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Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins are set to compete in one of the most bizarre matches in WWE history at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules.
The rivalry between the two men has revolved around Rollins piercing the right eye of Mysterio by sending him eye-first into the corner of the steel steps on a May 2020 episode of WWE RAW.
Since then, “The Monday Night Messiah” has threatened to inflict the same punishment on other people in WWE, including Humberto Carrillo and Mysterio’s son Dominik.
After teaming with Kevin Owens to defeat Rollins and Murphy on RAW, Mysterio announced that he has chosen to face Rollins in an Eye for an Eye match at Extreme Rules. As per the stipulation, the match will end when the winner has extracted an eye from their opponent.
Owens has already sent a warning to Rollins by jokingly handing him an eye patch on the Extreme Rules go-home episode of RAW, but did you know that several WWE Superstars have already donned an eye patch in the past?
In this article, let’s count down five WWE Superstars who wore eye patches due to injuries.
#5 WWE SmackDown Superstar Jeff Hardy
On the July 3, 2009 episode of WWE SmackDown, CM Punk attempted to make a tag to Jeff Hardy but the three-time WWE World Champion jumped off the ring apron and began rolling around on the outside of the ring while clutching his right eye.
Moments later, Edge and Chris Jericho picked up a tag team victory over the two WWE World Heavyweight Championship rivals, with “The Rated-R Superstar” pinning Punk after a spear. SmackDown then came to an end with Hardy and Punk both selling eye injuries.
The following week, Hardy wore an eye patch in the opening segment on SmackDown. He admitted that he faked the injury because he felt that Punk’s own eye injury, which he sustained earlier in the tag team match, was not legitimate.
Hardy accused the then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion of faking injuries to forfeit matches, and he removed his eye patch and revealed that his vision was absolutely fine.
Kane went on to win a one-on-one match against Hardy, courtesy of a distraction from Punk, and the eye patch was never seen again.
Thankfully, like Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins, this was only a storyline injury, but the same cannot be said for some of the other Superstars in this list…
#4 WWE RAW Superstar Naomi
From the 01:06 mark of the video below, you can see that Naomi tried to pin Aksana after a sunset flip during their one-on-one match on WWE RAW in February 2014.
Aksana countered the pinfall attempt with a somewhat reckless right knee into the left eye of Naomi, who immediately gritted her teeth and held her eye.
The former Funkadactyl won the match with a split-legged moonsault but it was obvious to the WWE Universe that she had suffered a serious injury.
The injury was so severe that, according to a statement on WWE’s official website, Naomi was unable to travel on an airplane due to the pressure differences between her sinus cavity and the back of her eye socket.
After a six-week absence from WWE television, Naomi returned to action in March 2014 by teaming with Cameron to defeat AJ Lee and Tamina on RAW.
Unfortunately for Naomi, the injury came at a time when she looked set to receive a major push as a singles competitor, including a rivalry over the Divas Championship with AJ Lee.
Those plans were axed and Lee ended up dropping the title to Paige one night after WrestleMania 30.
#3 Former WWE Superstar Luke Harper
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in September 2014 that former WWE Superstar Luke Harper had an issue with his left eye but the severity of the injury was unknown.
One week later, the picture above showed Harper wearing an eye patch during The Wyatt Family’s six-man tag team match against The Big Show and The Usos at a WWE live event.
However, the former Intercontinental Champion did not wear the patch when he next appeared on WWE RAW to support Wyatt in his match against The Big Show.
Harper even had a big role to play in the match – he caused a disqualification by attacking The Big Show – but he showed no signs of the eye injury that caused him to wear an eye patch leading up to the show.
To this day, it is still not known how serious the injury was and why the former Wyatt Family member did not continue to wear the eye patch on WWE television.
It is worth noting that Harper did not give many media interviews during this stage of his WWE career, and it is highly unlikely that a 2014 eye injury will be at the top of anybody’s list of questions if they get the chance to speak to Mr. Brodie Lee!
#2 WWE SmackDown Superstar Cesaro
Cesaro was originally supposed to face Dolph Ziggler on an episode of WWE Main Event in July 2014, but “The King of Swing” suffered an eye injury during a match against Kofi Kingston on the previous night’s episode of RAW.
WWE physician Chris Amann told WWE’s official website that the Swiss Superstar had been cleared to compete but he had to wear an eye patch for his match on Main Event.
“We did some specialized testing and staining of the eye which showed he did have a scratch on the right side of the eye, which is called the sclera and not on the cornea, which is the clear part of the eye. We’re going to keep his eye patched for the next 24-48 hours, use some artificial tears and re-evaluate him tomorrow prior to his match.”
As it turned out, WWE’s decision-makers opted to turn Cesaro vs. Ziggler into a six-man tag team match, with Ziggler teaming with Big E and RVD to defeat Cesaro, Curtis Axel and Ryback.
Ziggler tore the patch off Cesaro's eye in the early stages of the match, meaning he did not wear the patch for the majority of the 12-minute encounter.
#1 WWE SmackDown Superstar Daniel Bryan
Unlike the other WWE Superstars in this list, Daniel Bryan’s eye injury occurred several years before he made it to WWE.
If you have seen old footage of Daniel Bryan wrestling as Bryan Danielson in Ring of Honor, you may have noticed him wearing an eye patch in some of his matches. This is due to the detached retina that he suffered in a match against Takeshi Morishima in 2007.
Like fellow WWE Superstar Naomi, Bryan was advised not to travel on airplanes because altitude changes could aggravate the injury. However, unlike Naomi, he did not listen to the doctor and he decided to wrestle Morishima again three weeks later with an eye patch because, in his own words, “I thought it would be a great story.”
“I wore the eye patch - more for the visual than for actual protection, of which it provided very little. In another one of my dumber ideas, for the finish, Morishima gave me repeated clubbing blows to my damaged eye until I sold being knocked out.” [Via Bryan’s autobiography, 'Yes!: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania']
Bryan added that he escaped the match without further damage but, as of 2015, he still had some vision problems in his left eye.
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