Two years ago today, I had neck surgery. A neck surgery that, in my mind, I knew that I needed for a while, but was in denial. But the more my left arm got weaker and the more numbness I would feel, I knew I had to get it checked out.
At the time, I was involved in a longggggg feud with BJ Whitmer, that was extended due to injuries to BJ, a change in plans a few times from the Booker of ROH, but we had everything in line to meet at Final Battle 2015. The TV had been shot and everything was in line to end the feud.
That was on a Saturday. On the following Tuesday, my wife and I went to the doctor to find out the results of my X-Rays. I literally walked in thinking that I would get a shot in my neck for pain management and told to stop being a baby and suck it up. It’s the same mentality I had throughout my career. A mentality that I know now is 100% wrong.
My heart sunk into my big belly as the Doctor told me that, not only, I needed major surgery to fix my neck, but that my career was over.
OVER.
I asked him if I could just have one more match. My immediate thought was to push up the Final Battle match with BJ, get “hurt” during the match, and go away for a few months. I knew that I had the commentary job, so it kind of softened the blow that I would not be an in-ring competitor anymore.
But what do you do with a feud that never should have been started? How do I say that? Because the BJ Whitmer-Steve Corino feud would have never started if, what I thought was the finish for the 2013 ROH cage match, was actually the finish. Now, that story will be for another time….
After I had the surgery, I promised myself that I would work hard and at least get back into the ring a few more times. That, of course, is what I would say with any injury.
My wife turned me on to Emerald Isle Cross Fit and Josh Wells worked hard to get me back in to ring shape. After my first post-op X-Ray, the surgeon told me that he had never seen a neck look so good and that I had built up the muscle around my neck. He expected me back in the ring in SIX MONTHS. So, instead of having my in-ring career finished, I was looking at being back in the ring in seven months.
I knew the time table could now be set to have the match with BJ. But, six months wasn’t good enough for me. I had to have some warm up matches. So, in March of 2016, 15 years after making my Japanese debut, I returned to Pro-Wrestling ZERO1 one last time to team with CW Anderson vs. Jun Kasai and Tatsuhito Takiawa in Tokyo. Did I mention that I literally just got cleared to wrestle the DAY before I left for Japan? Oops.
Although I was less than 50% ready ring-wise (it was the first time I had been in the ring since finding out I needed the surgery) and 10% confidence, CW (as he always has) lead the match and hid me very well.
Three months later, on PPV, I finally got to have my one-on-one match with BJ. One that I am very proud of. And its an angle that, although we had so much resistance from day one, showed that old-school storylines and totally out of the box thinking can create an emotional battle that people were going to feel strongly one way or the other.
One day, I will talk about how this feud started, stopped, started again, fluttered 32 times, and then went totally out of the realm of our alternate universe that we call pro-wrestling. If you hated this angle, you are going to absolutely HATE where I wanted this to go. If you enjoyed this angle, you may get a kick out of where I wanted this to go.
Either way, I type this feeling better than I ever physically. Heavier than ever, but I love food. Huge thanks to my wife Jordan, Josh Wells, Dr. Dalrymple, and everyone for motivating me and fixing me.
17November
2017
2017
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