During a segment that took place on Smackdown, Brad Maddox, who was the General Manager of
Raw at the time, came down to the ring with Vickie Guerrero demanding Big Show to leave
the building as he was fired by Stephanie McMahon on Raw. With Big Show saying to them
that he has nothing to lose, he then proceeded to K.O Maddox with his signature punch which
left him falling to the ground almost instantly. I’ve got to give Maddox credit on how well
he sold that punch, even if it was a legitimate punch. Just watch the video and hear the noise
of the impact! Damn, it sounded painful! As you saw in the video, he just got knocked
the f*ck out! WWE.com later went on to report that Brad Maddox suffered a concussion after
being knocked out by the Big Show. WWE physician Dr Michael Sampson said this about Maddox:
“Brad Maddox was knocked out, he did lose consciousness. We took him back to the training
room and did some neurological tests on him, which were normal. He did have some slow papillary
reaction, which goes along with a concussion, so at this point we have diagnosed him with
a concussion.”
Daniel Bryan has had his fair share of concussions throughout his wrestling career. In fact,
his many concussion-related injuries were the primary reason to why he had to retire
from professional wrestling. During a taping of Smackdown, Daniel Bryan suffered a legitimate
concussion during a match he had against Alberto Del Rio. During a shoot interview, Del Rio
told a story of accidently knocking out Daniel Bryan during their match. When they went on
a break, Del Rio said he went over to Bryan and noticed that he couldn’t get up. He
knew that he was out. Del Rio wanted to cover him and go to a finish, however, he was told
that he had to continue and put Bryan in a hold whilst he was knocked out. Daniel Bryan
then opened his eyes to only say: “Where are we?” After their short conversation,
which was completely oblivious to the fans, Bryan opted to continue the match. Del Rio
was very apologetic about the whole situation and went on to say that it was an amazing
match, one of his favourites.
During a two out of three falls match that took place live on Monday Night Raw, Candice
Michelle was up against the Women’s Champion at the time Beth Phoenix, in a rematch for
the Women’s title. However, during the match, Candice Michelle was up on the top turnbuckle
when Beth Phoenix ran towards the ropes, hitting them which caused Candice Michelle to fall
face first off the turnbuckle onto her face, neck and shoulders instantly knocking her
out in the process. This caused the match to go to a rushed finish where the referee
told Phoenix to drag Candice and cover her. After Candice was rushed to a local medical
facility, it was discovered that she had legitimately cracked her clavicle, putting her out of action
for 14 weeks.
The first Survivor Series since the 2016 brand split saw a 5 vs 5 match between members of
Smackdown and Raw. With both brands fighting for supremacy, Shane McMahon stepped in as
a last-minute replacement for Baron Corbin who became injured as part of a storyline
on Smackdown. With the match underway, Shane got stuck in, putting his body on the line
to take out Braun Strowman who he elbow dropped from the top turnbuckle to the announce table
in his signature fashion. Later in the match, Shane had Roman Reigns set up for his Coast
to Coast move, however, Reigns countered the move by delivering a mid-air spear to Shane
McMahon who ended up slamming his head directly on the mat, causing him to suffer a legitimate
concussion. Randy Orton immediately broke character to talk to Shane’s son, presumably
telling him that his dad is going to be OK. Shane was taken to the back where he was reportedly
in a lot of pain and had to be treated by the medical staff. Despite the injury he suffered,
Shane was telling people he was fine at the end of the night.
Probably the most famous concussion on this list is what happened to Enzo Amore at WWE
Payback back in 2016. Enzo Amore and his tag team partner, Big Cass were fighting in a
#1 contender tag tournament finals match against the Vaudevillians. During the match, Simon
Gotch threw Enzo Amore out of the ring, causing his face to clip the bottom rope, causing
the back of his head to slam off the mat. Enzo Amore suffered a legitimate concussion
which left him knocked out for a few minutes with fans looking shocked and worried and
of course, the New Day just casually sitting in the background continuing to eat their
pizza. Enzo Amore was stretchered out of the arena and taken to hospital with the match
ending in a no contest.