ROH Star Talks Breaking His Leg During An ROH PPV, How It Happened, His Painful Rehab
ROH Wrestler, TK O'Ryan, spoke with CBS Local Sports about breaking his leg during a match at ROH's 15th Anniversary Show back in March. Here are some of the highlights:
An overview of the days surrounding his injury:
"It's basically been the defining moment of my career, which is bizarre to me. It's like, I can wrestle too, I don't just get hurt! I'm usually pretty durable. ...We were having a great time, and then the show day happens. Everything was going smooth. We got to the arena early and had some nice food. We were energized and ready to go right up to the match. The second our music hit. we got a strong, pretty much, booed-right-out-of-Las Vegas reaction. We felt like we were cooking and then in this one instant all of the sudden? For as cool as everything had been for the first 48 hours, the next 48 hours were probably the most miserable hours of my life. It was crazy. It's hard to explain, because when I bounced off the rope going for the moonsault, the last thing on my mind was that I was going to smash my leg on the guard rail. I was more concerned that I would slip and fall on my butt and look like an idiot."
How the injury happened:
"It's easy to go back since it didn't turn out well and say, 'Oh, well the guardrails are too close. You should have done it on the other side.' Well, no kidding. But if I stuck that move then no one would have said a word about it. People will talk all the time about having the heart and passion and desire for pro wrestling. But when it comes down to doing professional wrestling things, and you're in that spotlight, and it's time to do something and make it yours and it doesn't go right, now you're the idiot. It's funny, one way or the other, you're either a genius or a moron. It's just a matter of having the guts to go for it and finding out which one you might be."
What rehab has been like:
"The first 10 days after surgery was probably 10 out of 10 pain. Constant throbbing relentless pain. But once that let up I've been pretty pain free other than moving around and being uncomfortable. I'm still a bit of away from being able to get back in the ring. For one, the bones aren't completely healed yet. Secondly, once the bones are healed my left leg is noticeably smaller than my right leg. I would be doing myself, Vinny, Taven, Ring of Honor, anyone in the ring with me a disservice if I was in there before I was able to do what I do at my best quality. There's only a slight danger that if the bones don't heal back together properly they'll have to go back in there. There's a metal rod and four screws ? two by my ankle. If it doesn't completely heal, they'll go back in and take out the two screws in my ankle. As I walk it will push the bones back together and force the regrow. That wouldn't be ideal because that would add a significant amount of return time."
You can read the full interview by clicking here.
Source: CBS Local Sports