Wrestling injuries that altered wrestling as we know it.
 

With Ziggler getting injured and now being out of Extreme Rules, it got me thinking of what injuries change the entire scope of the WWE or wrestling for that matter.

Obviously Stone Cold comes to mind.

What others can you guys think of?

Kennedy's injury when he had the MITB case made a pretty big impression on things. Edge ended up taking the case, winning the title from Taker and going from Raw to Smackdown to be a top guy over there. Could have impacted a lot of guys' careers.

Yeah. Kennedy was being set up to be a huge star at that time. I think Edge still would've made his way over to Smackdown though and still have had a similar career.

Magnum TA's auto accident

Guess not an injury but illness for Andre. Would WM 3 happened? Would the torch have been passed to Hogan? There's a change that would have altered wrestling a little bit.

The only acceptable answer.

/thread.

Magnum TA is a great example

Kane being burned as a child hindered his career, forcing him to wear a mask for much of his early career.

Obviously Shawn Michaels' back injury. If you want to call what happened to Owen an "injury," well things would certainly have been different with him in the picture. Also 2001 would have gone a good bit differently if HHH and Benoit hadn't fallen out of the picture due to injury. I don't think you have Jericho as the first Undisputed Champion with HHH around; no not because of the "I BURRY U" shit, just because the booking would have been a lot different through the Invasion.

Also, Goldberg's hand injury when the dumbass put his hand through the car window.

Bret Hart could still go when he got kicked in the face by Goldberg, but who knows with what WCW was doing at the time.

Shawn Michaels' back injury against Undertaker. How different would the peak of the Attitude Era have been with HBK in the mix with Austin and Rock?

Fuck Michaels may not have agreed to drop the belt to Austin without the injury.

If I remember correctly, I believe it was Jim Cornette who said Undertaker sat at Gorilla position for that match to ensure that Shawn dropped the belt to Austin. And I would not be surprised if Vince didn't have Taker do that, even though Shawn was the golden boy, Taker was more respected by the roster and management.

True, but at that point it had at least been agreed to. With the high-level asshole that Shawn was in those days, he might have lost another smile months before. I've always felt that Shawn's injury really made him play ball more than he was willing to in those days./

Also, God I wish we had a picture of that. I would love to have a shot of him sitting there with this "I'm going to kill that little fucker if he doesn't go through with this" aura surrounding him.

And actually part of me almost wishes Shawn had refused, kind of the same way I wish Cena had won and the riot had happened. The story of the Undertaker ripping Shawn Michaels to pieces after his refusal to do the job for Austin would have been epic, just like seeing the ECW crowd rip the building down around them would have been legendary.

Chris Benoit's BowFlex accident

Triple H in 2001

THE BOWFLEX
cause I'm taking you with me

Think he was also being teased as being a illegitimate "son" of Mr McMahon around the same time which was quickly dropped in favor of Hornswoggle being involved.

Had the WWE waited a bit and not panicked, he'd probably would have kept his MitB case and just cash it in at a future date.

Droz.

I remember hearing he was planned to be the illegitimate son but then he got busted in that steroid scandal and it nixed his involvement with the angle.

Somehow I always keep thinking that happened right after hie lost the case and forget that he was actually away from tv till later in the year.

Brutus Beefcake's para-sailing accident was pretty big for the old school WWF. Beefcake was probably a top 3 face at the time. Probably could have at least had the IC strap which was pretty much the only belt for grabs anyway during the Hogan era.

It seemed like Beefcake could have rode the comeback story to a pretty nice push when he came back with the mask. Not sure what happened.

Owens piledriver on Stone Cold- Austin became even more popular after it

I can't imagine where Jerry Lawler would be had it not been for his near fatal heart attack.

Nash, throughout his career

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Edge's ankle injury. He was set for a run for an awesome tag team with Jericho, and my mark soul weeps for the missed promos and matches. JeriShow was fun, but Edge & Jericho would have been a match made in heaven.

And of course, his neck injury that forced his early retirement. That one stings too.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j2A8qjjese...n2_300x300.jpg

All of them. Every single injury he's had.

Upon reading these it is incredible to think what Mick Foley did to himself and accomplished from '98-early '00.

To be fair, "the direction" they were going in had Ed Ferrara featured at Starrcade and no Ric Flair :-\


To the question at hand, I'd say Ric Flair's back injury might be an injury that changed wrestling for the better.

Batista relinquished the WHC due to injury (maybe twice). Without that, Angle/Khali wouldn't have had their reigns.