to an extended leave of absence for the Stinger, who appeared sans makeup for the first time in his career.
However, the fans still kept cheering for the Road Warriors and chanting for them. NWA management decided to up the ante and have them utilize their vicious-looking metal spiked armour for a particularly gory attack on supreme babyface Dusty Rhodes. This was a blatant attempt to turn the Road Warriors heel since Dusty Rhodes was a beloved babyface.
The moment was so graphic that many of the NWA’s television partners censored it or refused to show it entirely. Dusty’s screams were particularly visceral, and rumor has it some wrestling fans had to be treated for shock after the segment.
Here’s Jim Cornette commenting on the entire affair that put the wrestling fans into shock.
#8 Big Show’s father’s “Cancer” angle and fallout
Big Show was one of the first hires lured away from WCW by WWE during the Monday Night Wars. Despite a big wrestling debut where he came up from the ring during a cage match, he sort of floundered.
Show was given a world title reign, but still, the WWE audience didn’t resonate with him. In order to garner sympathy for Big Show, the creative team–with Show’s blessing–worked up an angle where his father would grow ill and ‘die’ from cancer. Many thought the angle to be tasteless, but no one can deny it garnered attention.
Big Show’s father had in fact already passed away several years earlier from the disease. It should be noted that the whole angle was Big Show’s idea from concept to finish.
Enter the Big Bossman, who decided to bully Big Show and taunt him about his father’s imminent death. When Big Show’s father ‘died’ in the wrestling story, he then read a horrible poem to offer his ‘condolences’.
But the part that really shocked wrestling fans and drew their outrage was when Bossman interrupted the kayfabe funeral. It really did cross the line of good taste, as you can see below.
#7 Brian Pillman and Austin– The ‘gun’ angle
This may be the exact moment WWE came into the crosshairs of the Parent’s Television Council–an American non-profit group that ruined Saturday mornings for a whole generation of young wrestling fans. The PTC would cause so create a lot of ruckus regarding WWE’ content that they were parodied in the RTC, Right to Censor stable.
Brian Pillman and Steve Austin–who had been tag team partners in WCW, and were close friends in real life–were engaged in a red-hot feud that was one of the biggest draws of the day. In order to ramp up the heat even more, WWE creative pitched the idea that Austin should attack Pillman and his wife in their own home.
This would have been controversial enough, but then Brian Pillman said “that would never work. If that happened for real I would just shoot him.”
It may have been the wrong thing to say because apparently, the creative team loved the idea. Enter one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history. Keep in mind this was pre-internet ‘smart’ fans, so many of the wrestling fans at home did not know if someone had actually been murdered or not.
#6 Stan Hansen pokes out Vader’s eye–for real
Vader and Stan Hansen; Two of the biggest, toughest, and stiffest wrestling icons who ever laced up a pair of boots. Both legit tough men, they were enormously powerful–Hansen once power slammed Andre the Giant–and was also enormously popular with Japanese fandom
When the two inevitably collided, fans expected a brutal contest with plenty of hard shots that blurred the line between a performance and a real fight. However, they probably weren’t expecting what went down.
During the early going of the wrestling match, the two men were trading blows when Hansen miscalculated and got his thumb too close to Vader’s eye. He essentially thumbed Vader’s eyeball out of its socket! When the wrestling fans finally got a good look as Vader popped his own eye back in, a disgusted and shocked gasp carried through the crowd.
Vader wasn’t about to let the match be called off due to injury, however grievous. He popped his eyeball back into place and proceeded to beat Hansen with stiff strikes that blurred the line between performance and reality
Here’s Vader describing the incident in a shoot interview.
#5 New Jack nearly kills Vic Grimes
This was a wrestling spot that almost turned deadly because of a miscue.
New Jack’s matches rarely stayed in the ring, and he was known for his propensity not just for violence, but for hurling himself off balconies at his opponents. His frequent foe, Vic Grimes, was cut from the same mold and was known to be fearless.
It was that bravery which nearly proved his undoing. Grimes and New Jack were battling in the rafters above a carefully erected pyramid of folding tables. The idea was for Grimes to be ’thrown’ off the balcony and land on the pile of tables, which would break and take some of the momentum out of his fall. However, what happened next left the wrestling fans shocked.
Unfortunately, either Grimes jumped too far or New Jack pushed him too hard. Grimes barely grazed the edge of the table pyramid and nearly broke his neck. Wrestling fans were shocked not just by the spot, but because they could plainly see it had not gone as planned and Grimes was badly hurt.
#4 The Katie Vick angle
This moment in wrestling history is so shocking, even WWE won’t replay it except in heavily edited formats. And with very good reason, considering it features some very non-family friendly element.
Kane was originally a silent red monster, doing the bidding of his ‘father’ Paul Bearer without pity or remorse. The wrestling kayfabe reason for Kane’s silence was that his throat had been damaged in the fire set by his ‘brother’ the Undertaker when they were children.
Kane was also supposedly horribly scarred from this event, hence the mask to cover his face.
During a feud between Kane and Triple H, The Game decided to utilize his mastery of mind games against his much larger opponent. When Kane kayfabe attended the funeral of an old girlfriend, Triple H seized upon the opportunity.
He proposed to show a video of Kane at his ex-girlfriend’s funeral. In the video, Triple H wearing a Kane mask proceeded towards the coffin and what happened next was something wrestling did not expect to see. The scene revolted even the jaded Attitude Era audience, and is widely regarded as one of the biggest gaffes the WWE has ever engaged in.
#3 Brock Lesnar botches a Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania
When Brock Lesnar made his wrestling debut in WWE, he was billed as the Next Big Thing, and with very good reason.
Lesnar was a college wrestling stand out, an All American and self made man who worked his way up from working class roots to become a wildly successful athlete. Lesnar was a huge hit in the WWE’s developmental territory at the time, Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Lesnar wowed Ohio Valley Wrestling crowds with his power, but also with his dazzling agility. Lesnar regularly climbed to the top rope and performed the shooting star press, an acrobatic move mostly reserved for the cruiserweight class–men a full hundred pounds lighter than Lesnar at the time.
But it was all a set up for a terribly shocking moment.
Fans were terrified when Brock Lesnar botched a shooting star press on Kurt Angle because it seemed as if The Beast Incarnate should have been crippled or even killed.
At the time, Lesnar flirted with three hundred pounds and probably shouldn’t have been attempting such a move in the first place. However, he had performed the move in Ohio Valley Wrestling before and was confident he could do so again.
Lesnar ended up landing directly on his head and neck. The sight was so gruesome a panicked murmur rushed through the capacity crowd. However, Lensar would shock the world by not only surviving but finishing–and winning– the match with an F5!
#2 Randy Orton mangles Jeff Hardy’s ear
Admit it. The first time you saw Jeff Hardy’s piercings, you winced a little thinking of the carnage should his wrestling opponents–by accident or design–decide to use them as weapons against the Charismatic Enigma.
Tattoos and piercings are all a part of Hardy’s character, as much as his high flying moves and wrestling style all conspire to make him ’extreme.’ Obviously not a man who fears heights, pain, or potential catastrophe, Hardy had wrestled his entire career and managed to keep his numerous piercings relatively unscathed.
That would all end at the hands of the man alternately known as The Viper, Randy Orton.
Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton’s brutal Hell in a Cell match was probably everything people wanted it to be and more. In some people’s cases, perhaps it was too much more.
Some wrestling fans were shocked when Orton drove a screwdriver through the gauge in Hardy’s ear and then twisted his earlobe around like taffy. It was a memorable moment and helped remind fans that Randy Orton is the Apex predator.
#1 Sid’s big break
Sometimes things go horrifically wrong in a pro wrestling match. One of the most horrific, and shocking, moments of all occurred during WCW’s last, fading days.
Sid Vicious was taking on Scott Steiner in the main event for the title. Hoping to scale up his usual performances with something special, Sid decided to do his Big Boot move from the middle rope.
Was this ill-advised? Let’s do the math. At over three hundred pounds, Sid was probably not the most agile or dexterous of pro wrestlers of his era. While he wasn’t precisely clumsy, he certainly didn’t have the grace of big men such as Keith Lee or Mike Awesome, who regularly fly/flew off the top rope as part of their performances.
Not only was Sid a bit on the big side to pull off aerial moves, but he also had little experience in doing so. Finally, the last nail in the coffin, Sid ill-advisedly tried to land on just one leg during his aerial assault.
Unfortunately, Sid came down at an angle and severely broke his leg. Wrestling fans were utterly shocked by the moment, as well as the sight of Sid clutching at his flopping, sundered limb.
You can see the video of the incident here.
Many wrestling fans still grow squeamish at just the memory of the incident.
There you have it; Ten wild wrestling moments that shocked the fans. What are your favourite shocking moments from sports entertainment? Please comment and let us know.
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