Candid answers from Chuck Taylor regarding his future.
After Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta had their Parking Lot Fight on the 4/27 AEW Rampage, it was repeatedly stated during broadcasts that Taylor’s in-ring career may be over because of the preexisting ankle injury that was targeted.
Taylor sat down with Renee Paquette for her Close Up show and opened up about his status. He initially suffered the injury on the October 6th edition of Rampage. Doctors thought it was a bruised talus bone in his ankle and he’d be able to rehab it. The rehab did not help and Taylor believes he needs surgery now.
In October I believe, I injured my ankle originally. My foot was down and it was in a match on Rampage. I believe we were tagging with The Hardy Boys… We were tagging with The Hardy Men (he laughed) and I took a dropkick on the ropes and as I was going out, I left my ankle out and Jeff Parker, Angelo Parker fell on my ankle. It’s honestly my fault and I went to the doctor and they told me that I had a — they believed a bruised talus, which is apparently a bone inside your foot that connects these two to the rest of your foot, which I had never heard of before and some ligament damage and they thought I could possibly rehab it. I did rehab and it didn’t get better and I went back and I believe that I need surgery now.
He went on to add that he has not been off the road that much because he’s been learning backstage roles. He mentioned that he was told his in-ring career might be over.
Taylor is hoping to reassess after undergoing surgery. His ankle does not hurt badly. He was in a walking boot but is now wearing an ankle brace.
I didn’t feel that lost or dark or anything like that (while out of action). I mean, I got to play some video games, I got to watch some movies, I got to hang out. I was still mostly on the road. I didn’t come off the road for that much because I’m trying to learn some more backstage stuff which I’ve always been interested in. So it wasn’t that bad, but then finding out that, like, ‘No, your career might be over’ is an odd feeling.
I can get surgery. Once I heal from that, I can hopefully reassess. Maybe it’s me hoping (he laughed). But we’ve seen a lot of guys and gals come back from that — ‘career-ending injuries.’
Weirdly, it doesn’t hurt that bad. I can walk fine. I wear a brace on it all the time now… I was in a boot for a while but yeah, it doesn’t really hurt that bad. I know if I tried to do a backflip and land on my feet which I used to be able to do, I think it would fall off (he laughed). Wandering around backstage for nine hours a day is fine.
Further speaking about his venture into a behind the scenes role, Chuck said it’s been going well.
I’ve really enjoyed it (learning backstage roles at AEW). I have a college degree in Television Production already, that probably is obsolete because it was from 15 years ago, from a state school in Kentucky but, no, I originally used to edit videos for the internet and stuff like that. That actually helped me — I don’t know. Can I say Ricochet? I helped train Ricochet and we used to travel together and I edited our videos together to Screamo songs in 2002 and that helped us get booked in different places. It did (work out for the both of us).
That was always the fallback plan. I went to school for TV production. I loved it and that was like, ‘Okay, if I don’t make it in wrestling,’ which seemed entirely impossible at the time, ‘I can at least fall back and do something backstage’ and what little I’ve done here, I’ve really enjoyed actually. I actually do like it.
As of this writing, the aforementioned Parking Lot Fight against his former tag partner is his last documented match. Taylor said if that’s the end for him in the ring, he could not have asked for a better way to go out.
Weirdly, if that is it, I mean, I couldn’t ask for a better way to go out honestly, like creatively (than facing Trent Beretta). To break up with my best friend, we’ve been together I think 11 years. 10, 11 years. To have Orange (Cassidy) there and (Kris) Statlander there and to have a match that we made, at least popular and famous in AEW. I know there have been other Parking Lot Fights in other places but we were kind of synonymous with that match I think. We had three. That was our third and to be able to say ‘sh*t’ on Dynamite that week and then get my dog on Collision and then go out and you know, if you would have told me I would have been able to do that even six years ago, I would have been like, no, no, absolutely not.
In regards to the surgery, it is not something he needs immediately. Doctors did inform him that if he were to hold off too long, he could develop arthritis. He is considering undergoing surgery after the summer is over.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Taylor touched on his love of wrestling and explained why he did not love it as much anymore in the verb sense, but he loves it more than ever in the noun sense.
No (the surgery is not scheduled). Because it’s not really emergency they said. I can’t do anything athletic but, they said eventually, I’ll get terrible arthritis and then all they (can) do is fuse it. But, that’s years down the line so I’m hoping, maybe take the summer to really feel comfortable in the job. I don’t wanna learn half of it and then piss off for a while. So hopefully, after the summer is my hope… Wrestling, as a verb, to me, I didn’t love it as much as I used to but I still love wrestling as a noun more than ever. It’s just getting old and beat up and you know, it hurts and knowing you’re kind of reaching the end of your career kind of puts things into perspective. I don’t really wanna be a broken-down guy just because I wanted another couple of years in the sun…
In addition to being behind the scenes, Chuck is open to taking on a non-physical on-screen role such as being a manager or commentator.
I’d love to be a manager, a commentator. I’ve done all that kind of stuff before too so, hopefully I can do something in front of the camera too…
The group that once consisted of Taylor, Trent Beretta, Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander is no longer intact. Beretta and Cassidy have been at odds and Statlander opted to take Beretta’s side over Cassidy’s. She’s now solely aligned with Stokely Hathaway after they turned on Willow Nightingale.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Close Up w/ Renee Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
