Ken Shamrock joined the WWE in 1997 following a hiatus from UFC. Shamrock was regarded as “The World’s Most Dangerous Man”. He was one of the most amazing, gifted and technical fighters in the world of MMA and pro wrestling, respectively.
During the “Attitude Era”, Shamrock had a memorable feud with The Rock in early 1998. These men feuded over the WWE Intercontinental Championship and had some downright brutal matches. Ken Shamrock had one of his biggest victories of his wrestling career when he won the 1998 King of the Ring tournament by defeating The Rock.
Ken Shamrock joined Impact Wrestling stars, Ethan Page and Rob Van Dam for an episode of Impact Wrestling Vlog. During this episode, Ken recalls a moment where he had coughed up blood during one of his encounters with The Rock. Ken spoke fondly of The Rock, talking how much he wanted both of them to change the industry of professional wrestling.
“The funny thing about that is, it’s not funny. That was back in The Attitude Era and we went after one another. Rock went after me; I went after him and we all understood going into the ring that we were trying to do something special,” said Shamrock. “We wanted to change the landscape of pro wrestling from being a talent show and looking pretty to just rough and tough.”
Shamrock goes on to speak about the moment in which he bled profusely from his mouth. This became one of the most gruesome moments of the Attitude Era for the amount of realism and sacrifice Shamrock endured.
“So, Rock beat the hell out of me and I turn around and beat the hell out of The Rock. Same with Stone Cold. Same with Shawn Michaels. The matches we had with Vader – it was the real deal. So, when I was coughing up blood, that was no joke. We all, during that time, left our soul, our sweat and our blood in that ring in order for us to come out with that product that we know today as The Attitude Era,” stated Shamrock.
Page asked Shamrock if the blood was indeed real or was it a capsule? Shamrock replied:
“Noooo, I’m telling you; we tear lungs,” revealed Shamrock. “I did the same where I was coughing up blood taking a slam because I had a tear in my lung, which is like a little paper cut or a tear in your lung from getting slammed so hard. Blood would start leaking in. If you did it enough times it would stay open you would drown… That was no capsule. We didn’t do that during The Attitude Era. When we took things on the pole and were bleeding [from the head], there weren’t blades. We did it the hard way and that’s by hitting it hard with ourselves on a pole to bust it open.”
Sources: WrestlingINC