10 Pro-wrestlers who almost died in the ring

Saved by a whisker!Wrestling in its own right is a very dangerous sport. Though everyone stamp is at fake and scripted, the amount of risks those WWE superstars take inside the ring isn’t an every day’s job for others. Unscripted accidents and botches have been part of these wrestlers ever since they step foot inside the squared circle. Some of these moves only end up in minor injuries or momentary blackouts, but everyone is not that lucky at times.There have been many incidents where the wrestlers saw their life flash right in front of their eyes. So here is a look at some of those incidents when the superstars went far beyond the prescribed limits and ended up escaping from the clutches of death by a whisker.

#10 Big Show

The Worlds largest had a stint in WCW before joining WWE and he was known as the Giant there. An in 1998, Show was headlining the night with Kevin Nash.

The match wasnt anything that the superstars would be proud of but gave one of the most memorable botches in history. In the middle of the match, Kevin Nash picked up Show for a jack knife power bomb but soon lost his foot and Show ended up landing on his neck.

Fact that Show weighs over 400 pound made the landing more devastating since that much impact on the head wouldve easily ended his life.

#9 X-Pac

X-Pac did some crazy things during his time in WWE but one moment that he would love to forget came in an Indy Show.

In 2013, X-Pac was wrestling Jerry Lynn and landed badly on his crotch. He suffered a torn anus after landing on the bottom ropes and didn’t notice until he saw a great amount of blood came out

He was taken immediately into the hospital and got an emergency sphincteroplasty for his torn anus. He later remarked in an interview that the anus ripping nearly killed him, which the Internet Wrestling community still regards as a great joke against him.

#8 Jerry Lawler

After his wrestling career ended, Lawler had a great time with the microphone. He also had occasional matches inside the ring, but one such occasional match almost took his life.

Lawler competed against CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler and went back to commentary only to suffer a heart attack. The strain of a match was too much for his old heart and he had to be taken to hospital immediately.

The scene of him collapsing on the table was a horrific sight for the fans and the rest of the show ran without commentary as well. it was later confirmed that it was indeed a heart attack and also revealed that Lawler was clinically dead for almost 20 minutes.

#7 Droz

People who are familiar with the Beyond the Mat documentary will be familiar with the story of Droz. He was someone who was personally signed on board by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross since he had the ability to puke when he wanted.

However in 1999, Droz ended up on the wrong side of a running power bomb from DLo Brown which landed him on his head. The move was botched by Brown and Droz fractured his spine.

Droz never walked after that incident but continued to contribute to WWE in his limitation. He turned into a columnist in WWEs website but the dreams of making it big inside the ropes never materialized for him.

#6 Taz

One of the first breed of Paul Heyman guys, Taz was considered as a big asset in ECW. According to Heyman he had the main event aura which was needed for the company and he was getting pushes due to that.

But it turned out into a mess when Taz received a spike piledriver from 2 cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko. It was a teamed move from Malenko and Scorpio and gave no time for Taz to protect his neck.

He continued the match however, but when he reached the hospital with Tommy Dreamer, the people there were amazed to know that he made it alive into the hospital despite taking such a big blow to his neck.

Taz was off the TV for almost 7 months after that and in that period Heyman continued to pay him just on the basis of the verbal agreement they had.

#5 Sabu

Another one from the old ECW days, Sabu was a psychopath on the loose. He took many bumps throughout his career and always pushed the limits when it came to extreme matches.

From that one two occasions he almost lost his life as well, first it was against Chris Benoit where Sabu landed on his neck while Benoit performed a flapjack taking him out of action for some time.

Four years later, Sabu had the similar faith at the hands of Taz. Taz delivered a suplex to Sabu which went terribly wrong and Sabu ended up landing on the table with his head.

He even wrestled later with a neck brace after that. Those two moves were enough to take an ordinary man’s life but Sabu was bought up in ECW.

#4 Keiji Mutoh

For those who dont know who Mutoh is, he is one of the most legendary Japanese wrestlers alive right now.

Also known for his Great Muta gimmick, Mutoh had some memorable matches throughout Japan and North America and also was the inventor of the mist spitting in wrestling. though there are many great matches to his credit, one if particular stands out from the rest.

Mutoh faced against his long term rival Hiroshi Hase in 1992 and bladed himself so bad that there was literally a pool of blood inside the ring.

The match is considered to be one of the bloodiest ones in the history of wrestling and it the amount of blood was so bad that there even came a scale called Muta scale which was used to compare the blade jobs and blood that came.

#3 Mick Foley

There wont be much people in the fan community who wouldnt know about the hell in a cell match between Mick Foley and Undertaker.

Foley being the hardcore legend he is planned out some big bumps for the match including being thrown off the 15 feet cell. But one thing which happened out of plan was a chokeslams on top of the same Cell.

Taker was supposed to chokeslam Foley onto the top but the panel of the Cell broke out unfortunately and Foley crashed into the ring. He was knocked out for nearly 3 minutes and everyone including Taker thought that Foley was dead.

Foley however rose up and completed the match in true Mick Foley style but it was clearly a close call.

#2 Brock Lesnar

When we hear Brock Lesnar and WrestleMania in the same sentence, the first thing that will be coming to our mind will be him ending the streak.

But WrestleMania wasn’t always such a happy place for Lesnar. Back in WrestleMania 19, he was facing Kurt Angle for the WWE title. The two had a classic match and Lesnar wanted to end it with a big pop which almost cost him his life.

The near 300 pound Lesnar went up the top turnbuckle and performed a shooting starpress which was messed up due to the sweat on the ring ropes. Lesnar landed on his head but the results were limited to a concussion only.

#1 Steve Austin

Owen Hart is a tragic figure in WWE without any doubt. Though he was a great in ring performer, even he experienced some botches in his career.

And the most famous one would be the piledriver he delivered to Steve Austin. In their match at SummerSlam of 1997, Owen Hart positioned Austin to perform a piledriver only to make Austin land on his neck.

Austins weight and the force with which Owen sat were concentrated into the neck and it almost ended his life. Though Austin managed to walk out of it, he had to end his career early in 2003 because of the problems he had with the same neck.

If it wasnt for that botched move, we wouldve seen Austin in the ring for some more years and WWE might not have been the same place that we see today.