Colt Cabana could have died during his match with Chris Jericho (Picture: AEW)
Colt Cabana has revealed he ‘almost died’ during his AEW Dynamite match against Chris Jericho earlier this month.
The 42-year-old wrestler made a one-off return to an All Elite Wrestling ring against the WWE legend and current Ring of Honor World Champion on November 2, but an issue with his gear meant things near took a legitimately fatal turn.
‘I wanted to share the story of how I almost died wrestling Chris Jericho,’ he said on a recent episode of his own Art of Wrestling podcast. ‘I’m not telling this story to make an excuse, nobody would have known, everyone complimented me on my match and I’m appreciative for that.
‘It’s a fun story and in 20 years I will laugh about it. In the moment, I did not laugh.’
Colt recalled washing and ‘hang drying’ his wrestling gear, but he couldn’t find the specific socks he wears for his matches – ‘long black wrestling socks’ which don’t leave ‘a gap between [hits] boots and kneepads’.
Unable to find his footwear, he went to Target on a last minute shopping trip and bought a pair of compression socks, which turned out to be a mistake.
Colt kept going because the match was a ‘big moment’ (Picture: AEW)
Colt fought Jericho for the Ring of Honor World Title (Picture: AEW)
‘That match, there were many emotions, there was a lot of tension going into it. My anxiety was high, tensions were high, the building was hot,’ he said, alluding to AEW’s ongoing situation with CM Punk.
‘As I go to wrestle Jericho, I put on my compression socks, kneepads, and boots. What I don’t realise is that I have essentially made a tourniquet in the bottom half of my body.’
He noted the socks are designed to boost circulation and are often used to prevent blood clots in hospital patients.
‘My blood flow is perfect, so essentially what I did was restrict everything. I remember vividly thinking, “I can’t feel my legs. I guess it’s just the nerves,”‘ he recalled.
‘It was nerves and anxiety, but it was also compression socks. By the time I did the moonsault to the outside and had to run into the ring to give Jericho a flying asshole, I had nothing left in my body.
‘I attributed it to the night of wrestling, but no, it was because I cut off the supply of blood to my own legs, causing high blood pressure and low oxygen.’
Due to the match being a ‘big moment’ for Colt on live television, he found a way to get to the ending but he ‘could not move’ as he went backstage.
As transcribed by Fightful, he continued: ‘I could not move as I made my way back to the trainer’s room asking for electrolytes and the trainer being like, “We’re not sure what’s going on.” I ripped my singlet off, I couldn’t breathe, I had a headache, I felt lightheaded.’
He took off his boots and kneepads, while letting the doctors know he had compression socks on with his gear.
‘The eye’s of the trainers were like, “What?” I was asked to lay back for the next two hours while ice was put all over my body,’ he said. ‘I was educated as to why you should not professionally wrestle in front of 10,000 people and almost a million people at home in compression socks.’
AEW Dynamite airs Wednesday nights at 1am on Fite TV.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : Sami Zayn hated how some ‘grumpy’ WWE veterans treated fans: ‘I don’t ever wanna be like that’
Follow Metro on Snapchat
You can follow our new Snapchat show Pop Cultur’d, the go-to place for all things pop culture.
Keep up with the latest Showbiz exclusives by following Metro Showbiz on Snapchat.
And football fans can indulge in all the transfer gossip and more on Metro Football on Snapchat.
Things could have gone terribly wrong.
