Injured WWE Star’s Ribs Crumbled After Scary Move On Raw
A WWE superstar has explained what happened when he suffered a brutal injury on Monday Night Raw.
The January 27th episode of WWE Monday Night Raw featured The Judgment Day’s Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh in action against the War Raiders duo of Erik & Ivar, who are the World Tag Team Champions.
Early in the match, McDonagh did a moonsault onto Ivar on the floor where McDonagh hit Ivar’s upper body and then bounced backward into the hard commentary table. Shortly after that, announcer Michael Cole called for help for McDonagh because he realized McDonagh was legitimately hurt.
To his credit, McDonagh continued to fight through the match, which went about 12 minutes, so he was legitimately hurt for about 10 minutes of the match.
McDonagh suffered a punctured lung during the match along with broken ribs and he’s been out of action for nearly two months because of the injury.
While speaking to Insight’s Chris Van Vliet, McDonagh opened up about his unfortunate WWE Raw injury.
“I guess it was in the planning stage really. I needed to be on that side of the ring for something that was going to come up later on. So I said, I’ll just do it on the announce table side. I’ve done it on that side before, but whatever happened on this one, I just was maybe a foot too far forward or a foot too far back and wiped out.”
As he continued, McDonagh realized that he didn’t have a head injury, but he also knew he was hurt.
“In that moment I was just thinking, when’s the next breath gonna come? I knew that I didn’t hit my head that hard, because I knew I’d missed a spot in the match and I knew what was coming up next. So I knew I wasn’t unconscious or anything like that, and then I don’t know, it was like an out-of-body experience, listening to Michael Cole with the concern in his voice.
I’ve heard him all through the years being like, ‘We got to get a medic down here’, and then all of a sudden you’re lying at his feet and he’s saying it about you.
I thought it was maybe cracked ribs. I could feel my ribs on this side were like rice krispies under my skin, they’re definitely messed up. I couldn’t get a full lung full of air but I just thought that was because I was winded from hitting the table. Then the adrenaline kicked in and I was okay, I can do this. I can get back in there and do my part in the match.
I didn’t want to leave the guys, especially because it was one of the first few weeks that we were on Netflix. Everyone’s excited about it, huge audience watching you for the Tag Team Titles, War Raiders’ first defense, yeah, I didn’t want to [quit]. If I can stand up and keep participating, then I’m gonna.”
The thought of stopping the match didn’t cross McDonagh’s mind because he wanted it to continue.
“The thought of stopping didn’t even enter my mind. The referee came down, and he asked me what city we were in and what date it was. I told him that I’m okay and I told him where we were and what we were doing. I said, ‘Tell Dom that I’m okay and I just need a minute.’
He passed the message on, and then the ref actually got a lot of heat for it online, Shawn Bennett. But as far as him doing his job he can only relay the message of what I’m telling them and I told him I was good to go.
One of the WWE docs came out in the ad break. She checked me over, and I knew if she touched my ribs she wouldn’t let me back in there. So she’d thankfully asked me about my head and my neck rather than my ribs. And there was a spot coming up in the match where I was needed so I was like, I gotta go.”
JD McDonagh Needed To Lie Down After WWE Raw Match
When he got backstage, McDonagh said that he didn’t collapse, but he needed to lie down.
“So we got back behind, not even to the curtain. I had my arms over Dom and Carlito coming up the aisle way, and that was really hurting me. But I couldn’t take my hands off them or I would have fallen down. I didn’t want to fall down in Gorilla because there was loads of people waiting to go out to the next match, and you don’t want to sell for anybody in the office.
So I just lay down on the other side of the curtain thinking that I was out of the eyeline of people, but I was in view of the fans. They caught a photo of my feet sticking out into the entrance way they said JD has just collapsed backstage. But I just had to lie down and catch my breath. It wasn’t a full collapse.”
Regarding when he might return to the ring again, McDonagh is hoping it happens over the next month, which would mean mid-April.
“I’d love to be back yesterday. I’m so bored sitting at home watching the guys travelling around, I’m so jealous. They’re going to Europe this week. They’re doing Madison Square Garden on Monday, and then jetting off to Europe. So if I could be back, I’d be back right now. Hopefully, I’m going to put a time frame on it and say within a month I hope to be back, that’s what I’m working towards. So whether that happens or not, whether the WWE docs align, that we’ll see.”
Everybody here at TJRWrestling wishes JD McDonagh all the best with his recovery.
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