Indie star Simon Miller recently spoke with Fightfulโs Corey Brennan on a number of topics including having to pull out of the Super Strong Style 16 tournament due to injury.
Miller said, โThe reason I was injured is because leading into Super Strong Style, I got to tour America for two months as part of The Last Match pro wrestling rock and roll musical experience. Right? Because some evil geniuses in a lab had concocted up this thing where itโs a play, but itโs a wrestling show and itโs got songs and itโs the coolest thing ever done. It really, really is. Matt Cardona was in the original one a couple of years ago. He was an executive producer on this one. So I got to talk to Matt Cardona for a while, which is always a treat. Essentially what happened was just because it was quite a labor intensive schedule because youโre performing here, you get in a bus, you go to the next place, you get in a bus, youโre driving, driving, driving. Because I hadnโt been injured in probably, Iโd say, four plus years, especially not since the pandemic. Of course, what happened is one of the first shows, I took a bump and I just jarred my shoulder a little bit. Now, if this had been normal life, I would have taken a week off. I wouldnโt have gone to the gym. I would have ice, blah, blah, blah. But I was like, well, no, Iโm doing these shows, man. Iโm a wrestler. But if youโve already sort of got a tweak, youโll be amazed to hear this, Corey. If youโve got a tweak and then you bump on that shoulder, for literally a month constant, literally one day off, one day off, one day off, one day off. What happens is it gets worse and it gets worse and it gets worse.โ
On how he dealt with the injury:
โNow, my thing was at the end of that, ironically, during the last match of the tour, my arm still worked. I still had complete rotation. Donโt get me wrong, to be completely honest, those last two weeks, man, I was icing and I was going to physiotherapists, I was stretching, my whole being was just keep this shoulder going so I didnโt want to give up this opportunity and because I want to be ready for strong style so I got home on a Sunday. Strong Style was the following Sunday. I went to my physiotherapist who, you know, youโre a wrestler. It makes sense to have a physiotherapist, right? Especially as you get older. Itโs just part of the job. I think most people should be doing that and she started going over it. I was like, Iโm amazed to have range of motion, she said, โI tell you why you have range of motion. Because youโre the luckiest man thatโs ever walked in because itโs like a balloon.โ Because imagine you filled up a balloon with water and you kept throwing it on the floor. Because that is what your shoulder is like. She said, essentially what youโve done is, I canโt remember all the names, but your rotator cuff tendons, youโve got your supraspinatus, youโve got your subscalaris, youโve got your insta scratch or whatever youโve literally hurt every single one of them. But because of the rehab you were doing, and because you understand your body and you know what you can and canโt get away with, when one has kind of got worn out, your bodyโs going to get around the other one. Then that one got worn out around the other one.โ
On being told that he would be taking a risk to compete in the tournament:
โThis is where the Progress flip of a coin came in. Because she was like, โIโm not going to tell you you shouldnโt do it. I am going to tell you youโre walking the tightrope right now. You could take 10 more bumps,โ Surprisingly, she didnโt say bumps, but weโll say bumps for the process of this thing. โYou could take 10 more bumps and you could be fine. You could take one bump, the whole thing could go and youโre going to need surgery. Because I have to tell you the truth.โ So again, that was a Tuesday. I sat on it for 48 hours, hoping that magically it would start getting better. Then went to see somebody else that was a friend of mine. You know, second opinion. They said exactly the same thing. Then, yeah, I rang them on the Thursday.โ
You can check out Miller’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)