Pro-wrestling goes by a strong set of rules that every performer is expected to follow. Being in matches against each other generates a high tendency for wrestlers to legitimately injure themselves in the ring, leading to long-term health problems.
Wrestlers are trained to protect his opponent in the ring and do his job to perfection, even if it means putting over his opponent. However, there are some cases where wrestlers ‘go into business for themselves’.
This would mean no-selling an opponent’s move and other similar tactics. This might also happen in the spur of the moment and some wrestlers have legitimately injured other wrestlers in a moment of anger.
This list takes a look at five times wrestlers took out their frustrations on each other.
1. Antonio Inoki thrashes The Great Antonio
Antonio Inoki is not only one of the most famous Japanese wrestlers of all time but also of one of the greatest performers ever to set foot inside a ring. Inoki knew what he was worth and never took kindly to his opponents shooting during a match : something that Inoki’s namesake - Croatian wrestler The Great Antonio learned the hard way.
Antonio refused to sell Inoki’s moves during a match in Tokyo and attacked his neck with some sloppy blows. The Japanese great lost it and took down the Croatian with a single leg sweep. A brutal series of stomps followed and within no time, the Great Antonio had been knocked out. Inoki had to be separated by the referee before he could do some permanent damage to the Croatian.
2. Brock Lesnar breaks Bob Holly’s neck
WWE locker room has a number of veterans who consider working with – and putting over – less experienced wrestlers as sacrilege. One such guy was Bob ‘Hardocre’ Holly.
Holly worked a stiff style and was notoriously difficult to work with for greenhorns. In 2002, Holly was asked to put over a new talent and was as usual gruff about it.Holly refused to adjust properly while he was lifted up for a power bomb, hoping to stink out the greenhorn’s match.
But Holly’s opponent that night was none other than Brock Lesnar and the future WWE and UFC Champion was not going to take any attitude from Holly. Lesnar dropped Holly despite the latter not adjusting well for the powerbomb, which resulted in Holly suffering from a broken neck.
3. JBL gets karma’s steel chair shot
John Bradshaw Layfield has never hidden his contempt for Extreme Championship Wrestling and during the ECW One Night Stand PPV in 2005, deliberately bloodied and injured former ECW wrestler The Blue Meanie. After considering taking legal action against JBL, the Meanie decided against it and signed a short-term deal with the WWE to reform the Blue World Order (bWo) in the company alongside Stevie Richards and Nova.
In a Smackdown match which pitted Meanie against JBL, Richards blasted JBL with an unprotected chair shot that split the former WWE Champion open as retribution for what happened to the Meanie.
To add more salt to JBL’s wound, he got pinned by the overweight Meanie as well.
4. Chris Jericho beats up Sylvain Grenier
Chris Jericho’s reign as the first ever Undisputed champion in 2002 wasn’t a classic. Understandably, Jericho was sore as hell when he came to Raw the night after losing the title at Wrestlemania X8 and found out that he wasn’t even booked in a match on the show.
The only segment was for Jericho to beat up a WWE employee for bringing up his loss the previous night. The guy taking the beating would be future World tag team champion and La Resistance member, Sylvain Grenier.
Jericho apologised to Grenier in advance and then proceeded to beat the young upstart senseless, venting all his frustrations out on the hapless guy – so much so that the Undertaker, who was watching the segment asked Jericho whether he meant to attack Grenier the way he did to which Jericho replied in the affirmative.
5. Rikidozan and Masahiko Kimura’s shoot fest
One of the earliest instances of shoot wrestling occurred in the 1950s during a match between Japanese legend Rikidozan and Judoka stalwart Masahiko Kimura.
Kimura was considered the greatest Judoka in the world after defeating Gracie Ju Jitsu founder Helio Gracie at the Maracana Stadium in Brazil by breaking his arm twice with his trademark Kimura lock. Rikidozan wanted to add to his legacy in pro-wrestling by beating Kimura and invited him to a wrestling match.
The match was supposed to end in a double count-out, but Rikidozan started shooting Kimura with stiff shots to the neck. Kimura was knocked out and Rikidozan was declared the victor.
Rikidozan was murdered by a member of Japanese Yakuza in 1963 after stabbing him with a urine infected knife. The attacker is said to have carried out the attack in retaliation for what happened in the match with Kimura, even though Kimura was cleared of any wrong-doing.
