Austin Theory has put the Spanish Fly on the shelf after an injury scare earlier this year.
In January, a match on WWE Smackdown between Theory and Carmelo Hayes was abruptly called off after a Spanish Fly off the ropes didn’t land correctly. Clips of the move show that Theory and Hayes collided heads upon hitting the canvas.
Despite the nasty visual that the sequence provided, WWE stated that Theory and Hayes only suffered “face contusions,” avoiding the significantly worse setback of a concussion or other major injuries.
Theory told The West Australian that he is no longer going to go for the Spanish Fly in matches: “That move is retired for Austin Theory,” he said.
Theory broke down the sequence from January, stating that a leg of Hayes catching the ropes is what caused them to land in an unintended way.
“In this scenario with Carmelo Hayes, going for a move I’ve done plenty of times, just so happens as we’re going through the rotation, if you go back and look, the back of his foot as he’s rotating off hits the top rope. All the momentum of us rotating [is gone]. His foot hits, it takes us straight down.”
Theory goes on to mention that, while the moment could have altered the trajectory of his career, he left with slight bruising.
“Just based off the video, it looks insane. To be honest, after that, I seriously could have been paralyzed or my career could have been done. I could have been seriously hurt, broke my neck. There’s so many factors. Luckily as we came down, for some reason, I let go to catch myself and I turned my head all the way to the left. When we landed, just the back of his head hit my face pretty hard. But when we were laying that I was fine. I didn’t feel rocked or lost or that feeling of ‘Oh what’s going on?’”
Theory is currently in Australia to promote Saturday’s Elimination Chamber event. His on-screen ally Grayson Waller is expected to host a segment during the show with Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes.
