When you come up against one of the best in the business, John Cena, it can be pretty
nerve-racking but exciting at the same time. But on an episode of RAW on May 4th 2015,
“The Underdog of the Underground”, Sami Zayn, perhaps got a little bit too excited
as he ended up injuring his shoulder before he even got in the ring. Zayn was introduced
by Bret Hart as John Cena’s mystery opponent for Cena’s “U.S. Open Challenge”, which
took place in Zayn’s hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As Zayn made his entrance,
he was well received by the crowd and with all the adrenaline kicking in, Zayn ran up
the ring steps and threw his arms out with such force to hype the crowd. However, he
immediately clutched his left shoulder after he noticed something wasn’t quite right.
Minutes into the match, Zayn was on the receiving end of a back suplex which caused further
injury to his shoulder and Cena being the veteran that he is, realised this and signalled
to the referee to check on Zayn. Like a true wrestler, Zayn continued with the match and
the two put on a great show.
The Undertaker sure knows how to make an entrance and for decades he has been “taking souls
and digging holes”. He may take an eternity to get to the ring but his chilling theme
combined with the smoke, pyro and lightning all add to an ominous atmosphere that is guaranteed
to send shivers down the spines of his opponents. And let’s not forget the creepy thing he
does with his eyes. But at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in 2010, a pyrotechnics
incident saw The Undertaker close to being a “Deadman”. As The Phenom made his entrance,
he was momentarily engulfed in flames on three occasions as a result of a pyrotechnics malfunction,
which forced him to run towards the ring and discard his hat and leather jacket in the
process. The fastest I’ve ever seen Taker move! Fortunately, the fire extinguished itself,
however, The Undertaker suffered first and second degree burns on his chest, arms and
neck. Despite this, Taker continued the match and was given several bottles of cold water
to cool down off-camera. The burns could be seen while he was wrestling and Chris Jericho,
who went on to win the match, even recalled that he could smell the burning of The Undertaker’s
skin. As for the pyro guy and no it wasn’t Kane playing tricks on him, The Undertaker
made sure that he was “gonna pay” for what he did by getting him fired from the
WWE.
Randy Orton has had his fair share of shoulder injuries. Perhaps his most embarrassing one
was during a match against Edge at “Over the Limit” in 2010, where he managed to
injure himself from simply taunting. During the match, Orton countered Edge’s spear
and then proceeded to pound the mat ready to do his RKO finishing move. However, Orton
pounded a little too hard… that’s what she said… causing his right shoulder to
separate. The Viper was clearly in pain and was unable to hit the RKO on Edge, otherwise
it may have ended up like this. The match then ended in an improvised finish; a double
count-out after Edge tried to spear Orton through the barricade.
When you think of embarrassing injuries, this has to be up there along with number 1, which
I will get to later. In a 10-man tag team match on an episode of RAW in July of 2002,
Kevin Nash suffered a quad injury when he tore it from…well…walking. After tagging
himself in, Nash immediately felt that something was wrong and you can see Nash briefly clutching
his thigh before brushing it off. The breaking point came when Nash walked over to attack
Bubba Ray Dudley to which his quad gave way and he is left screaming in agony. As a result,
Kevin Nash has been on the receiving end of countless memes and edits associated with
the tearing his quad, like this one, “Eat, Sleep, Tear Quad, Repeat” and this one,
“Entrance music hits, tears quad”. If you even type his name on Urban Dictionary,
it says “to pull a Kevin Nash is to tear your quad by simply walking”. So, I thought
I’d join in the fun. We already made an edit of Nash’s quad tear in our previous
video but we thought we’d make another one, why not. Even Chris Jericho couldn’t help
but join in on the fun as he tweeted, “Hope @realkevinnash doesn’t tear his quad tweeting!”.
The ending of the 2005 Royal Rumble match, let’s just say, did not go as fully planned
with Batista and John Cena falling over the top rope and hitting the floor at the exact
same time. Confusion spread across the arena as RAW referees raised Batista’s arm in
victory, while SmackDown referees raised Cena’s arm. “The Chairman” Vince McMahon, however,
was not amused and could not “stand” for this any longer. He emerged from backstage
and angrily stormed down to the ring, looking as pissed as ever. McMahon then rushed into
the ring but upon doing so, tore not one but both his quads and awkwardly collapsed against
the ropes into a seating position, unable to stand. I guess he skipped leg day. In all
seriousness, you can see that McMahon’s legs impacted with the side of the ring apron
as he slid into the ring which, in turn, led to his quads giving way. McMahon’s face
just summed everything up as a look of pain and confusion could be seen as he decided
what to do next. In the end, the match was restarted and “The Animal” Batista emerged
victorious. Although the whole end to the 2005 Royal Rumble was unscripted, it did create
some unforgettable and hilarious moments that WWE fans will never forget.