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An individual goes through rigorous training in order to become the wrestling superstar we see on TV and all around the world. Wrestling is a sport that requires a lot of physical activity, and hence it can be as dangerous as it is rewarding.
Therefore, many talented wrestlers miss out on big opportunities as they are prone to making mistakes and botches which can have dire consequences. Many regard Sin Cara as a botch-machine as he has made a lot of mistakes inside the ring during his career.
Similarly, when wrestlers are in the ring fighting each other, they need to take a lot of care amid the fast-paced action to ensure that no one inside or outside of the ring gets injured.
However, this isn’t always the case as a lot of wrestlers get injured while competing in the ring and have to go through a lot of pain and suffering in order to get back to doing what they love the most.
Many a time things go wrong which result in botches that have caused career-threatening injuries to wrestlers and even led to the retirement of a few.
Here are 7 such career threatening botches in the WWE that could have ended up much worse than they did.
#7 Bad Luck Barrett
The February 2012 edition of Raw saw Wade Barrett become Bad Luck Barrett.
A ten-man battle royal took place in which Big Sow pressed Dolph Ziggler to hurl him to ringside and eliminate him. R-Truth and Wade Barrett were there to catch Ziggler and break his fall as the event unfolded.
Once the dust settled, it was evident that Truth was fine, but Barrett was in a lot of pain. He was seen slamming the floor and cursing while holding his left arm as the referees checked on him.
It was later revealed that Barrett suffered a dislocated elbow which required surgery and put him out of action for over six months.
#6 Enzo Amore suffers an early setback
A lot of wrestlers are born talented, and you can’t teach that. However, Enzo Amore isn’t one of the gifted wrestlers who walked into the WWE. He was the Cruiserweight Champion before being released from the company, however, he worked better on the mic than the ring.
At Payback 2016 the tag team of Enzo Amore and Big Cass faced the Vaudevillians for the #1 contenders spot for the Tag Team Championships. During the match, Simon Gotch threw Enzo towards the ropes, as Enzo tried to baseball from under the ropes out of the ring.
Enzo, however, stumbled and slid under the bottom ropes only to end up with a face full of ropes and have his head slammed into the mat. The impact immediately showed that it was a botch rather than a planned move.
He was knocked out cold and was immediately transported to the hospital where it was determined that he suffered a concussion.
#5 Liv Morgan gets concussed
On the September 24 edition of Raw, Nikki Bella and Brie Bella, known as The Bella Twins, teamed up with Natalya to take on The Riott Squad to build hype around their Evolution PPV match.
With Brie Bella and Liv Morgan as the legal women in the ring, Brie decided to bring out the YES kicks to Liv Morgan. The move is a signature of her husband, Daniel Bryan, and therefore she’s not a master of it.
After landing a few kicks on Liv, Brie took her eyes off Liv while delivering the kicks and Liv bent forward in discomfort. This led to a couple of kicks landing on Liv’s face which knocked her out cold and concerned her partner wrestlers.
Brie had to cover up by pretending to pin her for an unsuccessful count of three before pulling her towards her partners so she could make a tag.
#4 Joey Mercury gets busted in the nose
2006 saw a bizarre ladder match that included MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro), The Hardy Boyz, Willian Regal, and Dave Taylor, and Paul London and Brian Kendrick.
All wrestlers are trained how to take blows and protect key parts of their bodies, including their faces. However, Joey Mercury was the unlucky wrestler in this match who wasn’t able to protect himself.
A ladder was set up in a manner that when Jeff Hardy would jump on it from the top rope, it would flip upward to hit both members of MNM in the face. However, Joey wasn’t able to protect his face with his arms in time, and this resulted in the ladder actually hitting his face.
Blood poured out onto the ring, as Joey was immediately taken from ringside to the hospital where it was declared he only suffered a broken nose from what could have been worse. Thankfully, there was no other serious damage to his face and he returned weeks later to compete again.
#3 Shawn Michaels' back injury
The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are two of the best wrestlers in the sport’s history. But whenever the two come together, the chances of botches increase. This was proven once again in about between the two legends.
Royal Rumble 1998 saw the two men go against each other in a casket match. During the match, Taker performed a running backdrop on Michaels outside the ring on the side where the casket was placed.
The result wasn’t as expected, as HBK wasn’t able to control his landing, and the casket struck the small of his back at the base of his spice. The move left Michaels with two herniated discs and one crushed disc in his lumbar spine.
The injury left him unable to compete for some time and resulted in him not wrestling again until 2002. It's also said that the injury caused him trouble throughout the remainder of his career before he retired.
#2 Hardcore Power Bomb
Two hardcore men fought against each other in September 2002. Hardcore Holly and Brock Lesnar are known to be two of the most physical and powerful wrestlers in the world of sports entertainment.
Brock Lesnar faced Hardcore Holly, where he attempted to powerbomb Hardcore Holly. Now it is unclear whose fault it was, but this was a very ugly botch.
Lesnar lifted Holly in an awkward position and powerbombed him to the mat below. Holly landed badly onto his neck which resulted in him breaking his neck. He was put out of action for thirteen months to recover from the surgery that followed.
Luckily, Holly wrestled again for at least six more years with WWE before he was released from his contract after a 15-year tenure.
Some say that Holly decided to sandbag Lesnar, while Lesnar got pissed off and deliberately dropped Holly. However, both men have clarified that they are good friends and it's not possible for Holly to sandbag Lesnar, as Lesnar has the strength to even carry the Big Show around the ring.
#1 A botched piledriver nearly ends Stone Cold's career
Stone Cold and Owen Hart wrestled each other at Summerslam 1997 for the Intercontinental Championship. Both men are iconic names in the world of wrestling, and a botch coming from either man is quite shocking in itself.
Hart decided to use the piledriver on Austin, but messed up as Austin’s head has too low down when Hart was performing the move. Usually, wrestlers take some time to position their opponents correctly before performing the move, but Hart did not do so. As Austin’s head collided with the mat, his neck was broken and was left unable to move.
Hart realized the error and wasted some time for Austin to recover a little before he could take the pin as scripted. However, Austin was forced to vacate the title and stay away from the ring for over three months.
The pile driver is a move only Kane and The Undertaker are allowed to use in the WWE now because of how dangerous it can be.
