Skilled wrestling is a harmful sufficient recreation at the very best of instances.
Whereas the matches, outcomes and storylines carried out by the women and men of WWE, All Elite Wrestling and throughout the globe are all the time predetermined, the dangers are very actual.
Critical accidents are sadly not unusual, from torn muscle tissues and concussions to paralysis, as stars put their our bodies on the road to entertain their viewers.
It’s, due to this fact, an trade wherein you always want your wits about you and are nicely served to have lightning fast reactions.
There are, after all, circumstances past the management of performers that may generally make pushing issues to the restrict tougher for some than others.
One such case is perhaps that of Curtis Hughes, the bulging brute of a performer who starred notably as a menacing character in WWE throughout the Nineties.
Hughes wrestled for years in WCW and ECW both facet of his run in Vince McMahon’s organisation, the place he first appeared in 1993, thrown shortly right into a notably feud with The Undertaker.
Then Mr Hughes, the strapping performer – billed at as much as 370lbs at one level in his profession – stole the Deadman’s iconic urn at one stage however by no means obtained the very best of the legend.
He nonetheless received the overwhelming majority of his 60 or so matches within the firm earlier than leaving for ECW that 12 months, returning within the Perspective Period to work alongside icon Chris Jericho.
Carrying – and wrestling in – darkish shades that he’d tape to his head to keep away from them falling off, Hughes was a cumbersome athlete who used brute pressure to dominate his foes, hardly ever leaving the relative security of the mat.
The Kansas Metropolis native, now 60, has wrestled as just lately as final 12 months, establishing a big profession regardless of dwelling with narcolepsy, a neurological dysfunction that considerably disrupts the management sleep patterns and might, in some circumstances, end in folks falling asleep at any time.
Wrestling legend has it that Hughes wrestled within the shades to cover any such situations, however there have been moments when his situation created danger – as soon as even giving him a brush with the WWE axe after a misunderstanding after one WrestleMania.
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Hughes was current at WrestleMania 9 in Las Vegas and, ready for a flight after the occasion, fell asleep at an airport – a lot to the anger of backstage boss, Chief Jay Strongbow.
Strongbow was seemingly unaware of the grappler’s dysfunction and mistook his sleepy state, in line with commentating legend Jim Ross, who instructed his podcast: “He nearly obtained fired after WrestleMania 9 as a result of he fell asleep on the airport.
“Chief Jay Strongbow mentioned: ‘He’s excessive. Oh, have a look at that man. I’ve gotta inform Caesar (Vince McMahon)… We gotta eliminate this man.’
“He’d arrived to that conclusion by sitting throughout the way in which together with his spouse and me, able to fly again to Connecticut, and there was Curtis on the opposite facet dozing off.”
Ross added: “[We] discovered he had a sleep problem, narcolepsy, regardless of the hell it’s referred to as, I’m most likely naming it fallacious. However Curtis battled by way of it…”
Falling asleep in an airport isn’t more likely to trigger anybody problem past presumably lacking a flight, however wrestlers have claimed that Hughes has additionally fallen asleep throughout matches.
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Jericho in his autobiography Undisputed: Methods to Grow to be World Champion in 1,372 Simple Steps, claimed Hughes: “may go to sleep at any time and as soon as did within the ring mid back-drop.”
One other Perspective Period colleague in WWE, Highway Dogg, spoke of his first profession match involving the veteran when the pair have been working in WCW.
He was dealing with Terry Taylor at non-televised dwell occasion when the end for the bout concerned the longer term tag workforce star – then working underneath his actual title Brian Armstrong – chasing Taylor across the ring, solely to eat a clothesline from the ready Hughes.
The on-screen villain Hughes, nevertheless, unwittingly missed his cue, Highway Dogg saying: “We run across the ring thrice as a result of Curtis is asleep standing up. That’s the reality.
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“He has narcolepsy, and he was simply standing there asleep. Terry, as we ran by the second time, was like, ‘Curtis!’”
It could’t be mentioned Curtis Hughes’ situation blighted his profession given it spans the many years, starting in 1983 and boasted over 450 matches.
Away from WWE he was a multi-time champion, too, holding world titles at a number of unbiased firms earlier than occurring to work as a coach.