Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chris Bey's Inspiring Recovery After Being Paralyzed In The Ring

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Chris Bey (@DashingChrisBey) is a professional wrestler currently signed to TNA. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss the accident the night after TNA Bound For Glory that left him paralyzed, being told he would only have a 10-25% chance of walking again and defying the odds, the overwhelming support from TNA and the fans including CM Punk showing his support at the Raw on Netflix premiere, if he thinks he will ever wrestle again, the benefit show featuring stars from WWE, AEW and TNA, what it meant to be X Division Champion, his current quality of life and more.   Help support Chris Bey here: https://tnawrestling.com/bey/   Quote I'm thinking about: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur AshePlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibclouxSEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv  FABRIC: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/CVV   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv  HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.comMIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com   PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. Oh, yes. Welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit an inverted atomic drop on that follow button wherever you're listening right now. And if it happens to be Spotify, could I ask for?

a favor. Could you take three seconds today to leave a rating for the show? It would help so much. What a powerful and inspiring conversation we have today with Chris Bay. If you aren't familiar with Chris's story, he suffered a broken neck in the ring during a TNA event in Detroit on October 27th of last year. He was immediately paralyzed from the neck down and doctors gave him a 10 to 25% chance of ever walking again. But just a few weeks ago, He posted a video on social media of him defying the odds and taking his first steps. Chris is an incredibly talented performer in every sense of the word, and his career was in an all-time high. To put things in perspective, just 24 hours before the accident, he was in the main event of Bound for Glory in a three-way tag team match with his partner, Ace Austin, against the Hardee's and the system.

That's Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards. Chris is a former X-Division champion and a three-time TNA tag team champion. This right here is Chris's first interview since the injury, and he speaks openly about everything that happened and whether he thinks it might be possible for him to ever wrestle again. He didn't lose consciousness during the injury, so he remembers everything in vivid detail. The biggest thing for me that stands out from this conversation is, just his gratitude for life and his appreciation for the little things, which is something I feel we can all learn from.

Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening. Give Chris some love on social media and tag him. He's at dashing Chris Bay. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And if you're in the Las Vegas area, check out the benefits show that FSW, Future Stars of Wrestling,

is doing this Sunday, March 23rd to benefit Chris Bay. Go to FSWVegas.com to get tickets or you can see how you can stream the show to support Chris if you don't live in the Las Vegas area. Now, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Chris Bay. Man, it's so good to see you. It's great to see you, man. CNC Connection is back. That's right, Chris and Chris.

Yeah. How you doing? I'm amazing. Like, it's weird because this has been the craziest last four months of my life, but I feel mentally amazing. And that's where it starts at. You know, you got to have a strong mental. And I'm mentally unbeatable, you know, so I feel amazing. Yeah, for everybody to just know, you walked in here. Yeah. You walked in here. It wasn't pretty, but I made it in, yeah. You posted this video on social media recently, just showing where you were at and where your progress was,

what did it take to get to that? It took a lot of therapy, a lot of mental will, a 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. Up until that point, you were in a wheelchair?

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. Or it was a little stretch, maybe three weeks after the surgery. They started putting me in a wheelchair. And from that moment up until mid-January, I was in a wheelchair. What a crazy 24-hour period for you. October 26th, you're in the main event of Bound for Glory.

Yeah. And then the next day, October 27th, is when the accident occurred. Yeah. What do you remember from that night? 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.

And that's it. I don't know. I feel like wrestling. And as soon as I heard I was wrestling the Hardee's, I was like, sweet, double-edged sword because you're wrestling the Hardee's, but then, you know, physically you don't want to do it. But then I told myself, and I told Austin, too, these guys used to do this, too. six nights a week, you know, 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're 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.

to this point goes wrong. And 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 neckbreaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt,

and I felt like a little bit of discomfort. And 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 need to help rolling out of the way. I didn't realize how much help I needed it.

And Austin said it didn't look like I needed a lot. It 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 bump on top of me, expecting me to move. I've had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger.

Were you in pain? 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 numbness. I just felt un-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 you help 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. 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.

I was just in this, you know, because I can't get up. Yeah. I'm already laying here. I'm like, let's just go to Swantan. 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. So I was like, 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 swan ton now, as he's already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn't do the swan ton.

He protects me and drops a leg drop, but misses by a mile, you know, protects me. And he covers me. and I'm just so apologetic. I'm like, guys, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match. Like, I messed up.

I'm sorry. And they're like, no, are you all right? And our ringside doctor comes over to me. And he checks on me and he tries to give me to squeeze his hands. And at this point, my fingers are shaking a little bit, but they're not squeezing. And I tell Austin, I'm like, bro, take my elbow pads off me now because my, my arms are hot. Now 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, in 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 going to catch a flight tomorrow and head back home, go back to the gym and get back to routine. And I'm laying there, and the doctors ask me if I can wiggle my toes. And once he asked me that, I go, I can't feel my toes. And 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, you know. It's scary.

And Austin's there. He's by my side. Matt and Jeff's, they're there. The ringside doctor, Daniel Spencer, our referees here. And everyone's around me. And I can't move. I can't look left or right other than with my eyeballs. And they put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher.

And I remember telling Austin, I was like, hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher? And I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn't happening. And he laughs, you know, tears in his eyes. He laughs. And I'm like, all right, go tell Jeff to Joe. Now, tell Matt the joke now. I want them to laugh now. Like, lighten the moment a little bit. So he scurries over and tells them the joke. And they put me on the stretcher. And now I start

to cry a little bit. And I was like, all right, suck it up, man. They're about to take you through the back locker room. I don't want the boys to see you like this, you know. 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 and let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Call my girlfriend. I let her know. She 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 and told him

and told him to my buddy right here, my boy 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'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. 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.

And my mom, you know, 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. And 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. And I still didn't know what to think.

At this point, they told me they were going to operate on my neck. And I've never broken anything, like I said. So I don't know if this is 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's 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. You know, what are we waiting for the surgeon to get there? What are we waiting for? I'm ready. And he put me under, woke up the next day. It was day one. He said it was a neckbreaker.

What's the actual spot look like? 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 block. the best one in the game, you know. And 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 neck breaker. And 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, you know, everything we do is dangerous. and everything we do is an inch away from a catastrophe happening. And 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. What was the surgery that you had? So they went in the front and they fused my C-6 to my C-7. That's the scar you have here? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Which healed up pretty nicely. Yeah. 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 I couldn't believe I had staples in my neck. What a weird feeling. And 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 damaged to my spinal cord, which was 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. Do you have a conversation with the doctor before the surgery or after the surgery telling you like, here's what we think's going to happen after the surgery? They, I don't remember a conversation beforehand because... They just wanted to get you into surgery. They just wanted to get me in.

And they want to keep your morale high, too. So I'm sure they don't want to put an estimate on what may or may or may not be beforehand. So you never know. Nothing is linear. No case is linear. But afterwards. You had x-rays at that point in time?

Yeah, they x-rayed me before the surgery. And I do remember them showing me what my neck was looking like. And I believe there was a fragment I was pushing into my spinal cord. 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 results. And what they say? For me, they say, so they say you see your most results in recovery, like the quickest results in around three to six months,

and 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. Wow. Look at you now. Beat the odds. Yeah. Beat the odds. What made you not willing to accept those 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. and it's people use that phrase before it's not a new 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 everything 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 zero percent chance. But I still was doubting a little bit. But then I had a conversation with Pump, 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. And 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. You know, I've had a lot less odds with everything that I've done in my life up into this point. So who's to say I can't beat this one?

And once I realized that, once that 24 to 48 hours were over, it was go time. But not everyone thinks like that. So where did you get that mentality to begin with, to beat the odds when people are telling you, you'll never be a pro wrestler, you'll never be on TV. Now you're being told, you may never walk again. And you're just saying, well, beat the odds before, I'll do it again. Yeah. I think I got that mentality from, in a basic term, my dad, he was so hard working. I know we spoke about him before.

he was his work ethic alone helps drive my work ethic in my life but also we have one life to live so you have to live it to the fullest you can't become a victim to your distractions you know we all have distractions but we all have a chance every day above ground is a good day it's about what you make it we all have bad days but I like to tell people you have 100% success rate if you're still here. Think about the days you

couldn't pay rent or the days where you couldn't eat or you got hurt someone passed away you lost a spouse something tragic happened to you. You made it through that day

if you're still here. You have 100% success rate so you have to just keep fighting. You tweeted something the other day that I thought was so good. I wrote it down. I learned that at a really young age, it's not about what happens to you in life. It's about how you react. You are a living, breathing proof of that. Yeah. My dad taught me that. And I saw that when I was in Detroit in rehab. A lot of people around me didn't have the support system that I had, which I'm so grateful to have. I can't believe it. But a lot of people around me didn't have. I can't believe it. But a lot of people around me didn't have.

people didn't have people there for them. These are people who are local to Detroit. I'm not even from there. And I have so many people coming to visit me and giving me love and support all over the world. These people don't really have a lot of people, if any. They don't have a lot of will. That support system is everything.

You have to believe, though. You have to understand that things are going to happen. It's up to you to fix it. It's up to you to not let it. determine your outcome. You determine your outcome. How long did you stay in Detroit after the accident before being able to come back home to Las Vegas? Almost exactly two months. I got hurt, like we said, on the 27th of October, and I flew home December 28th. So almost exactly two months. Was there a moment where you're spending Christmas there, just in disbelief?

Yes. It felt like I was in a time cap. because here I am laying up in a bed the majority of my time there. And I'm watching Halloween go by. I watch Thanksgiving go by. I watch Christmas go by. I'm watching the world I know around me seemingly just keep flowing. Everybody's still posting content. Everybody's still working and wrestling.

people are still developing in life and I'm just stuck in this bed. I had a great Christmas. My girlfriend was there. Ace drove down, spent Christmas with me. Other people came up and visited it. It was great for what it is supposed to be, you know. I had no regrets about it.

Would it have been nice to be home? Sure. But I had love around it. me. We played, you know, Mario Kart. It was sweet. When did you first start to get an indication of I can move something, a toe, a finger, whatever it was? My fingers and hands started to move upward. My arms, like, from the elbows. Around what point? Probably about a couple days and a weekend. 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'd move down and go, does it feel

normal here? Does it feel numb? And wherever I would say that it feels normal, where it changes to numb, they'd mark it. And 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 a strength back in my fingers. My fine motor skills are still not very good with my hand. This is pretty great for four and a half months after. It's amazing. I have no complaints with this. I can, I still can't do, like, tiny things. I can't open bottle caps yet.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me, I try to remove the word can't from my vocabulary. So you just caught me slipping there. But a lot of times now I'll tell people I'm not able to do that yet, rather than say I can't. When was the first time you stood up?

On my own or with helping device? Well, I think that probably the device helped to... For sure. You allowed to be able to do it on your own. So I... We talked about when I started getting some movement back. I believe it was December 3rd when my PT came in one morning to get me ready. And she had me stretching.

and she asked for me to try to pull my leg in myself and we realized my adductors had turned on because I was able to move my leg inward myself. So as soon as we got that little bit of movement, they got excited. Because it went from only teaching me how to move in this wheelchair in therapy and maneuver with the wheelchair

to now, okay, we can start trying to see what he can do with his legs. From there, they started trying to move my legs into certain positions and see if certain... Certain muscles will wake up, my glutes, you know, my hamstrings, my, see what's firing in my legs. And at first it was just my adductors. And then I started being able to slightly move my pinky toe on my left foot.

And then I started being able to move my leg upward, do a leg raise, a leg extension. And once I did that, I was like, okay, we're starting to cook here. My quad's starting to turn on. I went to tell someone how I could flex my quad a little bit. I saw in bed, I could flex my left quad. And when I went to tell them, I did a leg extension. I immediately pulled on my phone and filmed it. I was like, I have to prove that I can do this.

Because what if I can't do it in an hour from now? I need someone to see I just did this. So once I started getting that, they put me in this machine called the standing frame, which you sit into it and it has a support on the back, support around the knees, and in front of you, and they crank it up, and it stands you up. and they try to get you used to standing upright because you've been down for so long. Your blood pressure just drops from you being up. You're not used to bearing weight on your legs.

It will put me in the standing frame and I would last six minutes here, 10 minutes there. Some days I'd do 15 minutes. The next day I'd do six minutes again. And then one day I think I got to maybe I did three sets. And the first set was like six minutes. The second set was 12 minutes. And the third set was 22 minutes. And it was only 22 minutes because we ran out of time.

PT, you know, but I was doing PT as often as possible. Six days a week, they gave me three hours a day, and whenever they had opening sessions, they'd come to my room and ask if I wanted it. I'd hop out of bed and get to it. Do you think you'll 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. You know, they say like 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 I'm having people reach out to me who I've never, my wildest dreams imagine reach out to me. They're making video packages about me. It was like I was watching, 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's 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 I'm being 29, is very important to me. It's something that I want so badly. Not now, but one day. And 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. You know, 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 and 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, you know, maybe a couple weeks ago now that I'm walking again and I'm back in the gym, 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. Have you talked to other wrestlers who have had broken necks, someone like T.J. Wilson or Adam Copeland? Yeah. Yeah, I talked to those guys kind of frequently. TJ a lot and Adam, we speak a lot too, more so when I was in the hospital. Yeah, he was a very great support, like very helpful for me. I would ask him questions about how he managed his time when he was going through his injury. I had nothing but time on my hands.

And as a musician, I would have thought I would have wrote music. Most people would have thought I wanted to write music, but not being able to properly operate my hands. I didn't want to do text to talk. That's how I was doing a lot of my communication in there, but not being able to operate my hands and do it myself, which is something that didn't speak to me. So talking to him and getting his take on what he did and T.J. as well, the T.J. so powerful with his belief,

he really truly believes that I'm going to be able to recover from this and work again. And for me, I was and I am, a big T.J. Wilson. fan. I love watching Tyson Kid wrestle. I love the funny haircut. You know? I love the NXT run. I love the theme song. I think I use this theme song of one of those WWE 2K games or whatever.

I love it. So to have his support, have, you know, Adam's support. I talked to Xbox. We talked about our necks. It's a rare club of people but, and we're all so different. But everyone

has made it through it. You know. What did you do to pass the time in the hospital? If you say you got nothing but time, what did you do? The hard part was so many people cared that I almost had no free time. Because people, the hospital, they knew at the front desk, they'd be like, oh, yeah, we know what room you're going to. Like, everyone was in and out of there. And they only allow so many visitors.

So I'd have to kind of schedule it like, okay, this person's coming at this time. So you have to leave by this time because this person's coming at this time. And it got to the point where I had to tell people, okay, I don't want any visitors because I still haven't been able to process what happened to me. I can't process it until I'm alone. This is a lot of distraction and love, and it's great, but I have to really take in the challenge that's ahead of me so I can know what's going on. So I passed my time other than doing therapy by watching a lot of movies, catching up

a lot of movies. Didn't watch a lot of wrestling. No ill will to it. He wasn't really interested, you know. Watched a lot of movies. A cool nurse that I had got me a book, Atomic Habits or something The Rather. That's a great book. Yeah, yeah, that one. So he got me that book. So I read up a little bit into that book. Just trying to not be so depressed. Whatever I could do, eating snacks, watching movies, reading up on a book, watching whatever silly shows they had on the TV, binge watching family guy, whatever I could do to just put my brain away, but also not run away, you know. Was there a thought or a quote you kept coming back to that reminded you that it's going to be okay?

Not a thought or a quote, well, not a quote, but the thought, I guess, would be just, every day above ground is a good day, you know. It's funny because, again, punk told me that in 20, 23, and I went before the year was over and I got it tattooed above my knee because I wanted every day that I stepped out of bed, I wanted to be the first thing that I saw. So I'd approach every day with gratitude. And every day I would have that reminder that this is a new day

to make whatever happened that I want to happen to happen. Anything that happened yesterday, that's bad. I can fix it. I can have a better time. So just keeping that in mind, even though at this point of my life, I'm no longer able to step out of bed when I was in the hospital, at least.

I'm no longer able to step out of bed and take that first moment of gratitude and read that tattoo. I could barely sit upright to look at it. That quote was still in my mind because every day I got up, okay, what's therapy like today? What do I have to do today? What did I do bad yesterday that I can do better today?

What can I improve on? How can I become what it is that I want to become, which is self-sufficient again, to some degree? Just keeping that in mind help me fuel every day. So you're pretty close with CM Punk. Yeah. And you shouted you out on Raw. Yeah. What did that mean to you?

How do you even put that into words, right? 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 as probably you every single day. It's on all of our minds every single day. So to look up and see Netflix debut, one of your favorite wrestlers growing up, and he shouts you out, one of my best friends was in the crowd. And he's a big punk fan, so he was loving it, you know. 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 care about me that much or thinking about me that much, because I'm just a guy. I'm just a guy, man.

I just want to. to be a wrestler, I became a wrestler. TNA has helped put me on a platform and, and give me the opportunity to do everything that I love. And this is the result. I have no words for it. Well, look, you're not just a guy. And it's so fitting, you had a vest that on the back of it said, I am that guy. Yeah. And you, now with everything you've been through, you are that guy. I am, I am. There's like the meme out there, you're not that guy, pal. You know, you're not that guy, pal. not that guy, and I wanted a new moniker before I got hurt. I was like, I am that guy. You know, I was thinking about it. I was like, well, I would think, I would like to think at least I am

that guy. And I think never more than now is it proof that I'm the guy. You're that guy who defied the odds. Yeah. Like, that's who you are. Yeah. And even if the odds are slim that you might wrestle again, if anybody's going to do it, it's going to be you. That's part of the greatest story ever told, man, that right there, you just said it. So many people told me that during the injury and my buddy being one of them and I had to ask him what it even means because so many people were saying to me, if anybody's going to make it back, it's you. If anybody's going to beat this as you. If anybody can do it, it's you to the point. I was on the phone with my man staying. I said, bro, what does that mean? What does that mean? Everybody keeps telling me if anyone can do it as me

and I'm like in tears because obviously I'm going through a lot and this is my, point where one of my points where I need to be vulnerable. But what does that even mean? Everyone's telling me that. What does it mean? He's like, it means it's you, man. Like, it's always been you. Like, you got that work ethic.

You're stronger than anybody I've ever met. You've always set your mind to something and accomplished it. And never let anybody tell you know, like, if anybody's going to do it, it's going to be you. And I had to remember that and fuel everything with me in me to make that a reality and to get to the point where I'm at right now and get to the next point because if I do that, I can change the world. You already are. What's the support you've got from TNA since the accident?

They've been so great to me, man. They've covered all the medical expenses. They check on me almost every day, you know, people. And I mean, when I say they check on me, I mean from the roster to the talent, Like, behind the scenes, people who set up the building and management, you know, presidents of the company, people from Anthem, everybody, 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 expect it. And I don't understand why anyone would think that they wouldn't. You know, like 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.

You know, 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, like, y'all got to go home. Like, y'all not going to 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 know, everybody's wearing the We Heart Bay shirts. The whole team, man, top to bottom. Family is not even the right word anymore because family sometimes, times betray you. These people are are real. Prize Picks is the best

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life-defining moment that happened to you and now you get to decide where it goes from here? Yeah. It every day doesn't feel real. I still have so much difficulty in regular life. things that I try to do from putting lotion on my face to, like I said, opening bottles or trying to function when my girlfriend's out of town, you know, and it's just me, and I'm trying to maneuver and figure stuff out by myself. Sometimes I'm like, man, why?

Why is this happening to me? But why not? I was built for it. If anybody's built for it, it's me. I had to quickly learn that, too, you know? It's not supposed to... be easy. I've always asked God for strength. And this injury has taught me that he doesn't give you what you ask for. He gives you an opportunity to prove that you want it. Wow. It feels like

perspective is a big thing you've gotten from this. Yeah. What do you feel like your perspective has been over the last four and a half months? I can't take anything for granted anymore. And nothing. The ability to tie my shoes or put on my own pants. the ability to get up and go to the front door and get a delivery, the ability to move in a scenario where it might be an emergency, seeing other people who may be going through things, my perspective is a little different now, because before you may see someone who has something going on

and you can kind of identify it, and you may see someone who seems completely what is to you, your opinion normal, but they might have a lot going on that you don't know about. I think about that a lot too. It's changed my perspective in that so much so. Because, for example, random example, right? Let's say you're in a rush somewhere and someone's driving like a moron in front of you. You're like, man, who's driving this car?

You don't know who's driving that car. It can literally be someone who has something going on with them. And they're struggling to drive this car. car. They have the ability to do it. Yeah. Something happened with their kid. Anything. Right. You know, they have the ability to do it, but it just takes them a little bit of more effort to do what they're doing right there in that moment. Yeah. In my perspective on everybody, seeing everybody in a different light now has changed in that way. Yeah. There's been nothing but love for you. And when you look at the GoFundMe, like, I think it hit the goal, like, very quickly. Yeah. And then you see some huge donations coming in from legends in this industry. What? What? what did it mean to you to see that GoFund Me, the goal get hit so quickly? I cried so many times about it. I cried so many times about it because deep down, I think we all just want to be cared about.

You know, there's people out here who, like, have that tough exterior. I don't care about people's opinions. I don't care about what this person, we all care. We all feel. and in this day and age, in this economy, for people to give what they have to me, a lot of people that don't even know me, people I've never met,

but I feel like I know them maybe because, like you said, legends in the industry. I watched them all my life, so I feel like I know them. You know, I don't know the person, but I feel like I know them because I've watched them for so long. I think a lot of those people put themselves in your shoes.

Yeah. I think there's a lot of people have had careers that are 10, 20, 30 years, and they go, that could have been me. It could have been one inch the other way, and I could have been laid up in bed like Chris Bay. Yeah. Yeah. I just cried so much about it because who knows if I'll ever do this again, you know, God willing, I will. But who knows if I ever will? And if I can ever find something else to do to make income, especially in right now, because I can't, I'm not able to yet. Yet, I like that.

Not able to do certain things with my hands. And my brain is fine. My mind is fine. So I could find something to do maybe from that. But I'm used to using my body for things. So for me to now have a little bit of time and leeway with the money that people have raised for me to figure something out, at least it gives me that opportunity to not have to stress about how I can survive and keep a roof over my head. You were a guy so known for the way you looked, like you were jacked, shredded. When you look in the mirror now, do you still see you?

It's hard. I avoided it when I was in the hospital. I avoided it. I avoided looking in the mirror as often as I could. My hair was uncapped. I looked like a caveman because the beard I grew out so long. I lost 30 pounds when I was in there, which for me is a lot because I wasn't the biggest guy. I was just very low body fat percentage. So losing 30 pounds made me a kid again essentially. I hadn't been that light since I was a teenager. you know um so looking in the mirror for me was so hard especially because going into bound for glory aesthetically i was in the best shape of my life there's a video i took in the gym two days before i flew out to

detroit my last workout i think at home and i was an incredible shape like ridiculous shape and there were so many days i looked back at this in the hospital not because you know uh i crave you know i crave to look like that again. But I was just so impressed with what I become. I had to quickly learn that it's not about what I've done or what I've been. It's about what I can do now, what I am now.

But I avoid it looking in the mirror. Now I'm being home and being able to go back in the gym and doing a lot of PT and putting back on 10 pounds now, it's a little bit easier to look in the mirror, but I still don't see me. The card for this benefit show is stacked. So it's March 23rd.

here in Las Vegas, FSW. Yeah. Like, it's a lot of your friends and support system and the fans are coming out to support this in a huge way too.

Yeah. So cool to see carrying cross on the show and WWE allowing him to do the show. Yeah. Yeah. He and I have such a special bond

because I saw him online when I first researched the school and he was their champion. and I thought he was, I never saw indie wrestling before. So this is kind of my first taste of it. And I thought he was a star already. And 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 he walks in in this atomic stringer, jacked. And he comes in and he tells all the students that they had a great show at the casino know 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, like, this is a real true wrestling experience. This is what everyone dreams on. I'm going to get to learn from the ground up.

We did a promo class, and 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 that give everybody the traditional high-fives

when you make your debut, I see him sit in front row with the championship around his waist. And I was like, oh, man, he's here like, 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, like, the slow clap thing, and the fans, you know, clap for me. and 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 he was at, I think he was at TNA or something, and 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.

And 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, the living Las Vegas legend. And we had a great match, and I won, and it was a special moment. And 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. I love that. The amount of people that are on that card. Like, this is a stacked card.

Man, let's run them down. Who we got? Swerve, Cage, right? Brian Cage, the Rascals, A.J. Francis, freaking, like we said, cross, you name it, keep going. With so many people that are on this show, so many of the younger guys in FSW who are going to get an opportunity to be a part of a bigger card. I know Alex Zane, Leo Rush, you know, Jay Vidal, Kenny King, you know, my trainer. It's such a blend of people that I have a special bond in relationship with from top to bottom in all different parts of my career. It's literally a little piece of me and everybody. It's crazy.

You posted this video pretty recently of when you said you should have broke your neck six years ago. Yeah. That is so scary to watch. Do you remember thinking in that moment how lucky you were? and for people who haven't seen it, you go up to the top rope, the top rope breaks and you fall directly on the top of your head. It's funny, you ask if I was thinking about

how lucky I was, and I know you're referring to it by not breaking my neck, I was thinking about how lucky I was by capturing it. Because at the time... Because no one would have believed it? No one would have believed it. And 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, you know, because there's almost in everything, if you think about it, you know, this microphone could die, you know, like almost. I hope it doesn't. Hope it doesn't, but. Yeah, well, is it close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades? See, that's the type of, that's the type of thought process I try to live on, because

in wrestling, you know, we could almost get hurting on everything. So I never thought, I never think about that. So as soon as I didn't get hurt and I got up and everyone was checking on me, like, 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.

And 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. Your career was on an incredible upward swing. You had so much momentum. like we said, you're just main evented bound for glory the night before in a match with the hardies.

And the system. Yeah. Where did you feel like your career was going from there? Honestly. I love when people say honestly, right? Because everything else they say is fiction. Everything else was a lie. Yeah.

This moment, I'm going to be honest. Truly. I was going up. I knew it. I was going up. I was for the first time in a long time. time, I was really motivated about wrestling. Not to say I was just on autopilot before, but I had kind of hit a dip in 2024 dealing with a hip injury that I had that kind of slowed me down a bit.

So it was weighing on me mentally. And I was starting to find some more better rehab working with some PTs out here and a doctor out here in Vegas that was helping me navigate through it. And like I said earlier, my physique was in the best shape it was ever in. I had a goal in mind, wrestling-wise. I was certain that I was about to do some really, really awesome stuff. Like, take my career to the highest level than never before. And, yeah, and then got this detour that I'm on. That match at Bound for Glory wasn't just any match.

Like, there were some of the, probably the best spots of your career. in that match. Yeah. Talk to me about this cutter to Eddie Edwards. Man, I... We're so clean. Thank you, man. Thank you.

I love a good cutter. I love a good cutter. Shout out to DDP. Shout out to Randy Orden. I love a good cutter. And for me, that one right there had to be perfect. And shout out to Eddie Edward for taking it so perfectly. because he could have easily been, you know, an inch this way or fell a certain way that it just

didn't look good. But when I grabbed him by the neck, I said, nah, bro, we got to do this. It was, it was the perfect height. And if you look, Austin helps rebound the ropes to get me more momentum. He's off to the side. And I just remember in the moment right before I ran to hit the the ropes. Main event of Mount for Glory, I reminded myself, this is my moment right here. You are that guy. Like, I am that guy. Nailed this right now.

Do not miss when you do this move. And as soon as we, I went up and I felt the rebound when Austin pulled and I was arching back, I was like, okay, we're here. And I seen Eddie and clear, like it wasn't like I had to reach and grab him far. He was right there. As soon as I hooked him. and it was like magnets. We latched.

I was like, oh, yeah, this is going to happen. So if you watch the footage back, as soon as we bump, you see me sell the bump, big bump. But also you see me like smiling and like nod in my head because I knew. I was like, oh, that was the one right there. I don't know if I'm ever going to top that one. I was so good. Thank you. Both of you guys was just like absolute perfection, the way you pulled it off.

What about the spear? The spear. Shades of WrestleMania 17. Yeah, yeah. I said, Jeff, you don't got to take this one. I'll take this one for you. You can watch. Let me know how it looks. That was probably the scariest bump of my career easily.

I'm hanging on, what, maybe 20 feet. I don't know how high it is. I'm hanging on from the championships. And when Eddie goes and pulls my feet back, all I can think was, yeah, I didn't think I would be this high and this far back. because now when he pulls my feet back, I'm kind of like, you know, now, what is it, vertical or horizontal?

Yeah, it's almost like a slingshot. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm looking at the momentum and I'm just like, well, this is, and I see Myers on the other ladder. I'm the bro, he's about to take me out. This is going to be the end of me right here. And the moment I hit the canvas off that when he hit me and we hit the, and I landed as flat as I possibly could, First, I said my thanks to the man upstairs. And secondly, I was like, yeah, I ain't getting up the rest of this match.

I don't want to get up. And I remember when I finally got some floor, Austin came and checked on me. And he was like, man, we got to grab these belts. I said, nah, you got to grab those belts. I ain't getting back. I ain't getting back. I'm going to lay right here on this broken table because I ain't doing nothing else. That's not a spot you can really practice either.

You can't. No, you can't. You just do it and hope it goes well. And it went really well. What did being TNA X-X Division champion mean to you? That my name is etched in history, and no one can take it away from me. The night of, because it was during the era where we didn't have fans, you know, the pandemic. And the night of, I remember riding back to the hotel in an Uber, having the Exhibition Championship next to me.

And I Googled because I wanted to see how many people were ever X-Division champion. So I googled the history of the Ex-Vision Champion. And as soon as I put it in in Google, the top response that came up was first champion, AJ Styles, current champion, Chris Bay. And I read it. And I was like, and I looked next to me. I said, bro, this is, this is real. This is really mine right now.

I think I slept with it that night, too. I'm a beltmark. Don't, you know, don't beat me up for it. But I slept with the championship. And I realized, you know, you can never take it away from it. I didn't even have a long run. But it's about what you do with the championship. That's what they say, that the championship doesn't make the champion,

the champion makes a championship. And it was one of those moments where I had it for maybe a month, but people still come up to me to the day, like, you were one of my favorite Ex-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. You had one match in WWA, right?

I did, yeah. 2019. Yeah. Was there ever an opportunity for maybe that to turn into something more? I believe there was. I know there was talks with a couple people about attempting to get me a tryout. And I know if I would have had a tryout, I would have succeeded.

Not me being arrogant. I just know myself. Like when I get an opportunity to do something, I nail it. That's what I do. Like, that's clearly. You have to. 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'll like, all right, 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. And that night at 205 Live, I think, went perfect. And I remember when I came through the curtain, like, I believe Adam Pierce, like, put me over real nice. Says 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 tryout. 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 WW Guerrilla as this extra,

you know, and these guys were like, no, we need to get this guy a trial. 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. And the next day I got offered the TNA deal. And I sat on it for a while. Because of what had happened with WWE? Do you think they saw that? Yeah. 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 had 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 and 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 them. So let's do it right now instead of waiting.

We're living in a wild time right now where WWE has a partnership with TNA. Yeah. It must be pretty cool to see some of your friends doing big things in NXT. Man, it's awesome. I saw a moose on there and he's having this match with O. with him in Madison Square Garden, I think, right? Like, he deserves it, man. He's so underrated and underappreciated, but not on our side, but not in TNA.

He's achieved so much, all the accolades almost. I think he's missing the tag titles, but, you know, he's had, he has the Exhibition championship. He's a multi-time world champion, I believe, you know, main event at paper views, what, you know, call your shot trophies. He's done it all. I think seeing this crossover and seeing him go over there. or when the rascals went over,

or, you know, Masha being over there, Masha Slamovic, going over to NXT, seeing a lot of our people get to share the spotlight and go back and forth. And for them to come over with us, I think it's so beneficial for everybody involved because we have the best roster in the world. I still believe that.

So I think when NXT people come over, I think they're amazing. So for them to get to mix up with us and for us to get to mix up with them, be on their program, it makes it exciting for all the wrestling fans because they get to build dream matches that actually come true.

Back in the day, dream matches were just dream matches unless someone else switched to a territory and became a part of that territory, now they're in their system. Now we get to see it where it's actually company versus company and people who get to coexist and then still go back their other way. I got to say, I'm inspired by your positivity.

Yeah. It'd be so easy for you to sit here and feel sorry for yourself. why haven't you? Because I'm alive, man. It's so simple, but it's literally that simple. I'm alive. If I wasn't alive, maybe feel sorry for me

that my life ended in a tragic moment in the ring and probably would have shook up the wrestling industry in a different way. But I'm alive. I'm alive. I can live to tell the story. I can function for the most, part, there's nothing to be sad about for me. I may not be what I used to be, but I still don't

even look at it like that. You know, I don't look at old clips and be like, man, I wish I could. I look at old clips myself and be like, man, I was a beast, but in a good way. I'm not looking at it sad about anything. I can still call my family. I can still sit here and have a conversation with you. We can still talk. I can still spend nice moments with my girlfriend. I can still, you know, go to the gym, I can't lift what I used to, but I'm not even thinking about that, bro, I was benching 320. Yet. Yet.

There we go. I'm not able to yet. I was benching 320 before I got hurt. That was ridiculous numbers for me. I was so happy about that. And now when I go to the gym the other day, I put up, I think, 95 pounds. I was happy about that. Yeah.

I'm not, you know, I'm not. That's a bar in 225s. You know, it's essentially nothing, but to someone that's everything. And I'm not someone right now. You know, I don't have to be sad about anything because I'm alive. And every day above ground is a good day. What is the greatest story ever told me into you? It's my life story in full.

But other than day one, one of the things that I was saying in the hospital was that should I come back from this, it'll be the greatest story ever told. And I meant that because I don't know of a case of someone being fully paralyzed and coming back from that into the world of wrestling. You can obviously fact check me if I'm wrong. There have been a lot of broken necks, but I don't think there's been someone fully paralyzed. And that's what I've seen with my research. So I don't think that it's been done. So should I be the one to do it? How can it not be the greatest story ever told?

My life already, as it is, is a great story. It's a story that has motivated so many people and has inspired people to chase their dreams and change their lives. And now I have this catastrophe of an injury. Should I overcome this injury? And get back to that world, it's the greatest story ever told.

because it's already been inspirational before the injury. During the injury, it's fueling all these people and helping all these people. Come back from the injury, how can you not look at that as someone in your life and think that anything is possible? When you posted that video of you walking, I think a lot of people went,

if Chris Bay can walk, then I can do but whatever it is in my life that I think I can't do. Yeah. There's been a lot of testimonials coming my way. And I love them. Keep sending them to me. I love reading them. I love hearing your guys' stories.

It's been amazing to be able to hear your story. And thank you for being so open about it. Yeah. It's the first time. Yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you, man. Yeah.

Why did you not post on social media for so long? I couldn't use my hands at first. So I didn't really want someone. writing for me and I couldn't process exactly what was going on so I didn't know what to say. Even when T&A put out that statement on my behalf, I approved it, but I didn't want to myself come out yet and then it wasn't even that I didn't want to immediately, but once two weeks went by and I had it and I still couldn't fully function with my fingers. and my motor skills weren't there.

I didn't feel like I needed to or I was ready to. And then I was also very embarrassed because I pride myself on being self-sufficient and being this superior athlete, being able to do almost anything. So to get to a point where I need help with everything and I can't do anything, I'm not able to yet, do anything on my own,

I was embarrassed. I was very embarrassed and I didn't want people to see me in this light. I did understand how many people cared about me and how many people wanted an update and how many people it would help for me to give them an update. And for the last few years,

I've celebrated my birthday with gratitude and wanted to spend it around a lot of love so when I turned 29 and I decided that it was time to post that video, it was not only for me, but it was because I wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the support and for keeping me in your thoughts and I wanted people to kind of be able to take the load off and understand that I'm better now

and I'm mentally ready to show you where I'm at in my recovery because I know you don't know how deep the injury is, but I want you to know it is pretty deep, but I'm recovering from it and I'm getting better. But I was just embarrassed. And you're getting better every day. Yeah.

Like I'm sure your progress this week is much better than it was last week. For sure. And then that's just going to keep compounding on itself. Yeah. Then how could you not be back to your old self if you keep moving that way? Yeah. I, the more every day goes on, the more I believe it.

At first I didn't believe it, but I had small goals. So it wasn't that I didn't believe it. It was just that wasn't the goal. And I remember talking to some therapists in Detroit about that. And there were some therapists that were trying to really get me to focus on my new life in a wheelchair. And I, I didn't agree with that. Because I, there was no disrespect to being in a wheel. wheelchair. But I didn't want that to be my permanent reality. And I wanted to try as hard as I could

to remove that from the immediate reality. But if it ended up being that, I would have been okay with it. But in the moment, I had to do everything I could to escape that so that I could push forward and build a new reality for myself, which is this reality that I'm currently living in right now, where I'm better. So with every day now, my goal, I've been smashing goals. When I got home, my goal was to, you know, overall goal was to learn how to walk. But I remember I live on the second floor and everyone wanted me to move to the first floor. I told everyone I didn't want to do it.

So my goal became shortly after I started physical therapy in Vegas here, okay, I want to learn to walk up the steps myself. And then I think January 21st at physical therapy, we walked up some stairs like a three-step. And they took me to the stairwell and I walked down 16 and back up 16. They said, okay, we think you're good to do it at home now. So then I switched from the wheelchair to the walker the next day. My girl said, how about we leave the chair in the house today? We go with the walker.

I said, okay, cool. It was a struggle. But we did it. Walked up and down the stairs, left the house, the walker. So then my goal from the walker was, okay, let me try to stay sufficient on the walker. And then that week, at therapy later that week, we used forearm crutches. So I ordered a pair of forearm crutches. And I said, okay, I want to be able to full-time use these next week.

And next week I was fully using them. And then I said, okay, I want to be able to use one of them by, you know, maybe my birthday. But then I was on one by the next week. So then I said, you know what? Maybe I want to stand up and, like, do a short walk for my birthday. And then there was a hallway leaving therapy that I used to film myself walking with the crutches down. and then I film myself walking down holding the crutches without using them, and I made it halfway down the hallway.

And then one day I was leaving therapy, and I made it all the way to the front door without the crutches. I said, you know what? I think I'll be able to do this on my birthday. I think I'll be able to make this video. And then at my birthday, I said, you know what? My friends are coming to visit me at the end of March. I want to be able to go to the gym with them when they come to town.

And I started going back to the gym last week. So the more I keep smashing these goals, the more I'm like, maybe I will come back one day. Maybe I can do that again. Do you have any limitations right now? Like, can you stand for only a certain period of time? Not that I know of. I'm good to stand for as long as I am.

And people offer me seats. You know, 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. I'm still on a lot of medication to numb and block out the pain and also help and help.

enhance my and rejuvenate my muscles and my spinal cord um so i prefer to stand honestly when i sit too long i feel the effects of that are you in pain right now it's just numb just it's not it's discomfort it's not pain yeah so it's my body's more numb my my spinal cord is numb my legs are about i can maybe feel about 50% of the sensation my hand from the middle of my hand down to my elbow or about my 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 hear nerves, and I'm told that nerves take, you know, a very low. long time to replenish. A lot of your fans are watching this right now and a lot of people who love you and care about you. What's the message you have for them? Don't give up. Whatever it is that you want in life, you're chasing in life, just don't give up. You know, I appreciate you supporting me. I appreciate caring about me and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. but when it comes to your life and your goals, your aspirations and things that you have going on,

just don't give up because it can get better. It might not be tomorrow. It might not be next week, but it can get better. You just have to keep doing the work. You have to show up every day. You have to remember that every day above ground is a good day. So treat it as such and just fight for what you want. Yeah.

I love how many times you brought up gratitude during this conversation. Gratitude is such a huge part of my life. Every day when I wake up, I say out loud three things I'm grateful for. I do it before I go to bed. Because it just helps you to focus on the things you have in your life. Rather than being upset about the things you don't have in your life. So it's the question I end every interview with. Chris, what are three things in your life you're grateful for right now?

Keep it super simple. My family and friends support system. It's all one. I'll put it all in one, everybody. because at this point now, post-injury, everybody's my family. Everybody who's showing me love, everybody is my family, you know. Because when I was laid up and I couldn't do much, and even now all the love that everyone shows me,

the prayers are true. I can feel them. I said this to a bunch of people in the hospital, but I felt like if I were to fall and give up, there's a million hands holding me up. that would push me right back onto my feet and wouldn't let me give up because I feel it.

People tell me all the time, man, I'm praying for you. I know. I know. I can feel it. I truly can. So I'm thankful for my family, my friends, my support system. I'm grateful to be alive and have an opportunity to do something else. I don't know what my purpose is anymore. I thought I knew what it was once upon a time.

I don't know what it is anymore and I know I'm not supposed to know right now. I will know in time, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn it. For the third thing, so many things I could say, pro wrestling. The wrestling world, the wrestling community, my peers, fans, people who boo me, cheer me, people who don't react, people who support wrestling in any type of way, we all love wrestling, and without you, we couldn't do anything. So everybody who supports wrestling in any way, any company, any wrestler, anything, people who set up the stages, people who set up and run the monitors, people in the sound trucks, you know, everybody.

Everybody who's a part of wrestling. And wrestling as a whole, I think wrestling, because without wrestling, I wouldn't be here. And without wrestling, I wouldn't be where I'm going next. What's the best way people can support you? The GoFundMe is still alive if you want to donate. But outside of that, you can stream my music. It's on all streaming platforms. That's a free way to help me and, you know,

help me earn a little bit of, you know, profit from it. But also, I just love the music. So if you stream it, it makes me feel good. You can follow me on social medias and follow my journey. I'll be doing an exclusive subscription page on Instagram soon, where I'll be posting the recovery clips on there. And, you know, I know it's a lot that I'm shooting, so I'm still not comfortable showing people

what it looks like my progress. So that's why I'd rather put it behind a paywall because I know people do want to support. So if you really do, I will be comfortable if you pay you to see it because I'm not comfortable to show it, just showing you in general. And you got the shirts I'm, Pro Wrestling T's.

Got the shirts on pro wrestling teas, the G-Set shirt, the We Love Bay shirt, and then all the other shirts. And also, if you live in and around Las Vegas, come out to the Benefits Show, it's this Sunday, March 23rd. The card is stacked. It's insane. And it's a benefit show for Chris Bay. It's insane.

The card is stacked. And it's also on the, what is it, the Triller app? Is that what it's called? Yeah, so you don't even have to be in Vegas. Yeah. So if you're not in Vegas, get it on the Triller app. I think they're going to be doing a donation thing on there as well. But this is going to be probably the best.

independent card of the year. It's the forbade end door that we once talked about. Baird in. Yeah, because every company, just about every company in wrestling is represented on it. Yeah. From WW to TNA to AEW to Ring of Honor to, what, New Japan, the AAA to all across people from all types of independent companies. Yeah. It's everybody. So. This was a beautiful conversation. And again, thank you for being so open and sharing with us. I know this can't be easy. Yeah. But I appreciate you. updating us on what you've been through. And I said this at the start, but man, it's so good to see you. Man, it's great to see you. I appreciate you having me and allowing me to share the story on your platform.

I'm grateful. I'm very inspired by what you do and with this platform and how you live your life. So thank you for being an inspiration to me. Thanks, man. It's the greatest story ever told. It's the greatest story ever told. And I feel like we're only like halfway through it for you right now. Might even be a quarter.

Who knows? All right. Thanks, man. Yeah, thank you. What an incredible story. And a huge thank you to Chris Bay for opening up about everything that happened and trusting us to do it here on the show. It's hard not to be inspired by his mindset. Man, that was touching. Chris's progress has already been well beyond where anyone thought it would be at this point. It's just been so amazing to see the progress that he's making. You just sent me a video yesterday. And I'm like, man, you're already miles ahead of where you were last week when I saw you and we recorded that episode. Amazing.

Again, the benefit show is happening this Sunday, March 23rd. Go to FSWVegas.com to grab tickets or find out how you can stream the show to support Chris Bay and support him by snapping a screenshot and letting him know that you listen to this episode and tagging him. Tag us both. He's at Dashing Chris Bay. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. and Arthur Ash said it best.

What a quote. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We'll be back tomorrow with Ask CVV.

Number 75. If you have a question, leave a comment on Spotify. Send in the question on social media using the hashtag. Ask CVV or shoot me an email. CVV at ChrisFanvly.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow. on Friday for that one. Jim Rome takes on sports.

Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? on your favorite platform. You've been warned.