Jonathan Mahler notes that pro wrestling has had its problems with brain injuries:
Wrestling may be staged, but that doesn’t mean it’s an optical illusion. When a wrestler gets hit in the head with a chair — which became routine during the extreme era — he really is getting hit in the head with a chair. This is not exactly salutary for the brain. At the time, there may have been little scientific evidence that seemingly minor head trauma could lead to progressive brain degeneration, but was it really so difficult to surmise that all these body blows might end badly? …
For years, pro wrestling denied any connection between violence inside the ring and medical trauma outside it. Like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, McMahon focused on protecting his product. He not only downplayed the role of CTE in Benoit’s death, he erased Benoit from wrestling’s history, editing his matches out of DVDs and redacting his name and numerous “championships” from the record books. (You can do this when your sport isn’t actually a sport.)
But even a fantasy world can deny reality for only so long. In recent years, pro wrestling has taken steps to protect its employees. When one of the WWE’s emerging talents, Dolph Ziggler, suffered a concussion earlier this year, he was prevented from wrestling, or even traveling, for six weeks. Chair shots to the head have been banned. Wrestlers themselves are now much more willing to tell opponents before a match what moves are off-limits.
The long-running Dish thread on brain injuries in pro football is here.
The Dish 