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WWE Superstars are known to be the toughest performers in the business, going through years of training and hard work to ensure that they perform every move in the ring to perfection.
However, a botched move or a bad spot can lead to WWE Superstars sustaining injuries, something that is inevitable in any type of sport. However, the nature of combat sports is such that injuries can wear a performer down prematurely or even bring their careers to an end.
Over the years, we’ve seen several WWE Superstars get injured mid-match and the officials had to call the match off to protect the performers from further damage. However, some WWE Superstars have chosen to finish their matches despite their injuries.
Such Superstars deserve recognition as they’ve shown that they are thorough professionals and want to put WWE and the business before their health and well-being.
In this article, we will look at eight such WWE Superstars who persevered through in-match injuries to ensure that the matches reached their conclusion.
#8 Triple H
The 2000s belonged to Triple H as he was seen as the face of WWE during the time and was heavily pushed by the company. In 2001, Triple H was part of a tag team along with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the two men became crowd-favorites thanks to their success.
Known as The Two-Man Power Trip, the two Superstars won the WWE Tag Team Championships in 2001, but an injury led to their break-up.
During a match in May 2001 against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, Triple H suffered a legitimate and career-threatening injury when he misstepped, causing him to suffer a tear in his left quadriceps.
Even though Triple H knew that he had torn his quadriceps and couldn’t put weight on his left leg, he continued to compete. He even allowed Jericho to lock him in the Walls of Jericho despite the injury.
The Cerebral Assasin went on to complete the match that saw him hit Stone Cold with a sledgehammer by mistake and allow his rivals to pick up the victory. The injury put him on the shelf for about eight months.
This wasn't the only injury Triple H braved through during a WWE match
While Triple H braved through that injury during his prime, he once again showed why he’s a top performer in WWE as he worked through a torn pectoral muscle in a big match in Saudi Arabia.
Shawn Michaels returned to the ring to reform D-Generation X for just one night in November 2018 to take on The Brothers of Destruction (Kane and The Undertaker) in a match of a lifetime. Nearing the age of 50, Triple H suffered a torn pectoral muscle during the match but continued to fight and brought it to its conclusion.
#7 Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest names WWE has ever produced, and the former WWE Superstar was a crowd-favorite for almost the entirety of his career.
Austin not only turned himself into one of the most relatable on-screen WWE characters but also helped the company reach a larger audience by introducing a new attitude to the product.
While Austin was at the peak of his career in the late 1990s, he suffered an injury during a match that proved to be disastrous for his career.
At WWE SummerSlam 1997, Austin was competing against Owen Hart when a Tombstone piledriver by Hart went wrong and ended up injuring the neck of his rival. The Rattlesnake’s neck was broken as a result of the move, and he was temporarily paralyzed.
The tough Superstar was able to recover enough to pin Hart and end the match with a victory, following which he had to be taken to the hospital. According to Jim Ross, everyone backstage was really shaken up following the injury.
"A lot of concern. And it’s gonna sound bad if I don’t say this the right way, but you’ve gotta be first and foremost concerned about a man’s health. But at the same time, you’re looking at the guy that you see is going to be, unless injuries bite him in the a**, is going to be the biggest we’ve ever had. And now that may be over just as he got started. Took him seven years to get to WWE. Territories, missed booking, underutilized in WCW. We all remember all those stories. But you know, you just thought, ‘Well, this poor son of a b***h is not gonna live his dream.'” [H/T: 411mania]
Stone Cold was unhappy with the botch at WWE SummerSlam 1997
Stone Cold wasn’t too happy with the way Hart apologized to him following the botch that cut his career short and almost ended his life.
"Owen almost paralyzed me. He called me only once to apologize while I was in the hospital. If I almost break someone’s neck, I’m calling them 25 times to apologize…”
While Austin’s WWE career suffered a lot due to the injury, he was able to recover well enough and lead a healthy life.
#6 Daniel Bryan
This one is a bit different from the others on this list as the WWE Superstar involved wanted to continue the match despite suffering an injury, while the higher-ups wanted it to come to an end.
Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton competed in a No Disqualification match in June 2013 on an episode of WWE Monday Night RAW. The stipulation of the match suggested that it would be a bit more hardcore in nature than a typical bout.
However, during the match, Bryan suffered a stinger and could not feel his arms after he took a bump from the top rope and landed outside the ring.
Triple H, who was backstage at the time and watching, told the WWE medical doctor at ringside through his headset to end the match early. But Bryan refused the orders and continued to compete.
However, Triple H stepped in once again and the match finally came to an end with Orton being announced the victor.
Bryan wasn't too happy with the WWE COO for ending the match
After the match, Bryan headed backstage and had a war of words with Triple H. Referee John Cone, who helped Bryan to the back, revealed the following about the heated exchange:
“I saw Daniel face-to-face with Triple H, nose to nose, screaming at him, saying that the match should not have been stopped and he’d worked through several injuries over 13 years,” said referee John Cone, who followed Bryan into the locker room area. “Triple H fired back, saying he’s worked through torn quads, but Bryan was saying it was supposed to be the biggest match of his career and it was taken away from him.
“I’d never seen anything like it; they almost came to blows,” elaborated Cone. “Randy stepped in and pulled Daniel Bryan back, it was the craziest thing I’d ever seen backstage.”
While Bryan has shown time and time again that he is among the toughest Superstars in the WWE, this was one time when Triple H had to make a difficult decision for his safety.
#5 John Cena
John Cena has been one of the biggest names in WWE for a long time, and during his prime, he would show up week after week to compete. While Cena was known as a workhorse in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was very prone to injuries due to his extensive training routines and schedule.
During a match against Mr. Kennedy on an episode of WWE Monday Night RAW in December 2010, Cena arm-dragged his opponent which led to him tearing his pectoral muscle. Cena was the WWE Champion at the time, and he fought through the pain and completed the match to set an example.
While he was hopeful that he would be able to defend his WWE Championship against Randy Orton six days later at No Mercy, he was forced to relinquish his title and undergo surgery.
John Cena is one of the toughest WWE Superstars of all time
That’s not all, as The Doctor of Thuganomics showed his toughness once again in a match against Seth Rollins in July 2015. Cena defended his United States Championship against WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins on WWE RAW as part of his United States Championship Open Challenge.
A knee to the face from Rollins caught Cena right in the nose, and the WWE Superstar ended up suffering a broken nose. Even though it was evident that Cena was shaken by the injury and was in a bit of pain, he continued the match and took it to its conclusion before heading to the emergency room.
#4 Edge
The most recent example of a WWE veteran fighting through the pain to end a match came at 2020's Backlash.
The Rated-R Superstar Edge made his return to WWE during the 2020 Royal Rumble and made headlines all over the world. Following his appearance at the event, Edge revealed that he had been cleared to compete in the ring and would wrestle again for the first time in almost a decade.
This ignited a rivalry between Edge and his former tag team partner Randy Orton, and the two had their first match at WrestleMania 36. They followed that up with "The Greatest Match Ever" at Backlash, which lasted almost 45 minutes and saw both the veterans perform their hearts out.
The WWE veteran suffered an injury but kept fighting on
Following the match, it was revealed that The Rated-R Superstar had suffered a torn tricep at some point during the match and would undergo surgery. During an interview on The Hall of Fame Podcast with Booker T, Edge explained what happened during the match.
"I did a springboard into the second RKO. I went 'ooh.' I got the cold sweats and I feel like I'm going to throw up. That's usually a sign, that's where it popped," Edge said. "I thought, okay, I think I have a little bit more in the tank to finish this out."
The stubborn WWE Superstar showed that no injury could stop him from finishing a match, and he had just enough left in the tank to take the Greatest Match Ever to its conclusion.
#3 The Undertaker
The Undertaker has been known as one of the most intimidating WWE Superstars of all time. The former WWE Superstar holds several records in WWE, which includes being the longest-tenured employee and for holding the longest WrestleMania Streak.
You can check out The Undertaker's incredible WWE records in the video below
For 21 consecutive WrestleMania matches, The Undertaker was undefeated until he came face-to-face with Brock Lesnar at The Grandest Stage of Them All at WrestleMania 30.
The entire WWE Universe was shocked as Lesnar pinned The Deadman and ended his legendary streak at the 30th edition of the show.
The Phenom of WWE suffered an injury during the match
After the match, it was revealed that The Undertaker had suffered a concussion at some point during it, and the impact of the injury was such that he had to be rushed to the hospital soon after he headed backstage.
“Obviously that's later in my career. I have only been working a few times a year. So what I think happened was that working just once a year finally caught up with me. Most guys aren't Brock Lesnar, and they are not able to throw me around like that. It was nothing that Brock did. I think it was just my body was not used to the trauma.”
“Once I got over the concussion and all that, then it hit me. 'What's happened to you? You have a reputation you are a tough son of a gun. What happened? Is this it? Is it time to call it a day?' So, then I understood what Flair was going through. I had self-doubt. After all these years of success and doing everything, it was just like 'I am not sure I can do this again'. And it really took a while for me to get that confidence back.”
Thankfully, 'Taker was able to recover from the injury and competed in the WWE ring for several more matches before he finally hung up his boots.
#2 Finn Balor
Finn Balor got the opportunity of a lifetime at SummerSlam 2016 against Seth Rollins, as the two men competed to crown the first-ever WWE Universal Champion.
Balor was new to the main roster at the time of the match, yet he was a crowd favorite and someone who the WWE Universe wanted to see as their Champion. As the then-longest-reigning NXT Champion, Balor had the experience and the charisma to become the perfect inaugural WWE Universal Champion and lead the company in a new direction.
The inaugural WWE Universal Champion suffered a tragic fate
During the match, the two men took matters outside the ring for some time which included Rollins powerbombing The Demon into the barricades. The move led to Balor dislocating his shoulder as a result of the impact of the move, though he managed to pop it back to finish the bout and win the WWE Universal Championship.
WWE physician Dr. Jeffrey Dugas revealed the following about Finn’s injury to WWE.com:
“Finn’s injury was pretty severe, more severe than normal. A really high energy injury, it did more damage than a standard shoulder dislocation where you simply tear the labrum. The prognosis is excellent, however. We were able to fix it all and put it back where it came from. I’m anticipating him getting back at full speed.”
'The Demon King' appeared as a guest on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, and spoke about how bad the injury was:
"Straight away, I knew the shoulder was out because I could feel it out. I didn't realize how bad it went out. I've had a shoulder separation before where, like, I could pop in back in and it wasn't so bad, but when I hit the deck, I said, 'oh no, your shoulder's out of place,' so instinctively, I pulled it forward and it pops back in. I go, 'okay, phew, breathe, calm down, get your bears, [and] get back in the ring.' So I get back in the ring, and I start working, and it feels pretty loose. And I think [Rollins] shoots me off and I reverse him, and I'm, like, pushing him in the back, and I give him a little push with my right hand on the back, and it pops out again. I go, 'oh no, this is going to be a big issue.' I ended up coming out [of the ring] three or four times in the match where I kept resetting it, resetting it, but it was totally destroyed. There was, like, a bicep tear, a pec tear, the socket was broken, the labrum was torn, so, like, that's pretty much why I kept slipping in and out. Kind of halfway through the match I realized, 'you're not going to be wrestling, not for a long time.' But they said, 'stay the course,' and I finished the match. And the rest is history."
Rollins and Balor did a good job to stay the course and end the match as planned. However, the WWE Superstar was forced to relinquish the title soon after to address the injury. But it clearly shows how professional Balor was in choosing to finish the match.
#1 Mankind/Mick Foley
While each of the entries on this list shows just how much a WWE Superstar wants to compete and give back to the sport, the top spot on this list belongs to the man who would do anything to entertain the fans.
Mick Foley is one of the biggest names in the world of wrestling and he has influenced hundreds of wrestlers all over the world to get into the business.
During his infamous match against The Undertaker at the 1998 WWE King of the Ring, Mick Foley, playing the character of Mankind, took some serious falls and bumps that resulted in a long list of injuries.
The two men competed in a Hell in a Cell match that paved the way for several more extreme matches of this nature, but none have been able to top the impact this one made on the WWE Universe.
Mankind picked up a catalog of injuries during the WWE King of the Ring match
Mankind took several bumps during the match and suffered internal bleeding, was punctured by thumbtacks, suffered a dislocated shoulder, dislocated jaw, a concussion, bruised ribs and lost at least one tooth during the contest.
While the WWE Universe thought that the match had come to an end after Foley took his first 16-foot fall in the match, he proved them wrong and continued to compete. He took a second fall during the match, displaying just how tough he is, and left a mark on the entire industry with his heart-stopping performance.
"You have no idea how much I appreciate what you have just done for this company but I never want to see anything like that again."
Those were the first words WWE Chairman Vince McMahon said to Foley following the match, appreciating the big man’s efforts in putting his company and profession over his life.
