Former World Tag Team Champion JD McDonagh suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung during a match on WWE RAW in January. He was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet on the INSIGHT podcast, where he talked about his injury and return plan. Below are the highlights:
How he’s doing:
“Time heals all. I wasn’t like this the first week or two after but I’m feeling a lot better now. Pretty good. My lungs are good. My ribs are good. I’m just kind of waiting for the bones to knit back together before they clear me.”
How the injury happened:
“I guess it was in the planning stage really. I needed to be on that side of the ring for something that was going to come up later on. So I said, I’ll just do it on the announce table side. I’ve done it on that side before, but whatever happened on this one, I just was maybe a foot too far forward or a foot too far back and wiped out.”
What he was thinking in that moment:
“In that moment I was just thinking, when’s the next breath gonna come? I knew that I didn’t hit my head that hard, because I knew I’d missed a spot in the match and I knew what was coming up next. So I knew I wasn’t unconscious or anything like that, and then I don’t know, it was like an out-of-body experience, listening to Michael Cole with the concern in his voice. I’ve heard him all through the years being like we got to get a medic down here, and then all of a sudden you’re lying at his feet and he’s saying it about you.
Everything goes really slow in moments like that. I wasn’t thinking I gotta get through this match. It was just okay, what’s next? Can I do that? Let’s do it. So I wiggled my fingers and toes and I was like, okay, I can do that. I got a breath back. I can probably stand up. So I stood up and got back in there.
I thought it was maybe cracked ribs. I could feel my ribs on this side were like rice krispies under my skin, they’re definitely messed up. I couldn’t get a full lung full of air but I just thought that was because I was winded from hitting the table.
Then the adrenaline kicked in and I was okay, I can do this. I can get back in there and do my part in the match. I didn’t want to leave the guys, especially because it was one of the first few weeks that we were on Netflix. Everyone’s excited about it, huge audience watching you for the Tag Team Titles, War Raiders’ first defense, yeah, I didn’t want to (quit). If I can stand up and keep participating, then I’m gonna.”
Return plan:
“I haven’t taken a bump yet, that’ll be the next step. Get back in the ring, hit the ropes, see if that hurts, take a bump, see if that hurts. If I could be back, I’d be back right now.
Hopefully, I’m going to put a time frame on it and say within a month I hope to be back, that’s what I’m working towards. So whether that happens or not, whether the WWE docs align, that we’ll see.”
