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In wrestling, there are a number of Superstars who come in looking like they can and will steal the show. You look at them and you know that they can be the next big thing in wrestling and steal the show in a storm.
Wrestling is a sport of moments, however. One bad move and your entire career can end prematurely, without you living up to the obvious potential that you had. Be it injuries, drugs, bad booking by the promotion, or simply bad life choices, there is no limit to the things that can bring a halt to an otherwise starry career.
In this list, we will talk about those wrestlers who look like they will never wrestle again without serious risk of harming themselves, and their legacy will forever remain a little emptier and incomplete than anyone had thought it would.
#10 Edge
The Rated-R Superstar, Edge, was one of the wrestlers who took it upon himself to pioneer tag team matches, by taking things to another level, something that has not really been reached since then.
Anyone who was witness to the days, when he teamed up with Christian to take on the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz in tag team Extreme Stipulation matches, will testify that all six of the men took extreme risks and sacrificed their bodies to put on the best show possible.
Their two Triple Threat Tables Ladders and Chairs Tag Team matches set a bar that has not really been met till this day. In one particularly memorable bump, Edge speared a Jeff Hardy who was dangling in mid-air holding onto the titles from another ladder. They both fell the twenty feet to the ground, but somehow were able to escape injuries.
It was a ladder match, however, that caused the injury that would go on to end Edge’s career, as during a Ladder match with Eddie Guerrero on SmackDown Edge fell, and heard a crack in his neck. He would complete the match, but that would be the injury that brought his career to a hasty end.
He would go on to wrestle for many more years, winning Championships, but he had to retire early. In a speech that is one of the saddest in wrestling history, he announced that his injuries were such that he might die or be paralyzed if one move went badly. Retiring at age 37, he had many more years of wrestling ahead of him, which were stolen because of the injury.
#9 Daniel Bryan
The only wrestler on this list whose comeback is even remotely possible, Daniel Bryan is a star whose best years seem to have been robbed from him by injury. His high-flying style was simply too much for his body to take and he did not really get to live up to even a quarter of the obvious potential that he had.
Coming into WWE as possibly one of the most beloved indy darlings, Bryan Danielson, better known now by his WWE name Daniel Bryan, he did not immediately make a mark on the proceedings. Those hardcore fans who knew who he was, loved him for it, but to the majority, he was still a non-entity, a wrestler with a scrawny body who would never amount to much. They should have known better.
Daniel Bryan may not be the strongest or largest wrestler, but there is no doubting his unmitigated charisma. His time as a Heel World Champion and later as a part of Team Hell No, which gave rise to a fervour that WWE could never have predicted. Sorry Rock, Daniel Bryan was the new People’s Champion. The only problem? He was hardly ever Champion.
WWE is not a company known for their faith in slimmer superstars. They tend to go for muscled monsters, and while some work out well, like Braun Strowman, the others are just experiments that went awry, such as Heidenreich.
Daniel’s injury put him on the shelf much sooner than anyone in WWE had realized, just as he had broken through the glass ceiling and it looked like WWE was set to push him. Sure, he had the Wrestlemania moment, but very soon he had to give the teary retirement speech and just like that his career was over at 34.
Since then he has become the SmackDown General Manager and it looks like he may have an in-ring return after all, but the WWE doctors were adamant that he will never be medically cleared to wrestle again. Either way, let’s hope the choices that are made are good for Daniel’s career and more importantly, his life.
#8 Diamond Dallas Page
A veteran, Diamond Dallas Page came into the wrestling scene rather late. Most wrestlers start rather early in their life, but such was not the case for DDP. Starting wrestling at the age of 31, DDP did not let that deter him. After three years in other independent promotions, by 1991 DDP was signed to WCW. There he started slowly but surely, to make an impact the likes of which was not really expected from him.
Immensely charismatic, he did not really let age ever become an issue, as he put aside his relative inexperience to wrestle some of the best competitors in the world. He would soon become the World Television Champion and have an epic feud with ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage. He did not really stop there.
Never really known as a top wrestler, he was still loved by the fans and made his mark in WCW history. His matches against Bret Hart, Karl Malone, Randy Savage, and the Fatal Fourway match he had against Ric Flair, Sting and Hulk Hogan are particularly memorable.
This all came to an end when WWE bought WCW. They did not really put over any WCW talent, and poor DDP was just another victim. Put into a dead end feud as a heel stalker, with the Undertaker he never had a chance. One of the most beloved babyfaces had turned into someone who was just stalking Undertaker’s wife.
Undertaker wiped the floor with him, and DDP would never really recover from the angle. He faded slowly from television and was never really a big factor on WWE television before his retirement, robbing him of all the obvious potential that he had.
#7 Corey Graves
When it comes to talking about wrestlers who had potential, it is impossible to leave out Corey Graves. Now one of the best heel commentators in the company, Graves was supposed to have a huge career in the ring as well.
He was in NXT during the time of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt, but while all the rest went on to achieve success this was not on the cards for him. Graves had amazing matches with Rollins and Neville, but he also suffered a number of concussions.
He would return to television on the pre-show panel and announce his retirement due to concussion issues, and though this was heartbreaking for him, he never really showed it. He went on to become possibly the best modern commentator in WWE, and works on both Raw and SmackDown at the moment.
This may be his only consolation when he thinks about all that he could have achieved in the ring, but he was never able to.
#6 Tyson Kidd
A number of wrestlers whose wrestling careers came to an end due to unfortunate injuries. Very few of them can match up to Tyson Kidd, when it comes to the seriousness of the said injury.
One of the most talented youngsters, he never really had a real push in WWE. His only success came in tag team action when he teamed up as the Hart Dynasty. They were champions, but when his partner left Kidd was left in the lurch. He would try a singles run but was not really successful as he did not get a push.
Finally, tag-teaming with Cesaro it looked like he was about to get back on track as his chemistry with the Swiss Superman was undeniable. He was just about to get that push he had been waiting for when tragedy struck.
In a dark match on Raw, he went against Samoa Joe. He would never wrestle again. In the match he was hit with a musclebuster, Joe’s then finishing move, but things went badly wrong for him. He suffered a severe spinal injury, an injury so serious that he said only 5% survive it.
After multiple surgeries, he was able to come out of it, but he could not wrestle again, and retired to a producing capacity behind the scenes, without ever being able to fully live up to the potential that he obviously had.
#5 Raven
Raven is not really a wrestler that is remembered when it comes to his wrestling role in WWE or really anywhere outside ECW. He was actually a main-event level talent and had the charisma to pull of the role easily and convincingly.
The viewers who don’t know about him outside his time in WCW and WWE, should take a look at what he was doing in ECW and the groundbreaking feud he had with Tommy Dreamer during his time there.
His run in WWE was severely disappointing to any fans that he had during his time there. His time in TNA saw a bit of the old Raven, after he left WWE, but it was still not half as good as he was capable of. He never lived up to the potential that he had, and now at 53, is unlikely to ever wrestle again.
#4 Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts
A wrestler who was completely ruined by the lifestyle he chose, at one point it looked like Jake ‘The Snake’ Robert might die in relative obscurity. He was far ahead of his time and was one of the chief innovators in terms of wrestling psychology in promos.
He made the DDT look like a lethal weapon and very few wrestlers since have had the attitude he brought. He held very few titles and his time with the company came to an end way too soon.
His history of substance abuse caught up with him and his health deteriorated as he was busy with his personal demons. He lost all shape, and if it were not for DDP he might have come to a sad demise. DDP, with his patented DDP Yoga, saw that Jake would return back to a healthier condition, and now at 62, he looks much healthier than he did ten years ago.
Unfortunately, it’s too late for him to get back the years he lost due to his substance abuse and he was never able to live up to the obvious potential that he had.
#3 Damien Sandow
Damien Sandow is one of the most sadly underutilized characters in the WWE roster. His gimmick as the imparter of wisdom was not really quick to catch hold of the WWE fans, and he became the first Money in the Bank Winner who would not be able to cash in the Money in the Bank to win a Championship.
Relegated to the bottom of the roster he found a new gimmick.
He began to mimic other legendary stars and this soon caught on. He was one of the funniest acts in WWE, but it was his mimicry of The Miz that won the hearts of the fans. Miz’s irritation at his ‘Stunt Double’ being more popular than him was hilarious to watch and they always got a reaction from the crowd.
However, Sandow would never get the push that would get him credibility as a Singles Star as WWE did not follow through on this gimmick, and he was soon released by the company without having lived up to the potential he had.
#2 Paige
The most recent instance, this has yet to play out fully, but if true, Paige’s retirement from wrestling is one of the saddest moments of all time.
Paige came into wrestling as a woman who made changes to the Women’s division. She was the face of the Women’s Revolution that WWE wanted. The problem lay elsewhere. She had health issues from the beginning of her life, with abnormal curvature of the spine being one of the main problems she faced.
She came from a family that was completely involved in wrestling and did not let this stop her from living out her dream. She won the Championships there were to win in WWE, but she would suffer an injury.
Then came the issue of her relationship with fellow wrestler Alberto Del Rio, who was extremely frustrated with WWE. Del Rio would leave the company and Paige would accompany him to other wrestling promotions while suspended for substance abuse from WWE. The two of them even got engaged, but recently the two broke up and Paige came back to WWE.
Once back, she led out the stable of Absolution, and it looked like her career was back on track. This did not last, and in a house show match with Sasha Banks, Paige suffered an injury after a kick by Sasha. Given all her previous injuries this one was a bit more serious, and it was announced that Paige was withdrawn from the Women’s Royal Rumble.
While nothing has been finalized yet, credible Wrestling Journalists have mentioned that her career is at an end, and she will work in WWE in a non-wrestling capacity. If this is true this is one of the biggest wastes of potential in wrestling in recent memory.
#1 Owen Hart
The saddest of all the wrestlers in this list, there is no one who can take anything away from what Owen Hart had already achieved in the field of wrestling. He may have been less famous than his brother Bret, but it was only by a little. He was one of the best technicians in the ring and his time with the Hart Foundation saw him achieve almost every possible honour in wrestling.
His match with his brother Bret, remains one of the best matches of all time that set a bar in wrestling. He unfortunately was never able to reach the heights Bret had reached due to a glass ceiling that he had to fight with from under his older brother’s shadow.
He passed away in 1999, in a tragic fall after a cable gave way lowering him from the ceiling of the stadium during a show. He fell chest first on the turnbuckle, and the footage of that part of the show was never aired, with Jim Ross instead talking about his sad passing instead, while barely being able to restrain himself from tears. It is sad to think what Owen might have achieved if he had not died so tragically.
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