Which current wrestler could become a "Wrestling tragedy"?

[Blade]

Over the last few decades of wrestling, there have been stories about wrestlers who were stars and destined for greatness or had already achieved it, but due to something in their profession or personal lives, it ended in tragedy.
From the Von Erichs and Magnum TA to the Dynamite Kid and Chris Benoit, these stories involve drugs, suicide, murder and career ending injuries. But since the death of Benoit and his family, there hasn't been a major wrestling tragedy. There have been deaths, like that of Andrew "Test" Martin, but nothing to truly make you feel sad.

So which current wrestler could end up as a wrestling tragedy? A wrestler who has so much potential or talent but could ultimately have a sad ending to their story?

Looking over the current wrestlers out there now, Kurt Angle would be the obvious choice.... But it never seems to happen to the obvious choices.
That's why my mind starts to think Randy Orton. The guy has had issues professionally, as we all know. He's had anger issues and he's been accused of sexual harassment. He's had drug issues, both in prescription drugs and recreational drugs. And reports say that he has a pretty big ego. While people say he's got his act together, I have a weird feeling that he has problems in his personal life too.
So unless he has seriously changed his ways, I think Orton could end up in a bad way.

What do you guys think? What wrestlers are heading down a bad road?

 

[NSL]

Excellent thread, Blade

I'd agree on Orton. He's been a headcase for a long time, and it's really hard to believe that everything going on lately is all in character. He's been suspended before, and who really knows what happened with the "accident" he had while recovering.

I'm going to go down the road of Captain Obvious though, and say Jeff Hardy. He's had way too many issues with drugs, and is a train wreck waiting to happen. Matt may think he's getting better, but that's what brothers do. One day, hopefully not soon, we're going to read about Jeff overdosing, perhaps for the last time.

 

[Billie Jean]

Over the last few decades of wrestling, there have been stories about wrestlers who were stars and destined for greatness or had already achieved it, but due to something in their profession or personal lives, it ended in tragedy.
From the Von Erichs and Magnum TA to the Dynamite Kid and Chris Benoit, these stories involve drugs, suicide, murder and career ending injuries. But since the death of Benoit and his family, there hasn't been a major wrestling tragedy. There have been deaths, like that of Andrew "Test" Martin, but nothing to truly make you feel sad.

So which current wrestler could end up as a wrestling tragedy? A wrestler who has so much potential or talent but could ultimately have a sad ending to their story?

Looking over the current wrestlers out there now, Kurt Angle would be the obvious choice.... But it never seems to happen to the obvious choices.
That's why my mind starts to think Randy Orton. The guy has had issues professionally, as we all know. He's had anger issues and he's been accused of sexual harassment. He's had drug issues, both in prescription drugs and recreational drugs. And reports say that he has a pretty big ego. While people say he's got his act together, I have a weird feeling that he has problems in his personal life too.
So unless he has seriously changed his ways, I think Orton could end up in a bad way.

What do you guys think? What wrestlers are heading down a bad road?

Yeah there are many, many options that are just to be discovered. On some basic it depends on what the wrestler is like off TV, or in other case they could just snap. If we were to go with backstage stories through all of the years, none of us would have thought that Chris Benoit would have been the kind of person to snap. but it happened. There could be many, many possibilities for this question, but I will narrow it down to three.

Kurt Angle-

Like NightShiftLoser said about Jeff Hardy, this guy is a train wreck waiting to happen. He has had numerous drug problems throughout the years and has had so many legal issues and controversy surrounding him. He has been accused of being a stalker, a pervert and just a horrible human being. This is a man that had all the potential in the world. Sure, he became big, but imagine how huge he relay could have been if not for his personal issues. It is a real shame. From an Olympic hero to what he is now. It is just not right.

Jeff Hardy

Again, a train wreck waiting to happen. The drug problems, the suspensions, and for a lot of his life, the in ability to face up to the fact that he had problems and do something. In 2003 he lost his job, in 2006 drugs lost his job. He rode, somehow, back to the top of th Mountie and is now facing a conviction for drug dealing. Over the past decade, he went from being one of the WWE's brightest young stars, to be in one hell of a pickle.

Hulk Hogan

He went from being the hulkster, the greatest ever, having everything. He had his own TV show, he had money, family. What went wrong? His son is a convicted felon, he got divorced and had considered suicide. I think that if he had went through with it he would have been wrestlings greatest tragedy. I think it is not out of the window. The guy is still a train wreck waiting to happen and with his latest signing with TNA, it just makes one think that it will eventually just get too much for the Hulkster.

This is my three picks, they may not be correct, but I think they are pretty decent.

 

[Spaceman Spif]

I'd have to say Jeff Hardy, I just know one of these days and likely in the near future I'll click on WZ and see a headline stating, "Jeff Hardy found dead at his home...". He's just a tradegy waiting to happen. He's screwed up and instead of getting him help, his friends and family are just trying to cover things up and coddle him, which is not good at all. Jeff Jardy sadly, will be the next death in wrestling.

 

[Freddy4190]

Sean Waltman would be my pick. The man stays fucked up on drugs constantly, he's making Jeff look sober. He tried to commit suicide in Mexico didn't he? It's not like he has alot going on for his career. Working in Mexico can only bring in so much cash. I'm going with Angle next. The man is on the same path as Benoit. He's losing his damn mind, what with all these stalking reports and all these demons and shit coming out of the closet. It's crazy.

 

[Leafy]

I'm going to say Chavo, if people find out he killed all those people he would be in quite a pickle.

All Chavo jokes aside, I'm going to go with Jeff Hardy. He was the world champion, finally broke the glass ceiling, biggest star in the company, had an amazing feud with Punk, and he threw it down the toilet. Something he couldn't throw down the toilet was all those drugs I haven't been following the Hardy story so I don't know if he's out of this altercation but I would already consider him a wrestling tragedy.

 

[Kanye South]

Hardy, Orton, Angle, or Hogan.

Jeff Hardy is a crazy man. No matter how many times they have ruined his life, he always goes back to drugs. Cocaine, marijuana, heroin, etc. Hardy just doesn't know when to quit and one of these days he'll realize it and it will be too late.

Randy Orton is insane. He yells at interviewers, sexually harasses people, and likes drugs. One of these days he's going to do something very immature, and will likely end up in jail. Until we find out what's going through this guys head, he's a penis of unpredictability waiting to cum.

Kurt Angle is constantly on drugs, and does not know when to hang up the boots. I love seeing him wrestle, and in TNA right now, he is great as a face. But only he knows when he can't take the wrestling business anymore and if he ignores that part of his body that tells him to retire, then his death will be no one's fault but his own.

Hulk Hogan is my last choice because he will likely be wrestling until he's 80,323,234,323,393 years old. He's entertaining, but needs to stay out of the ring. He would be great as an onscreen character though. But knowing Hogan, that won't happen. And with him in TNA, the land of gimmick matches, it seems very likely that Hogan will die in the ring.

 

[PEP3]

What strikes me about this thread is how so many of the names listed in the example post have found their undoing at their own hands -- but one stands out as very different: Magnum T.A. While it's been widely reported that his career-ending accident was the result of his own penchant for excessive driving speeds and being under the influence, it's still a little different than the rest in that one can never really anticipate an accident of this nature.

What that says to me is that it's entirely possible none of us will see the next great wrestling tragedy coming.

People are all speculating that it might be Jeff Hardy, who had the world on a platter and gave it up only to be embroiled in extensive, drug-related issues weeks later. Others have suggested Sean Waltman, a man whose star is already faded beyond recognition, a performer who should he actually die as the result of his excesses has already been largely forgotten by the masses. A fair number have brought to the forefront Randy Orton, a young man whose career has been mildly colored by drugs, both prescription and elicit, legal issues and a bad attitude.

My suggestion is that the difference between a tragedy -- like Andrew "Test" Martin passing to little fanfare -- and "the next great wrestling tragedy/scandal" is the degree to which people care about the performer and how unexpected the event is. To that end, if my theory holds true, it's almost impossible to guess who that next, immeasurable loss will be.

Nobody saw Eddie Guerrero's death coming. Brian Pillman caught us all off-guard. Even those closest to him could never imagine what Chris Benoit was capable of doing. Despite his track record, Kerry Von Erich's suicide -- given his family history -- was still out of left field.

All I know is that, more so than any other sport, pro wrestling has a greater per capita incident rate of such tragedies, untimely deaths and bitter ends to some great tales of success and achievement. And, in a true testament to the kind of adrenaline junkies who watch it, somehow, some way, in the back of our twisted minds, we almost get off on that fact.

That might be the real-life, biggest pro wrestling tragedy of all.

 

[Schoolboy-Chris]

It is definitely difficult to say, as many of the past wrestling tragedies have taken us all by surprise in the past. The four that do come to mind are definitely the aforementioned Angle, Hardy, Orton and Hogan – out of these four Orton seems the most likely to sort himself out. Orton is still young and most of his past mistakes came when he was a good bit younger and success may have gone to his head, now that he is in a more responsible role in the company he may have seen the error of his ways.

Another name that comes to mind for some reason is the Undertaker, I don’t see him dying but I think it’s a very real possibility that he could end up paralysed or injured beyond recovery. He seems to be in a very fragile condition at the moment but this has not stopped him becoming champion and wrestling intense match’s day in, day out. He has a history of nagging injuries and I hope for his sake that he retires soon, otherwise I can genuinely see him burning himself out and going past the point of no return to either paralysis or some other irreversible injury.

Angle is the one that I would worry about the most however, from the way he has pushed himself through his whole career, even through injuries. The stories of his drug use and unhealed injuries do make me fear for his life sometimes, especially when I see him utilise the occasional high risk moves that he refuses to abandon. People everywhere have an eye out for Angle doing something to his body that he cannot recover from, but he seems to have no one to tell to put on the brakes sometimes. Angle seems determined to wrestle himself to death, and unless people important to him step forward to help him I fear that this will be his fate.

 

[Pathogen]

Surely Jeff Hardy? The guy's being prosecuted fo drug trafficking, has zero wrestling talent whatsoever (though is very good at falling off high things), and clearly has a monumental ego.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I don't think there'll ever be anything as bad as Benoit again. I don't think it could get any worse than killing a young child with, reportedly, a move that's been used in the ring by the wrestler. A murder/suicide won't happen again for along time. However, as for a future tragedy, I cannot see Hogan dying a natural death. Something about him screams 'tragedy'; and it really would be. The wrestling world would go into shock if anything horrible happened to Hogan as a result of drug abuse, either now, or as a side-effect of past use, or even as an injury in the ring - he's not the young man he used to be.

 

[Alex]

I knew Jeff Hardy's name would be mentioned, ah well, unfortunatly I do see him as a wrestling tragedy waiting to happen, I'd also like to add a few other names as well.

Scott Hall-the guy is an alcaholic who needs help or he will drink himself to death.

Vince McMachon-yes the guy is working himself to hard for a 60 plus man he needs to tune down his work load or he will kill himself with the stress

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

The first two names that popped in my head when I seen this thread were two people. Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy. Both have a history of abusing pain medications, and abusing their bodies. A tell tale sign of a potential tragedy that could happen.

The majority of wrestlers who died early were due to connections with prescription medications. Rick Rude, Brian Pillman, Curt Hennig, and Ray Traylor (Big Boss Man), all had connections to previous drug abuse or current drug abuse at the time of their deaths.

If Kurt Angle or Jeff Hardy don't straighten up, they could BOTH end up tragedies. And I'd hate to see that.

 

[RavensFlock1990]

Surely Jeff Hardy? The guy's being prosecuted fo drug trafficking, has zero wrestling talent whatsoever (though is very good at falling off high things), and clearly has a monumental ego.

Well obviously you have never watched a Jeff Hardy match. Go watch Judgement Day 2009 when he outwrestled IWC favorite Edge. You'd probably just deny it but anybody that knows what actual wrestling is knows Jeff did. But then again most Jeff Hardy haters are usually the same people who think Randy Orton actually has a moveset so IDK why I'm wastng my time.