5 times wrestling got too real
WWE Superstars are highly trained professionals who know how to perform moves in the ring better than anyone else. However, at times, things don’t go as planned, and certain Superstars get carried away.
While fans have watched many extreme matches take place in WWE over the years, some matches have crossed the limits. Certain WWE Superstars have gone overboard with their moves or tried to teach their opponents a lesson in the ring.
Keeping in mind how WWE Superstars have legitimately attacked each other in the ring for various reasons, let’s take a look at five such instances that shocked the WWE Universe.
#5 JBL attacked up The Blue Meanie in WWE ECW
WWE’s ECW was home to some extreme matches and even more extreme WWE Superstars. The Blue Meanie was one Superstar who had his initial run in ECW as part of The Blue World Order in 1995.
The Blue Meanie made his return to WWE’s ECW and participated at the One Night Stand pay-per-view in June 2005. The Superstar managed to make headlines for all the wrong reasons following the event, as JBL legitimately injured him.
The attack from JBL was apparently the result of some trash talking he believed The Blue Meanie had taken part in online. This led to some heat between the two men, but WWE did not punish JBL for his actions.
Speaking on Hannibal TV, The Blue Meanie spoke about the incident and revealed that the two men had buried the hatchet and made up after the incident.
“It’s an unfortunate thing that happened because I’ve always been a fan of JBL – I’m gonna preface this by noting we’ve made up and let bygones be bygones. We’re actually friendly now – When you’re on the road and everything happens, times get tense. I saw him as doing things that could’ve been perceived as being a bully. I voiced that. When it came to One Night Stand he took exception to it and it came to a point where we threw some [shoot punches] at each other inside the ring. It was an ugly incident, we both wish it never happened, but it’s one of those things we’ll be married to each other with for a long time. People always see the big headline ‘Big Fight,’ but they never see the retraction where oh they made up. JBL is cool, I’m cool with him, he’s cool with me.”
Thankfully, The Blue Meanie was able to make a full recovery following the beat down from the former WWE Champion. He had a short rivalry against JBL following the incident, after which he made his way to the independent circuit.
#4 WWE Superstar Braun Strowman took some stiff punches from former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar
Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar are two of the most dominant forces in WWE. The two WWE Superstars locked horns during the 2018 Royal Rumble where they had a big WWE Universal Championship match with Kane involved.
Strowman hit Lesnar with a stiff knee to the head, and The Beast did not take the move too nicely. He responded by legitimately punching Strowman in the torso and face before shutting down The Monster Among Men.
talkSPORT caught up with Strowman to talk about the tension backstage following the incident and the match.
“We laughed about it afterwards,” Strowman started. “It is what it is. We got to the back and I said ‘Hey, my bad,’ he said the same thing and we went about our business. We’re both grown ups, we both knew what we were getting into and at the end of the day, we’re both very dominant males and neither of us wanted to give in an inch, so in the end we took an inch from each other.”
While Strowman is one of the biggest WWE Superstars in the company today, Lesnar managed to tame him in an instant by delivering a couple of legitimate strikes. Thankfully, both men left their issues in the ring and solved things backstage.
#3 Former WWE Champion Randy Orton was busted open by WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar
WWE SummerSlam 2016 was a massive event. It was the night where Finn Balor became the inaugural WWE Universal Champion after a great match against Seth Rollins. However, the match did not headline the event. It was the match between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton that had people talking during and after the show.
The two WWE Superstars competed for almost 11 minutes, after which The Beast decided to do something no one was expecting. Lesnar and Orton decided to ‘add a little color’ to the match, and Lesnar elbowed Orton’s head until he opened it up.
This was one of the most brutal ways The Beast could have done so. He legitimately left Orton lying badly, and even Shane McMahon and Chris Jericho showed legitimate concern for the WWE Superstar.
Orton spoke about the incident later on and he was not happy with how Lesnar ended the match.
“I think with Lesnar, it’s always going to be him coming in every few months as a monster who destroys guys who work 200 days a year … There is a tendency for that to get old. I could have looked a little better that night and that would have helped me a lot regardless of the finish and not hurt Brock’s character at all. But the fact that you’re asking me about it three-four months later, means we created a buzz. But the fact that I had a concussion and was out for three weeks and wasn’t able to do anything p***ed me off. We say this a lot in the back when someone gets hit harder than intended, we knew what we were signing up for. It’s a rough sport. It’s a rough business and very physical. A few more people need to respect how things can go sour out there.”
The WWE Superstar was shelved for a few weeks after the match ended in a TKO. The Viper took some much needed time to rethink and regroup.
#2 WWE Superstar The Undertaker took a shoot attack from wrestling legend Bruiser Brody in his first match
The Undertaker will forever be known as one of the most legendary sports entertainers and WWE Superstars of all time. While fans will remember several great matches from The Undertaker, the legendary WWE Superstar remembers his first match as a wrestler very clearly.
Undertaker spoke on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast recently and gave full details regarding his first wrestling match against Bruiser Brody. During the conversation, The Phenom opened up about getting legitimately attacked by Brody after he accidentally struck him in the face with the palm of his hand.
"The temperature in the room changed a little bit at that moment. So we tie up again, I’m about to shoot him across the ring. I’m yelling, I’m gonna hit him with a clothesline. So as I [throw Bruiser Brody] I’m like, ‘Clothesline!’ He comes off the ropes like a bullet, like a six-foot-five, 300-pound bullet, and he kicks me square in my f***ing jaw.”
Undertaker claimed that his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and Brody threw him out of the ring afterward. He then hit him with a folding chair as hard as he could:
“I deserved it. He was giving me a lesson that I needed to learn. Anyway, a couple of minutes later, boom, he pins me, and that was it.”
While Taker could have held a grudge against the future Hall of Famer, he decided to take it as a lesson and it helped him improve his game, eventually becoming a WWE Superstar and a legend in his own right.
#1 WWE Superstars The Rock and Mick Foley had a brutal encounter in 1999
Who swings a steel chair the hardest in WWE? Well, that’s one question you can ask former WWE Superstar Mick Foley.
At the 1999 WWE Royal Rumble, Foley and The Rock faced off in an ‘I Quit’ match with the WWE Championship on the line. Foley is known to take things beyond the limit, and that’s exactly what happened during this particular match.
During the match, The Rock hit Foley 11 times with the steel chair. Foley’s hands were handcuffed behind his back, and he could do nothing to stop the WWE Superstar overwhelming him.
Bruce Prichard later revealed that the match was extremely violent and it became hard to watch.
"Not just difficult to watch now, it was difficult to watch back then. It was something you were like, 'Okay, I've seen it.' Enough is enough and move on. Nothing will prepare you for that. It was just a testament to the toughness of Mick Foley and that's not always good."
That’s not all, as Prichard further claimed that the WWE Superstars might have discussed the spot ahead of time, but The Rock got carried away to sell the emotions in the match.
"I know for a fact. I know Rock - I don't even think they could convince me. Rock couldn't convince me that he wanted to take his head off; I just couldn't believe it. There was a lot of respect and admiration between the two and both were professionals. They did discuss it ahead of time and did have an idea of how brutal it would be. Sometimes it's just worse in real life, folks, and people get carried away trying to paint a picture."
The match lasted over 20 minutes, and The Rock was able to defeat Foley. The tough-as-nails WWE Superstar was able to return to the ring once again after taking such a beating.