Vetter’s Blog: Will there be a proper response to Su Yung’s injury?

By Chris Vetter, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@chrisvetter73)

A recent injury to former TNA wrestler Su Yung is horrific to watch. An adult male wrestler named Lazarus wound up, whipped a chair at her face, and as it flies several feet through the air, the chair turns and strikes her across the nose.

Su Yung suffered a concussion, a broken nose on both sides, a fractured skull, and two black eyes. She also needed seven stitches, she wrote on her Twitter/X page. She has posted the video for all to see. The fans who saw it are rightly horrified by what they saw.

💀🖤https://t.co/qNbFrD8ge0https://t.co/tFxltBJTSl pic.twitter.com/MlfICHkGbj

— s ü y ü n g (@realsuyung) August 14, 2024

The match happened in Las Vegas on August 10. The mixed-tag main event was Su Yung and Sonico vs. Lazarus and Alice Blaire in a “Hardcore Horror” tag match. While I have only seen the clip of the chair striking her, it was presumably a hardcore match.

A GoFundMe account was set up last week, asking people to donate and help pay for medical bills and lost wages while Su recovers. And a reminder that Su had a child recently, so she is a mother of a child somewhere under age three. In the week since the GoFundMe fundraiser went active, it has raised $6,329 as of Monday afternoon.

The backlash on Lazarus was instantaneous. Many people have posted replies on Twitter/X, saying he should never be allowed to wrestle again. And at least according to Cagematch.net, Lazarus hasn’t wrestled since.

So, who is he? No, I’ve not met Lazarus, but I’ve seen him wrestle maybe four times on West Coast Pro shows. He wears a lime green singlet with a spine outline up the middle, and it always makes me think of Mortis’ gear. So, if he was cleared to wrestle in West Coast Pro, that means Chris Hero saw him, and allowed him to perform. I have a high opinion of Hero, who I first met in early 2004 and everyone knows what a great mind he has for the business.

Cagematch.net shows Lazarus has been wrestling for six years and had at least 22 matches this year. His two most recently completed matches are against Tom Lawlor and Ninja Mack, who have competed all across the U.S. and both have toured Japan. So, Lazarus is no ‘back-yarder’ who doesn’t know what he’s doing in the ring.

So… what went wrong? And will the industry try to fix it?

I have thought a lot about this over the past week when I first learned about the injury, after the fundraiser was initially posted.

If you have read my prior indy show reviews, I have repeatedly called for banning throwing chairs. Sure, blame Lazarus for how he wound up, or the distance he was from her, but there is no “Good” way to throw a chair. Once it leaves your hand, you’ve lost control of it. The person it is thrown at can turn their head, and just like that, a horrific injury has occurred. Just a couple weeks ago in GCW, Mance Warner hopped in the ring, whipped a chair at Megan Bayne’s head, and he was so close that she didn’t have any time to get her hands up to block it. It made a sickening sound as it struck her forehead.

NOTHING good comes from throwing a chair. It can ricochet into the crowd, and potentially injure a fan. Can you imagine this being allowed in modern day WWE? No, I can’t. The risks are too high, and the payoff is minimal. The simple fact is you can have that hardcore match, and not throw a chair, and it will be just as good. This really went through my mind — again, all in just the past week — watching Mance Warner vs. surprise opponent Frankie Kazarian on the GCW show in Los Angeles. They had a very good brawl. But not once did Mance dare throw a chair at Kazarian. Frankie never took an unprotected blow to the head. And the match was really good, in fact, one of the better Mance Warner matches I’ve seen. Would it have been better with a whipped chair in the middle of the match? Definitely not.

So, will the industry step up?

In November 2022, indy veteran Chris Hamrick stood in a GCW ring in Rhode Island, barked at a fan, and called the fan a gay slur — the ‘other f-bomb’ so to speak. The reaction was immediate. GCW donated Hamrick’s salary to a local LGBTQ group. Not only has Hamrick not wrestled in GCW since then… he hasn’t wrestled at all, Cagematch.net records show.

I’m not saying Lazarus should suffer the same fate, but others might say that is justified.

But it is time for indy promoters to step up. Protect your performers. Immediately order that thrown chairs — once that leave the hand — are banned, or face the consequences. A match is not improved by it.

I don’t doubt that if one promoter enacts this policy, others will follow. And wrestlers who are suddenly facing a lifetime ban will follow suit.

And don’t think a lifetime ban isn’t an empty threat. In the wake of the “Speaking Out” movement, many male wrestlers who were accused of improper sexual behavior are simply gone from the industry. Fans demanded it, promoters enforced it.

So… who will step up? Or are we just going to wait until the next Su Yung to suffer an injury?