AEW star Chuck Taylor, who last wrestled for the company on the April 27th episode of Rampage, where he lost a Parking Lot Brawl to Trent Beretta, spoke with Renee Paquette on Up Close on a number of topics including his in-ring career after Orange Cassidy revealed that Taylor’s pro wrestling career might be over.
Taylor said, “In October, I believe, I injured my ankle originally. My foot was down, it was in a match on Rampage, we were tagging with the Hardys. I took a dropkick in the ropes and as I was going out, I left my ankle out, and Angelo Parker fell on my ankle. It was honestly my fault. I went to the doctor and they told me I had a bruised talus, which is a bone inside your foot that connects [other bones] to your foot. I had some ligament damage and they thought I could rehab it. I did rehab, it didn’t get better, and I went back and they believed I needed surgery.”
On last October and COVID being the longest time he had off:
“I’ve been wrestling for 23 years and the longest I had off was the beginning of COVID. The longest I had gone without taking a bump was the five weeks when COVID started, before we came back. It was the first time I had off. You never want it for an injury. It was interesting because I’m so used to, ‘Okay, time to go wrestle.’ To not do that is weird. Finding out, ‘Now your career might be over,’ was an odd feeling.”
On how he can reassess about a return to the ring after he has surgery:
“I can get surgery, and once I heal from that, I can hopefully reassess. Maybe it is me hoping. We’ve seen a lot of guys and gals come back from a ‘career ending injury.”
On wanting to learn about the backstage side of things and how he doesn’t love taking bumps as much as he used to:
“Wrestling, as a verb, I didn’t love it as much as I used to. Just getting old and beat up. It just hurts. Knowing you’re reaching the end of your career kind of puts things into perspective. I don’t want to be a broken down guy just because I wanted another couple of years.”
Fightful Select confirmed Taylor’s injury and reported that Taylor was interested in moving into a backstage role.
You can check out Taylor’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
