Chris Bey’s first interview since the major injury.
It was at the post-TNA Bound For Glory television taping that a tag match between newly-crowned TNA World Tag Team Champions The Hardys (Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy) and ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) took place.
There was a point in the match when Bey went down with an injury and had to be stretchered off and ultimately underwent emergency surgery for a broken neck. For the first time since the incident, Bey spoke candidly about it. He was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet and recounted what he remembers from that October 2024 night. He stated that he was still physically coming down from the Ladder match at Bound For Glory. He admitted that he did not want to wrestle, but the opportunity at a traditional tag match against The Hardys was worth it.
When the injury first happened, Bey thought it was a stinger. He sought out assistance from referee Daniel Spencer to roll him across the ring. Once he got out of the middle of the ring, he suggested the idea of going straight to the finish of the match because he realized he could not move on his own. It was relayed to Jeff Hardy to not perform the Swanton Bomb onto Bey and Jeff pivoted to a leg drop. Bey said Hardy protected him and did not touch him at all.
Bey realized the severity of the situation when he could not wiggle his toes. Another eye-opening moment for him was when his gear was taken off and him not feeling or realizing that had happened.
I remember from the day (of the injury), being sore from Bound for Glory. Crazy match. Once the adrenaline wore off at Bound for Glory, I was feeling it. So when I walked in that next day, I was like, ‘Man, I hope I’m cutting a promo today’ and I said, ‘I do not feel like wrestling,’ and as soon as I heard I was wrestling The Hardys, I was like, ‘Sweet.’ Double-edged sword because you’re wrestling The Hardys but then physically, you know you don’t want to do it. But then I told myself and I told (Ace) Austin too, these guys used to do this six nights a week. We can do it. It’s no big deal. The match was going good. We had a lot of time, which was different from the first time we met those guys. Just team versus team. First time, we didn’t have a lot of time. This time, we had more time so, we were all confident and comfortable with what we’re doing. I’m in there with my best friend and two of my idols. It’s a night off essentially and then a spot that you’ve done a million times up until this point goes wrong, and as soon as it goes wrong, you don’t notice what’s wrong. You just know something isn’t right. I felt a jolt. It was a neckbreaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt and I felt a little bit of discomfort, and referee Daniel Spencer comes over and checks on me, ‘Chris, are you okay?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so. Just roll me out the way.’ Because I needed help rolling out of the way. I didn’t realize how much help I needed and Austin said it didn’t look like I needed a lot. Looked like I helped too. I just felt like I wanted assistance rolling out of the way quick enough because I knew they had to do some more stuff. I didn’t want them to think that I was just selling and bumping on top of me, expecting me to move. I’ve had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger.
I was numb. It was a weird feeling that I can’t exactly explain, because I’ve never experienced it before. I just know it was kind of a numb feeling. I didn’t realize all of what was numb. I just felt a numbness. But because of the adrenaline and because of the perfectionist I am, I was thinking about the art we were creating and how my brush made a mark I didn’t want because the spot didn’t go perfect. So instead of thinking about how I felt, I was thinking about how to get back on track in the match. So once he helped roll me out of the way, I’m looking out of the side of my eye to see them do the next sequence and see if that goes right. It does. Crowd reacts, I’m like, okay, cool. It’s my turn to get back up and do my next spot. So mentally, I roll over and grab the ropes and sell around. Physically, I’m laying there. So Matt and Jeff come over to me and I was like, ‘Let’s just go to Swanton. Let’s just end this.’ Because I can’t get up. I’m already laying here. I’m like, ‘Let’s just go to the Swanton,’ which I’ve never had to cut stuff in a match before so my pride was hurt a little bit. But I just knew I couldn’t get up. I didn’t know why though. So Jeff starts to climb the top rope and as he’s climbing the top rope, I’m thinking that I should be able to brace for this. So once again, mentally, I’m doing this motion. Physically, nothing’s happening and I’m laying there doing this. So I’m yelling at the ref now, telling Jeff not to do the Swanton now as he’s already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn’t do the Swanton. He protects me. Drops a leg drop but misses by a mile. Protects me and he covers me and I’m just so apologetic. I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match. I messed up. I’m sorry,’ and they’re like, ‘No, are you all right?’ And our ringside doctor comes over to me and he checks on me and he tries to get me to squeeze his hands and at this point, my fingers are shaking a little bit but they’re not squeezing. I tell Austin, I’m like, ‘Bro, take my elbow pads off me now because my arms are hot.’ Now, the adrenaline’s wearing off and my arms are like a million degrees. So I’m telling Austin to pull my elbow pads down because I’m thinking my circulation is just too tight. In my mind in this moment, in 30 minutes from now, I’ll be in the locker room talking about how crazy whatever just happened was and I’m gonna shake this off. I’m gonna catch a flight tomorrow and head back home, go back to the gym and get back to routine, and I’m laying there and the doctors asked me if I can wiggle my toes and once he asked me that, I go, ‘I can’t feel my toes,’ and I realized then, okay, this is more serious. I’ve never had a real injury. I’ve had minor injuries, but I’ve never had a real injury, I’ve never had to have a surgery. So I don’t know what breaking a neck feels like, I don’t know what breaking an arm feels like, I don’t know. So I’m just confused in this moment and I’m embarrassed. It’s probably like 2,500 people in the room and it’s dead silent, so it’s awkward, you know? It’s scary, and Austin’s there, he’s by my side. Matt and Jeff, they’re there, the ringside doctor, Daniel Spencer, our referee’s there and everyone’s around me and I can’t move. I can’t look left or right other than with my eyeballs, and they put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher and I remember telling Austin, I was like, ‘Hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher?’ And I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn’t happening, and he laughs, you know, tears in his eyes, he laughed and I’m like, ‘Alright, go tell Jeff the joke, now tell Matt the joke. I want them to laugh now. Lighten the moment a little bit.’ So he scurries over and tells them the joke and they put me on the stretcher and now I start to cry a little bit. I was like, alright, suck it up man. They’re about to take you to the back locker room. I don’t want the boys to see you like this. They take me through the back and they put me in the ambulance, and I wanted them to get my phone so I could contact my people and let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Call my girlfriend, I let her know. She had already kind of heard about it. It was already kind of making the rounds internally and maybe online too with fans but, I know internally, it was making the rounds. I called one of my best friends in Vegas and told him — my buddy right here. My boy Shogun, Stan, I told him that I was hurt and it’s time for him to hold it down because I don’t know what’s about to happen. They’re speculating that maybe it’s just a neck break. They don’t really know. They’re threatening to cut my boots off. They’re brand-new boots. I’m like, ‘Don’t cut those boots. Show me a mirror. I’ll tell you how to take ‘em off but don’t cut those boots. Those are brand-new boots.’ They rush me to the hospital. Austin’s by my side, and I have them kind of going through my phone, calling people that are important to call, and my mom, you know? People who are reaching out. Not too many people because it’s overwhelming. They’re shoving forms in my face asking me to sign stuff, I can’t move my hands, and I knew it got really real when they rolled me over at some point and I saw my tights and my knee pads and my boots neatly stacked next to me, uncut, and I never felt them take any article of clothing off of me, and… I still didn’t know what to think. At this point, they told me they were gonna operate on my neck and I’ve never broken anything, like I said, so I don’t know if this is how you’re supposed to feel when you break your neck. I don’t know if everyone who’s ever broken their neck has gone through what I’m going through in the moment. So, Austin’s there and I’m trying to figure it out. I’m in so much pain at this point now. They tell me the surgeon is going to be there maybe 30 minutes. Longest 30 minutes of my life, because I’m in so much pain. I just wanna either end it or get under anesthesia so we can do this, because let’s get to it. What are we waiting for? The surgeon to get there. But what are we waiting for? I’m ready, and they put me under. Woke up the next day. It was day one.
He detailed what led to the injury itself. Matt Hardy was supposed to counter Bey’s cutter into a neckbreaker. Bey said it’s no one’s fault and added that him and Matt just missed one another by an inch.
We have a tag team finisher that we don’t even have a name for. It’s a combination of (Ace) Austin standing in a corner, launching me into the cutter because I’m famous for the cutter. I’ll roll out of the way, he’ll run and do his finish of The Fold which is like a super fancy modified blockbuster. The best one in the game. As he’s launching me for the cutter, Matt’s in the middle of the ring. He’s our target. Matt’s going to counter by just catching me into a neckbreaker and we’ve done the spot before. Not with Matt (Hardy) specifically but with a couple other people and it’s gone well. It’s not a difficult spot per se. But pro wrestling, everything we do is dangerous and everything we do is an inch away from a catastrophe happening, and it was one of those things where it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t his fault. It was just what happened in the moment. We missed each other by an inch and it was life-changing.
The surgical procedure was discussed. In addition to breaking his neck, there was damage done to his spinal cord which was the cause of the paralysis.
So they went in the front and they fused my C6 to my C7. Which healed up pretty nicely. It was 19 staples across the front, which, once I was finally able to move my hands a lot, I was touching the staples a lot because I couldn’t believe I had staples in my neck. What a weird feeling, and they went in the back and they fused my C6 to my T1 because the damage that happened wasn’t just a neck break. It was also damage to my spinal cord which is why I became paralyzed. So a lot of people don’t experience that exact thing. But people have their own stories, their own journeys. It’s difficult for everybody. It’s not a comparison.
The day after his birthday, on February 14th, Bey posted a video of himself walking. He had only been on his feet and out of a wheelchair for three weeks at that point.
It took a lot of therapy, a lot of mental will, lot of days where I wasn’t better than the day before. So it sucked (Bey said about what it took to get to the point where he could walk without assistance). You know, timing, a lot of my walking ability or standing ability and trying to make my walking look as natural as possible. So I had probably only been up on my feet without assistance for three weeks at that point when I posted the video. So those three weeks were mostly me trying to make it look as normal as possible and not too shaky so that if I did decide to post it, I wouldn’t be embarrassed.
The conversation then shifted over to when Bey first realized that there was a chance he’d be able to walk again and he discussed the doctors tracking his improvement.
My fingers and hands started to move upward; my arms, from the elbows (is when signs first showed that maybe I’d be able to walk again). Probably about a couple days and a weekend (after surgery). Every day, they would come in and monitor me and check for the first couple weeks where my feeling and sensation goes. So they’d start up here and they’d move down and go, ‘Does it feel normal here? Does it feel numb?’ And then whenever I would say that it feels normal, when it changes to numb, they’d mark it and they would keep track of that, and it slowly started to move but I didn’t have a lot of dexterity. I didn’t have that. So we had to work on all of those things. We had to work on trying to grip things. My girlfriend would have to text everybody back for me, or, hold my drink for me while I drank, or feed me. I couldn’t grip things. I couldn’t move those joints but I would do the little exercises they would teach me in the room, at first, just to try to get some sort of strength back in my fingers. My fine motor skills are still not very good with my hands… It’s amazing (to be back at the point I am at after only four months). I have no complaints. I still can’t do tiny things. I can’t open bottle caps. Yet.
When it comes to a potential return to in-ring action, Bey has a never say never mindset about it. The day after his surgery, he was content with his career being over. He stated that it felt like he passed away because he was seeing all the stories about himself and video packages being made. He did suggest the idea to his girlfriend that he take four-to-five years off from performing and then returning in his mid-30s.
Never say never, right? (Bey answered the question of if he thinks he’ll wrestle again) The day after day one, the day after the surgery, I was very content and understanding that my career was over. I didn’t see a world where I came back to wrestling. I was laying there, couldn’t move anything, from the neck down. It felt like I had passed away, because there’s all this love for me online. You know, they say you get your flowers when you’re gone. There’s all this love for me online that everyone’s telling me about and everyone’s calling me and having people reach out to me who I’ve never my wildest dreams imagined reach out to me. They’re making video packages about me. It was like I was watching, spectating my life and my life is now over and wrestling is my life. It was my life, it is my life, it still consumes me. But in that moment I was like, okay, wrestling’s over. I want to one day have a family. I want to be able to one day stand and run and play with my kids one day. Family was something I never thought about in my early 20s, but in my later 20s, now being 29 is very important to me. It’s something that I want so badly. Not now but, one day, and the thought of never being able to achieve that broke me. That broke me and that drove me more than anything because I had a great eight years in wrestling. Eight years, that was it but, I did so much in eight years that — lived my wildest dreams. I feel like I made an impact on the world. I was able to help train, coach and motivate people who are in the game today. It’s a dream career. If it had to end, if it’s over now, cool. I wanna walk, I wanna stand, I want to be able to function and then, maybe a couple weeks ago, now that I’m walking again and I’m back in the gym, I told my girl, I was like, ‘What if I do wrestle again one day? I’m still young. What if I took five years off? If I took four years off and came back in my mid-30s. It’s possible. It’s been done before. Nothing’s impossible’ and that’s where the greatest story ever told is born.
T.J. Wilson and Adam Copeland suffered neck/spinal injuries that put their careers on hold. Bey was in touch with both of those names throughout his recovery process.
Yeah (I’ve spoken to T.J. Wilson & Adam Copeland). I’ve spoke to those guys kind of frequently. T.J., a lot, and Adam, we speak a lot too. More so when I was in the hospital. He was very helpful for me. I would ask him questions about how he managed his time when he was going through his injury. I had nothing but time on my hands…
The former X Division Champion then expressed his gratitude to TNA Wrestling and spoke about how much they’ve taken care of him. He stated that they’ve covered his medical expenses and stressed that everyone involved with the company from top to bottom has checked on him consistently.
On the night of Bey’s injury, a police escort almost had to be called in because of how many people from TNA were at the hospital.
They’ve (TNA Wrestling) been so great to me. They’ve covered all the medical expenses. They check on me almost every day… And when I say they check on me, I mean from the roster to the talent, behind the scenes, people who set up the building and management, Presidents of the company, people from Anthem, everybody. Everybody from top to bottom has been so helpful and have checked on me, they’ve done auctions for me. People have donated their own personal items to help me. They do so much more than I could have ever anticipated or expected and I don’t understand why anyone would think that they wouldn’t. They are a great company. They work very hard. We are a family. People say that and you’ve heard people say that about TNA but, it’s true. They had to almost get police escorts to get people to leave the hospital the night of my injury because almost the whole locker room was outside of the hospital ordering DoorDash, waiting for me, trying to come in and see me. They had to tell everybody, ‘Y’all gotta go home. Y’all not gonna be able to stay here. He’s gonna to be okay. He’s in surgery now, he’s going to be fine’ but everybody was out there. You know, everybody’s wearing the ‘We Heart Bey’ shirts. The whole team, top to bottom… family is not even the right word anymore because family sometimes betray you. These people are real.
Bey then provided an update on how he’s currently feeling and said there’s a lot of numbness, but the pain level is down.
It’s just numb. It’s discomfort, it’s not pain. So, my body’s more numb. My spinal cord is numb. My legs are about — I can maybe feel about 50 percent of the sensation. My hands, from the middle of my hand down to my elbow, about long head of my tricep on both hands are still numb. So I can feel this side of my arm, I can’t feel this side of my arm on both hands. So I have a lot of numbness still, but it’s not a lot of pain. So I still can’t do — I’m not able to yet — do a lot of things. But it takes time. I’m told that nerves take a very long time to replenish.
One of the shout-outs that Bey received along his recovery road was from CM Punk after Punk’s match on the WWE Raw on Netflix premiere. Bey is grateful and humbled by that and mentioned during the interview that he did chat with Punk while he was in the hospital.
I had a conversation with (CM) Punk and it was very simple conversation, where he said something along the lines of, ‘I think that diagnosis and that percentage applies to humans and you’re not human,’ and I had to put my whole life into perspective. I’ve had a less percent chance of becoming a professional wrestler and landing on TV. I’ve had a lot less odds with everything that I’ve done in my life up until this point. So who’s to say I can’t beat this one? And once I realized that, once that 24 to 48 hours were over, it was go time.
How do you even put that into words? I was surprised, first things first (Bey said about Punk’s shoutout on WWE Raw on Netflix). I was surprised. I was humbled, grateful. I just can’t believe that through doing what I wanted to do all my life and actually being able to be successful at it, I’ve made this much of a mark on people, because all I ever wanted to do was wrestle. All I ever wanted to do since I was a kid, I knew it. There was never anything else that I wanted to do more than this. There’s nothing else that I’ve thought of every single day other than this. I think about wrestling, as probably you, every single day. It’s on all of our minds every single day. So to look up and see this Netflix debut, one of your favorite wrestlers growing up and he shouts you out. One of my best friends was in the crowd and he’s a big Punk fan so he was loving it. Everybody’s blowing up my phone about it. I’m still in the dark at the time, not posting. So I can’t really acknowledge it the way I want to acknowledge it, but, I just can’t believe it. I just can’t believe him or anybody care about me that much or thinking about me that much because I’m just a guy. I’m just a guy (Bey laughed). I just wanted to be a wrestler, I became a wrestler. TNA has helped put me on a platform and give me the opportunity to do everything that I love, and this is the result? I have no words for it.
On March 23rd, the Future Stars of Wrestling promotion in Las Vegas, Nevada is presenting a benefit show for Bey titled the ‘Beynefit.’
The likes of Swerve Strickland, Ricochet and Karrion Kross will be in action. Bey detailed his history with Kross and shared that they spent time together when Kross visited him in the hospital. Bey would not have wanted to have the Beynefit without Kross involved.
He (Karrion Kross) and I have such a special bond, because, I saw him online when I first researched the school and he was their champion. I never saw indie wrestling before, so this is kind of my first taste of it and I thought he was a star already and when I got to the school, the first day of training, I walk in and there’s no ring. I’m like, ‘Where’s the ring?’ And then he walks in wearing this atomic stringer, jacked, and he comes in and he tells all the students they had a great show at the casino that weekend. The ring would be here shortly so we could set up the ring and then we start class. I’m like, oh, my first day, I get to set up the ring. This is a real, true wrestling experience. This is what everyone dreams of. I’m gonna get to learn from the ground-up. We did a promo class and he had me go last and he said I nailed it. I don’t recall what I said but I know I spoke from the heart. I think I’m pretty good at promos, so I believe it was good enough, and from that moment on, it was just always a connection. I had my first debut match at FSW and as I circled the crowd to give everybody the traditional high fives when you make your debut, I see him sitting front row with the championship around his waist and I was like, oh man, he’s here. Damn, the pressure’s on now. He’s watching front row and after the match, I lose and he comes and gets in the ring and has the ref come grab me and pull me back in the ring. I’m thinking he’s about to dump me on my head. I don’t know what’s about to happen and he does the slow clap thing and the fans clap for me and we would go on to have matches in California and other places and then to draw one of the biggest gates for FSW at the 10 year anniversary in the main event where he came back from the hiatus he was at — he was at TNA or something and I had been running the company for a while and this was going to be the passing of the torch because he hadn’t been beaten and I was the young guy, he was the already established guy and my premise of the match was that if I beat him, I would become a living Las Vegas legend. I love the L’s. Living Las Vegas legend, and we had a great match and I won and it was a special moment, and outside the ring, we always had a great connection. He always was very helpful to me. He came to see me when I was in the hospital. Spent some time with me, gave me some words of encouragement, gave me a gift that was very special to him, and for him to be able to come do this show is massive, because obviously the allowance from WWE but, he’s such an integral part of my career, especially in Vegas and what we’ve done here. I wouldn’t want to have the show without him.
Chris Bey’s GoFundMe is active. To support him and his recovery, head over to this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
