Damian Priest scored an enormous upset in Glasgow, Scotland on June 15, 2024, when he defeated native hero Drew McIntyre to retain his WWE Heavyweight title, and though the storyline known as for CM Punk to help in that shock victory, much more surprising was a freak accident that noticed Priest’s leg turn out to be entangled within the ropes, nearly ripping his limb out of its socket within the course of.
The stomach-churning second was a stark reminder that professional wrestlers put their our bodies on the road in a means that many different athletes would by no means have to contemplate. Not like in boxing or MMA, an damage sustained within the professional wrestling ring hardly ever requires the bout to be stopped, because the grapplers usually suck it as much as full no matter epic storyline is scheduled to play out, dwell, earlier than thousands and thousands of expectant followers.
M&F attended the “Conflict on the Fortress” submit present press convention, and had been capable of get Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s ideas on why wrestlers are among the many hardest people on the planet, and why you must by no means be tempted to strive the strikes out at dwelling.
Damian Priest nearly shattered his leg in freak accident at Conflict on the Fortress 2024
A number of minutes into defending his title in the principle occasion inside Glasgow’s Hydro area, towards fan-favorite Drew McIntyre, the 6’ 5”, 250-pound champ gave the impression to be making an attempt to leap exterior of the ring to squash the massive Scot through the use of the center rope as a springboard. Sadly, as Priest made his ascent, the center rope grew to become intertwined with the highest rope, trapping proper leg.
As Priest launched himself exterior of the ring, his decrease leg and ankle remained fastened and had been unable to maneuver, which means that as his torso accomplished a ahead roll, he nearly dislocated a joint or broke a bone on this scary state of affairs.
Issues received actual – The second @ArcherOfInfamy received caught up within the ropes. Confirmed lots of coronary heart to complete the match mainly on one good leg. pic.twitter.com/njyqwK9l0z #WweCastle
— Scott “Future” Felstead (@scottfuture) June 16, 2024
Whereas critics usually deride professional wrestling as being extra like a cleaning soap opera than an actual sport, it’s moments like this that proceed for instance simply how harmful this hybrid of sporting efficiency leisure actually is.
Triple H feedback on the real bodily risks in professional wrestling
Attending the ‘Conflict on the Fortress’ submit present press convention, I requested the WWE legend and present Chief Content material Officer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Lavesque if he had any recollections of being in an analogous kind of state of affairs, the place the need to entertain a worldwide fanbase is weighed-up with an athlete’s personal private wellbeing.
“Yeah, not good ones,” he mirrored. “Yeah, I’ve been in that state of affairs earlier than the place, , as you stated, it’s a full contact sport. The damage fee is 100%. Nobody will get out unscathed … You’re going to go away right here with some points, with some aches and pains, it’s simply part of the sport however its a part of what we do and why we adore it. Once I noticed that occur to Damian, my coronary heart jumped out of my chest. I didn’t see any means that we wasn’t injured.”
As a multi-time champion in his personal proper, Levesque tore a quad in 2001, and continued to finish his match regardless of the excruciating ache that he was struggling. In different sports activities, such an damage would have meant sport over, however in WWE the place there’s a narrative to inform, it’s not that straightforward.
“There may be such a advantageous line between what we do being secure and what we don’t being secure,” he explains. “There’s a danger to reward ratio, each single time you get in that ring … So, yeah, it brings again recollections, I can relate to it, and I actually hope he’s okay, but it surely’s a part of what we do. Don’t do this at dwelling.”
The preliminary prognosis on Priest’s well being popping out of the weekend is that the ‘Judgement Day’ member seems to have mercifully averted a critical damage on this event, however this incident was simply one other in a protracted line of reminders that professional wrestling is way from pantomime.
WWE Conflict on the Fortress 2024 was the primary ever WWE Premium Reside Occasion to happen in Scotland.
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