By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Chris Bey
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On what he remembers from the day of the accident: “I remember from the day being sore from Bound for Glory, crazy match. Once the adrenaline wore off at Bound for Glory I was feeling it. So when I walked in that next day I was like man I hope I’m cutting a promo today. I said I did not feel like wrestling. As soon as I heard I was wrestling The Hardys I was like sweet, double-edged sword, because you’re wrestling the Hardys but then physically you don’t want to do it. But then I told myself and I told [Ace] Austin too. These guys used to do this six nights a week. We can do it. It’s no big deal. The match was going good. We had a lot of time, which was different from the first time we met those guys. Just team versus team. First time we didn’t have a lot of time. This time we had more time so we were all confident and comfortable with what we were doing. I’m in there with my best friend and two of my idols, it’s a night off essentially, and then a spot that you’ve done a million times up until this point goes wrong. As soon as it goes wrong, you don’t notice what’s wrong, you just know something isn’t right.
“I felt a jolt. It was a neckbreaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt, and I felt a little bit of discomfort. Referee Daniel Spencer comes over and checks on me, ‘Chris, are you okay?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so, just roll me out the way’, because I needed help rolling out of the way. I didn’t realize how much help I needed. Austin said it didn’t look like I needed a lot. Looked like I helped too. I just felt like I wanted assistance rolling out of the way quick enough because I knew they had to do some more stuff. I didn’t want them to think that I was just selling and bump on top of me, expecting me to move. I’ve had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger.”
On if he was in pain at that point and what happened next: “I was numb. It was a weird feeling that I can’t exactly explain, because I’ve never experienced it before. I just know it was kind of a numb feeling. I didn’t realize all of what was numb, I just felt a numbness. But because of the adrenaline and because of the perfectionist I am, I was thinking about the art we were creating and how my brush made a mark I didn’t want because the spot didn’t go perfect. So instead of thinking about how I felt, I was thinking about how to get back on track in the match. So once he helped roll me out of the way, I’m looking out of the side of my eye to see them do the next sequence and see if that goes right. It does. Crowd reacts and I’m like, okay, cool. It’s my turn to get back up and do my next spot.
“So mentally, I roll over and grab the ropes and sell around. Physically, I’m laying there. So Matt and Jeff come over to me and I was like, ‘Let’s just go to Swanton. Let’s just end this.’ Because I can’t get up. I’m already laying here I’m like, let’s just go to the Swanton, which I’ve never had to cut stuff in a match before so my pride was hurt a little bit, but I just knew I couldn’t get up. I didn’t know why though. So Jeff starts to climb the top rope, and as he’s climbing the top rope I’m thinking that I should be able to brace for this. So once again, mentally, I’m doing this motion [moves arms]. Physically, nothing’s happening, and I’m laying there doing this [arms stay still].
“So I’m yelling at the ref now, telling Jeff not to do the Swanton now as he’s already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn’t do the Swanton. He protects me, drops a leg drop but misses by a mile, protects me and he covers me. I’m just so apologetic. I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match, I messed up. I’m sorry.’ And they’re like, ‘No, are you all right?’ Our ringside doctor comes over to me, he checks on me, he tries to get me to squeeze his hands, and at this point my fingers are shaking a little bit but they’re not squeezing. I tell Austin, I’m like, ‘Bro, take my elbow pads off me now because my arms are hot.’ The adrenaline’s wearing off and my arms are like a million degrees. So I’m telling Austin to pull my elbow pads down because I’m thinking my circulation is just too tight.
“In my mind, in this moment 30 minutes from now, I’ll be in the locker room talking about how crazy whatever just happened was, and I’m going to shake this off. I’m gonna catch a flight tomorrow and head back home, go back to the gym and get back to a routine. I’m laying there, and the doctor asked me if I can wiggle my toes. Once he asked me that I go I can’t feel my toes. I realized then, okay, this is more serious. I’ve never had a real injury. I’ve had minor injuries, but I’ve never had a real injury. I’ve never had to have a surgery. So I don’t know what breaking a neck feels like. I don’t know what breaking an arm feels like. I don’t know. So I’m just confused in this moment and I’m embarrassed. It’s probably like 2,500 people in the room and it’s dead silent, so it’s awkward, it’s scary. Austin’s there. He’s by my side, Matt and Jeff’s there, the ringside doctor, Daniel Spencer our referee is here, everyone’s around me, I can’t move. I can’t look left or right other than with my eyeballs.
“They put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher. I remember telling Austin, ‘Hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher.’ I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn’t happening. He laughs, you know, tears in his eyes, he laughs. I’m like, ‘Alright, go tell Jeff the joke. Now tell Matt the joke, I want them to laugh now, lighten the moment a little bit.’ So he scurries over and tells them the joke. They put me on the stretcher, and I start to cry a little bit. I was like, alright, suck it up man. They’re about to take you to the back locker room. I don’t want the boys to see you like this. They take me through the back and they put me in the ambulance, and I wanted them to get my phone so I could contact my people, let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Called my girlfriend. I let her know. She had already kind of heard about it. It was already kind of making the rounds internally and maybe online too with fans, but I know internally it was making the rounds. I called one of my best friends in Vegas, Shogun, I told him that I was hurt and it’s time for him to hold it down because I don’t know what what’s about to happen. They’re speculating that maybe it’s just a neck break. They don’t really know.
“They’re threatening to cut my boots off. They’re brand new boots. I’m like, ‘Don’t cut those boots. Show me a mirror. I’ll tell you how to take them off but don’t cut those boots. Those are brand new boots.’ They rush me to the hospital. Austin’s by my side, and I have them kind of going through my phone calling people that are important to call. My mom, people who are reaching out, not too many people because it’s overwhelming. They’re shoving forms in my face asking me to sign stuff. I can’t move my hands.
“I knew it got really real when they rolled me over at some point and I saw my tights, my kneepads and my boots neatly stacked next to me uncut and I never felt them take any article of clothing off of me. I still didn’t know what to think. At this point, they told me they were gonna operate on my neck and I’ve never broken anything like I said, so I don’t know if this how you’re supposed to feel when you break your neck. I don’t know if everyone who’s ever broken their neck has gone through what I’m going through in the moment. So Austin’s there and I’m trying to figure it out, I’m in so much pain at this point now. They tell me the surgeon is going to be there in maybe 30 minutes, longest 30 minutes of my life, because I’m in so much pain, I just want to either end it or get under anesthesia so we can do this, because let’s get to it. What are we waiting for? The surgeon to get there. But what are we waiting for? I’m ready. They put me under. Woke up the next day. It was day one.”
On the surgery: “So they went in the front and they fused my C6 to my C7 which healed up pretty nicely. It was 19 staples across the front, which once I was finally able to move my hands a lot I was touching the staples a lot because couldn’t believe I had staples in my neck. What a weird feeling. They went in the back and they fused my C6 to my T1 because the damage that happened wasn’t just a neck break. It was also damage to my spinal cord, which is why I became paralyzed. So a lot of people don’t experience that exact thing, but people have their own stories, their own journeys. It’s difficult for everybody. It’s not a comparison.”
On his chances of walking again after the surgery: “They x-rayed me before the surgery, and I do remember them showing me what my neck was looking like. I believe there was a fragment I was pushing into my spinal cord, and that was one of the issues. Afterwards the conversation was more so about what they thought recovery looked like, what it typically is in this scenario, and what they anticipated would be my result. They say you see your most results in recovery, like the quickest results in around three to six months. In about a year to 18 months is where you’ll see where you’ll be. For me, they were predicting about a 10 to 25 percent chance of walking again. Beat the odds.”
On if he thinks he can wrestle again: “Never say never, right? The day after day one, the day after the surgery, I was very content and understanding that my career was over. I didn’t see a world where I came back to wrestling. I was laying there, couldn’t move anything from the neck down. It felt like I had passed away because there’s all this love for me online, they say you get your flowers when you’re gone. There’s all this love for me online that everyone’s telling me about and everyone’s calling me and having people reach out to me who I’ve never my wildest dreams imagined reach out to me. They’re making video packages about me. It was like I was watching and spectating my life and my life is now over, and wrestling is my life. It was my life. It is my life. It still consumes me. In that moment I was like okay, wrestling is over.
“I want to one day have a family. I want to be able to one day stand and run and play with my kids one day. Family was something I never thought about in my early 20s, but in my later 20s now being 29 is very important to me. It’s something that I want so badly, not now, but one day, and the thought of never being able to achieve that broke me. That broke me, and that drove me more than anything because I had a great eight years in wrestling. Eight years, that was it, but I did so much in eight years that lived my wildest dreams. I feel like I made an impact on the world. I was able to help train, coach and motivate people who are in the game today. It’s a dream career, if it had to end, if it’s over now, cool. I want to walk, I want to stand, I want to be able to function. And then maybe a couple weeks ago now I’m walking again and I’m back in the gym I told my girl, I was like, ‘What if I do wrestle again one day? I’m still young. What if I took five years off, if I took four years off and came back in my mid-30s?’ It’s possible. It’s been done before. Nothing’s impossible, and that’s where the greatest story ever told is born.”
Be the first to comment