History Main / CasualtyInTheRing

* In ''MillionDollarBaby'', Maggie is hit from behind, lands on a corner stool and breaks her neck, leaving her a quadriplegic. Her mentor ultimately has to make the painful decision to [[AssistedSuicide end her life]] before leaving boxing for good.

* In ''MillionDollarBaby'', Maggie is hit from behind, lands on a corner stool and breaks her neck, leaving her a quadriplegic.
* ''Kickboxer'' with the Muscles from Brussels.

* JWP wrestler Plum Mariko died in 1997 after taking a Ligerbomb from Mayumi Ozaki. It was a routine spot, however Mariko's history of untreated concussions led to a brain abscess and taking the Ligerbomb caused her to fall uncoscious and her brain to bleed. She died a few hours later.

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[[AC:{{Anime}} And {{Manga}}]]

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* ''ColdCase'' features an amateur boxer dying in the ring against a clearly superior opponent, with investigators wondering why the referee didn't stop the fight.

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* EA's ''Mutant League'' series of sports games revolved entirely around this, where players could be blown up on the court, bisected, etc.

[[AC: {{Web Original}}]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]

* Owen Hart didn't die as a result of actual wrestling, but yeah.

<<|DramaTropes|>>
<<|DeathTropes|>>

* Most recently happened to ProfessionalWrestling legend Mitsuharu Misawa after landing on his neck on an otherwise routine "backdrop" suplex, fatally injuring his spinal cord and suffering an in-ring heart attack.

* On November 13, 1982, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Koo_Kim Duk Koo Kim]] lost to Ray Mancini by TKO in the 14th round at Caesar's Palace. Minutes later, Duk collapsed, went into a coma, and died five days later. This event led the three main boxing organizations of the 80s to reduce the maximum length of title fights from 15 to 12 rounds and make pre-fight health checks more thorough.

* On November 13, 1982, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Koo_Kim Duk Koo Kim]] lost to Ray Mancini by TKO in the 14th round at Caesar's Palace. Minutes later, Duk collapsed, went into a coma, and died five days later. This event led the three main boxing organizations of the 80s to reduce the maximum length of title fights to twelve rounds and make pre-fight health checks more thorough.

* One episode of ''{{Leverage}}'' relied on faking one of these.

* At least two characters in the boxing manga ''AshitaNoJoe'' die in the ring, or immediately after a fight. Apparently the first death, of Riikishi, was so well-done that fans of the manga held a memorial service for the character. The main character also goes through a long HeroicBSOD because of this, since Riikishi was TheRival to him. The second death was of Joe himself, who [[GoOutWithASmile Goes Out With A Smile]] after hearing the decision on his match with the World Champion. This death has become a [[StockShoutOuts Stock Shout Out]].

* The 2008 film ''TheWrestler'' has an implied example of this right at the end when the main character wrestles with a fatal heart condition, and takes one final plunge into the ring. Subverted slightly in the fact that his opponent isn't responsible for his death (even accidentally), and in fact tries to get him to stop once he realizes that he is not well.

* TruthInTelevision: As referenced in the entry for ''CinderellaMan'' above, Max Baer ''did'', in fact, kill an opponent in the ring. However, contrary to his movie depiction, he felt ''really'' bad about it, and made amends to the man's family. Also, it only happened once.

* In ''MillionDollarBaby'', Maggie is hit from behind, lands on a corner stool and breaks her neck, leaving her a quadriplegic. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding The plug was pulled and Maggie dies.]]]]

* In ''MillionDollarBaby'', Maggie is hit from behind, lands on a corner stool and breaks her neck, leaving her a quadriplegic.

* {{CSI}} had an episode where this happened.

* The book Flash Forward, upon which [[FlashForward2009 the TV series]] was very loosely based, invokes this. One character who didn't have a flash forward was told by someone who heard a report about his death that he had died in the ring, and he goes through the rest of his life wondering how that's going to happen, since he's not really into boxing. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the end. Turns out it was the ''ring'' of the particle accelerator at the physics lab where he worked. Someone tried to sabotage it, he went in to try to stop them, and the man had a gun...]]

* One season of Oz features a boxing tourny, climaxing with the death of one of the combatants.

* Due to the nature of many professional wrestling moves, one small slip-up can result in horrific injury. In addition to Eiji Ezaki, Darren Drozdov suffered a spinal-cord injury that left him a quadriplegic after a botched powerbomb. In addition, "Iron" Mike [=DiBiase=] suffered a fatal heart attack while wrestling; the incident was played into the origin story for his son, the "Million Dollar Man" [=Ted DiBiase=].

* ''MillionDollarBaby''. Someone who's seen this should explain how this trope is used in the film here.

* ''Million Dollar Baby''. Someone who's seen this should explain how this trope is used in the film here.

* ''Million Dollar Baby''. [[DownerEnding Enough said]].

* Due to the nature of many professional wrestling moves, one small slip-up can result in horrific injury. In addition to Eiji Ezaki, Darren Drozdov suffered a spinal-cord injury that left him a quadriplegic after a botched powerbomb. In addition, "Iron" Mike DiBiase suffered a fatal heart attack while wrestling; the incident was played into the origin story for his son, the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.

->"Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing, but none of them serious."
-->-Former British Boxing Champion Alan Minter.

* Happens offscreen in ''PulpFiction'', with the protagonist as the winner.