Listen, I am not going to put JBL and the Blue Meanie on this list. I can’t talk about that one moment in wrestling history anymore. You can’t make me.
So wrestling, the awful business that we all like, when it works the way it’s supposed to it’s a beautiful dance between two ambassadors of flesh, Da Vincis of destruction, Vince’s princes of big nerve pinches.
Seemingly horrible violence, mitigated by co-operation, wrestlers having each other’s backs, with systems in place to make sure that no one hurts themselves for super realsies.
Of course sometimes accidents happen and people get injured and that’s obviously bad, but sometimes, thankfully a much rarer sometimes, those injuries aren’t an accident, they were all part of a diabolical plan.
Strap in, let’s talk about some moments of utter unprofessional dickheadedness. Here are 10 Wrestlers Who Tried To Injure Their Opponents
10. Koji Kitao (John Tenta)
Starting with this lad, ooft way to ensure you’ll never work in America. WWF was in Kobe Japan, co-promoting a show with Japanese promotion Super World of Sports.
A match was booked between Earthquake, A.K.A. John Tenta who’d previously been popular in Japan against Koji Kitao.
So this match is super weird and a bit scary. It’s not two lads twunking each other with pato furniture, instead its a weird standoff occasionally broken by Kitao trying to legit gouge Tenta’s eyes.
See apparently booker for SWS Great Kabuki had told Tenta to stiff Kitao a little because of some personally animosity between the two, Kitao loses his rag at this, stops wrestling entirely and just starts trying to blind the man sharing the ring with him, before kicking a ref and proclaiming that wrestling was fake before getting immediately sacked.
Fun fact I never realised before, this match happened in the Tokyo Dome. Home of Wrestle Kingdom. Hell of a place to expose the business, good job.
9. Manny Fernandez (Invader 3)
This one’s so weird, and kinda maybe graphic, but also maybe a big work, and also there’s like a hint of conspiracy theory to it. So let’s try and unpack it.
So it’s 1988 and this takes place in a match for Puerto Rican promotion World Wrestling Council. If that name and that year sets off alarm bells for you and you’re not sure why, that’s because that’s the year that Bruiser Brody was murdered backstage at a World Wrestling Council show, allegedly by Jose Gonzalez, A.K.A. Invader 1, who attacked him with a knife in the shower.
This match apparently has Invader taking on Manny Fernandez in his Raging Bull persona. During the match, Fernandez hits Invader with a jumping knee to the midsection from the top rope, which apparently caused his stomach to rupture, with blood even spewing from his mouth.
But then Fernandez proceeds to hit Gonzalez with two further knee drops. Here’s where it gets confusing.
Some have maintained the whole thing was a work and that the blood was, get this, pig’s blood mixed with vodka, however some are adamant it was a shoot, with Fernandez himself swearing in later interviews that he intentionally injured Gonzalez as revenge for him allegedly killing Bruiser Brody.
Until you dig deeper and you find out the match between Raging Bull and Invader happened two months BEFORE brody was killed, and that Raging Bull wrestled and injured not Invader 1 but Invader 3 who wasn’t played by Gonzalez.
What? It’s SUCH a mental story.
8. The Acolytes (Public Enemy)
Is there a company more welcoming to hot new talent than WWE? Come in, come in, say WWE, take off your shoes, have a seat, make yourself comfortable, here’s a cookie, we’ve heard so much about you and we’re going to f**king batter you for it, give me bACK THAT COOKIE.
Before the Dudleys became known as the wizards of the wicked wood, that gimmick actually was synonymous with a different tag team, east coast rappers Public Enemy, who made brutal and often use of tables during their ECW days.
In 1995 both WWF and WCW made offers for Public Enemy to sign, and they chose WCW, BIG F**KING MISTAKE LADS.
When their three-year contract expired, they jumped ship to WWF in 1999, to which the locker room reacted with Mariah Carey’s “I don’t know her”.
So three bad things happened before Public Enemy vs. The Acolytes, one of the most infamous matches in WWE history took place on an episode of heat in March 1999.
Public Enemy had snubbed WWF in the past, they had been brought in by Terry Gordy, whom the Acolytes hated, and Public Enemy tried to change the finish of the match at the last minute, not wanting to be put through tables so quickly into their ‘we’re good at tables run’.
Oh dear. Oh no. The Acolytes were instructed by management to make sure the finish happened and were otherwise given free reign to shoot all over Public Enemy, the rest is horror.
Some of the chair shots Bradshaw hits, like, it’s just legit violence. They’re not just trying to hurt them, they’re trying to run them out of the company.
It’s really gross, and Public Enemy were indeed gone within a few weeks of this airquotes “match.”
7. Ad Santel (George Hackenschmidt)
So this incident apparently happened during a sparring session but it’s too damn interesting not to talk about.
Way back in the early days of pro wrestling, we’re talking turn of the 20th century here, Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt had one of the most talked-about rivalries of the day, with Gotch winning their first encounter and the World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, despite Hackenscmidt alleging dirty tactics like excessive body oil, oh the rank scandal of it all.
Wrestling hasn’t really changed all that much. Years later their rematch was set for 1911 and it was instantly a storm of controversy. Hackenschmidt went into the match claiming to be fighting fit, but actually had a knee injury he received in training, which Gotch used to get the easy win.
However, after the bout, a wrestler called Ad Santel told Lou Thesz that Frank Gotch’s team had made him $5000, which would be equivalent to over half a million today, to injure Hackenscmidt during a sparring match and make it look like an accident.
This all happened decades before promoters tried to get Iron Sheik to break Hulk Hogan’s leg. Wrestling’s always been a stand-up industry.
6. Daniel Puder (Kurt Angle)
When you start work at a new company it’s important to make a good first impression. And if I’ve learned anything from Daniel Puder’s book how to succeed at business, it’s try and break the arm of your boss on day f**king one.
Step 2 is unclear. Step 3 is profit. 2004 and the fourth season of Tough Enough aka the who can get their boy scouts wrestling badge competition, hello tiny Miz.
During a November episode of SmackDown, Kurt Angle was putting the new recruits through their paces, challenging one of them to match, during which the tough enough competitor actually had some of his ribs accidentally broken by Angle so, a nice scary start. Fab.
Angle challenges the rest of them, a challenge accepted by MMA trained, fivehead showcase Daniel Puder who proceeded to snatch Kurt in a Kimura and refused to give.
Angle scrambled to force a botched pin because, according to Dave Meltzer, he would have been quotes, “in surgery” if the hold had been applied for even a few seconds longer.
As you can imagine, backstage were less than thrilled and Puder was punished with a prison yard beating in front of an audience of millions when lockerroom enforcers Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Hardcore Holly ruined him in the 2005 Royal Rumble. Oh, sweet Jesus.
5. Antonio Inoki (Great Antonio)
All you can Antonio buffet now and the chinniest chin to ever cherroo in the form of Japanese Uberlegend Antonio Inoki, the man who founded New Japan Pro Wrestling and booked himself to be its top star for decades, wrestling never changes.
To be honest though, you’re not exactly going to argue with him are you, because Antonio Inoki has been in a number of infamous shoot fights in his wrestling career and had a cast-iron reputation of sending condolences to the families of those who don’t comply.
In 1976 he fought Akram Pahalwan and when his opponent wouldn’t comply with the match booking, Inoki locked in a double wrist lock and just straight-up broke his arm when he wouldn’t tap.
Slightly more famous is Inoki’s match against Mohammad Ali where lay on his back for most the match tried to injure Ali’s knees for being uncooperative during the match’s build, and finally, his most infamous disciplining against the Great Antonio.
Oh no no no. For reasons unknown and incomprehensible during their match in 1977, Great Antonio stopped selling Inoki’s offence.
So Inoki simply said, ok then, and flipped his internal switch from kayfabe to real-life, knocking Antonio to the match and repeatedly kicking him about the body and face until he was a bloody mess.
4. Akira Maeda (Riki Choshu)
Sticking with New Japan and their hair-trigger shoot lunatics, let’s talk about another man liable to see red and make red, Akira Maeda.
Much like his boss, Inoki, Maeda has a handful of wrestling matches gone wrong under belt. One saw him taking on Andre the Giant.
Story has it that Andre had been instructed by Inoki himself to discipline the hotheated Maeda, so when the giant stopped cooperating, Maeda got furious and repeatedly went after Andre’s legs until, unable to stand the pain any longer, the giant lay down for him and demanded to be pinned.
Maeda is no joke, but yet even more brutal than that was a 6 man tag match, pitting Maeda with partners vs a team including Riki Choshu. This match also fell apart when, apparently incensed at Riki Choshu big leaguing him, kicked him full in the face while he was applying a submission on another wrestler.
A total shoot, the kick broke two orbital bones in Choshu’s face, and remarkably he didn’t even fall.
What did happen next was the match being completely abandoned as both men had to be separated by their partners, trying to stop them coming to blows again. Damn Japan, you scary.
3. Yoshiko (Act Yusukawa)
DAMN JAPAN YOU SCARY. As much as we like to have fun here in these WrestleTalk lists, this one is just straight-up no fun.
We’re talking about a match in February 2015 that’s so infamous that it’s referred to in Japanese wrestling as the Seisan Match or the Ghastly Match. When you consider the horrors of Japanese deathmatches, that is SAYING SOMETHING.
The match saw Act Yusukawa taking on World of Stardom Champion Yoshiko. The two stars had heat prior to the match with Act having accidentally bloodied Yoshiko in a past match and was also a hot up-and-coming star.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what happened as no one wants to talk about this match, but it’s believed that Act accidentally hit Yoshiko with a closed fist and Yoshiku just went insane, shooting on Act so much that she broke her cheek, nasal and orbital bones before the match was mercifully called off in under 8 minutes.
Awful, awful stuff, Yoshiko was stripped of her championship before briefly retiring, she’s still wrestling today fun fact for you all, whereas Act is now retired from the industry.
The darkest point in Stardom’s history, one that saw one of the company’s founders nan-eye Takahashi actually stepping down, but it still didn’t draw quite as much press as the next entry.
2. Sexy Star (Rosemary)
If you’re going to shoot on a fellow wrestler and intentionally try and injure them, doing it on pay-per-view during the promotion’s biggest show of the year isn’t smart. But care and consideration don’t seem to be words in Sexy Star’s vocabulary.
At AAA’s annual TripleMania show in 2017, a fatal four-way was held for Sexy Star’s Queen of Queens Championship. Also in that match was Rosemary, one of IMPACT Wrestling’s most recognizable stars.
During the match something bad happens, it’s unclear when but at some point Sexy Star gets tagged and she completely loses composure, locking Rosemary in a shoot armbar, wrenching her shoulder out of its joint, then after Rosemary has tapped out and broken free of the hold, Star grabs her arm and again locks the armbar in.
Wrestlers and fans alike around the world were outraged, with Road Dogg calling for her to be blacklisted and Cody Rhodes saying that she’d never set foot in one of his locker rooms.
Being banned from the two biggest promotions in America, smart smart going.
1. JBL Beats Up The Blue Mea- NO I’M NOT DOING IT
1. New Jack (Vic Grimes)
Because he has admitted to trying to kill another man in a wrestling match. Like, he admitted to it.
New Jack has made a solid case on numerous occasions for being the worst person in the wrestling biz, Mass Traffic incident, Gypsey Joe incident, but this one is his horrible gross, dickhead masterpiece.
During an ECW pay-per-view in Danbury, New Jack was wrestling Vic Grimes in a scaffold match. Miscommunication happened between the two, leading to the infamous danbury fall where both men clattered to the concrete with Grimes accidentally landing on jack’s head, nearly killing him.
New Jack holds grudges turns out, and when some very dumb promoter for Xtreme Pro Wrestling decided to capitalize on the controversy by booking a feud culminating in another scaffold rematch between the two, Jack went in with evil on his mind.
The story goes, and remember this is New Jack himself saying it, that at the top of structure New jack legit tased Grimes before throwing him from the scaffold.
New Jack claims that his aim was for Grimes to land on the turnbuckle and die, but thankfully he landed on the ring rope instead, still suffering multiple injuries, but living to wrestle another day.
Wrestling, everybody. The wonderful world of sports entertainment.
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