Hugh Jackman's WWE Raw Appearance Led To An Actual Dolph Ziggler Injury
Back in 2011, Dolph Ziggler learned a valuable lesson: Don't mess with Wolverine.
It's not every week that a WWE celebrity guest goes all out in the ring, to the point of injuring a superstar in the ring. But that was the case when "X-Men" star Hugh Jackman made an appearance on "WWE Raw" and accidentally injured Ziggler while helping Zack Ryder to a shocking victory.
Jackman was making an appearance on the weekly WWE show to help promote his new film "Real Steel" and got into a heated argument with Ziggler during the program, vowing later to find an "underdog" superstar in the back who could defeat the then-WWE United States Champion. Ryder, real name Matt Cardona, was riding a wave of momentum at the time due to the success of his YouTube series where he dubbed himself the "Internet Champion."
Jackman appeased fans by accompanying Ryder to the ring and helping him to an upset victory. But the match's big ending came with a price for Ziggler when Jackman connected with a hard punch to "The Showoff's" jaw.
How badly Jackman injured Ziggler
Hugh Jackman's punch knocked Dolph Ziggler out in kayfabe, allowing Zack Ryder to land the pinfall victory. Soon after the show, Ziggler revealed that Jackman's right hook actually caused a hairline mandibular fracture in his jaw, leading to him wearing a mouth guard for a short while.
Ziggler opened up about the real-life injury, telling Ryan Satin on his "Out of Character" podcast what he told the actor: "If you don't punch me in the face as hard as you can, I'm going to get fired and I'm coming after you."
"I go, 'Don't worry, you can see by the jaw I can take a freaking punch,'" Ziggler said. "So, right before we went out I said one last time, 'Listen man if you're going to halfway do it or miss, let's switch this right now because I need you to punch me in the face with my hands down and my head [extends neck forward].' He goes, 'I promise you I won't let you down,' and he cracked me in the face pretty damn hard. It was great." (via Fightful)
The Hollywood star returned to RAW a few years later in 2014, but this time around he and Ziggler were allies and featured in a segment with Damien Sandow who was dressed as "X-Men" character Magneto.