AEW Wrestlers Need To Stop Working Hurt
Daniel Foster
Published Mar 27, 2026
Highlights
- Wrestlers in AEW often push through pain and work injured, which can worsen their conditions and put their health at risk.
- Many wrestlers in AEW, including Kenny Omega, have ignored their health issues and continued working, leading to serious consequences.
- AEW needs to prioritize their wrestlers' safety over performance and create a system that allows wrestlers to take breaks and heal without feeling pressure to continue working.
Wrestlers have more pressure on them today to give their best performance than ever before. There are so many promotions and talented wrestlers who are just looking for that one opportunity to shine. Because of this mindset, everyone is trying to reach the top of the ladder, and a lot of the wrestlers tend to push through pain and work injured when they shouldn’t. With AEW, this has been a lingering issue. A lot of wrestlers work hurt, and sometimes they even aggravate their injury. There are safety protocols in place in major promotions to stop the match as soon as possible in case of an injury, but the wrestlers also need to stop working when their body needs some time off.
10 Most Devastating Injuries In AEW History
There has been no shortage of injuries throughout AEW's history, as many wrestlers have ended up being seriously hurt.Kenny Omega Is On Hiatus From AEW With Diverticulitis
Kenny Omega Delayed Going To The Doctor
- Kenny Omega didn't tell many people in AEW about the pain
- Kenny Omega said he was lucky the doctors found he had diverticulitis
- Kenny Omega took time off from AEW to recover from injuries in 2021
By now, everyone knows that Kenny Omega has been suffering from diverticulitis. He was recently diagnosed with it. But how did Omega find out that he had this condition? Fans will remember that he last wrestled on the December 9 episode of AEW Collision against Ethan Page. But behind the scenes, he wasn’t okay. Going into this match, Omega chose to not tell anyone except a few people in the back about the pain. He didn’t seek medical attention then and even appeared on Dynamite some days later. That’s when his condition worsened so much that Omega had to go to the hospital. The doctors told him that he had developed diverticulitis. His condition is very serious. Dave Meltzer recently said that there was a 50% chance of death if Omega hadn’t sought medical attention when he did.
This isn’t just a simple case of ignoring things. Dave Meltzer also mentioned that Omega had been dealing with stomach issues for weeks. He thought that it was his hernia or maybe something was wrong with his diet, but he could have just gone to the hospital and not continued working. This isn’t the first time Omega overlooked his health. Back when he was first recovering from his multiple surgeries in 2022, Omega worked behind the scenes, and it hurt his rehab progress as well.
Many AEW Wrestlers Can Benefit From Taking A Break Rather Than Working Hurt
MJF Has Been Dealing With Multiple Injuries
This just shows that putting work over your own health can be super dangerous. Many wrestlers in the past have done this. The current AEW World Champion, MJF, for instance, suffered a torn labrum during his match against Jay White at Full Gear. He has only wrestled once since and is set to face Samoa Joe at Worlds End. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer said that wrestlers working with “torn labrums is not unusual." Still, there’s always a chance that you can injure yourself more, even if you’re trying to be careful in the ring. During a match against Andrade El Idolo on the October 21 edition of Collision, Bryan Danielson injured his orbital bone. Then he wrestled again on Dynamite. While wrestling with a broken orbital bone isn’t that serious, Danielson didn’t even wear a protective mask, which further raised safety concerns from wrestling fans. During the Best of 7 series against Death Triangle, Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks also wrestled with a broken toe.
But these are common injuries in wrestling, and most wrestlers don’t take any extended break to heal. Let’s talk about Jon Moxley now, who appeared on the Bleav in Pro Wrestling podcast recently and made this revelation about his health. Mox said:
“The doctor last year told me that I have the Arthritis of a 70-year-old man. And that was quite humbling, that was a year or two ago. So by now, it’s like a 72-year-old man. I don’t move very well in the mornings, but thank god shows are at night because by then I’m pretty loosened up.” (H/T Wrestling Headlines)
When this quote was posted online, many fans showed concern for him and hoped he’d take a break from wrestling. Now let's take a look at Dax Harwood who made a tweet revealing all the different kinds of injuries he was working through. Why? He said it was for the fans. Most people who read that tweet were just angry to hear this, because they didn’t want him, or any other wrestler for that matter, to push through pain.
8 AEW Wrestlers Who Are Currently Injured
While the company has dealt with worse injury bugs before, AEW still has plenty of wrestlers who are currently sidelined with an injury.AEW Needs To Put Their Wrestlers' Safety Over Performance
AEW Asked CM Punk To Wrestle Before Getting Medical Clearance
Some of the blame likely goes to AEW as well. Fans will remember that CM Punk posted an Instagram story in March 2023 where he said that AEW wanted him to return without getting medically cleared for a squash match against Jon Moxley. At a company level, AEW should also not let wrestlers work when they are injured and can benefit from a break. They can start by focusing more on creating stars, so even if a top wrestler gets injured, they won’t have this constant pressure of working because there’s no one to take their spot while they’re gone.
