5 WWE Superstars who almost died in the ring

Professional Wrestling is an art form. While there have been many people who have called it "fake", one has to understand the difference between the word fake and scripted. Yes, WWE Superstars rehearse the matches and are not all enemies backstage, but every time they step their foot inside the ring, they put their bodies on the line and risk their lives.

There have been numerous incidents of WWE Superstars getting seriously injured during their matches as even a small spot going wrong could turn out to be lethal. But, there have been some very unlucky WWE Superstars who nearly died in the ring but lucky enough to somehow survive.

In this article, we'll take a look at five such WWE Superstars who almost died in the ring while trying to entertain us, the WWE Universe.

Be sure to comment down and share your thoughts on these scary incidents!

---

#5 Brock Lesnar

WWE's Beast Incarnate has often been criticized by WWE Universe for not giving his all inside the ring. While the Brock Lesnar we see today mostly relies on his brute strength to demolish his opponents, there used to be a time early on in his career when he used to perform some insane high-flying moves.

Yes, believe it or not, the Shooting Star Press was a massive move in the arsenal of Brock Lesnar once upon a time during his OVW days. But the most famous incident of him performing the move came during the main event of WrestleMania XIX where he took on Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship.

During the closing moments of the match, Brock Lesnar took to the top rope and shocked the world by hitting a Shooting Star Press on Kurt Angle. Unfortunately, he botched it landed on his head, which to this day is a very scary sight for a fan to witness. The botch was fatal enough to break his neck, paralyzing him, or even death, but he somehow survived and got away with it, but had a massive concussion.

WWE Hall of Famer, Kurt Angle spoke about the incident in an interview.

"I was concerned about him because he wasn't responding. When I covered him, he did kick out. I did tell him to kick out, and he kicked out. I remember asking him, 'Can you give me an F-5?' He didn't respond. I was getting really worried. I started picking him up. I said, 'Could you F-5 me?' He said, 'I think so,' and he did. Brock's a pro. He came out of that. Let's face it. That's one of the most famous moves in WrestleMania history. It's because he came up short, and everybody remembers that. If you want a WrestleMania type of memory, that's a good one."

Brock Lesnar never attempted that move after this incident, and it's unlikely we'll ever see him perform the Shooting Star Press in a ring again. Let's leave such moves to the likes of Ricochet!

#4 The Big Show

The World's Largest Athlete has had an exceptionally great career with WWE. It is indeed impressive to see the longevity of The Big Show's wrestling career and him being able to get into great shape recently.

What many might now know is that The Big Show once almost ended his career or even life during a match with Kevin Nash in WCW. It was the year 1998, and The Big Show was headlining the show with Kevin Nash. The match ended up giving one of the biggest and scariest botches in wrestling history when Kevin Nash picked up Big Show for the Jack Knife Power Bomb. Unfortunately, Big Daddy Cool lost his balance which led to the Big Show landing on his neck.

With the World's Largest Athlete being over 400 pounds at that time, the botch was dangerous enough to end his career or even life. Thankfully, he survived it and went on to have a Hall-of-Fame worthy career in WWE.

He still appears occasionally on WWE programming to put over younger talents!

#3 Mick Foley

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley is referred to as the Hardcore Legend by WWE Universe and there have been several moments throughout his career that have earned him this name. One such infamous moments came during his Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at King of the Ring 1998.

While WWE fans might remember the match for the moment where The Undertaker threw Mankind off the top of the cell, it was indeed the second major fall that Mick Foley took that could have proven to be deadly.

The Undertaker choke slammed Mankind on the top of the Hell in a Cell, but to the surprise of many, including the Dead Man himself, the Cell gave away and Mick Foley came crashing through the rope to the ring inside. He was knocked out for several minutes and The Undertaker revealed that he thought Foley was dead.

Speaking on the Bill Simmons Podcast, The Undertaker discussed the match and this terrifying moment.

"That cell wasn't supposed to break like that. It was only supposed to give way. I had already had that match with Shawn [Micheals] and Shawn's half of what Mick weighed, I'm 315 and Mick's probably 280 and we're walking on the chain linked panels and you can hear the wire cling and they're shooting off. I'm just really fortunate, right before I chokeslammed him, I stepped off the panel on top the poles, if I hadn't, we could have had a really far worse outcome. He landed, his tooth went through his lip and lodged in his nose."

Being the WWE Hardcore Legend that he is, Mick Foley somehow got up and finished the match!

#2 Tyson Kidd

This is the most recent incident among all the others on this list. Tyson Kidd was one of the rising stars of WWE, with fans slowly starting to realize his amazing in-ring abilities. His pairing with Cesaro was a huge hit among the WWE Universe, but Tyson Kidd's career ended abruptly after a disastrous injury on a dark match after RAW in June 2015.

He was facing Samoa Joe in that match, but the "Muscle Buster" finisher from Joe led to Kidd suffering a scary spinal code injury which ultimately ended his career. Tyson Kidd discussed the severity of his injury and tweeted that only 5% of people survive his injury. He had 16 staples, four screws, and a rod inserted in his neck.

During an interview, Tyson Kidd spoke about the moment he suffered this disastrous injury.

"I’d never worked Joe before. I’d of course seen him. I’m a student of the game, I’ve seen everybody. But I’d never physically worked him. When we landed on the Muscle Buster, I saw the whitest light I’ve ever seen. I thought it was a concussion for a second. I remember thinking, ‘Man, I did this whole match, completely on the fly, I pulled it off and then I get rocked at the end.'"

"I have a picture and I think my hands are in the wrong position compared to other ones I’ve seen. I wasn’t able to run through it with him. I drop, bang, and at first I saw this light and I was like, ‘Ah, man.’ And then my whole body went limp. It felt like it weighed a million pounds. I was completely paralyzed. I was paralyzed from the neck down."

Tyson Kidd now works as a WWE producer and backstage employee for WWE, often appearing in Total Divas with his wife and WWE Superstar Natalya.

#1 Stone Cold Steve Austin

WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest names in pro-wrestling history with a majority of wrestling fans considering him to play a massive role in making WWE a household name. Unfortunately, he was on the receiving end of a botched piledriver during his match with Owen Hart at Summerslam 1997 that shortened his WWE career and almost killed him.

The move temporarily paralyzed the Texas Rattlesnake and he should consider himself to be lucky to survive that night and walk out on his own. Legendary WWE commentator Jim Ross spoke about the backstage reaction to Owen Hart after this accident on his Grilling JR podcast.

"A lot of concern. And it’s gonna sound bad if I don’t say this the right way, but you’ve gotta be first and foremost concerned about a man’s health. But at the same time, you’re looking at the guy that you see is going to be, unless injuries bite him in the a**, is going to be the biggest we’ve ever had. And now that may be over just as he got started. Took him seven years to get to WWE. Territories, missed booking, underutilized in WCW. We all remember all those stories. But you know, you just thought, ‘Well, this poor son of a b***h is not gonna live his dream.'”

Years later, it was due to his neck issues that Stone Cold Steve Austin had to retire from WWE.