Professional wrestling is a strange industry. Even though the results are predetermined the pain is very, very real. Wrestlers go out every night and put their bodies and careers into their opponent’s hands. Trust between opponents is as important as who wins eventually.
Over the years wresting has had different kinds of workers. Some gentle, some devastatingly stiff. In this list I’ve compiled the stiffest workers in WWE history. The wrestlers on this list were by no means bad at what they did, but they did leave bruises in their wake at the very least.
5: JBL
JBL has been a notoriously stiff worker throughout his WWE career, not even taking into account numerous instances of backstage bullying that have been reported against him over the years.
Rumour has it that every time Vince needed to send a message backstage during JBL’s time, he sent JBL out to hammer home a point. This was done to debutants sometimes, and at other times as punishment doled out by ‘wrestlers court’.
JBL was a powerhouse in his prime, and his arsenal of stiff and devastating strikes could take out both rookies and seasoned veterans. His patented ‘Clothesline from Hell’ could behead opponents.
4: Chris Benoit
It’s clear with Chris Benoit’s inclusion that WWE doesn’t approve of this list. However, whatever happened on that fateful weekend isn’t in the purview of this list.
Benoit was one of the best technical wrestlers of his generation, if not all time. He subjected opponents to brutal chops and slaps which sometimes literally left their marks. A devastating range of suplexes and brutal range of submission moves left his opponents scurrying in both victory and defeat.
The ‘Canadian Crippler’ was one of the stiffest but best workers in WWE history.
3: Ken Shamrock
Ken Shamrock is a legit badass by anyone’s book. He was a UFC Champion before UFC became mainstream. He was legitimately one of the most dangerous men in the world during his heyday, it wasn’t just a gimmick. His offence of devastating martial arts kicks and brutal suplexes could ground even the toughest opponents.
His opponents had to get used to his shoot-style of wrestling quick. They were hit hard and suplexed even harder by Shamrock, who’d had no prior wrestling training. A night with Shamrock in the ring was usually long and painful for opponents.
Shamrock, who is now in his 50’s, still fights in MMA matches occasionally.
2: Hardcore Holly
Inside the ring, Hardcore Holly was a nasty, nasty man. Outside of the ring, he was by all accounts amiable and polite.
If Holly had problems with his opponents outside of the ring, he beat the holy hell out of them inside it. The worst of these incidents took place in the early 2000’s against Renee Dupree at a house show.
Renee has irked Holly by getting a ticket with Holly’s rental car. Holly in turn, took it out on the young Dupree inside the ring. The fact that Holly was never reprimanded for the incident, shows what kind of company WWE was back in the day.
A few years later, when Holly tried to do the same thing to a young Brock Lesnar, Brock legitimately dropped Holly on his neck, thereby breaking it and ending his career.
1: Vader
Vader was one of the all-time toughest men in wrestling. He was, inarguably, one of the greatest big men to ever grace the squared circle. Vader was known for his size, agility and toughness. How someone as big as Vader pulled off a perfect moonsault is beyond me.
Vader’s matches in Japan were some of the stiffest of his careers. His series with Cactus Jack in WCW is a classic. There was a time when Vader’s eye popped out of its socket while he was wrestling Stan Hansen in AJPW. Vader just popped it right back in and went back to stiffing Hansen.
Although Vader was a genuinely nice man outside the ring, wrestlers were afraid to take on him inside it owing to his reputation as a hard-hitter. Vader would take as much as he would give, but most opponents weren’t in a position to hit back after he was done with them. Even Mick Foley has been on the record saying that wrestlers, including himself, were afraid to step into the ring with Vader at times owing to his stiff shoot-fight style.
