It was a Sunday night, June 28th 1998 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania when Mick Foley, wrestling under the name Mankind, would have what he later described as the defining moment of his career. A moment came that many would consider a totally unjustifiable and drastic cost to his health.
It was wrestling against The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match, that had been underway for a mere 90 seconds and all of which had been on the top of the massive 16 feet tall steel structure, that he was thrown down onto one of the commentary tables positioned at ringside; crashing through it to the concrete floor below and under the security railings with such force that he dislocated his left shoulder and ruptured his spleen.
It is still to this day seen as possibly the most unbelievable sacrifice given willingly by a pro wrestler in order to provide an entertaining moment to an audience.
The fact that following this fall, he climbed up from the stretcher taking him out of the arena and walked back to continue the match is one that fate seemed to want to make him pay for.
As if the injuries sustained by Foley in the first 'planned' fall were not enough; the two men climbed back to the top of the cell only for a genuine accident, caused by a malfunction with the structural integrity of the cell, sent Foley crashing through the roof as the result of a slam and fell down to the canvas of the ring below.
This second fall brought with it the added pain of a chair, brought on to the failing section of the cell roof by his opponent, to join Foley's descent to the mat and it struck his face on landing. The impact sending one of his teeth, through his lip and found a way to lodge firmly into his left nostril.
Mick Foley is a rare breed even in the world of pro wrestling. Earning the moniker, the 'hardcore legend', participating in matches where various violent weapons were legally used. The man would willingly take his body to extreme lengths of physical abuse in order to entertain audiences.
Times have moved on since the days of these matches involving Mick, especially within the WWE, and also the health of the performers is taken far more seriously. The WWE are now notoriously strict with their performers about working while injured.
When you are an employee of the biggest wrestling company in the world you can afford for this to be the case. Working in the independent scene, if it is your only source of income, this is not always the case.
The profession itself obviously lends itself to a high risk of injury, this is the case for veterans, and especially if you have only just begun training.
Lewis is a wrestler with the Preston City Wrestling promotion in the UK under the ring name of Seymour Gains. This is his second attempt at having a career in the business. The first was derailed when, after training for just a few short week and having just had his second match, a routine move coupled with the wrong ring ropes left him with a serious injury.
The impact of him going over the ropes, ropes that were traditionally used for a boxing match and not wrestling, too fast and crashing his lower back against the ring apron led to him compressing his L1 and L2 vertebrae in the lumbar section of his spine.
"With the injury I worked a few more matches, I was getting thrown around a lot and taking receipts from other wrestlers because I was stiffing people because I didn't know how to work properly."
Just to clear some of the terminology up for you, 'stiffing' means being unnecessarily hard with strikes or carrying out moves in a dangerous and most likely more painful way on opponents, the receipts are that you will find the strikes and moves coming back your way to be less concerned with your physical well-being.
Even when you have been fully trained the nature of the business still leaves you open to getting hurt.
Wrestling with various UK promotions over the course of the last seven years Micky 'The Dragon' Mann has suffered numerous injuries with various degrees of severity.
"Wrestling isn't ballet! It does hurt. I've had the odd sprained ankle when it has rolled, stiff necks and rope burns, they are all minor injuries compared to other injuries.
“I badly bruised my elbow when I landed a 450 splash, I had a lot of velocity and impact on 1 of my elbows. Then just last week I was in a match against Jason Primate, I took a flapjack spine buster, with so much impact it knocked me out for the 1,2,3. My eyes rolled back and I was apparently snoring, I had help to the back but I lived to fight another day."
For employees in any profession workplace safety is something that they have to pay very little attention to. Day one in your induction to a new job you will be shown the emergency exits, given a list of the first aid trained colleagues and that is pretty much that.
While working the independent scene across numerous companies and continents, wrestlers are quick to notice differences and establish companies they might not hope to work with again.
Lindsay Shields is a Scottish pro wrestler, under the ring name Bete Noire, currently wrestling out in Japan for two months with independent promotion Ice Ribbon. Now through her career she has picked up her fair share of injuries: "A broken rib, 2 concussions (1 mild and the other quite serious) a few broken fingers, torn ligaments in my left ankle, sprained wrist along with loads of bruises."
At UK shows, due to the much smaller budgets the companies have, medical assistance is usually given by first aiders.
Working in Japan the differing approaches to safety have been apparent as she said: "Every promotion has standards put in place while in the UK it's not always the case.
“I've seen some promotions genuinely panic when someone gets badly injured because they don't even have a first aid person appointed.
Lindsay told me that she always accepted that injuries were going to be a part of her career due to the physical nature of the business, even if not going to the extreme lengths that we discussed Mick Foley putting his body through.
Arriving back at Mick Foley, his life after retiring from in ring competition has been hindered by the physical toll his body took during those years, he walks with a noticeable limp, and says he is in constant pain and has been told by doctors there is nothing surgery can do to help alleviate the pain.
Mick and increasing numbers of pro wrestlers have now turned to former pro wrestler and now health and fitness guru Diamond Dallas Page and his training program DDP Yoga which was devised specifically for athletes like himself that had suffered injuries from high impact sports.
Haydn Walden is the UK's first ever certified trainer of DDP Yoga and told me how it aids wrestlers: "They have a lot of wear and tear on their joints, DDP Yoga is about increasing flexibility and opening stiff joints, knees, hips and shoulders in particular."
Wrestling and fitness has come a long way from the early days of Mick's career and although injuries are always going to be a possibility, performers are always one incorrectly performed move from being hurt but this is a prospect they all are more than willing to take.
