Despite people like Mark Briscoe and "Hangman" Adam Page bringing it back into the public eye, unprotected chair shots to the head have largely remained a thing of the past thanks to the knowledge of concussions, head trauma, and CTE that is available in 2024. However, that knowledge wasn't present when former WWE star Ken Shamrock was a vital part of the company's famed Attitude Era.
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Shamrock sustained one of the most vicious chair shots in WWE history on an episode of "WWE Raw" in 1998, when a young Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hit him square in the face. However, during a recent appearance on Chris Van Vliet's "Insight" podcast, Shamrock explained that it looked a lot worse than it sounded. "For me, it's funny, because it would hurt so much more if I didn't see it coming. Top of the head, back of the head. I wanted it. I was like, 'bro, you are not hitting me in the head, like the top of the head or back of the head. I want you to hit me right in the face.'"
Rock initially thought Shamrock was joking when he said that he wanted the chair shot directly to the face, and originally said no to the idea, but when he realized that the "World's Most Dangerous Man" was being deadly serious, "The People's Champion" followed Shamrock's orders."I said 'swing for my face. I'll protect myself,' and he goes, 'you sure?' I was like, 'Yeah,' and I remember, look right at him in the eyes, and I go, 'you better swing it,' and he says, 'Oh, I'll swing it.'"
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From his years in professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, and shoot fights, Shamrock has been hit in the face more than the average human being. With that in mind, Shamrock explained the way he protected his head, and he did it, with his own head. "All I did was just like I would in a fight. I tucked my chin and it hit me right in the forehead," Shamrock said, who went on to explain the anatomy of the human skull factored into his decision to take the chair to the face.
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"Anybody knows how the skull is put together, the thickest part is your forehead. And just like within football, and now they can't do it, but you usually hit with the forehead. And if you get punched, most of the time, if you hit somebody in the forehead, you break your hand. So I just logically thought if I was going to get hit in the head, hit me in the hardest part."
Despite how brutal it looked, and sounded as well, Shamrock looks back fondly on the moment, as it still gets brought up to him to this day, and he's just glad that he felt he took an unprotected chair shot to the head in the safest, and least stupid fashion possible.
Please credit "Insight" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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