Chris Bey's Inspiring Recovery After Being Paralyzed In The Ring

On the video of his standing out of wheelchair:

"It took a lot of therapy, a lot of mental will, lot of days where I wasn't better than the day before. So it sucked. You know, timing, a lot of my walking ability or standing ability, and trying to make my walking look as natural as possible. So I had probably only been up on my feet without assistance for three weeks at that point when I posted the video. So those three weeks were mostly me trying to make it look as normal as possible and not too shaky, so that if I did decide to post it I wouldn't be embarrassed."

On being in a wheelchair up until that point:

"Yeah I was in a wheelchair from probably, we'll say a little over a month after the surgery is kind of when I was put into a wheelchair, that’s a little stretch, maybe three weeks after the surgery they started putting me in a wheelchair. From that moment up until mid-January, I was in a wheelchair."

On what he remembers from the accident:

"I remember from the day being sore from Bound for Glory, crazy match. Once the adrenaline wore off at Bound for Glory, I was feeling it. So when I walked in that next day, I was like man, I hope I'm cutting a promo today. I said I did not feel like wrestling. As soon as I heard I was wrestling The Hardys I was like sweet, double-edged sword, because you're wrestling the Hardys but then physically you don't want to do it. But then I told myself and I told [Ace] Austin too. These guys used to do this six nights a week. We can do it. It's no big deal. The match was going good. We had a lot of time, which was different from the first time we met those guys. Just team versus team. First time, we didn't have a lot of time. This time we had more time. So we were all confident and comfortable with what we were doing. I'm in there with my best friend and two of my idols, it's a night off essentially, and then a spot that you've done a million times up until this point goes wrong. As soon as it goes wrong, you don't notice what's wrong, you just know something isn't right. I felt a jolt. It was a neck breaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt, and I felt a little bit of discomfort. Referee Daniel Spencer comes over and checks on me, 'Chris, are you okay?' I was like, 'Yeah, I think so, just roll me out the way', because I needed help rolling out of the way. I didn't realize how much help I needed. Austin said it didn't look like I needed a lot. Looked like I helped too. I just felt like I wanted assistance rolling out of the way quick enough because I knew they had to do some more stuff. I didn't want them to think that I was just selling and bumping on top of me, expecting me to move. I've had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger." 

On if he was in pain at that point and what happened next:

"I was numb. It was a weird feeling that I can't exactly explain, because I've never experienced it before. I just know it was kind of a numb feeling. I didn't realize all of what was numb. I just felt a numbness. But because of the adrenaline and because of the perfectionist I am, I was thinking about the art we were creating and how my brush made a mark I didn't want because the spot didn't go perfect. So instead of thinking about how I felt, I was thinking about how to get back on track in the match. So once he helped roll me out of the way, I'm looking out of the side of my eye to see them do the next sequence and see if that goes right. It does. Crowd reacts and I'm like, okay, cool. It's my turn to get back up and do my next spot. So mentally, I roll over and grab the ropes and sell around. Physically, I'm laying there. So Matt and Jeff come over to me and I was like, 'Let's just go to Swanton. Let’s just end this.' Because I can't get up. I'm already laying here. I'm like, let's just go to the Swanton, which I've never had to cut stuff in a match before so my pride was hurt a little bit, but I just knew I couldn't get up. I didn't know why, though. So Jeff starts to climb the top rope, and as he's climbing the top rope I'm thinking that I should be able to brace for this. So once again, mentally, I'm doing this motion. Physically, nothing's happening, and I'm laying there doing this." 

"So I'm yelling at the ref now, telling Jeff not to do the Swanton now as he's already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn't do the Swanton. He protects me, drops a leg drop but misses by a mile, protects me and he covers me. I'm just so apologetic. I'm like, 'Guys, I'm so sorry I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match, I messed up. I'm sorry.' And they're like, 'No, are you all right?' Our ringside doctor comes over to me, he checks on me, he tries to get me to squeeze his hands, and at this point, my fingers are shaking a little bit but they're not squeezing. I tell Austin, I'm like, 'Bro, take my elbow pads off me now', because my arms are hot. The adrenaline's wearing off and my arms are like a million degrees. So I'm telling Austin to pull my elbow pads down, because I'm thinking my circulation is just too tight. In my mind, in this moment 30 minutes from now I'll be in the locker room talking about how crazy whatever just happened was, and I'm going to shake this off. I'm gonna catch a flight tomorrow and head back home, go back to the gym and get back to a routine. I'm laying there, and the doctor asked me if I can wiggle my toes, once he asked me that I go I can't feel my toes. I realized then, okay, this is more serious. I've never had a real injury. I've had minor injuries, but I've never had a real injury. I've never had to have a surgery. So I don't know what breaking a neck feels like. I don't know what breaking an arm feels like. I don't know. So I'm just confused in this moment, and I'm embarrassed. It's probably like 2,500 people in the room and it's dead silent, so it's awkward, it's scary. Austin's there. He's by my side, Matt and Jeff's there, the ringside doctor, Daniel Spencer our referee is here, everyone's around me, I can't move. I can't look left or right other than with my eyeballs. They put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher. I remember telling Austin, 'Hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher.' I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn't happening. He laughs, you know, tears in his eyes, he laughs. I'm like, 'Alright, go tell Jeff the joke. Now tell Matt the joke, I want them to laugh now, lighten the moment a little bit.' So he scurries over and tells them the joke. They put me on the stretcher, and I start to cry a little bit. I was like, alright, suck it up man. They're about to take you to the back locker room. I don't want the boys to see you like this. They take me through the back and they put me in the ambulance, and I wanted them to get my phone so I could contact my people, let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Called my girlfriend. I let her know. She had already kind of heard about it. It was already kind of making the rounds internally and maybe online too with fans, but I know internally it was making the rounds. I called one of my best friends in Vegas, Shogun Stan, I told him that I was hurt and it's time for him to hold it down because I don't know what what's about to happen. They're speculating that maybe it's just a neck break. They don't really know." 

"They're threatening to cut my boots off. They're brand new boots. I'm like, 'Don't cut those boots. Show me a mirror. I'll tell you how to take them off but don't cut those boots. Those are brand new boots.' They rush me to the hospital. Austin's by my side, and I have them kind of going through my phone, calling people that are important to call. My mom, people who are reaching out, not too many people because it's overwhelming. They're shoving forms in my face asking me to sign stuff. I can't move my hands. I knew it got really real when they rolled me over at some point and I saw my tights and my knee pads and my boots neatly stacked next to me uncut and I never felt them take any article of clothing off of me. I still didn't know what to think. At this point, they told me they were gonna operate on my neck, and I've never broken anything like I said, so I don't know if this how you're supposed to feel when you break your neck. I don't know if everyone who's ever broken their neck has gone through what I'm going through in the moment. So Austin's there and I'm trying to figure it out, I'm in so much pain at this point now. They tell me the surgeon is going to be there maybe 30 minutes, longest 30 minutes of my life, because I'm in so much pain, I just want to either end it or get under anesthesia so we can do this, because let's get to it. What are we waiting for? The surgeon to get there. But what are we waiting for? I'm ready, and they put me under. Woke up the next day. It was day one." 

On what the spot was that caused the injury:

"We have a tag team finisher that we don't even have a name for. It's a combination of Austin standing in the corner launching me into the cutter, because I'm famous for the cutter, I'll roll out of the way. He'll run and do his finish of the fold, which is like a super fancy modified blockbuster, the best one in the game. As he's launching me for the cutter, Matt's in the middle of the ring. He's our target. Matt is going to counter by just catching me into a neckbreaker. We've done the spot before, not with Matt specifically, but with a couple other people and it's gone well, it's not a difficult spot, per se. But pro wrestling, everything we do is dangerous, and everything we do is an inch away from a catastrophe happening. It was one of those things where it wasn't my fault, it wasn't his fault. It was just what happened in the moment. We missed each other by an inch, and it was life-changing."

On the surgery:

"So they went in the front and they fused my C6 to my C7 which healed up pretty nicely. It was 19 staples across the front, which once I was finally able to move my hands a lot I was touching the staples a lot because couldn't believe I had staples in my neck. What a weird feeling. They went in the back and they fused my C6 to my T1 because the damage that happened wasn't just a neck break. It was also damage to my spinal cord, which is why I became paralyzed. So a lot of people don't experience that exact thing, but people have their own stories, their own journeys. It's difficult for everybody. It's not a comparison."

On his chance of walking again after the surgery:

"They x-rayed me before the surgery, and I do remember them showing me what my neck was looking like. I believe there was a fragment I was pushing into my spinal cord, and that was one of the issues. Afterwards the conversation was more so about what they thought recovery looked like, what it typically is in this scenario, and what they anticipated would be my result. They say you see your most results in recovery, like the quickest results in around three to six months. In about a year to 18 months is where you'll see where you'll be. For me, they were predicting about a 10 to 25% chance of walking again."

On beating the odds:

"The day I woke up from surgery, the first thing I thought was that I'm alive. I was grateful to be alive, because if I wasn't supposed to be here anymore, I wouldn't have been. So once I woke up, one of the first things I kept saying was day one. People use that phrase before. It's not a new [thing], I didn't create the phrase day one. For me it just meant this is day one as far as my new life, my new obstacle, my new journey. I break everything up into seasons in life, the season that I chased this, the season that I pursued this, and this was a new season for me. So what made me not quit was I was alive, and when I got that diagnosis for maybe 24 to 48 hours, I was a little messed up about it. I just couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it, and I was telling myself it's better than a 0% chance, but I still was doubting a little bit. But then I had a conversation with Punk, and it was very simple conversation where he said something along the lines of, I think that diagnosis and that percentage applies to humans and you're not human. I had to put my whole life into perspective. I've had a less percent chance of becoming a professional wrestler and landing on TV. I've had a lot less odds with everything that I've done in my life up until this point. So who's to say I can't beat this one? And once I realized that 24 to 48 hours were over, it was go time."

On when he first got an indication he could walk again:

"My fingers and hands started to move upward. My arms, from the elbows [Around what point?] Probably about a couple days and a weekend [after surgery]. Every day they would come in and monitor me and check for the first couple weeks where my feeling and sensation goes. So they'd start up here and they move down and go, 'Does it feel normal here? Does it feel numb?' And whatever I would say that it feels normal when it changes to numb, they'd mark it, they would keep track of that, and it slowly started to move but I didn't have a lot of dexterity. I didn't have that. So we had to work on all of those things. We had to work on trying to grip things. My girlfriend would have to text everybody back for me, or hold my drink for me while I drank, or feed me. I couldn't grip things. I couldn't move those joints, but I would do the little exercises they would teach me in the room at first, just to try to get some sort of strength back in my fingers. My fine motor skills are still not very good with my hands." 

On if he thinks he will ever wrestle again:

"Never say never, right? The day after day one, the day after the surgery, I was very content and understanding that my career was over. I didn't see a world where I came back to wrestling. I was laying there, couldn't move anything from the neck down. It felt like I had passed away, because there's all this love for me online, they say you get your flowers when you're gone. There's all this love for me online that everyone's telling me about and everyone's calling me and having people reach out to me who I've never my wildest dreams imagined reach out to me. They're making video packages about me. It was like I was watching and spectating my life and my life is now over, and wrestling is my life. It was my life. It is my life. It still consumes me. In that moment I was like okay, wrestling is over. I want to one day have a family. I want to be able to one day stand and run and play with my kids one day. Family was something I never thought about in my early 20s, but in my later 20s now being 29 is very important to me. It's something that I want so badly, not now, but one day, and the the thought of never being able to achieve that broke me. That broke me, and that drove me more than anything because I had a great eight years in wrestling. Eight years, that was it, but I did so much in eight years that lived my wildest dreams. I feel like I made an impact on the world. I was able to help train, coach and motivate people who are in the game today. It's a dream career, if it had to end, if it's over now, cool. I want to walk, I want to stand, I want to be able to function. And then maybe a couple weeks ago now I'm walking again and I'm back in the gym. I told my girl, I was like, what if I do wrestle again one day? I'm still young. What if I took five years off, if I took four years off and came back in my mid-30s? It's possible. It's been done before. Nothing's impossible, and that's where the greatest story ever told is born." 

On CM Punk giving him a shout-out on Raw:

"How do you even put that into words? I was surprised. First things first, I was surprised. I was humbled, grateful. I just can't believe that through doing what I wanted to do all my life and actually being able to be successful at it, I've made this much of a mark on people, because all I ever wanted to do was wrestle. All I ever wanted to do since I was a kid, I knew it. There was never anything else that I wanted to do more than this. There's nothing else that I've thought of every single day other than this. I think about wrestling probably every single day. It's on all of our minds every single day. So to look up and see this Netflix debut one of your favorite wrestlers growing up, and he shouts you out. One of my best friends was in the crowd. So he's a big Punk fan, he was loving it. Everybody's blowing up my phone about it. I'm still in the dark at the time, not posting. So I can't really acknowledge it the way I want to acknowledge it, but I just can't believe it. I just can't believe him or anybody cares about me that much or thinking about me that much because I'm just a guy. I just wanted to be a wrestler. I became a wrestler. TNA has helped put me on a platform and give me the opportunity to do everything that I love, and this is the result. I have no words for it." 

On how TNA has supported him:

"They've been so great to me. They've covered all the medical expenses. They check on me almost every day. When I say they check on me, I mean from the roster to the talent, behind the scenes, people who set up the building and management, presidents of the company, people from Anthem, everybody from top to bottom has been so helpful and have checked on me. They've done auctions for me. People have donated their own personal items to help me. They do so much more than I could have ever anticipated or expected, and I don't understand why anyone would think that they wouldn't, they are a great company. They work very hard. We are a family. People say that and you've heard people say that about TNA, but it's true. They had to almost get police escorts to get people to leave the hospital the night of my injury, because almost the whole locker room was outside of the hospital ordering DoorDash, waiting for me, trying to come in and see me. They had to tell everybody, 'Y'all gotta go home. Y'all not gonna be able to stay here. He's going to be okay. He's in surgery now. He's going to be fine.' But everybody was out there, you everybody's wearing the We Heart Bey shirts, the whole team, top to bottom, family is not even the right word anymore, because families sometimes betray you. These people are real."

On WWE star Karrion Kross being a part of the benefit show:

"He and I have such a special bond, because I saw him online when I first researched the school, and he was their champion. I never saw indie wrestling before, so this is kind of my first taste of it and I thought he was a star already. When I got to the school, the first day of training I walk in and there's no ring. I'm like, Where's the ring? And then he walks in wearing this atomic stringer, jacked, and he comes in, he tells all the students that they had a great show at the casino that weekend. The ring would be here shortly so we could set up the ring and then we start class. I'm like, Oh, my first day I get to set up the ring, this is a real, true wrestling experience. This is what everyone dreams of. I'm gonna get to learn from the ground up. We did a promo class, he had me go last and he said I nailed it. I don't recall what I said, but I know I spoke from the heart. I think I'm pretty good at promos, so I believe it was good enough, and from that moment on it was just always a connection. I had my first debut match at FSW, and as I circled the crowd to give everybody the traditional high fives when you make your debut, I see him sitting front row with the championship around his waist. I was like, oh man, he's here, damn, the pressure's on now he's watching front row, and after the match I lose, and he comes and gets in the ring and has the ref come grab me and pull me back in the ring. I'm thinking he's about to dump me on my head. I don't know what's about to happen and he does the slow clap thing and the fans clap for me. We would go on to have matches in California and other places, and then to draw one of the biggest gates for FSW at the 10 year anniversary in the main event where he came back from the hiatus after he was at TNA or something. I had been running the company for a while, and this was going to be the passing of the torch, because he hadn't been beaten. I was the young guy, he was the already established guy, and my premise of the match was that if I beat him, I would become a living Las Vegas legend. I love the L's, Living Las Vegas Legend. We had a great match, I won, and it was a special moment. Outside of the ring, we always had a great connection. He always was very helpful to me. He came to see me when I was in the hospital, spent some time with me, gave me some words of encouragement, gave me a gift that was very special to him. And for him to be able to come do this show is massive, because obviously the allowance from WWE, but he's such an integral part of my career, especially in Vegas, and what we've done here. I wouldn't want to have the show without him."

On the ring break video he posted to social media:

"It's funny, you ask if I was thinking about how lucky I was, and I know you're referring to by not breaking my neck. I was thinking about how lucky I was by capturing it, because at the time no one would have believed it. I'm a young indie wrestler who hasn't really had any attention yet. I was like, This is my way in, that's where my brain went. I try to always not think about what almost could have happened, because there's almost in everything if you think about it, this microphone could die. I hope it doesn't. So as soon as I didn't get hurt, and I got up, everyone was checking on me, are you okay? And I realized immediately I felt perfectly fine. I was like, Do you have the footage? You got that right? Let's upload that right now. And then it started taking off. I was like man, this is sweet. I never actually thought about if I would have got hurt in that moment. Never crossed my mind. I know it was possible, but it never crossed my mind."

On what it meant to be X Division Champion:

"That my name is etched in history and no one can take it away from me. Because it was during the era where we didn't have fans, the pandemic, and the night of I remember riding back to the hotel in an Uber having the X Division Championship next to me and I wanted to see how many people were ever X Division champion. So I Googled the history of the X Division Championship, and as soon as I put it in Google, the top response that came up was first champion AJ Styles, current champion Chris Bey. I read it and I was like bro, this is real, this is really mine right now, I think I slept with it that night too. I'm a belt mark, don't beat me up for it, but I slept with the championship and I realized you can never take it away from me. I didn't even have a long run, but it's about what you do with the championship. That's what they say, the championship doesn't make the champion, the champion makes the championship. It was one of those moments where I had it for maybe a month, but people still come up to me to this day, you were one of my favorite X Division champions. How? I didn't have it that long, but it doesn't matter, because they remember me with it. I'm a part of history."

On if there was a chance to do more with WWE following his 2019 match:

"I believe there was. I know there were talks with a couple of people about attempting to get me a try-out. And I know if I would have had a try-out, I would have succeeded, not me being arrogant I just know myself. When I get an opportunity to do something, I nail it. That's what I do. You have to believe in yourself the way I believe in myself. Because once you have a little bit of doubt, you make a mistake, and once you make that mistake sometimes it's hard to recover from. I'll make a mistake sometimes I'm like, Alright, let me make sure the next thing is perfect. Some people make a mistake and they fall from there. Everything else is a mistake. They can't pick it back up. I'm the other way around, so I'm not afraid to make a mistake but I don't plan to make a mistake. I plan to be perfect. That night at 205 Live I think went perfect. I remember when I came to the curtain I believe Adam Pearce put me over real nice, said some kind of words to me, and a bunch of people from the roster, the 205 Live roster, were very adamant on trying to get me a try-out, which I thought was really cool, because you hear people being afraid of people taking their spots or whatever, people not being helpful, I felt the complete opposite. I walked into WWE Gorilla as this extra and these guys were like, No, we need to get this guy a try-out. This guy should be here with us. So I was very grateful that those guys were so nice and so sharing of their spots and their opportunities. The next day I got offered the TNA deal, and I sat on it for a while." 

Do you think they saw your WWE match?

"I think they saw it. But I also know at the time I was building a lot of momentum with TNA, and I think that was just the thing that helped them pull the trigger. Because I worked TNA twice the month before in Vegas and twice in California the month before that, and then earlier that year also, and my goal had been to sign with TNA for that year. That was my goal that I was working actively for. I made it no secret to people in charge of TNA that I want to work here. So I think when that happened and I'd also just come off of doing Ring of Honor, they realized okay, if we don't do it, someone's going to do it, and we do want him. So let's do it right now instead of waiting."

On if there are any limitations right now:

"Not that I know of. I am good to stand for as long as I am and people offer me seats. They're like if we're standing around, they're like please sit down and sometimes I'll do it. But standing is better for me right now, actually, because when I sit down too long, my body locks up still, and I get spasms, still on a lot of medication to numb and block out the pain and also help enhance my and rejuvenate my muscles and my spinal cord. So I prefer to stand and honestly when I sit too long, I feel the effects of that.

Are you in pain right now?

"It's just numb, it's discomfort. It's not pain. So my body's more numb. My spinal cord is numb. I can maybe feel about 50% of the sensation in my hands, from the middle of my hand down to my elbow about the long head of my tricep on both hands are still numb. So I can feel this side of my arm, I can't feel this side of my arm on both hands, so I have a lot of numbness still, but it's not a lot of pain. So I still can't do, I'm not able to yet, do a lot of things, but it takes time. I'm told that nerves take a very long time to replenish."

What is Chris Bey grateful for?

"Family, friends and support system."