5 times WWE matches were stopped prematurely

Tegan Nox after suffering a serious injury during the Mae Young Classic

Stepping into a WWE ring isn't as simple as what fans see when they watch it on TV. WWE Superstars put in hours and hours of work, and they put their bodies on the line each and every week.

Sadly, at times, things don't go according to plan, and matches have to be halted. Mainly, these stoppages are due to a serious injury suffered by one of the competitors. They are always heartbreaking to see, but most of the time, they are unavoidable because the risks are real.

That being said, let's take a look at five WWE matches that were prematurely stopped due to injury.

#5 Neville vs. Chris Jericho on WWE Monday Night RAW

During an episode of Raw on March 14, 2016, Neville would sustain a bad ankle injury, which forced @IAmJericho to improvise. To draw attention away from Neville's injury, Jericho remained calm and called an audible by pushing referee Charles Robinson and getting himself DQ'ed. pic.twitter.com/wSpKD8opaG
— The Signature Spot (@SignatureSpot) August 19, 2021

Back in March 2016, Chris Jericho squared off against Neville on WWE RAW. This clash was somewhat of a dream match, as both stars were well-travelled before they arrived in WWE.

Midway through the match, when Neville slid through Jericho's legs after bouncing off the ropes, he suffered an injury. He awkwardly rolled his ankle during this motion, and while he tried to continue the match, he struggled to remain on his feet.

#OnThisDay in 2016, Neville and Jericho competed on #Raw.

During the match, Neville snapped his ankle, forcing Jericho to improvise an ending to the match on the spot - pushing the referee and forcing a non-planned DQ.

Both Jericho and the referee have spoken about this since. pic.twitter.com/VSZ9i7oTRb
— Just Talk Wrestling (@JustTalkWrestle) March 14, 2019

Jericho, using his experience, improvised and rolled Neville up, hoping to pick up the impromptu win. But the WWE referee for the match, Charles Robinson, only counted two, so the match continued.

This decision seemingly frustrated Jericho, as he seemed legitimately angry when he shoved Robinson. The official then rang the bell to end the match by disqualification. Jericho continued to get in Robinson's after the match had concluded.

Chris Jericho discussed the incident with Charles Robinson on his Talk Is Jericho podcast:

"I get up and I’m like ‘this is really going south,'" said Jericho. "Because now people are going to start sniffing that something is wrong, so I push you… I’m thinking if I push you, you’ll DQ me. Because at least we’ll get a DQ."

"Because I”m thinking we have to get the spotlight off of Neville because I don’t want this to be an really awkward moment where there’s a guy down in the ring and the thing just kind of ends," Jericho continued. "I’m thinking ‘If I push Charles, and he DQs me… then I can still kept this rolling.’" (h/t Goliath)

In the end, this outcome was astute acting on Jericho and Robinson's behalf. Neville was out of action for four months before he returned to RAW in July that year.