WWE producer TJ Wilson appeared on the Developmentally Speaking podcast to discuss several topics, including the end of his in-ring career.
Wilson said, “I love wrestling. It’s given me everything. Everything I got, wrestling. I had no clue what I was going to do. That first night when I got hurt, I’m not even in a hospital room. I’m in the basement of this hospital. It’s cold, freezing cold. I had no service, like one bar in and out. I’m sitting there with this neck brace on, with no real answers. The surgeon comes on the morning to kind of give me the news. But I’m very in tune with my body, and in the moment, I knew my neck was broken. I knew I was never wrestling again. I knew that in that moment. In that moment, I did not know what was next. I had no clue. I didn’t know anything. I just knew that this dream that I’d seen through, this version of it, was over. I didn’t know what was next.”
On how he was about to sign a new deal beforehand:
“Prior to that, I did think I had a long-term plan. I remember they were talking to me about signing a new deal. In my mind, I was going to sign. This is just in my mind. In my mind, I was going to sign a five-year deal that would take me til I was 40. At 40, I will have been wrestling at that point for 25 years. I’m 40, everything seemed like a nice, perfect round number, and then I kind of wanted to get out. That was my mind. I’m sure when I got there, that wouldn’t have happened. Especially when you start adding AJ Styles and those types of guys to the roster. If I had been afforded the opportunity to stay as a talent, I promise I wouldn’t have left. But in my mind at this time, 40 was going to be perfect, and then I would start a wrestling school in Tampa.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
