Most Unfortunate Exits/Injuries of the Last 15 Years?

[S.J. Maximus]

I understand that all injuries are unfortunate. This business deals with alot of people getting injured and as a result, storylines have to be ended abruptly or altered to hide the injuries (or explain them) from the fans. Death is the ultimate unfortunate occurence and it's a true shame to see it happen. My question is, as a fan, what are 3 injuries/leaves/deaths that made you wonder the most where that storyline was going? What are 3 injuries/leaves deaths that made you miss that star the most and made you think the value of the industry as a whole decreased when they left? I know some popular answers will be HHH during the invasion storyline and HBK in 1998 but I'll list some more to jog people's memories


Owen breaks SCSA's neck - imagine if he never had to retire in 2003 or leave in 1999?
Edge's Broken neck - what if he didn't have to miss 2003? what if he didn't have to retire in 2011
Cena's injury in 2007 - orton would've really got over if he ended Cena's year-long reign in a match that year but Cena got hurt so Orton needed a 6-month reign to do it.
Kevin Nash's quad - tears it the day he returns, what was he supposed to do during his short-lived 02-03 run? How differently would the NWO have affected the WWE?
Triple H tears his quad 2007 - Would HBK have been in the main event of WM23? How DX have ended that year?
Eddie Guerrero Dies - where would Latino Heat be in 2011 if he was alive? Would Chavo have been released?
Chris Benoit Dies - he was booked to be ECW Champ, would he have saved it from being the absolute joke it was that year?
Owen Hart dies - rumor had it that he was supposed to be the game, how would that have effected HHH? Would Owen become a 13-time champ?
Randy Orton's collarbone - Orton was arguably the top heel in the WWE at the time but he lost a lot of steam. Would Legacy form sooner?
Undertaker's groin injury - how would Taker transition to the American Badass onscreen? How would he have affected WM2000?
Edge's achilles - if they remained champs would the titles still be meaningless today? how many funny promos did we miss?
Jeff Hardy leaves - He got the biggest pops in the summer of 2009, where would he be now if he never left the WWE?
Brock Lesnar leaves - He is still the youngest WWE Champ of all time, just imagine if he stayed in the company, would WWE have ever gone PG? would the ratings ever drop? How many world title reigns would he have by 2011?
Goldberg leaves - Goldberg/Austin, Goldberg/Undertaker, Goldberg/Cena, how many dream matches could we have seen if he didn't leave?
Chris Jericho leaves - he was only gone for 2 years but how could he have affected WM22 and WM23?
Bret Hart leaves - He was 40 years old but he still had a lot of value when he left. What would've happened if he chose WWF over WCW in 1997, when would he have retired?
Ultimate Warrior - came back and squashed HHH at WM12, how would he have fared against Bret, HBK, Vader, and more stars of the time?

 

[The Champ]

Eddie Guerrero's passing is far and away the biggest of them all. Not only because of his ongoing storyline with Batista, which I was definitely interested in and it's a shame that we never saw it's finish. But in the bigger picture, we lost a guy who could play pretty much any role asked of him and had everything necessary to be a success in professional wrestling. I'm not sure if he would still be wrestling or if he would have chosen to retire by now, but he certainly had at least 2-3 good years left in him at age 38. That was also around a time when a lot of people were leaving (Christian) or getting injured (Batista soon afterwards) and having Eddie around would have lessened a lot of those blows.

Edge's retirement also sucked because I was really enjoying his face run on SmackDown, where he was delivering consistently in the ring for the first time in a few months. I still think that some of the best matches of 2011 belong to him, and his match with Dolph at the Rumble in particular is a little gem that doesn't get the credit it deserves. The eventual feud between him and Christian would have certainly been something to see.

Cena's injury in 07 definitely fucked things up for Orton, or whoever would have won the championship from him. I would like to assume that the point of such a long reign was to really get someone over by ending it, but it went about one or two months too long and thus they fucked up that possibility. Of course they had no way of knowing that that would happen, but it was just another thing that fucked with Orton's ever struggling development before he turned into Superman 2.0.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Owen breaks SCSA's neck - imagine if he never had to retire in 2003 or leave in 1999?

That's the top one of the list. Austin was the biggest thing in pro wrestling, the guy who threw out the first pitch at baseball games and showed up on talk shows before that kind of thing was really being done. Every wrestling show revolved around his presence and the wrestling world just couldn't get enough of him..

Sure, you could point to Hogan as a bigger overall phenomenon, but there were important differences between Hogan and Austin, not the least of which was that Hogan was a cartoon character while Austin was the tough loner who marched resolutely through the federation, kicking asses. I thought he held more appeal for adults than Hogan ever did.

The timing of Austin's injury couldn't have been worse. He was at the height of his fame and if he had demanded $10 million a year from WWE when his contract was expiring, they just might have had to pay him. Instead, it all came crashing down with one pile-driver. Yes, Austin lingered on after the injury, but he was never again as physically capable and his desire for pro wrestling seemed to plummet as well. Finally, he couldn't do it anymore and quit. That there was apparent acrimony between him and the company made me wonder if McMahon was trying to get Austin to ignore the pain and continue on, thereby drawing a growing resentment from Austin.

I would have loved to know how long the Stone Cold phenomenon would have gone on if Owen hadn't been careless that night. What a shame for Austin, for WWE......and for us.

 

[RicoLen]

As soon as you include Owen in a thread like this, it becomes all about Owen, because Owen would have been the face of the company during the 2000's and would very possibly still be wrestling today at the age of 45. Without Owen's death, there is no Cena phenomenon, because you have your face to the WWE, it's Owen Hart.

To be honest though when I saw this thread title I was thinking there really wasn't more to talk about than Edge & MVP... Maybe I'm still half asleep this morning, because obviously there is a lot more.

Kevin Nash's return and subsequent injury really did suck. I started watching wrestling again because of his return (and Hogan & Hall). He gets a lot of s**t thrown on him much like Cena does that amounts to him being responsible for what went wrong because he was there. Nash is a smart man, and a great entertainer, I watched during his WWE championship reign and he was good, it was the rest of the product in the WWE that was bad, minus HBK & the Harts. I didn't even like Taker or Sid during that time.

Nash could have been great in his return to the WWE because the WWE knew how to use him, and he had the talent to pull off what he tried to do. Hell, he even made the fingerpoke of doom look good at first. I laughed hard when I saw that happen, it wasn't until later after the show that I kinda went "that actually kinda sucked."

His torn quad sealed the coffin for the nWo in the WWF and with it countless great storylines they could have gone with.

 

[ilneval]

First Time Posting. Probably I'll do some grammatical mistakes, so I apologize now.

Top list for me, it's by far Eddie Guerrero death. Just a great Worker, with a lot of charisma, and very good ring qualities.Probably now, he should feud Del Rio,a feud Dream. I think If he was still alive,maybe Benoit should be to.

Second choice, Chris Benoit. By far, My farovite wrestler. He could deliver a 5 star match even with a dog. Just dreaming about Benoit vs Bryan Danielson, amazing.

Third choice, Edge retirement, I was enjoying this last face run, with a lot of great maches and waiting the feud versus Christian.

 

[The Perfect Max]

Austin said last year his neck was finally back to good. That means it took 11 years to heal. Shame, cos I do believe if he wasn't injured he would still be wrestling today. That is just my opinion. He says he wants another fight, I say give it to them. You have to remember, though, that even though he retired in 2003 he didn't leave. In fact he has still been working with them since. Tough Enough, Hall of Fame, Ambassador, Sheriff of Raw. If he hadn't been injured, these things wouldn't have happened. Plus it didn't help the WWF at the time when he was THE man, and when THE man gets injured, your in shit street.

God damn it Orton. When you rKo'ed Cena couldn't you have done it harder? Just a tad? He may have decided to leave his career to rest and embark on something else. Oh well. At least when he was injured you still had main eventers like Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge, Chris Jericho, Batista, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and up and coming main eventers like Mr Kennedy, MVP, Jeff Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, The Miz and even, dare I say it, Umaga.

He wasn't missed like Austin was. But, you still had guys like The Rock, Triple H, eh The Big Show, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Kane and The Undertaker to carry the company. But, Cena is no Austin.

Other things like Eddie's death put a hole in the company for a while, so did Benoit, not that I respect the guy anymore. Edge's retirement couldn't have come at a worse time, really and neither could Triple H and Undertakers absense last year. But, WWE are good at what they do. If someones gone they'll get a replacement. It is shame, though, that it takes a death or an injury to finally make those career changing desicions on whether or not to give a new guy a chance.

 

[e72882]

1.) Chris Benoit. Chris Benoit's death was a tragedy for the obvious reasons outside of wrestling and of course what he did before he killed himself, but this is about his impact on wrestling. Like the OP mentioned he was going to win the ECW Championship and I think WWE would have had more faith in ECW instead of turning it into the joke that they did.

2.) Eddie Guerrero. He was not only one of my favorite wrestlers, heel or face, but he was able to fly, wrestle technically and he had so much charisma he could have donated some to the less charismatic or the charismatically challenged. His feud with Rey Mysterio was great. And yes I was excited by his potential matchup with Batista as well.

3.) Owen Hart. This guy was an amazing wrestler and I am surprised he never had the chance to carry the WWE Title before he passed away. He was able to do tag team matches and solo matches. He could fly, was a technician and I felt that he had more charisma than his brother Bret (who is one of my all time favorites). I would have loved to see matches against HBK after his come back, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Booker T, Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko, Christian, Edge, John Morrison, The Miz, CM Punk and I would love to have seen him wrestle Kurt Angle. I think he would have been a major player in the Invasion Angle as well.

 

[PagingMr.ass]

I'm gonna have to go with Brock Lesnar leaving the wwe. For one thing, injuries and deaths can't be prevented, however top stars leaving the the company due to internal issues can, i.e. CM Punk. Stone Cold was done and The Rock was soon to follow suit. Brock was becoming the face of the company faster then anyone else in the wwe's history. He was literally the total package. He was a monster, he had the look, he cut rutheless promos, and was on par with Angles wrestling abilities. After he left the company went down hill fast and wollowed in limbo for a couple of years. There was a time during that periode when although wwe was still leading in ratings there product was being outshined by a bunch of guys no one had ever heard of on TNA night in and night out. They started taking stabs in the dark at maineventers. For instance the audience probabley would have never been bored to death with JBL's run as champ had they had some better names to work with. A lot of people argue that Orton was pushed to soon with his first title run, and I still believe the main reason he got his push so soon was so the company could take Brocks youngest champ ever record from him. Just another example of Vince letting his pride and personal issues hurt the buisness. This also lead to Cena becoming the face of the company, and for the last five or so years wwe has had a face that cant get the arena behind him. On his best nights he can get a little over half the audience behind him i'd say between 60-70% (thats being generous, 70% is pushing it) and as i said thats on his best nights, ususally its only half and then some cities just hate him all together. I've always felt that the WWE would one day get sick of the face of their company getting booed every where he went, and i think that day is starting to approach sooner than later. So in conclusion I have to go with Brock. He leaves and the company takes a big hit, their program goes in the shitter and it wasn't till the last two or so years that they picked it back up.

Honorable Mention I think the combination of Christians torn perctorial and Edges retirement needs to be mentioned as well. Although it didn't hurt the company the way Brocks departure did, it definatley killed two storylines I was really looking forward too. A WHC feud between Edge and Christian which would have had ladder match written all over it and would have been the perfect main event for extreme rules. Sure we got one back at no mercy in 2001 but that was for the IC belt and before they had both evovled into main eventers. It also ended any chance of and Edge & Christian tag team reunion, this would most likely been a short reunion like the hardys but entertaining nun the less, hell they could have used a short lived reunion to lead up to the WHC angle. But alas Christian tears his peck and returns right as Edge finds out he's unable to continue.

 

[♠Spades â™]

God damn it Orton. When you rKo'ed Cena couldn't you have done it harder? Just a tad? He may have decided to leave his career to rest and embark on something else. Oh well. At least when he was injured you still had main eventers like Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge, Chris Jericho, Batista, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and up and coming main eventers like Mr Kennedy, MVP, Jeff Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, The Miz and even, dare I say it, Umaga.

He wasn't missed like Austin was. But, you still had guys like The Rock, Triple H, eh The Big Show, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Kane and The Undertaker to carry the company. But, Cena is no Austin.

I'll be 100% upfront with you - Your an asshole. Did you really turn this thread from Most unfortunate injuries to I hate Cena so much that I wish he gets a career threatening injury that makes him go bye bye forever?
What the fuck is your problem guy? No matter who the person is you shouldn't wish ill will on them just cause' you don't like them. If Cena had a penis for every time somebody decides to start sucking him off FOR DOING HIS JOB, women would be extremely unhappy. Stupid ass troll.

-

As for this thread, IMO it would have to be Edge because he was doing pretty good on his last face run. His injury derailed a lot of future programs with him and many other candidates so last minute changes had to be made.

 

[RockandSock]

I do not know why people think Owen would have been the face of the company he died as the blue blazer, great worker but would always be upper mid card. Eddie/Benoit/Bret only had a few years left. Austin only had a good 4 years he would did so much more without the neck injury. If Lesnar/Goldberg/Angle would have stayed around would have been great. Always wondered about Droz and what he would have done.

 

[dman1373]

what about hbk breaking his back at the royal rumble in 1998. If that wouldn't have happend then would he sill have been the face of the company or would he have still past the torch.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

In the Winter of 2003, Kurt Angle's neck injuries began to control his body. Pain tortured his every movement and yet he continued wrestling, taking pain killers prescribed to him at the time before he competed in his final match for over six months at WrestleMania 19, defending his WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar in the main event which featured the famed Lesnar SSP.

[YOUTUBE]BDg8ywz2pPM[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]h3TS-WXS9m8&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

Both the promo hyping his Smackdown return and the return itself bring me to this conclusion. Kurt's life is almost summed up in the return promo, his love for wrestling at the time is obvious. "Clocks" by Coldplay is also a great song in the background, but his actual return is one of the few moments growing up I marked out. The sides of my television began to spit dust, because the vibration from the fans ovation against the speakers was so loud. It turned the television up another volume!

Kurt requesting the fans to chant, "You Suck!" makes it all that much better, and in all I just loved how he fell to his knees and bowed to the fans. Looking at Kurt today, don't see the same man - don't ask me why - but when people ask me why I love Kurt Angle, this is one of the reasons why.

 

[trashboy]

Well, nothing tops Owen Hart's death as the Most Unfortunate Exit.. that is something that should have never happened and could have been prevented, even with Owen being scared of heights, he did it anyway.. I would have told the boss to screw himself

another one that comes to mind though, is when Sid Vicious broke his leg from jumping off the top rope in WCW.. probably one of the worst injuries I've ever witnessed.. i remember cringing when it happened..

 

[vthokie8]

I would say Owen would be the top of my list. I don't know about the whole "Game" gimmick being given to him though. I really can't see anybody else but Triple H as "The Game" but it is probably because I never got to see Owen's take on it. I'm sure he would have got his just do and held the title at least a couple of times. I don't think Owen would still be active today though at 45. Owen was a family man, and from what I have read about him very smart with his body and finances, I really don't think he would have needed the business this long honestly.

I would say Bret would rank as my second choice. I feel that the "screw job" really did something to him mentally and then with the Owen tradgedy it kind of ended him. I would have loved to see Bret stay in WWE at the level he was when he left. Hart vs. Angle has always been a match on my dream list, and I would have loved to see how those two worked together. I think Bret and The Rock would have been interesting as well. There are so many Bret and Jericho, Bret and Triple H you name it.

Beniot I think would have had some great matches on the ECW brand with the likes of Punk, Morrison and Elijah Burk, but I don't think he would have been the answer to ECW's problems. I put Benoit and Christian on about the same level and Christian really couldn't do anything for ECW and he has a whole lot more charisma, no pun intended, than Benoit did. I don't think Benoit was capable of being the guy that carried a brand, even when he was World champion, he wasn't the marquee event. Micahels and Triple H took a lot of steam from his title run and the only main event he ever had was with Orton. I think ECW's only hope would have been if RVD and Kurt Angle had stayed with the company and on that brand, and if WWE would have actually pushed ECW stars as equals to Raw and SmackDown guys.

I would have loved to have seen what would have happened with Eddie. I have heard rumors that he was supposed to win the title from Batista, which would have really changed the picture on SmackDown IMO. I know for a fact Vicki wouldn't be running around acting like an old wh*re right now had he no passed. I think Chavo and Dolph Ziggler both would not be around regardless. Before Eddie passed away Chavo was stuck with that awful Kerwin White gimmick and Dolph was his bodyguard. That angle was doomed to fail, and would have probably gotten both guys their walking papers.

Nobody has mentioned Chris Nowitzki. I thought he was a good heel, and it seemed WWE was trying to develop him into something. He was good on the mic, he had a decent look, in fact he reminded me of Dolph Ziggler with better mic skills. I think he would have at least went on to hold the IC title a few times.

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

Well I to believe that Owen's death is the most unfortunate exit/death/injury. He was young and very talented and the way he died was awful. He didn't die of his own wrong doing, he died by doing something he didn't want to do in the first place. He was scared of heights I believe and he didn't want to do the entrance but did it because he did what the boss asked (shows what a good guy he was). So Owen's death is without doubt the worse exit/death/injury.

 

[RicoLen]

I completely spaced... I mentioned Kevin Nash's injury as a big one. But IMO THE biggest most disappointing injury I can think of is the lower back injuries to Curt Hennig.

Curt Hennig, Bret Hart, & Shawn Micheals. They were to be the big 3 of the early 90's in the WWE. They were the answer to Hogan, Savage & Warrior. Mr. Perfect could have been and, having watched the entire thing unfold, I can promise you, would have been as big a name, if not bigger than Bret Hart & Shawn Micheals.

If you were one of those fans that watched his run as the IC champ, watched his feud on Prime Time Wrestling with him & Flair against Savage and Warrior, then watched Perfect's face turn, and feud with Flair, you would know that almost no one in the WWE had more momentum, created more buzz, and only a few got a bigger fan reaction than Curt Hennig (Hitman being nearly the only one).

He was a mega-star on the rise, and I still to this day am so upset that he re-injured his lower back. He disappeared and after that, all his momentum was gone.

Just think about it, headlining Wrestlemania, instead of Yokozuna, it's Mr. Perfect vs Bret Hart for the world championship with Perfect as the challenger taking the title from Bret, then later, (perhaps during a 2nd title run) facing Shawn Micheals as the champion with Shawn taking the title from him. Those two matches would have been epic. Perfect would have fit in with the feud between Micheals & Hart and every time you talk about Hitman vs HBK you'd inevitably talk about Hitman vs Perfect & HBK vs Perfect in the same way you talk about Savage vs Warrior, Savage vs Hogan, & Hogan vs Warrior. Or, if you prefer, Cena, Orton & Batista, or Rock, Austin, & HHH. Who was the best, who had the best matches, obviously best feud would go to Hitman/HBK.

Wrestling during the attitude era would have been completely different had Perfect not re-injured his back. Perfect vs Austin in their prime (rather than after Austin couldn't wrestle well anymore), rematches of Perfect vs Owen, Perfect vs Jericho, Taker, Benoit, Angle, Guerrero, all classic matches unperformed and/or unseen because of his lower back injury resurfacing. Seriously, an un-re-injured Perfect would likely not have gone to WCW, he only went there because he was irrelevant in the WWE after his time spent recuperating.

I don't have the numbers, not even really sure how to figure them out either, but back when Hitman was the champion, and Perfect had just finished his feud with Flair, I would be willing to bet that Perfect was only a few spots below Hitman in terms of the draw they generated. And then he got injured during the middle of his feud with Lex Luger, and all his relevance just flushed down the toilet, and no one gave a crap about him again. Then the next time he tried to come back he was immediately re-injured and sidelined again for over a year. By the time he came back he was with HHH as little more than a manager no one really knew, and when he moved to WCW he was lower-midcard and then back in the WWE for his next stint he was just a jobber, even though he could outperform Steve Austin and was perfect-plexing guys like Big Show.

I really have a hard time thinking of anyone's career being more disappointing than Mr. Perfect's, not because he threw it away, or because he died when he did, or because he didn't achieve greatness, (he did that anyways) or anything like that, but because his injuries kept him away from in-ring action at a time when he was set to be the biggest name of his era, and because the feuds he could have had in the WWE would have been amazing, and his matches even better.

 

[RavensEdge]

1) Owen Hart- yes he was in the middle of his Blue Blazer gimmick but he would've come out of that heading toward the main event.

2) Bret Hart- not leaving the WWE but the mule kick from Goldberg. Could you imagine the great match if Bret never got concussed and Owen never died? Bret could return to the WWE in 2001 and win the rumble and face WWE Champ Owen at Wrestlemania.

3) Edge- the injuries always sucked but the retirement due to them was far worse. In a very short amount of time he racked up almost as many World title reigns as HHH. Could Edge have been the man to surpass Ric Flair's record number of reigns?

actually I'm gonna add Chris Candido to my list too. Dying because of a blood clot from leg surgery is beyond tragic.