Injury Prone - A Look At WWE’s Injuries

[Black Widow]

If there was ever a poster-boy for wrestling injuries, Batista is it. In the seven years he’s been with the company, Batista’s been plagued by injuries. In 2003, he tore his triceps not once, but twice. Late 2005 saw him suffer a torn back muscle, and later, an arm injury, and had to forfeit the World Heavyweight Championship as a result. Most recently, he returned from a hamstring injury in April, only to be sidelined again two months later with a biceps tear.

His short comeback stint mirrors that of Kevin Nash’s last WWE run, in which he tore his quad within minutes of his first match back after a biceps injury.

The most famous quad-tearer in the WWE, though, is without question Triple H. 2001 saw him tear his left quadriceps muscle, and his opposite quad succumbed to the pressure in early 2007. The 2002-2003 period was a troublesome time for him, as he wrestled through a crushed trachea, bone chips and a haematoma in his healed quad.

Two other major stars who’ve had their fair share of downtime are John Cena and Randy Orton. Cena has been in and out of action since 2004, both with legit injuries (2007’s pec tear and 2008’s neck injury) and cover one’s to factor in his filming schedule for The Marine and 12 Rounds. While Orton has been relatively injury free since returning from a broken collarbone and subsequent motorbike accident last year, this wasn’t always the case. Orton had a rocky start to his WWE career, with a broken foot and injured shoulder both plaguing him before he found success in Evolution.

Orton’s protégé, Ted DiBiase Jr. suffered a similar fate earlier in his Priceless/Legacy tenure, and it was doubtful if he would get the push that being teamed with Orton could provide.

Mark Henry, in his thirteen-year run with the company, seems to be out every other year with an injury. And when he’s not rehabbing one, he’s inflicting them on others. Chris Benoit and Batista both received legitimate bench time at the hands of Henry.

Neck injuries are some of the most common in the industry, and performers can be sidelined for up to a year nursing the wound. Add to that the difficulty of writing a performer back into storylines, and wrestlers with back and neck injuries are often gone from active competition for up to two years. Those Superstars include: Lita, Edge, Scotty 2 Hotty, the late Andrew “Test” Martin, Benoit, Rhyno, Gregory Helms, and most famously, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, and Stone Cold Steve Austin—who was forced out of active competition due to his neck and knee problems—amongst others.

The aforementioned Angle will go down as one of the toughest in history for competing at the 1996 Olympics with a “broken freakin’ neck”, volunteering for experimental neck surgery with Dr. Hai-Dong Jho, and risking paralysis by working through injuries.

Bobby Lashley didn’t have a long employment with WWE, but it did include several injuries, such as a damaged rotator cuff in 2007, and a follow-up surgery later that year after sustaining a worked injury at the hands of Mr. Kennedy. And finally, speaking of Mr. Kennedy, he is the most recently released wrestler who spent as much time on the bench as he did in action, whether from injury (half of 2006 was spent rehabbing a latissimus dorsi tear; a haematoma in his right triceps in 2007 forced him to drop his Money in the Bank contract to Edge), extra-curricular activities (filming Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia) or personal problems (steroid use and his somewhat hypocritical outspokenness on the topic).

Injuries are part and parcel of being a professional wrestler, and those who have subscribed to that lifestyle have terribly high odds of being seriously injured during their career. But, as we’ve seen in Batista’s case, all wrestlers are not created equal, and some are more susceptible to injury than others. Batista is a big guy, has probably used steroids at some point in his career, is getting on in age, and his body is weakened due to a combination of these things, not to mention the intense workouts, travel and emotional duress. However, you have to wonder whether some are just luckier than others.

Someone like Edge could have died from his neck injury, however has remained relatively healthy since then. His year or so of healing (not including time off for shoulder, hand, groin and pectoral injuries, which adds up to less than two years of total time off) is just a blip on the radar in comparison to a) the rest of his active, twelve-year WWE career, and b) Batista’s shorter career with more downtime due to injury.

That’s just something to think about…

By Scarlett Harris on June 24th, 2009


Wrestling Truth

[solidsnake]

batista is damn near the worst one outta all of them....only a couple weeks back and he gets reinjured...what kinda crap is that? obviously, he needed more time to mend....thats the prob wit these guys, they wanna rush back in

[tommy]

Orton’s protégé, Ted DiBiase Jr. suffered a similar fate earlier in his Priceless/Legacy tenure, and it was doubtful if he would get the push that being teamed with Orton could provide.

Uhh...what? When did DiBiase get injured ever? He was written out of the storyline to film The Marine 2, but that is the exact opposite of what this terrible writer said, as that will most definitely enhance his push, not damage it...