Professional wrestling is a physically demanding sport for even the most exceptional athletes. There have been people with backgrounds in football, basketball, gymnastics, various martial arts disciplines, and even lacrosse who have stepped into the squared circle and found life difficult, finding out after taking a single bump that the wrestling ring isn't the trampoline they think it is when they watch matches on TV. So if it's tough enough for well-seasoned athletes, just imagine how difficult it can be for people who don't even have all of their body parts.
Given how brutal the wrestling business can be, bones are broken and ligaments are torn on a regular basis, but there are some performers who walk in to every match they compete in at a disadvantage as they are technically disabled. Some stars have no legs, others are missing fingers, and while losing a few teeth here and there is commonplace in a wrestling ring, the sight of seeing one of your molars flying across the ring after being punched in the face will change the way people wrestle forever. However, thanks to the way wrestling works, even those with some of the bigger handicaps can not only perform at a high level, but can also achieve a lot of success.
That is what we're here to talk about today. The stars from the past and present who never let anything get in the way of achieving their dreams of becoming a professional wrestler, and those who have gone down in wrestling folklore as remarkable human beings who have done remarkable things in between the ropes. These are the wrestlers who have managed to make careers for themselves despite not having all of their body parts.
One of the most respected and feared men in the history of Japanese wrestling, Toshiaki Kawada is an icon of the business thanks to his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was one of the famous "FourPillars of Heaven" alongside his high school friend Mitsuharu Misawa, former factory worker Kenta Kobashi, and former sumo wrestler Akira Taue, with all four men carrying AJPW to new heights during the 1990s with their "Kings Road"style that has influenced many of the biggest names working in the industry today.
Kawada was known by many as "Dangerous K" for his extremely stiff style as he left his opponents beaten, bloody, and bruised on a nightly basis during the peak of his powers, but his smile was forever changed during a freak accident in 1989. During a match against Shunji Takano, Kawada executed his trademark German Suplex that he had used to win countless matches at the time. He had performed the move dozens of times to various opponents, but on this night with Takano, something went wrong, and instead of landing on his shoulders just above Kawada's head, Takano landed directly on Kawada's face, knocking out his four front teeth.
Where did those teeth go, you ask? The roots of Kawada's teeth were actually still in his mouth, but had been compressed and were sticking out of his gums, while the top part of his teeth that had been broken during the Suplex were legitimately lodged in Takano's back. As grotesque as that sounds, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his missing teeth would make "Dangerous K" look even more dangerous, and as he got older and began to wind down his in-ring career, Kawada made the long overdue trip to the dentist and had his four front teeth replaced with new ones.
While Toshiaki Kawada would go on to replace his missing teeth, former ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe is still appearing on AEW programming with a massive gap in his teeth, a gap that is also a reminder of his late brother Jay Briscoe.
The reason it's a reminder of Jay is because he was the one who accidentally knocked out his little brother's teeth. During a match for the Pro Wrestling Unplugged promotion at the ECW Arena in 2006, The Briscoes were taking on the Krash Krew in a tournament to honor the memories of both members of ECW legends the Public Enemy, as well as fellow ECW star Pitbull #2. The tournament was naturally under hardcore rules given who it was commemorating, and Jay thought a steel chair would be a good weapon of choice, but when he wound up his swing, he didn't realize that Mark was standing right behind him, and his little brother got a mouthful of steel, losing his teeth in the process.
Mark was only 21 at the time that he lost his teeth, but that didn't faze him much as he decided to keep the gap in his mouth. He even revealed in a 2023 interview that he did end up getting a set of false teeth, but that his wife actually preferred him without teeth. As for where the set of teeth went, they aren't stashed away in a drawer somewhere in Mark's home in case of emergency; they ended up inside his dog (yes, really). Mark revealed that he fell asleep in his living room one day with his false teeth placed on a table nearby, only to wake up and realize that his dog had ate his teeth. It's unconfirmed to this day if Mark's wife had anything to do with this, considering how she prefers her husband's mouth to look.
We're getting two for the price of one when it comes to the "Hardcore Legend"Mick Foley, as he not only joins Kawada and Briscoe in the "I need to see a dentist" club, but he also will sit blissfully unaware that you might be talking to him, as he is also missing a large chunk of his ear.
Thanks to his years of rolling around in thumbtacks, falling off of ladders, and onto concrete floors, it was only natural that Foley's teeth weren't exactly going to be the most secure set of pearly whites. With that in mind, when he wrestled The Undertaker at King of the Ring 1998 in the legendary Hell in a Cell match where Foley learnt how to fly, his teeth decided to take a trip around the ringside area, and even inside Foley's nose as one of his teeth shot up through the roof of his mouth and into his nostril. Much like Briscoe, Foley hasn't replaced the teeth that he lost back in 1998, but instead of his wife stating that she likes him without a full set of teeth, Foley has purposely not sought out any dental advice, as the gaps in his mouth are reminders of that legendary night.
To prove how tough Foley is, years before he made it to the top of the Hell in a Cell structure with The Undertaker, Foley was wrestling Vader at a WCW live event in Germany, where he attempted his trademark "Hangman" spot of being caught up in the ropes. However, the ropes being tightened in between matches meant that Foley got stuck performing the spot, and when he pulled his head out, most of his left ear was ripped from his head, and hasn't been attached to this day.
Now to someone who most people reading this will almost certainly never have heard of, but when you realize that he isn't throwing up the devil horns in the picture above, you will remember the name Mocho Cota.
Loosely translated from Spanish as "The Mutilated Cota," Manuel Cota is someone who was one of the more underrated luchadors of his day. Debuting in 1979, he would spend the vast majority of his career working for EMLL, which would eventually change its name to CMLL in the late 1980s. Thanks to the company's association with the National Wrestling Alliance, Cota would hold the NWA World Welterweight Championship in 1984, his second championship victory after winning the Mexican National Welterweight Championship from one of his greatest rivals, Talisman, just a few years earlier.
Cota managed to achieve all of that despite only having five fingers, two thumbs, and three stumps on his right hand. Before he became a wrestler, Cota worked at a Maquiladora (a textile plant) in Mexico, and would unfortunately have an accident with a chopper that completely destroyed two of his fingers and badly injured a third. Cota was left with no choice but to have his two middle fingers on his right hand amputated, with the top of his right index finger also having to be removed. While he couldn't necessarily shake many hands during his nearly 40-year career, Cota is remembered fondly by long-time followers of Lucha Libre, and despite passing away in December 2016, his legacy lives on through his son, Mocho Cota Jr., who ironically has all of his fingers despite taking his father's in-ring name.
It's one thing to have one of your body parts amputated; it's another to keep it a secret from the rest of the world for years, but that's exactly what Kerry Von Erich managed to achieve.
The man who many considered to be the crown jewel in the Von Erich family, Kerr,y became one of the youngest men in history at the time to become the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion in 1984, defeating Ric Flair in an iconic match at the Texas Stadium in front of 32,000 people. That was Kerry's brightest moment, but his life would be altered forever in 1986 when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that nearly ended his life.
On June 4, 1986, Kerry Von Erich was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that he was fortunate enough to survive, but he was badly injured. He dislocated his hip and broke his foot to such an extent that doctors had no choice but to amputate it. Various stories suggest that Kerry's foot could have been saved had he not been so eager to get back in the ring, but despite only having one foot, Kerry would not only continue wrestling with a prosthetic, but he would also make it all the way to WWE.
Surely a company of WWE's size would have taken extra precautions when signing someone like Kerry due to his handicap, but they didn't know about it, andno one knew about it, as Kerry hid his prosthetic foot from everyone. He would even go as far as to shower with his boots on to keep the secret under wraps. Sadly, the pain he was in due to his foot would lead to an addiction to painkillers, legal problems, and ,tragically, Kerry taking his own life in 1993.
The one person you probably thought about when reading the title of this list, Zach Gowen, might not have achieved the same amount of success as a Kerry Von Erich, but he might just be the most famous one-legged wrestler of all time.
Gowen wasn't dealt the best hand while growing up. He was diagnosed with cancer during elementary school and would ultimately have his leg amputated because of it, but there was one thing that kept him going, and that was wrestling. A childhood fan of Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels, Gowen made it his mission to become a professional wrestler, and in 2002, he began training under former ROH star Truth Martini. Gowen did originally wrestle with the prosthetic leg that he uses to walk with, but felt like he was being weighed down by it, feeling like it was deadweight, and made the bold decision to wrestle with one leg, the best decision of his entire career.
After originally featuring for TNA Wrestling during their first year, Gowen would sign a contract with WWE in 2003 and have a memorable feud with Vince McMahon, form a tag team with Mr. America (Hulk Hogan in a mask), and be beaten half to death in front of his own mother by Brock Lesnar before being pushed down a flight of stairs...it was an eventful time. Gowen would leave WWE less than a year after signing his contract, and with his newfound fame, he continued to work for a number of promotions such as ROH, TNA for a second time, and as recently as 2025, he got to wrestle Ricochet on an episode of "AEW Dynamite." Now aged 42, Gowen still wrestles sporadically on the independent circuit, with his match for AEW being something he holds close to his heart as it was one of the few times his children could see him wrestle on a major stage.
Another name that some people won't recognize right away, but Steve Chamberland is actually part of one of the funniest stories in modern wrestling history as WWE's former Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis thought he was Zach Gowen.
Gowen told the story on Chris Van Vliet's "Insight" podcast that WWE wanted to sign him based off the buzz he got from working dark matches for TNA, but the problem was that with Gowen wrestling in dark matches, WWE didn't know what he looked like. Nevertheless, WWE went forward and found Chamberland under the assumption that he was Gowen, and almost offered him a contract and a spot in the storyline with Vince McMahon, which would have looked very different at Chamberland is a much bigger athlete compared to Gowen. After he started appearing on TNA's televised events, WWE finally realized that they had nearly hired the wrong one-legged wrestler, and Chamberland never made it to WWE.
However, Chamberland is very well respected figure both in the wrestling business and out of it. He lost his leg back in 2003, but that didn't stop him from pursuing a career in wrestling, even training with WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, at the time where they thought he was Zach Gowen. With that said, it's his work outside of the ring that has given Chamberland national notoriety as he founded the 50 Legs charity in 2011, an organization set up to help amputees across the country and cover the cost of prosthetics that health insurance doesn't cover. The likes of Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart have helped the charity over the years, and as of 2025, 50 Legs has raised millions of dollars to help those in need.
A man who earned the respect of everyone in the wrestling business long before he ever considered being a wrestler, Chris Melendez only had a short stint in the industry, but left a lasting impression for how tough he was.
Melendez made his wrestling debut in 2014, but it was back in 2006 when he lost his left leg while serving his country. Melendez enlisted in the US military at the age of 17 following the events of 9/11 and became an infantryman. He served his country during the Iraq war, but was nearly killed when his platoon was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (or an IED), and he suffered several life-threatening injuries. Medics were able to keep Melendez steady, but his leg couldn't be saved and had to be amputated as a result, and Melendez returned to the United States to receive the Purple Heart, a military honor given to those who are wounded while serving.
Melendez would have a short-lived career in both film and TV in the years following his amputation, but would try his hand at professional wrestling by training at a small school in New York City. He would eventually get introduced to Ken Anderson and The Dudley Boyz, the latter of whom thought that with a little more serious training, he could potentially be a good fit for TNA. This would lead to Melendez training with The Dudley Boyz and eventually signing a full-time deal with TNA in 2014, and he would appear regularly for the company across the two years he spent with them. While he never won any championships, Melendez was a highlight of the company during a time when TNA was in danger of going out of business, and fans were more than happy to see him return for a special "Tribute to the Troops" special in 2019, where he defeated Sami Callihan.
While the likes of Zach Gowen, Chris Melendez, and Steve Chamberland have been aided by the fact that they at least have one of their legs, the same can't be said for Dustin Thomas.
Nicknamed "No Legs" for the simple fact he has no legs, Thomas was born with a spinal issue and had to have both of his legs amputated by the time he was three years old. This would be devastating to most people, but due to the fact that the double amputation came at such a young age, life without any legs is all Thomas has ever known, so he's never let his disability get in his way.
Thomas grew up as a wrestling fan and even has an amateur wrestling background, with the fact that he has no lower body making him eligible for much lighter weight classes. He even joined the wrestling program that former UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones was a part of, meaning that he is no slouch when it comes to his ground game, but he can also navigate the ropes as good as anyone with all four limbs, even adopting Rey Mysterio's 619 as his finishing move.
In recent years, it has been Game Changer Wrestling that Thomas has called home, routinely showing up during their WrestleMania weekend shows to take part in their "Clusterf**k" battle royal matches, while also having standout matches with the likes of Joey Janela and Tony Deppen. Thomas can also make the claim of being part of AEW history as he was one of the 21 men to take part in the Casino Battle Royale at the company's Double or Nothing pay-per-view back in 2019, meaning that Thomas wrestled in the first-ever AEW match.
