FanPost

Don't Do It, Jeff: Wrestling is increasingly dangerous, and it's not worth it

WWE.com

Daredevil stunts have consequences. The return on Monday night of WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley to announce his role as a referee at this weekend's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (PPV) served to demonstrate that point.

At 53, Foley is the same age as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But while Kavanaugh is the picture of youthful vitality, sending Democrats into a state of panic at the thought of a firmly conservative jurist serving on the highest court for potentially four decades, Foley hobbles around like Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- like someone in a state of physical decline. It's not difficult to draw a link between his present condition and the inhuman bumps he took during his time in the ring. Fortunately, Dave Meltzer is reporting that Foley won't be taking any more bumps as part of his duties as a ref in the Universal Title Hell in a Cell match this Sunday.

Long-time fans have seen far too many of our favorite superstars' careers and lives cut short because of an increasingly reckless style of performing, as practiced by Foley. Unfortunately, amid a growing awareness of the risks of concussions, the industry hasn't adequately addressed this problem. High spots that once drew cries of "Good God almighty!" have become par for the course. Even standard one-on-one encounters on WWE's weekly programming or at indie shows in front of 50 people contain an unhealthy preponderance of maneuvers that can be dangerous even when executed properly. We're caught in a vicious cycle where fans care about the safety of their favorite performers but still expect to see them put their safety at risk.

All signs point to this trend continuing on Sunday. In the other match scheduled to take place inside of the PPV's titular structure, Jeff Hardy, one of WWE's biggest daredevils this side of Foley, is making his HIAC debut against Randy Orton. Hardy, who has long dreamed of competing in a cell match, is likely planning some breathtaking, death-defying stunt despite talk he's suffering from significant back problems, among other injuries.

Why else would WWE have reserved the coveted cell stipulation for a mid-card feud between Hardy and Orton instead of other higher profile rivalries such as AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe or Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch? If WWE goes ahead and lets Jeff take such a risk, the question has to be asked just how responsible is the company being when it comes to the safety of its talent?

It wasn't very responsible on the night of June 28, 1998 when the King of the Ring PPV took place from Pittsburgh. That was where Mick Foley competed in his legendary Hell in a Cell match against the Undertaker. Two horrific falls from the top of the cage left Foley with a lost tooth, dislodged through his nostril, and other more severe injuries, including a pretty bad concussion.

WWE treats those two horrific falls as a classic event in its history. In the 20 years since, the company has, to its credit, adopted a more careful approach to treating injuries and has emphasized some manner of caution in the execution of stunts. Their continued celebration of Foley's death-defying night in June '98 and other equally risky performances, however, sends a different message.

The legacy of that night in June '98 and other matches of the time period has been one of raised stakes in even basic matches, not just marquee stipulation matches like Hell in a Cell. At last month's SummerSlam, Jeff Hardy's throwaway U.S. Title match against Shinsuke Nakamura was failing to engage the fatigued live audience, several hours into a marathon show, until the moment when Jeff climbed to the top of the ring post. His subsequent dive to the outside and his crash-landing on the ring apron -- the hardest part of the ring, as we're often reminded -- was cringe-inducing, with Hardy landing on his already strained back. But for one brief moment, it got the audience to take notice.

Today's fans have been conditioned by years of hard-hitting wrestling matches that all but ignore the collar-and-elbow tie-ups and drop toeholds characteristic of fundamental mat-based catch wrestling. The result is that the average match on Raw or SmackDown contains moves that would have thrilled audiences in decades' past. Part of this is the necessary progression of the form, matched with advancing athletic capabilities. Part of it is an over-reliance on weapons and crash landings. In any case, it has led to diminishing returns, as performers feel pressure to take great risks as a matter of standard operating procedure.

While the Attitude Era stunts like Foley's at King of the Ring may have been inspired by the hardcore style of ECW, today's WWE performers are likely taking cues from New Japan Pro Wrestling's shoot fighting Strong Style. If you think WWE matches teeter on the edge of disaster, try New Japan, where unprotected blows to the head and awkward landings on the back of the neck are the main attraction. I may be one of the few among today's diehard fans who didn't go for the heralded series of matches between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada last year for precisely this reason. If those matches were a window into what is in store for the industry as a whole going forward, maybe wrestlers should start wearing helmets and other protective gear. Seriously.

Speaking of helmets... the NFL has responded to growing awareness about the long-term effects of concussions, however imperfectly, and has lately adopted new rules against players lowering their heads to initiate hits with their helmets. In the same vein, WWE has long ago outlawed chair shots to the head. But the danger is broader based than some realize. Earlier this year, a study led by Dr. Lee Goldstein at the Boston University School of Medicine found that in football, it wasn't just concussions that caused lasting damage; it was also repeated impacts against the skull that did not result in concussions. Former WWE wrestler turned head injury activist Chris Nowinski said that the study proved that hard hits are never fine, even if the person on the receiving end can't feel the damage. Now think about how many hard hits we see in wrestling these days.

A couple of months after that study's publication, Cody Rhodes got into a Twitter war of words with Glenn Gilbertti, who competed as Disco Inferno in WCW. Rhodes had just been busted open in a match against Kenny Omega at a New Japan show that also saw an absolutely terrifying botched Spanish Fly on the ring apron that could have destroyed Will Ospreay's neck.

What sparked Rhodes' anger was that Gilbertti weighed in on what he called a lack of common sense across the industry regarding injury prevention. In response to Gilbertti's tweet warning against dangerous approaches to working matches -- an extremely reasonable and valuable warning in my view -- Rhodes admonished the former Disco Inferno to "stop." He went on to accuse him of failing to ever draw and coasting on others' success while now exposing the business with his comments.

Fast-forward to Hiromu Takahashi's broken neck suffered in a match at New Japan's G1 Special in San Francisco. Later that night at the Cow Palace, fans chanted "please don't die" as Cody and Omega teetered on the edge of a tall ladder. Fast-forward also to Pentagon Jr's ugly piledriver delivered to Omega on the ring apron at this month's ALL IN event.

Count me as Team Disco. I'm sorry, but while Disco Inferno never sold out an 11,000-seat arena, he also made a decent living with a dancing gimmick that allowed him to avoid wrecking his body for the sake of a cheap pop.

As alluded to, this New Japan (and indie) high-impact style is finding its way into WWE. The matches between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa thrilled NXT fans this spring and summer, but they were also more dangerous and harder hitting than they needed to be. At last month's TakeOver, Adam Cole's perfectly timed kick to Richochet mid-moonsault was spectacular. It also could have led to a harmful botch. The fledgeling cruiserweight division often looks like an accident waiting to happen, and for little upside.

Meanwhile, the greatest development in recent years, the so-called women's evolution, has provided long overdue opportunities for female talent, but there are risks in that as well. Today's women have proven that they are just as capable as their male counterparts inside the ring, but the jury is still out when it comes to the lasting effects of a more taxing work rate on the bodies of their lighter frames. Hopefully, neck injuries to Nikki Bella and Paige aren't a sign of things to come for other women.

Flukes happen -- just ask Tyson Kidd, who was nearly paralyzed after a Muscle Buster gone wrong, or Chuck Austin, the jobber whose life was forever altered by a single Rocker Dropper years ago. Wrestling is never going to be 100% safe; things can go wrong even while executing the most basic moves. Risks come with the territory in any physical sport, whether it's wrestling, football, snowboarding, or tennis. Glenn "Disco Inferno" Gilbertti was simply making the point that taking unnecessary risks significantly raises the odds for serious injuries, and the reduction of those risks is uniquely simple in the scripted world of wrestling.

Vince McMahon understood this when he reportedly lashed out at Shinsuke Nakamura for dropping WWE's star attraction, John Cena, on his head in their match in August 2017. I'm just surprised that he let his son take an unbelievable risk weeks later at last year's Hell in a Cell PPV against Kevin Owens. Who can forget Shane's flying elbow from the top of the cell onto the announce table 20 feet below? Well, maybe some of you have, because it was the second time he'd executed the move, following his match against the Undertaker at WrestleMania in 2016. For the repeat performance, they upped the ante by involving another element, Sami Zayn, who had to perfectly time his run-in, pulling Owens out of harm's way at the last possible second.

Watching that match, I personally spent more time contemplating Owen Hart than Kevin Owens.

In the year since, little has changed. Owens himself has taken huge spills in recent PPV matches, crashing down from an oversized ladder at Money in the Bank and calling to mind Mick Foley with a fall from the top of a steel cage at Extreme Rules. There was the possibility that these spots could have gone wrong, especially the second one.

And taking that possibility into account, did those spots accomplish anything? Will we be talking about them 20 years later? Possibly no.

It doesn't have to be this way. Yes, certain jaw-dropping, high drama stunts constitute an essential element of what has always made wrestling worth watching. This goes far back, predating Mick Foley's Hell in a Cell match from two decades ago. I'd simply advise that these spots be reserved for special occasions. Anything else is a prescription for desensitizing the audience and inevitably requiring that when these stunts are performed, they become increasingly reckless in order to top the most recent one.

More broadly, today's wrestlers need to learn how to tell better stories, both on the mic and in the ring. Agents and writers, together with the talent themselves need to find other ways of getting over -- through booking and character development -- so people don't feel pressured to wrestle every last match as if it's their last match.

Maybe that's why Jeff Hardy is booked for Hell in a Cell this Sunday. He's advertised for upcoming live events, but perhaps his career is winding down, and he's going to treat his match against Orton as if it's his last. He could be planning to cement his legacy with one final imprint in the memories of jaded fans. I realize that I could be wrong, and he might not do anything particularly crazy. I hope that turns out to be the case.

The same announcer who yelled "Good God, almighty!" when Mick Foley came crashing down from the top of the cell once verbally willed Jeff Hardy to the top of a ladder with the words "make yourself famous!" Thanks to a career of highlight reel worthy moments, Jeff Hardy is most certainly famous.

Here's hoping he doesn't live in infamy.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.