The battle-hardened men and women of the WWE locker room wear their wounds as badges of honor. Every scar comes with an important story, some from inside the ring and others outside it. Regardless of the setting, they are the type of tales you will likely never forget. The WWE locker room reveals the brutal details of their scars in stories that aren’t for the faint of heart.

Big E

Location: Left shoulder

“In January 2006, I was playing college football at Iowa. I was injured, but I was still with the team, just training on my own. I was bench-pressing, doing ‘heavy triples,’ which are sets of three until you can’t go any heavier. I wasn’t lifting a lot of weight, but during one set, I felt a pop and a tear in my pec right at the tendon.”

Big E opens up about injuries, lifting

“I couldn’t move my shoulder after it happened. As serious as it was, it was actually the least painful of my injuries. It was bad, but not nearly as bad as tearing my ACL or fracturing my patella. The scar on my shoulder is from the reconstructive surgery. I spent four weeks in a sling, followed immediately by rehab with the football program, working on range of motion for about three months. It took a while to get my strength back, but I did, and I came back stronger than ever.”

Learn more about Big E’s rise to Superstardom

Bad News Barrett

Location: Right underarm

“As you know, my reputation as a bare-knuckle fighter often precedes me — it’s how I made my way in the world before being signed to WWE. That being said, due to the ‘less-than-legal’ nature of that particular sport, I’m not so inclined to give too many details about how this 12-inch scar came into my possession. These are the types of things that tend to happen when you’re fighting in an ex-communist country.”

Watch Bad News Barrett attempt to deliver good news

“As you might imagine, the scar didn’t come from the actual fight — which I won soundly — but from the getaway afterward. Let’s just say the local authorities weren’t thrilled with the outcome, or the fact that I was leaving with ‘their’ money. All told, I somehow managed to keep my winnings, though I have a constant reminder of why I’ll never visit that country ever again.”

Dream Match of Bad News: Barrett vs. Brown

Roman Reigns

Location: Right eye

“It happened in the heat of the moment in The Shield’s match versus Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston and Big E (Raw, Feb. 3, 2014) so it didn’t really hurt per se. It was only after the stitches and once the adrenaline wore off around the time that I was going to sleep when I started to feel the pain. But in the moment, I didn’t feel anything. I think it’s badass.”

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“It’s a keepsake and a memory that I’ll have for doing something that I love. I’ve certainly given a few scars in my day, more than I’ve received — trust me. As for comparing scars with the rest of The Shield, we always make sure if we see each other nicked up or bruised up, that we get it taken care of because you never want a little thing to become a big thing. We’ve got each other’s backs.”

Graphic photos: Reigns receives sutures

Jey Uso

Location: Right shoulder

“I was playing middle linebacker in college. It was a regular day at a regular football practice. I went head-on with this running back who was 255 pounds and ran a 4.5 in the 40 — just a big dude. And it was just me and him. I went low to hit him in the hip. As I went down, his knee was coming up. It was Knee vs. Shoulder, and my shoulder gave out, and I flipped his ass. But I didn’t feel it. I got up, and it was just a tweak. I came out and went back in. This was the beginning of spring practice.”

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“Then I played with it all through the season. I came out twice during games because I had to pop it back in. I had surgery on my right shoulder the day after the last game of the season. The surgery was tough to overcome. The recovery process took a year and a half because I had torn all my tendons, my rotator cuff and the back of my bicep. It wasn’t just from one particular impact, it was the whole season.”

Step behind the match with The Usos

Jimmy Uso

Location: Neck

“It happened four or five years ago, I was out with a friend of mine and this individual was harassing a girl all night at a lounge we were chillin’ at. Throughout the night, I asked the guy to be cool about it and he said ‘all right.’ Of course, he was intoxicated. Later in the night, it was still going on, so I walked up to him and told him, ‘This is getting ridiculous.’ I was trying to be the bigger man and not start something out of nothing. Out of nowhere, someone swings a bottle. I didn’t see it coming. The bottle hits me, and it broke right across my neck.”

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“I didn’t know it was that serious until I woke up in the hospital already all stitched up. Then it made me realize — how stupid! It was the wrong place at the wrong time. The doctor told me he could literally put his whole index finger into my neck. It had me straight for seven or eight months. I never went out because the doctor said my life was an inch away from being taken away. That shook me for a while. I didn’t do anything and stayed home, and I king of grew up then.”

Watch Jimmy exchange vows with Naomi on “Total Divas”

Cody Rhodes

Location: Forehead

“I believe it was June 30, 2007. June 30th is my birthday. I was brought up from the developmental system and was on the road for the first time. I hadn’t debuted on television, and I was appearing at Raw Live Events. My first match was with Daivari. In the first three minutes of the bout, I hit the ropes confidently, bounced back and he pointed his elbow right in between my eyes. And that’s when I realized I was completely busted open. Now, I had seen my dad gushing all the time and thought this was cool. But I remember looking at a kid in the front row gasping — and then realized I hit an artery and everything squirted out.”

Cody Rhodes tells all in a Q-and-A

“Mike Chioda, the senior referee, stopped my very first match. I was taken to the back and, instead of microstitches or glue, got cable stitches. Those cable stitches developed into my ‘Harry Potter’ scar, which I have today. Funny side story: Randy Orton, who rode with me during my very first weekend, told me I should get a little air on it. So I opened the window and two of my cable stitches popped open. Plasma dripped down my nose in Applebee’s for about 40 minutes.”

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Fandango

Location: Right bicep

“Mine comes from an FCW match about (four) years ago. It was Derrick Bateman and I versus Hunico and Epico in a Ladder Match. We did two nights in a row and in the second night, the ladder spreader became bent during the match and it was very sharp. I took a hip toss into the ladder in the middle of the bout, and that metal bracing stuck into my arm and cut into it pretty deep. That’s one of the reasons I wear an armband as part of my gear. I remind myself how lucky I am when I get in the ring because you never know when you can get seriously hurt.”

Read about Fandango‘s iconic theme

Seth Rollins

Location: Neck

“In fall 2009, I’d been having trouble with my neck for maybe a year or a year and a half. I just had terrible mobility in my neck region. It was inhibiting my workouts, inhibiting my work … I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to do something about that, so I went to the doctor’s and had a couple of MRIs. I wanted a procedure that was minimally invasive, and wasn’t going to put me out for a long time, and I found a doctor who was able to go into the back of my neck and basically just carve out some of the bone, doing what they call a foraminotomy. The foramen is this little hole that the nerve slides up through in your spinal column.”

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“The surgeon basically widened the foramen and was able to alleviate many of the symptoms. I’m wholly functional and everything’s good. But it left a nasty scar because he told me not be active for a few weeks until it healed up. And, of course, I didn’t listen to him, so the scar opened back up and they had to sew it together again. That was (four) almost (five) years ago now, so I feel like I’ve got a new lease on life somewhat.”

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Jack Swagger

Location: Forehead

“The one on the top of my head required six stitches, and I got it in Mexico in a match against MVP. We were out in the crowd, and I threw him into the metal guardrails a couple of times. Then he turned it around on me. And gave me a good one and, instantly, the faucet turned on. We stopped the bout. I told them, ‘You’re not stapling me!’ The second one happened recently in Jacksonville, Fla. I actually Touted a video of it. This one took eight stitches. I was wrestling Santino, and let me just say that for everyone who thinks the Cobra is just a sock on the hand … well, I got bit. Stung by the Cobra after hitting the turnbuckle.”

Watch Jack Swagger win Money in the Bank

Kofi Kingston

Location: Right calf

“I used to race BMX bikes with my friends back in fifth or sixth grade. One day I went off a curb; now, it was the best curb in the neighborhood, and I decided to attack it. I got so much air, and by the time the bike came down, and I almost fell off it, I didn’t know what happened, only that the bike had hit my leg. I was relieved that I didn’t fall, but when I looked at my friends, their eyes were wide open.”

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“I looked down at my leg, and there was a huge chunk, the size of a fist, gone from my leg. The pedal had taken a chunk out of my leg. It was disgusting. It was something straight out of a movie. It didn’t hurt until I saw it. Then I had to go and get it stitched up, but it was definitely devastating It put me on crutches for a while, and ruined my summer.”

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The Miz

Location: Forehead

“You know I got this scar from Kofi Kingston — I got six stitches from that kick of his. The Trouble In Paradise usually doesn’t give anyone stitches, but Kofi put a little extra oomph in it that time. Not only did it (cut me), but people thought it knocked me out. But I was back the next day, still working, still alive, still ready to go — that’s how hard of a head I have. Most people would be out for months. Careers would’ve been ended. Me? I was back the next day. All I got was a tiny, measly little scar with six stitches.”

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“Most people say I look tougher now because of it, but I’m pissed off because my face is my moneymaker. This is what people want to see. I’m a movie star. No, I’m not getting any plastic surgery; The Miz doesn’t do plastic surgery. The Miz is too good-looking. Anything added to Miz’s face is just an enhancement.”

The Awesome One plays a game of “Fight! Tag! Manage!”

Zack Ryder

Location: Chest

“When in was in high school, I had cancer. It’s not something I talk about a lot because I don’t want to turn it into a sympathy issue. To make a long story short, one summer I found a lump on my foot. It was a tumor and was removed, but a year later, the doctors found that it had returned in my lungs. They called the cancer a Synovial Sarcoma. The scars on my chest are from ports they inserted to put medicine into my body. It was scary. I had no white blood cells at one point, and my body couldn’t fight off infection. It was brutal, and I missed an entire year of school, but I’m completely healthy now, and I’ve been cancer-free ever since.”

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William Regal

Locations: Ear, Lip and Eyelid

“Scars add character. Scars on your face can make you register more with the public. It never hurts to have a few. The scar on my ear is my most recent. I received it (June 2012) against Dean Ambrose down in FCW. He removed the cover to the turnbuckle, a move that any proper villain would employ, and smashed the side of my head against the exposed metal. The trainers put some glue on it to seal it shut, but it didn’t take, so then I had to get stitches. I refused to go to the hospital, though.”

A lifetime in the ring with Regal

“The one on my lip came from The Boogeyman, of all people. That one punch required stitches inside and outside my mouth. It still feels numb to this day. But at least I never had to suffer the indignity of being fed and of his worms. Odd, that I, of all people, missed out on that particular honor. And, as for the one on my eyelid … well, I received it courtesy of Finlay in our Parking Lot Brawl Match on Nitro all the way back in 1996. He never mentions it, but it does tend to act up a bit whenever the weather starts to get cold.”

See photos of this Master Villain’s career

Dean Ambrose

Locations: Back and right shoulder

“The big one that runs up and down my back I received in a ‘Barbwire Death Match’ in Germany back around 2009. I was facing a known independent rival of mine. We ended up so tangled in the barbed wire that it was in my hair, in my face, and my arm was wrapped up in it — basically my whole body was lodged in there with him. Think Terry Funk and Sabu from 1994. At one point, we were tangled like two chickens, so much so that it took two or three guys with wire-cutters about 10 minutes to get both of us out.”

Step behind the match with Ambrose

“I like the scar, though. It looks cool even though people never really get to see it. There are always emergency guys on call for matches like that one, and they just stitched me right up. But you wake up the next day in the hotel room, and the bed looks like a crime scene, and your T-shirt is tuck to your back because you’re covered in dried plasma. My next match was the very next day: It was just a weekend tour, you know, nothing too crazy.”

Dream Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Santino Marella

Location: Lip

“The scar on my lip, which you can only really see when I shave, was from when I hit ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan with a guitar It came during my run with the Honk-a-meter and the Intercontinental Championship during the Oct. 20, 2008, episode of Raw. One of the strings on the guitar was too tight, so when I hit Duggan, the string recoiled and snapped back, slicing my lip up. I needed about eight stitches to seal it. It was a short cut, but very deep, and they had to put stitches inside my lip, too. I kind of deserved it, though, since I was the one who hit Hacksaw.”

Take a look at Santino’s title history

Titus O'Neil

Location: Right arm

“I got my scar on my right arm in a football game against Alabama during my sophomore year. I was making a tackle, and the helmet scraped my arm and gashed it open. Luckily, we were able to bandage it up and I was able to get back in the game and continue playing (Note: Ranked No. 8 at the time, O’Neil’s Florida Gators would go on to win that particular game, on the road, no less).”

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“As to whether I like it or hate it, you can hardly see it as much as you could when it first happened. So I guess I like it now! It shows I’ve done something in my life.”

Photos: O'Neil visits Newcastle