In the summer of 2015, Tyson Kidd—real name TJ Wilson—wrestled his final match after suffering a catastrophic spinal cord injury during a dark match at WWE Raw. The injury occurred after a routine execution of Samoa Joe’s Muscle Buster finisher, which would ultimately end Wilson’s in-ring career.
The severity of the injury was later revealed to be life-threatening, with doctors telling Wilson that only 5% of people survive such trauma. He underwent major surgery that required 16 staples, four screws, and a rod inserted into his neck. Following the surgery and a long recovery, Wilson officially retired from active competition and transitioned into a backstage producer role with WWE.
Now, nearly a decade later, Samoa Joe has opened up about the incident on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet. During the conversation, Joe addressed the tragic moment and shared his perspective on what happened that night, the aftermath, and his continued respect for Kidd.
Here are the highlights from Joe’s appearance:
On coming up the muscle buster: “I didn’t. So I was in the 01 Dojo when I started my career in Japan. I remember I was kind of like flipping through, they have all these baseball magazines, all this reading material and a bunch of Manga on the table because a lot of the guys enjoyed reading it. I remember I was flipping through Kinnikuman, and he was doing the muscle buster. And I was like ah. I remember I’d seen it a few times in Mexico and I was like that’s pretty cool I might start using that. Then, I think at the time, the promoter, Yoshiki Nakamura, was with me. He goes, Ah, good move, and they gave it to Sylvester Terkay to use. But then when Sylvester left, I got back on the Indies in the States and he wasn’t doing that, I was like I’m gonna start using it. So that’s pretty much how it happened.”
On if he thought he would do the muscle buster again after the accident: “No, and to this day that probably remains the largest regret in my career that happened….But that doesn’t change things for Tyson. Doesn’t change things for a guy who is probably one of the most passionate people in the world of professional wrestling. For a guy who has an amazing mind for it. WWE is fortunate to have him because even though he’s not in a physical role within the company, the finishes, his ability to put the other matches and be a producer and agent are unparalleled.”
On whether he thought he did anything wrong: “No, not at all. No, didn’t feel any different. It’s just when I turned around and went for the pin and got back up, the only thing that even hinted that there’s something wrong is when Cesaro looked back up at me. I know when Cesaro is concerned and then I was like, oh my God, I hope everything is okay. Then we got in the back and he went to hospital and everything got checked out. But I mean, the whole circumstances regarding that and everything, it just makes me sick to this day that guy is not out there being the Tyson Kidd that I know that he is. He’s an amazing human being. He has a great understanding of a greater picture, and when you talk about guys who who are great finish men, guys who can produce, he’s going to be heralded as one of the dudes there if he isn’t already.”
On whether he had concerns about using the move again: “Well, I didn’t want to. It was kind of like when I got back into things in NXT….in NXT I used it. When I got to the main roster I didn’t, but it was mainly I tried to avoid doing it a bunch or making it a thing. If he’s having a bad day, he looks over and he sees that. I didn’t want to replay the car crash in front of somebody. So, I did my best to distance myself from it as much as possible. But that’s why just because this guy’s my co-worker, this guy I respect and I care about. I’m not trying to make him have a sh*tty day over it.”
