Don’t expect to see the master of “A-Town Down” doing the Spanish Fly any longer.
WWE Superstar Austin Theory spoke with West Sport to promote the WWE Elimination Chamber: Perth premium live event this weekend in Australia, and during the interview, he reflected on the injury scare he had as a result of a Spanish Fly spot in a match with Carmelo Hayes from the January 12, 2024 episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown.
“Well, all jokes aside, when it comes to inside that ring and what we do, the risk level is extremely high,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how many times you wanna practice or go through the routine of a move, it’s real life, there’s danger with that. It’s two human bodies doing superhuman-like things. In this scenario with Carmelo Hayes, I’m going for a move I’ve did plenty of times, it just so happens as we’re going through the rotation, the back of his foot hits the top rope. So, all of the momentum of us rotating, when his foot hits, it takes us straight down. Just based off of the video, it looks insane.”
Theory continued, “To be honest, after that, I seriously could’ve been paralyzed or my career could’ve been done. I could have been seriously hurt, broke my neck, there’s so many factors, but luckily as we came down, I let go to catch myself and I turn my head all the way to the left and when we landed, the back of his head hit my face pretty hard. But when we were laying there, I was fine, I didn’t feel rocked or lost or that feeling of, oh, what’s going on? I felt fine. But at the same time too, that’s such a scary moment, especially when you’re out there and something goes wrong and doesn’t feel right. Seeing the video footage back of myself upside down literally on the top of my head, wow. Very grateful for that and that move is retired for Austin Theory.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
