10 Wrestlers Whose Injuries Came at the Worst Possible Moment
Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, John Cena, CM Punk and six more wrestlers whose injuries cost them a title or a WrestleMania.
Some of the most damaging injuries in wrestling history landed days after a title win or days before the biggest match of a career. Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, John Cena, Becky Lynch, CM Punk and Rhea Ripley are all on this list of ten, which we put together from the official record, and for each one we give the date, the injury and what it cost.
We left out injuries that simply ended a long career at a natural point. Every case below came at a moment when the wrestler had just reached the top of the card or was about to, and in most of them a title changed hands because of it.
| Wrestler | Date | Injury | What it cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shawn Michaels | January 18, 1998 | Two herniated discs, one crushed disc | Lost the WWF title at WrestleMania XIV, then over four years without a match |
| Triple H | May 21, 2001 | Left quadriceps torn off the bone | More than eight months out, the whole Invasion storyline |
| John Cena | October 1, 2007 | Torn pectoral muscle | A 380-day WWE Championship reign |
| Edge | July 3, 2009 | Torn Achilles tendon | Tag titles won five days earlier |
| Seth Rollins | November 4, 2015 | Torn ACL, MCL and medial meniscus | WWE World Heavyweight Championship and WrestleMania 32 |
| Finn Bálor | August 21, 2016 | Torn labrum in the shoulder | The new Universal Championship after about 22 hours |
| Becky Lynch | November 12, 2018 | Concussion and broken nose | Her Survivor Series match with Ronda Rousey |
| Kota Ibushi | October 21, 2021 | Dislocated right shoulder | The G1 Climax 31 final and a Tokyo Dome title shot |
| CM Punk | January 27, 2024 | Torn right triceps | WrestleMania XL |
| Rhea Ripley | April 8, 2024 | Right arm injury | The Women's World Championship two days after WrestleMania XL |
1. Shawn Michaels, Royal Rumble 1998
Michaels was the WWF Champion when he faced The Undertaker in a casket match at the Royal Rumble on January 18, 1998. He took a back body drop over the top rope and his lower back hit the edge of the casket on the floor. The impact herniated two discs and crushed a third.
He was already booked to defend the title against Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV, and he kept the date. Michaels lost the championship to Austin on March 29, 1998, and then stopped wrestling. He was back on television that July as a commentator, but his next match did not come until SummerSlam 2002, an Unsanctioned Street Fight he won against Triple H. That is more than four years taken out of the prime of a career.
2. Triple H, Raw, May 2001
In the spring of 2001 Triple H and Steve Austin were working together as the Two-Man Power Trip and holding the WWF Tag Team Championship. On the May 21 episode of Raw is War they defended the titles in the main event against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, and during the match Triple H's left quadriceps tore completely off the bone.
He finished the match on a leg he could not put weight on. At one point he even let Jericho put him in the Walls of Jericho, a hold that puts heavy strain on exactly that muscle. The rehabilitation took more than eight months, and he missed the entire Invasion storyline, the WCW and ECW angle that dominated WWF television for the rest of 2001. He came back on Raw at Madison Square Garden on January 7, 2002.
3. John Cena, Raw, October 2007
By the fall of 2007 Cena had held the WWE Championship for more than a year. On the October 1 episode of Raw he tore a pectoral muscle in a match against Mr. Kennedy. He was stripped of the title the next night on ECW, ending a reign of 380 days, and had surgery in Birmingham, Alabama.
The timing hurt the whole card. Cena was scheduled to defend against Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match at No Mercy that weekend, and instead Vince McMahon awarded Orton the championship at the start of the show. Cena came back in under four months. He came out as the 30th entrant in the Royal Rumble match on January 27, 2008, and won it by eliminating Triple H last.
4. Edge, house show, July 2009
Edge already knew how this felt. In 2007 he cashed in Money in the Bank on The Undertaker on May 11 to become World Heavyweight Champion, then had to give up the title on the July 20 episode of SmackDown after tearing his left pectoral muscle.
Two years later it happened faster. Edge and Chris Jericho won the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at The Bash on June 28, 2009. Five days later, on July 3, Edge tore his Achilles tendon in a match against Jeff Hardy at a live event in San Diego. He needed surgery, and early reports said he could be out for up to a year. He made it back sooner and won the 2010 Royal Rumble match on his return.
5. Seth Rollins, Dublin, November 2015
Rollins had won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by cashing in Money in the Bank in the main event of WrestleMania 31. On November 4, 2015, at a live event in Dublin, Ireland, he went for a sunset flip powerbomb and tore the ACL, MCL and medial meniscus in his knee.
He gave up the title the next day after 220 days as champion (WWE counts it as 219). The surgery came with an estimate of six to nine months out, which meant missing WrestleMania 32 in April. With no champion, WWE ran a tournament for the vacant title at Survivor Series. Roman Reigns won it and lost it minutes later when Sheamus cashed in his own briefcase. Rollins came back on May 22, 2016, at Extreme Rules, attacking Reigns with a Pedigree after Reigns had defended the title.
6. Finn Bálor, SummerSlam 2016
This is probably the shortest reign on the list. At SummerSlam on August 21, 2016, Bálor beat Seth Rollins to become the first WWE Universal Champion, about a month after the WWE draft brought him up from NXT. He hurt his shoulder during that match, and an MRI showed a torn labrum that needed surgery.
Bálor gave up the championship roughly 22 hours after winning it, and the estimate for his recovery was four to six months. He did not wrestle again until a live event on March 10, 2017, in a six-man tag team match, and by then the title he had won first had been held by two other men.
7. Becky Lynch, Raw, November 2018
Lynch was the SmackDown Women's Champion and in the middle of the hottest run of her career when she was booked against Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey for Survivor Series on November 18, 2018. Six days earlier, on November 12, she led the SmackDown women in an invasion of Raw and took a real punch from Nia Jax that left her with a concussion and a broken nose.
WWE pulled her from the Rousey match, and Lynch named Charlotte Flair as her replacement. The pictures of Lynch standing in the ring with blood running down her face did not slow her down, though. They made her more popular, and the match with Rousey, with Flair added, became the main event of WrestleMania 35 on April 7, 2019, the first time women closed the show. Lynch won both titles that night.
8. Kota Ibushi, G1 Climax 31 final, October 2021
Ibushi reached his fourth straight G1 Climax final on October 21, 2021, at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, against Kazuchika Okada. The tournament winner earns a shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome, so the match decided the main event picture for January 4.
After 25 minutes and 37 seconds, Ibushi missed a Phoenix Splash and landed badly. New Japan later confirmed a right anterior dislocation of the shoulder with damage to the joint lip, and an estimated recovery of two months. The referee stopped the match, and Okada was declared the winner of both the match and the tournament.
9. CM Punk, Royal Rumble 2024
Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series in November 2023, and the 2024 Royal Rumble on January 27 was his first big match back. He lasted 21 minutes and 45 seconds and was the last man eliminated, by Cody Rhodes. During the match he tore his right triceps.
Two days later, with his arm in a sling, Punk opened Raw and confirmed the injury and that he would miss WrestleMania XL. A match with Seth Rollins at that show had reportedly been planned. It was the second time a triceps tear had hit him at the worst point: at AEW All Out on September 4, 2022, he tore his left triceps in the match where he beat Jon Moxley to win back the AEW World Championship, and the title was later vacated.
10. Rhea Ripley, Raw, April 2024
Ripley retained the Women's World Championship against Becky Lynch on the first night of WrestleMania XL, April 6, 2024. Two days later, on the April 8 episode of Raw, Liv Morgan attacked her in a backstage segment, and Ripley injured her right arm for real.
She vacated the title the following week. Her reign ended at 380 days, which tied Bayley's record for the longest with that championship, so the injury also kept her from breaking it outright. She returned on the July 8 episode of Raw to confront Morgan and Dominik Mysterio.
What the ten have in common
Eight of the ten held a title when they got hurt, and for Bálor and Edge the title was less than a week old. Several of the injuries happened at house shows or on weekly television, not at a pay-per-view, and that left the company rebuilding a planned card around an empty spot in a matter of days. The returns were uneven. Cena was back in under four months and won the Royal Rumble, while Michaels needed more than four years before he wrestled again.
Questions
Why did Seth Rollins vacate the WWE title in 2015?
He tore the ACL, MCL and medial meniscus in his knee at a live event in Dublin on November 4, 2015, and gave up the WWE World Heavyweight Championship the next day.
How did Finn Bálor get hurt at SummerSlam 2016?
He injured his shoulder while beating Seth Rollins for the new Universal Championship on August 21, 2016. An MRI showed a torn labrum, and he relinquished the title about 22 hours later.
Why did CM Punk miss WrestleMania XL?
He tore his right triceps in the Royal Rumble match on January 27, 2024, and confirmed on Raw two days later that he would miss WrestleMania XL.
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