Mercedes Martinez Talks Being KO’d In Final WWE Match
Mercedes Martinez has spoken out about being knocked out in the middle of the ring by Xia Li, claiming that Li “kicked the living daylights” out of her.
Martinez spoke with DNC Digital about the incident, which occurred on the June 29th episode of NXT when she paired up with Jake Atlas to take on Xia Li & Boa. After a roundhouse kick from Li to Martinez, the bout was called off in the middle:
“So the match was… Everyone saw the match, the match was fine, everything was going fine. We were going to the end of the match to be honest. Xia had to give me a roundhouse kick. Mind you, I’d taken it so many times. I don’t know if it was timing, I don’t know if our spacing was wrong, but she basically kicked the living daylights out of me. Like, knocked me out on impact.”
Mercedes Martinez was quick to point out that Xia Li isn’t irresponsible, claiming that the two have wrestled many times before and that it was simply one kick where something didn’t go as planned that left her concussed:
“It’s not even… She’s not reckless, I’ve wrestled her and I was Xia Li’s first match ever in WWE. So, I really trusted her, we’ve had our matches, we’ve trained together. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust her. I trusted her. You have to trust your opponent. But she gave me the roundhouse kick and you have to protect yourself here, but usually I’ve always been that person where realism comes into play. She’s given me the kick before, I really trust her. I’m like, ‘All right.’ I didn’t even have time to put my hand up. As soon as I walked in, that kick hit me too high up on the temple and knocked me out clean.”
“I don’t even remember falling. I guess from that impact, being knocked out, hitting the ground, like, I DDT’d myself, that’s a double whammy of an impact. I don’t remember anything after that. I remember getting up on the apron with the doctors and the trainers there, and I was just like, ‘What happened?’ Basically, I had a concussion. Basically, I had a concussion. And I knew it. I was like, ‘Damn it.’ They stopped the match because I was out and they were like, ‘You were not coherent enough.”
The former NXT Superstar went on to describe what she remembered from the match, as well as how she passed all of her tests just two days after the bout:
“I always tell Aja [Smith], who is the referee, she’s been my referee for a lot of my matches. I always say she’s my guardian angel because she knows me so well from the indies. If it was any other referee… She knows how I am, she knows I can take hits really hard and keep moving. For her to call the match off like that, it’s because she genuinely knew that I was hurt. She’s always been my guardian angel in the ring. God bless her. I basically had a concussion. Went to the hospital, they did the scans, all the scans came negative, no broken neck, no nothing. Basically, within… Two days after that, I passed my concussion protocol test, my impact test.”
“So I was knocked out silly on TV, had the headaches and soreness, but I was able to… I was diagnosed with a concussion, but I was able to pass all my tests within a week or so right after. It’s was almost like I needed to be knocked out for me to get sh*t back to normal [laughs]. I had a concussion, or sometimes you get knocked woozy in a match and you see stars, then you’re foggy for days and days and days but this was a clear knockout and I was up and ready to go within two days.”
Mercedes Martinez joked that she just needed a long nap, but she couldn’t get cleared for another three weeks, which was when the storyline was scheduled to pick up. Xia Li, on the other hand, was then injured before Martinez was released from her contract:
“It took three weeks to officially get cleared. Once I got cleared, and they continued the programme. They were going to continue the programme with me, Jake [Atlas], and Xia. They were going to continue the storyline, but they put it off I think because Xia got hurt, and I got released maybe a week after I got cleared.”