If the quotes in this article are used, please credit POST Wrestling with an H/T for the transcriptions
It has been nearly five months since former NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon wrestled. She confirmed on an episode of WWE Backstage on FS1 that the reason for her absence is because she ruptured her Achilles. Ember was coming off of an elbow injury and the Achilles injury happened just months after she got back into the ring. She recently sat down with WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T for an exclusive interview and Ember talked about her road to recovery from the elbow injury.
It was at this point in Booker and Ember’s conversation when Ember talked about the Achilles rupture and the likes of Edge and Beth Phoenix giving her advice. She talked about being able to work WrestleMania 35 after the elbow injury and then began detailing how bad her Achilles injury was.
“I got to do ‘Mania, and with an Achilles rupture and the type of rupture I did, they were telling me anywhere from four months to a year-and-a-half so it’s one those injuries and I talked to Beth [Phoenix] a little bit. Edge sent his regards and everything and said if I need any help or anything… which is really cool because I’m a big fan of Beth Phoenix and Edge so, it’s weird because I don’t want to rush back on this because of the likelihood of re-rupture, and it’s not a normal rupture which is rupture torn in half but I also stripped it off the bone too so, [Xavier] Woods just cracked his in half. I royally messed it up so…”
Ember then got into how she exactly tore her Achilles. Following the match with Lacey Evans on RAW in September, she was asked to appear on SmackDown the following day but in a 24/7 Title segment. Ember stated that while she was running, she felt a pop but there was no pain. She described the feeling as a scratch. Ember said she believes her wrestling boots were keeping her Achilles intact because she didn’t feel much when she had them on.
It wasn’t until she took them off, got to her home and tried to walk that she realized something was off.
“So, we were in San Francisco for a RAW and a SmackDown and I don’t remember if there was a pay-per-view before, but people were on tour or something and I was not so they were like, ‘Hey Ember…’ a day before. I mean Saturday night, Sunday morning. ‘Hey Ember. Can you be at RAW Monday?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, well yeah I guess I’ll be there’ and I got really excited so I’m like, ‘Oh my God, are they doing something with me?’ They’re bringing me to RAW and I’m like, ‘Yes!’ So I get there and they’re like, ‘You’re working Lacey and Lacey’s over. We’re doing this thing with her and Nattie’ and I was like, ‘Oh… okay’, and I love Lacey Evans. I’ve known her since day one. The first day she walked in the P.C. and I was like, ‘You know what… let’s go girl. Let’s go out there and kill it’ and she was just, ‘Yeah! Whatever’ and it was a really cool moment because it was the first time I got to wrestle her on TV, and I had so much fun, made it to the hotel, getting ready to do SmackDown the next day and they’re like, ‘Hey Ember, you’re in the 24/7 Title run because Carmella won the night before’ and I was like, ‘Ah…’ I was like sure,” Ember said reluctantly. “Y’all sure y’all need me for that? You know what’s weird? When you know you have a bad feeling about something. I had a feeling and I was like, ‘Do we… you know what… team player. Screw it. I got this’, and I think all the other girls were wrestling that night so I think it was like: Mandy, Sonya, Asuka, Kairi maybe? There were only like five of us doing this run, and so we’re doing the run through’s and I was nervous because it’s West coast, so we have way less time to prepare for the show and people are like, ‘I don’t have my makeup done’ and I just remember, I’m gonna try and make everyone laugh because this is hilarious and people are just uptight and I remember just being like, ‘I’m gonna do a cartwheel, round-off…’ but people are just laughing and that’s what it was for and so, we do the run through, boom, and I told Truth, I was like, ‘Truth, you better run. I’m gonna catch you Truth. If I catch you, I’m tackling you. You’re going down,’ and so, when we actually did it, I literally caught them right before we went through the curtain so they go through the curtain, and they didn’t realize how close I was behind them. So we go through the curtain, as I’m coming through, the curtain shuts, I open it, go through, Truth is dropping Carmella and I’m going full speed and reaching too and I had to hit the breaks.
I felt it pop. It felt like a scratch, and literally I was like, ‘Huh… that feels weird.’ Get this though; made it all the way back to Dallas. So we had red eyes that night, and I remember just, ‘Oh… that feels a little weird’ so I went to the airport from the San Francisco arena and I think it’s because I had my wrestling boots on. I think it was holding it all together because there’s no way I should’ve made it home, but I wasn’t in pain, I didn’t have any bruising, didn’t have any swelling. I made it all the way — landed in Dallas and I’m getting off the plane and my foot just feels weird and I’m like, ‘Man!’ And I can’t really put a lot of weight on it and stuff so, my husband comes and picks me up, we make it to the house and I just [fall asleep], and I remember I slept from 7 AM to 7:30 PM. I was so tired, so exhausted, and went to get up to use the restroom or something or food. I don’t know, I was tired and I just fell, and my husband comes up and he’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘My foot’s not working. I can’t put weight on it, I can’t walk’ and he’s like, ‘Alright, come here,’ and so I sit down and I can point it. I can’t flex it and I just don’t know. It doesn’t work. So we went and we took pictures of the back and I called WWE and I said, ‘Hey…’ because it freaked me out and I was like, ‘Something is wrong’ but I was in no pain, no swelling, no bruising, nothing.”
When Ember went to get an MRI, she said it was clear as day that she ruptured her Achilles. Ember dove into details about her elbow injury as well and feels that she rushed back. She said WWE initially wanted her to come back around Money In The Bank, but instead, they bumped her doctor’s appointment date up in hopes of her being able to compete at WrestleMania. Ember was excited about the idea of competing at a WrestleMania so she jumped at it.
“I feel like with my elbow, so I got hurt in February with my elbow which is crazy because we’ve done work injuries and stuff so these are my only two injuries that are real that I’ve had with WWE. I want to clarify that right now, because everyone thinks I’m injury prone and I just wanna say, everything else was storyline. But literally, after my elbow, it was like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be out six months’ because I had — it wasn’t just a scope. I had defective cartilage, I had bone chips, I had a bone spur, I had a fracture and I had like three torn ligaments. So they’re like, ‘Hey, six months.’ So I got hurt in February and then they gave me something like late May but maybe make it back for Money In The Bank, and I remember they called me and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna move up your doctor’s appointment’ and I was like, ‘Oh… why?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, we kind of were thinking maybe Mania? Maybe the Battle Royal?’ And I was like, ‘Ahh’, but that’s early April. Early April versus late May, that’s a big difference, but it’s ‘Mania so, and I’m like, ‘Woah, I’ve never been to WrestleMania.’ The fan girl in me. Basically, I rushed back and then they didn’t do anything with me until Money In The Bank anyway so it’s just like, and then it was like this weird time frame because I came back and they were like, ‘We’re trying to get you cleared for the draft’ and then I was like, ‘Well…’ and then they were like, ‘Well, maybe Mania.’ So I came back and I’m thankful that I did sit out that time even though it was frustrating and stuff like that because I needed the extra month-and-a-half to get ready. I consider myself a little bit of a daredevil.”
Ember Moon broke the news of her injury on an episode of WWE Backstage and on tonight’s episode of Backstage on FS1, The Miz will appear on the show after ambushing Kofi Kingston on SmackDown and John Morrison being in his locker after said ambush.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit POST Wrestling with an H/T for the transcriptions.
