Just days ahead of stepping into the ring at AEW All Out Wardlow has admitted that his body is mess, while revealing he once hid a serious injury so he could still wrestle.
As the years have passed more and more wrestlers have become increasingly open about the tremendous toll that wrestling takes on their body.
Unlike “legitimate” sports there’s no off season, and the wrestlers themselves often push through the pain barrier to continue performing week in and week out.
Through the summer a number of top stars across multiple companies were struck down with injuries, with the likes of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes all missing time due to a variety of different ailments. Not that things are plain sailing for those still competing, with Ruby Soho recently admitting that she’s “held together by toothpicks and bubble gum” as a result of her in-ring career.
Speaking during an appearance on Athletes and the Arts, Wardlow has now opened up about his own injury struggles. The TNT Champion admitted that he is currently a “mess” and hid the fact that he tore his calf so he could compete inside the first-ever Blood and Guts match in AEW history.
“I’m wrestling year-round with injuries. I got in trouble with Doc [Doc Sampson] one time because I didn’t tell anybody about a torn calf that blew out doing sprints because I was getting prepared for Blood and Guts and I wasn’t going to miss that match for nothing. I hid it and wrestled with a completely torn calf. I have tears in my knee, my shoulders, I’m a mess, but we love it and this is what we do,”
The match in question saw Wardlow team with MJF, Shawn Spears and FTR to defeat Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz, Jake Hager and Sammy Guevara.
At All Out Wardlow will join forces with FTR once again, this time to take on Jay Lethal and the Motor City Machine Guns.
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.