|
| Article: |
Author |
| Breaking News |
Luke Dormehl |
Can anything be done to prevent injuries in wrestling?
Pro wrestlers are often keen on the expression, ‘It’s not ballet dancing, you know.’ That’s true, it’s not. But when the long term effects of ballet dancing often include joint damage and, all too often, hip replacements and knee operations later on, one shudders to think of what more brutal damage professional wrestling can do to a body…
Even taking the usual bumps and bruises suffered by wrestlers into consideration, the last few months have been particularly bad for the world of wrestling. Two high profile world champions (WWE champion Batista and GHC champion Jun Akiyama) vacated their titles due to injury, numerous wrestlers were put out of action for the same reason and, in news that shocked the wrestling world, beloved Noah and AJPW veteran Mitsuharu Misawa died in the ring after taking a ‘routine’ back suplex (a move noted as being a ‘seven out of ten’ on the danger scale). Of course, injuries are always going to happen but even after examining injuries in the world of professional wrestling and their effects, the question still remains as to whether anything can be done about it.
Batista’s injury, to most casual fans, was the biggest WWE news recently, resulting in him vacating the WWE title on Raw (8 June) as the result of a torn tendon in his left bicep. WWE officials knew about the injury at the time of his match with Randy Orton at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view – Batista had been suffering from it for several weeks – but they still decided to put the strap on The Animal, thinking that not winning the belt would severely damage his main event credibility in the long run.
Meanwhile, Edge suffered an Achilles injury during a match with Jeff Hardy at a WWE house show in San Diego on 3 July. The injury happened five minutes into the match when Edge went to leapfrog his opponent and landed badly; unable to continue, the match was immediately called off and EMTs came to help him out of the ring. Before he was helped backstage, Edge broke character and apologised to fans on the microphone for any disappointment he had caused, a true mark of respect for the crowd if ever there was one…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 44 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
Back to Articles Menu |
 |
|
