Brie Bella injuring Liv Morgan was as inexcusable as it gets

Update: Morgan has been diagnosed with a concussion.

I keep re-watching the GIF of Brie Bella kicking Liv Morgan directly in the face — not once but twice — during Monday Night Raw this week and I haven’t been able to make sense of it yet. She quite literally just kicks her straight in the face. She is looking directly at Morgan, who is on her knees completely helpless, totally trusting Brie with her body, and she somehow manages to blast her in the mouth multiple times.

See for yourself:

This is inexcusable. Accidents happen, yes, but there’s a level of skill to consider when a wrestler injures an opponent. Seth Rollins hurting Sting was really bad because it was a stupid idea to try a buckle bomb on a 56-year-old man, of course, but there’s an inherent danger in doing the move itself. The move is dangerous even when performed properly and they simply accept the risk that comes along with doing it. Shit happens, basically.

That does not apply here. There should be no risk in Brie throwing weak kicks at a slow pace to a downed opponent who is literally leaving herself open to take those kicks.

The only mistake you could put on Liv is that she actually sold for the kicks. That would be ridiculous, of course, because it is a function of the job she is being asked to do. Brie quite clearly swings her leg higher on the fourth kick in the above GIF and just blindly throws the fifth with no regard for Liv’s reaction to the previous shot.

It cannot be overstated how bad this is in a business that only works because the performers don’t actually hurt each other. What makes this even more awful is Liv was actually doing a fantastic job here — she sells better than most do for these kicks — and because of her opponent, she was knocked out for it.

It’s worth pointing out that it was just a month ago that Brie was botching multiple dives to the outside. At least in that case, she was only putting herself in danger.