Are there too many stars being injured in WWE?

[Radical]

Just reading the article on the front page about how Erick Rowan is now injured long term with a torn bicep, gone for 4 months at least, maybe more if surgery is required. He was injured at a Live event.

Add to the list Daniel Bryan, Jey Uso, Rusev, Tyson Kidd, Sami Zayn, Hideo Itami, and Alex Riley. Most of those are also long term injuries. These guys are all younger than 35 and many were in decent and promising feuds and pushes before they got injured.

I know wrestling isn't ballet and injuries are a part of it but isn't there a point where if many important stars get injured long term that WWE should think about lightening up their grueling schedule a little bit? Or do you think this is all part of the risk and reward of the job? And that if someone gets injured long term it just means there is a spot for someone else to fill and that's just the breaks that happen?

I personally wish WWE would consider doing either a lighter schedule of live events and/or grant more, let's call it: 'recovery leave' in alternating fashion for its stars to get time off to rest and recover without concern about losing their spot.

The 'recovery leave' might be a little easier for WWE to start implementing because I know WWE doesn't want to cut back on the valuable revenue from weekly live events but live events already come with a disclaimer that 'card is subject to change' so granting talent some time off for a few weeks worth of live events shouldn't be that big of a deal. It probably sucks for the Champions though but something could still be worked out.

I would suggest that basically every year talent get 2 or 3 months where they aren't booked at any live events. Typically, these days, talent will have to wrestle on Raw or SmackDown plus Main Event or Superstars at least and then also do live events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With 'recovery leave' talent would get two months where they don't have to do that and that gives them 5 days off a week for about a month. Obviously, if they are in a PPV then they'll have to work the Sunday PPV but at least they can have some time to recover.

I know that injuries can happen at any time but I believe many of the current stars out with injuries got injured at live events. I guess you would have to ask a WWE star or former star willing to be honest that if having some more time off to recover between shows would benefit them or not.

What do you guys think?

Should WWE try to do something for their talent to help decrease their chance of injury from the grueling schedule?

Is getting injured at bad times just part of the risk of being a pro wrestler?

 

[rbv13]

This discussion came up a few weeks ago. The frequency of news/updates makes this "injury bug" seem like much more of an issue than it really is. Currently the E has ninety-three performers who regularly partake in physical interaction with one another. Of those ninety-three there are nine with significant injuries.

 

[wrestler36]

I think injury bugs come and go and that's not anything out of the ordinary. I remember this discussion on the forums a few weeks back too. I think one remedy to cut down on bumps would be to have a lot of tag matches on the house shows. An example would be Reigns and Ambrose tagging. One day Ambrose does the brunt of the work and Reigns tags in to hit his big moves to appease the crowd. Then switch it the next day so that Reigns is doing most of the work. If done well, the crowd is happy and the wrestlers literally cut the bumps they take on the road in half.

 

[Mustang Sally]

The frequency of news/updates makes this "injury bug" seem like much more of an issue than it really is.

Plus, these things often run in cycles; a bunch of people will get hurt and we naturally look for ways to prevent some of it, speaking as if half the personnel are out. But I've recalled other times when it seemed the whole roster was available for work and I wondered how they were going to find stuff to do for them all.

Because of the Internet, we talk about Daniel Bryan as if his injury just occurred, yet he's been out since mid-April. I can see the point about giving the talent some of the house shows off to lessen the grueling schedule. But one way or the other, this is the nature of the business and I don't know that it's any worse now than at other times.

 

[Just Do It]

There will always be injuries in wrestling sadly. Just the nature of the beast :-(

I think kicking house shows would limit the number of injuries.

 

[Messiah]

There will always be injuries in wrestling sadly. Just the nature of the beast :-(

I think kicking house shows would limit the number of injuries.

They make a lot of money doing house shows and it cost very little to put on, they're not getting rid of those... As long as they can make as much money as they can, that's all that matters. Injuries don't matter as long as money keeps rolling in.

 

[Navi]

This discussion came up a few weeks ago. The frequency of news/updates makes this "injury bug" seem like much more of an issue than it really is. Currently the E has ninety-three performers who regularly partake in physical interaction with one another. Of those ninety-three there are nine with significant injuries.

I agree with what the OP says, there should be some sort of rest period for these guys. But I see what the quoted poster is saying.

However, in saying that, in the case of Daniel Bryan and perhaps Tyson Kidd, their injuries might actually be career ending for them. And having two of them happen in the space of two months can't be ignored.

I've been banging on for a long time about time off, especially for those involved in major story lines on RAW and SD. If there are ninety three performers, then that is more than enough to cover house shows, and to let some of the bigger names who perform on TV have a break.

They can take turns doing the Live circuit and the others can have time off to recover. If a wrestler has a nagging injury then the most sensible thing to do is let them stay home to get over it. It's been reported many times that Cena works hurt, there is no need for that. The human body can only take so much abuse before it says enough is enough, no matter how good shape your in. Just travelling back and forth has to take it out of you as well.

There will always be injuries in wrestling sadly. Just the nature of the beast :-(

I think kicking house shows would limit the number of injuries.

It might limit the amount of injuries, but a lot of the injuries the OP talked about happened on RAW and SD. Rowan's injury is the first time I've heard of a major injury happening at one, since forever.

And ask fans who live in cities that only get house shows if they don't want to see them. I live in Toronto, and for the the past couple of years, that's all we've got. We haven't had a RAW, SD or PPV in God knows how long. We do get house shows every 3-4 months, but that's it. We're classified by the WWE as an "A" city, but RAW goes to Montreal now and SD to Ottawa.

 

[SJ5522]

It's like saying there's too many injuries in Arsenal Football Club. You can analyze things all you want, but they have some of fitness equipment on the planet - at the end of the day, it's just pot luck.
Now is just seeming worse because the Intercontinental champ had to step down, and the tag team division has been shook by Kidd and Rowan

All the WWE could do is have a rest month (probably December) and that could help a lot for morale and freshness, but not necessarily injuries. Workers gonna get hurt, I'm afraid

 

[therockiswwf]

As a guy who has been injured for almost 5 years straight now (leg and arm injuries), there are two different ways injuries in sports happen. One is bad luck. The other is through stupidity. I was a very physical soccer player and thought well eventually my style is going to catch up with me. Turns out that it wasn't my style that got me injured, it was bad luck and stupidity.

I tore my ACL off a guy falling onto my knee at a weird angle. The screw from my ACL surgery got knocked loose in basically the same fashion. So those types of injuries are just gonna happen. That's bad luck and nothing can be done to prevent that.

The injuries I still have though are the ones where I overused my body. I noticed stuff not feeling right and not wanting to miss more time in soccer, I decided I'll play through it (at the time I thought I was being tough, looking back I realize I was being a dumbass). These are the stupid type of injuries. These are also where the preventable injuries are.

WWE needs to have a rotating in ring house show schedule. Notice I said in ring. Instead of matches, have guys do talking segments if you don't want to keep them off the show. Jericho said he once did a long house show run where all he did was talk with Austin and eventually take one stunner. He said his body felt great during that run.

That's exactly what they need to do. The stupid injuries can be lessened this way. By putting guys constantly on house shows, they will work through stuff they shouldn't. By having them do less physical house shows, that should result in guys not getting to a point where you have to constantly work through stuff.

There is another reason why this would help. There's an unfortunate notion that if you don't work through injuries, you're a pussy. That is turned up to 10 in WWE. It's so beat into our society's head, that measures have to be put in place to help in order to protect guys from themselves. WWE needs to do this. Banning chair shots to the head, blood and stuff like piledrivers are only a start. They have to force guys to rest otherwise they will continue to be 'tough' and hurt themselves even more.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I can see Neville getting hurt with his move set. One wrong twist in mid air and clonk ! The guy contorts in mid air unlike any wrestler I've seen, I hurt my hip just watching the replay.

 

[MVP#1]

I don't know if it is possible, but I was thinking maybe half the performers perform first half year or like first three months then 3 months off and only come in to the shows as needed , that would lessen their work load and make it seem not as bad. Injuries are sad part of the business though and no matter what you do there are always going to be injuries. Plus injuries happen it other sports too, albeit not as bad as pro wrestling.

 

[scsaking]

They are weaker today.

Mentally and pshycial.

[/IMG]

 

[SJ5522]

They are weaker today.

Mentally and pshycial.

[/IMG]

Great Macho Meme Bro.

Fun game: which one of these can't dress themselves in the morning because of the constant pain their body is in: Foley or Punk?