Wrestling may not be real, but its success is. ‘Sports entertainment’ is the hottest it’s been in decades, with WWE stars like Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley now lighting up Netflix and finding a huge global audience. As anyone who watched the Netflix documentary ‘McMahon’ will know, however, it’s never been short of controversy—including some incredible breaches of safety protocols.
Injuries are an accepted part of wrestling, but some demand more scrutiny than others. The following injuries and incidents shine a harsh light on the standards in the industry at the time and highlight the very real dangers of an artform that’s still derided as fake. Like our recent article on injuries in football, they also reflect the pressure to accept risk as part of the job—and the need for continued scrutiny and support for workers across sports.
The death of Owen Hart
One of the most notable tragedies in wrestling history, the death of Owen Hart is also one of the biggest and most obvious breaches of safety protocols. Owen Hart was part of the famed Hart wrestling dynasty, and a successful champion alongside his legendary brother Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. At the time of his death, Owen was wrestling under the ‘gimmick’ name of The Blue Blazer, a villainous superhero character. While some saw this goofy character as revenge for his brother’s acrimonious departure from the company, Owen was in line for another major title—one he would never have the chance to win.
As part of an elaborate entrance to his title match at Over the Edge, a pay-per-view event, Owen would abseil into the ring from the rafters of the arena, before getting tangled in his line and comically freeing himself, dropping from a controlled height into the ring below. During this entrance, with the house lights still down, Owen’s harness suddenly came free. He plummeted almost 80 feet, landing chest-first on the ropes and almost hitting the referee, before bouncing into the ring.
The impact severed Hart’s aorta, causing him to die from internal bleeding within minutes. As the arena was in darkness with music playing when Hart fell, the crowd had missed the incident, only seeing Hart being stretchered away. As a result—and due to the ‘show must go on’ mentality of owner Vince McMahon—the pay-per-view continued largely uninterrupted, with commentator Jim Ross announcing Hart’s passing to a live TV audience later in the show.
The family sued both the WWF (as it was then) and the manufacturer of the harness, with the WWF ultimately settling for around $18 million. It is thought that the quick release harness chosen for use by the WWF was not approved for stunt use, and that a different rigger had been found to fit the quick release harness, as their usual rigger had previously refused to use it. The WWF later sued the harness manufacturer, and won around triple the settlement they paid to the Harts—a curious ending to a strange and tragic story.
The Stone Cold piledriver
Before his death, Owen Hart was involved in what was nearly another tragedy—one which would change the career of one of wrestling’s most legendary characters. Discussing the match beforehand, Austin suggested that Hart used a Tombstone Piledriver on him as part of a ‘false finish’, where Austin would recover to win the match.
This was the Undertaker’s signature move, which involved driving the opponent’s head down onto the mat as you went to your knees—a safer version of a regular, ‘sit down’ piledriver. As Hart was more comfortable doing a regular piledriver, he told Austin he would do this instead but reassured him that he could perform the move safely.
When it came to match itself, this was unfortunately not the case. Hart mistakenly drove Austin’s head into the mat, causing him to break his neck. While he recovered to finish the match, Austin would suffer neck problems for the rest of his career, ultimately retiring in 2003 aged just 38. While he would return for several appearances and a one-off match in 2022, the piledriver would not—it remains banned in WWE today outside of a few trusted performers.
Mankind vs. The Undertaker
FULL MATCH: The Undertaker vs. Mankind – Hell in a Cell Match: King of the Ring 1998
One of the most famous and violent matches in TV history is most remarkable for not having killed one of its competitors. The infamous Hell in a Cell match between Mankind and the Undertaker saw the former not only launched off the top of the cell, but through it—losing a tooth, suffering a severe concussion, and searing the match in the minds of everyone who saw it.
The match was the culmination of a long but meandering rivalry between Mankind and the Undertaker, who were fighting for the chance to face then-champion Stone Cold. The story had been stretched out and changed direction so many times that there was relatively little anticipation for the match, nor much love for the Mankind character: a deranged, mask-wearing masochist. The match itself would change this—and the career of Mick Foley, the man behind Mankind—both for good and ill.
The match began with both wrestlers climbing the outside of the 20ft steel cage around the ring and grappling on the roof. The roof panels were attached with cable ties to allow part of the roof to collapse as part of a planned sequence, where Mankind would hang on and then fall. First, however, came one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history, as the Undertaker threw Mankind off the cell, and through an announcer’s table. The impact off the table and onto the concrete floor below was such that commentator Jim Ross seemed legitimately convinced that he’d died.
He hadn’t, and after a lengthy period of treatment, Mankind climbed off his stretcher to scale the cage again. The Undertaker—who had a sprained ankle going into the match—followed suit, and what followed was arguably just as brutal. Intending to weaken the roof panels for the planned ‘hanging’ spot, the Undertaker picked Mankind up by his throat and ‘choke slammed’ him onto a steel chair that Mankind had brought up with him. The impact broke the last of the cable ties, sending Mankind plummeting down onto the chair, striking him in the face and knocking a tooth out into his nose.
This wasn’t the end of the match. Insisting on continuing despite nearly dying twice, Mankind got in some offense on the Undertaker and retrieved a bag of drawing pins (thumbtacks in American parlance) from under the ring, intending to slam the Undertaker down onto them. The Undertaker reversed the move, and ultimately choke slammed Mankind down onto the pins, dozens of which were driven into his back. The match finally ended after just under 18 minutes with a standing ovation, and an almighty boost to Mankind’s career—at least until injuries forced him to retire from active competition four years later.
The Undertaker catches fire
Undertaker Caught Fire On The Way To The Ring
The Deadman got off lightly in that match, but he’s also been through his share of scrapes. Perhaps the most notorious—and dangerous—incident occurred in 2010 at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. As part of his entrance at the time, large columns of fire would shoot up as he appeared on stage in his customary leather gear. After a previous entrance came a bit too close to signing him, he had a word with the pyrotechnician, who promised it wouldn’t happen again.
It did. The blast at the big event set Undertaker’s jacket and hat on fire, which he quickly dispensed with while striding down the ramp and trying to stay in character. Dousing himself with a bottle of water, he went on to wrestle the whole match, despite seeing the skin bubbling up on his chest. It was only when seeking further treatment backstage that the adrenaline faded, and it became clear that he’d suffered first and second-degree burns. The pyrotechnician was quickly fired, and the incident (from a safety perspective) was largely swept under the rug.
The Mass Transit incident
The Real Story of the Mass Transit Incident – Wrestling True Crime
One of the most infamous incidents in wrestling history happened outside of the bounds of WWE in a promotion that would go on to inspire it. The Mass Transit incident was named after the wrestler of the same name, a teenage rookie whose first match would also be his last. While he survived the incident, the impact on him and his family would be substantial, and a wrestler involved would be tried for attempted murder.
ECW was a hardcore promotion in the 1990s, a style of wrestling with few rules, where extreme violence and the use of outside objects are encouraged. This raw, gritty, and bloody style of wrestling took off in the 90s, and many draw a direct link from ECW to the then-WWF’s Attitude era, the height of its historic popularity. The Mass Transit incident would highlight the pitfalls of this style, and the aggression and lack of control it encouraged.
Mass Transit was booked to fill in for the tag team partner of D-Von Dudley in a match against The Gangsters, consisting of Mustafa Saed and New Jack. Famous for their array of weapons—and for the song ‘Natural Born Killaz’ playing throughout their matches—they also had a notoriously intense wrestling character in New Jack. According to D-Von, Mass Transit had proposed ideas to New Jack ahead of the match, something which—along with the decision to book an inexperienced 17-year-old against him—may have contributed to what happened next.
The teenager and New Jack had apparently agreed that the latter would ‘blade’ Mass Transit during the match, where a wrestler is surreptitiously cut so that they start bleeding, adding drama to the match. When the time for the blading came, New Jack cut Mass Transit so deep on his forehead that he ruptured two arteries. The match continued while Mass Transit bled profusely, despite the protestations of his father at ringside. After continuing to lay into him—including a jumping chair shot directly into Mass Transit’s face—New Jack launched into a promo directly at Mass Transit’s father, including the line “I don’t care if the motherf***er dies!”.
While police and ambulance crews would bring a final halt to the match, this was far from the end of the story. That line and the rest of the promo caught the attention of prosecutors, who later charged New Jack with assault and battery. After arguing that this was said in character and the deep cut was merely accidental, New Jack was eventually acquitted, but his career prospects were severely affected. When ECW was bought out by WWF, New Jack didn’t follow, and he would wrestle on the independent scene until his death in 2021.