12 WWE Wrestlers Who Worked Through Chronic Injury

8. Shawn Michaels

Understanding why Shawn Michaels ended up a physical wreck in the nineties is easy, just go back and watch some of his matches. He worked a thrilling style that involved impact in everything he did. If he was taking a move, he was taking it full force on his back. If he was executing a move, he was also going full force, like the times he’d launch himself backwards off the top rope or drive his elbows into the mat.

It takes a toll working like that nearly every night of the week. He’d been banged up for years and just getting on with it, but in 1996 it went to another level with his WWF Championship run. The strain of that, both mentally and physically, was gruelling. The fact that WWF business was declining at the same time, it started to feel to Michaels like he was killing himself for nothing.

That ultimately resulted in the February 1997 “I lost my smile” speech, in which he vacated the championship and left wrestling to tend to a knee injury.

But even upon returning later that year, he was still under constant pain. Drink and drugs were his way of dealing with it, something which he has admitted was a huge problem. When he then suffered a broken back against The Undertaker at Royal Rumble 1998, time was up. He worked hurt at Mania 14, then had four years off to recuperate.

Even after coming back in 2002, he still required a reduced schedule to manage his chronic back and knee issues.