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Andreas Hale
LAS VEGAS — It’s a routine wrestling transfer Chris Bey has achieved a thousand instances. A two-person maneuver he and his TNA Wrestling tag-team associate, Ace Austin, name the “1, 2, Candy.”
Bey locations his foot in Austin’s fingers and launches backward, catching and trapping his opponent’s neck within the criminal of his upturned arm and driving them face-first to the canvas.
However this time, one thing went flawed. He knew it the second he hit the canvas. He was unable to maneuver his physique or really feel something from the waist down. His arms have been caught to his facet and radiating with insufferable warmth. He prided himself on at all times having the ability to end what he began, however this time he could not. He was ashamed he was letting down the followers in attendance by not persevering with the match, however he had no thought how dangerous it was.
“It is by no means what you suppose it may be [that injures you],” Bey informed ESPN in Might at a Las Vegas restaurant. “I’ve seen sufficient wrestling to know that the loopy factor is not the one that can get you. … It appears routine, however the threat we soak up each single transfer is one inch away from being deadly.”
For eight years, Bey had been working to be among the finest skilled wrestlers on this planet. At 5-foot-9 and 170 kilos, he had put his physique by way of an arduous ringer of bumps and bruises with out ever breaking a bone. He had been spiked on his head quite a few instances, had jumped off a balcony in Texas and had fallen on his neck when a wrestling ring’s top rope snapped underneath his feet as he leapt backward out of the nook.
What Bey skilled on Oct. 27, 2024, throughout a tv taping of “TNA Influence!” at Wayne State Fieldhouse in Detroit, was far totally different and much worse than any of that.
A routine transfer led to a visit to the ICU at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital, the place he underwent emergency spinal wire fusion surgical procedure. When he awakened, he realized he had damaged his C4 vertebrae and suffered momentary paralysis from the neck down. He was given a 15% likelihood to stroll or use his fingers once more, and his wrestling profession, he was informed by medical doctors, was over.
For the primary time since he was 8 years previous, wrestling wasn’t the one factor on his thoughts. “As soon as I awakened [from surgery] and I noticed that I could not really feel something, I not cared about wrestling,” Bey mentioned. “Wrestling was not my life. It was not my job. I simply cared about being alive.”
Bey’s long-distance girlfriend since 2023, fellow professional wrestler Brittnie Brooks, was one of many first guests to see Bey after surgical procedure.
“It was the scariest factor to see,” Brooks informed ESPN. “It was simply so brutal. By no means in my life did I look forward to 24-plus hours as a result of I wasn’t certain what I used to be strolling into. He could not really feel something. I keep in mind I went to carry his hand, and he could not even maintain my hand again. That simply broke my coronary heart.” For the following two months, Bey stayed in a rehabilitation middle hundreds of miles from dwelling and went by way of a whole bunch of grueling remedy periods.
“Seeing him in that hospital mattress actually broke me,” Bey’s mom, who arrived on the hospital two days after the harm, informed ESPN. “I had by no means considered him getting harm, regardless that I’ve heard about wrestlers who had life-changing incidents within the ring. However whereas he was within the hospital, a number of wrestlers informed me they’d damaged their necks earlier than, in order that gave me some type of hope.”
Within the months that adopted that preliminary prognosis, hope turned to dedication. When ESPN met with Bey in that Las Vegas restaurant in Might, he not solely walked in, however he additionally drove himself there and used his fingers to eat.
However those that know “The Final Finesser” know that if anybody may do the inconceivable, it is Daquan Christopher Johnson-Bey.
“He is at all times been in a position to defy the percentages,” Brooks mentioned. “I keep in mind telling him that I do know [walking again] sounds unrealistic, however your complete life has been unrealistic. It’s a must to know that you are able to do this.”
A PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER was the solely factor Bey ever aspired to be. Two days after his eighth birthday, Bey watched 5-foot-8, 200-pound Eddie Guerrero defeat 6-foot-3, 300-pound Brock Lesnar to win the WWE championship at 2004’s No Means Out pay-per-view in what was the professional wrestling equal of David slaying Goliath. Bey was hooked.
“It was at all times wrestling,” Bey mentioned. “I did not understand how, I did not know why or what or when. However I knew it needed to be wrestling. There was nothing else I may consider that I wished to do.”
Born in Maryland and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Bey would tie socks round his elbows and knees to create makeshift pads and placed on matches together with his pals. His father fed his obsession by shopping for his youngest of six kids something related to professional wrestling: video video games, pay-per-views, championship belts and DVDs. In a little bit of foreshadowing, a 13-year-old Bey posted a video of himself unboxing a replica TNA World Championship belt, a title he would compete for a decade later.
“My older siblings did not have a ‘factor,'” Bey mentioned. “Wrestling was my factor … that stored me out of hassle; my mother and father have been pleased with it.”
He spent his highschool years navigating between his dream and what he thought others anticipated of him. In pc graphics class, he despatched emails to wrestling colleges in between classwork.
“I assumed I needed to go to school till my senior 12 months once I realized my household could not afford it,” Bey mentioned. “My grades weren’t adequate and it will have been a waste of time as a result of wrestling was the one factor I wished to do.”
Bey’s father handed away from colon most cancers in 2016, the identical week as WrestleMania 32. The day after the funeral, Bey watched perennial underdog Zach Ryder have fun within the ring together with his personal father after an inconceivable Intercontinental championship. Bey took it as an indication.
“I used to be so mad as a result of I noticed I might by no means expertise that second with my father,” Bey mentioned. “My complete relationship with my dad rising up was constructed on my obsession with wrestling. Our final dialog was whereas I used to be visiting Las Vegas, and the extra I considered it, the extra I noticed I wanted to make the transfer there.”
Bey chased his wrestling dream to Las Vegas, signed as much as practice on the Future Stars of Wrestling facility and spent his early 20s residing with roommates and barely scraping by financially. He rapidly grew to become well-known within the impartial wrestling scene earlier than he made his WWE debut on an episode of “WWE 205 Dwell” in October 2019. The looks did not land him a WWE contract, but it surely did get him seen by TNA Wrestling, which signed him the following day. His dream of changing into a full-time wrestler had lastly come true.
The accolades rapidly adopted. Bey received the X-Division Championship at Slammiversary in July 2020 and challenged for the Influence World Championship. Nevertheless, his finest run might have been his most sudden.
He joined Austin to type the tag group ABC in 2023 as a part of the lauded Bullet Membership steady out of Japan. In lower than two years, they’d change into three-time Influence World Tag Workforce champions.
“We had our goals as singles wrestlers however had a heart-to-heart in 2022 and determined to lock in as a tag group collectively,” Austin informed ESPN. “We took it significantly as a result of we have been two extremely gifted and gifted performers who had big futures forward of us. As an alternative of attempting to push in opposition to one another and make it on our personal, the chance was positioned for us to return collectively, and we did. That is my brother now.”
Their distinctive run led to a main-event match in opposition to a tag group they idolized, the high-flying, revolutionary brothers referred to as The Hardy Boyz.
ON OCT. 26, 2024, Bey and Austin headlined TNA’s Sure for Glory pay-per-view in opposition to The System and The Hardy Boyz in a particularly violent and bodily taxing Full Metallic Mayhem match that concerned tables, ladders and chairs.
“That was a very particular night time for me,” Jeff Hardy informed ESPN. “I had spent all that point portray up the canvas, these chairs, the ladders and all of the tables, so I used to be tremendous excited. It was an thought I had [to recreate Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2 from WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001], and a dream come true to see that match come to life once more after 23 years. However working with [Bey and Austin] was actually nice for us as a result of they helped us get used to this new-school model of wrestling.”
Jeff and his brother, Matt, are 30-year veterans of the trade recognized for his or her death-defying and high-flying strikes, however Jeff discovered himself in awe of what “The Final Finesser” may do within the ring.
“He isn’t even actual, like a video-game character or one thing if you watch him on the market dwell,” Jeff mentioned. “He is simply so superhuman-looking and at all times in fine condition. The best way he strikes, man, it is simply so inspirational for me, being older [47 years old], to observe a man like Chris work within the ring.”
Though ABC did not win the match, it was a career-defining second for Bey. On the TV tapings the following day, Bey and Austin have been booked for an additional match with The Hardy Boyz for the TNA World Tag Workforce Championship.
“What was so loopy is that [Bey] went by way of the battle the night time earlier than,” Jeff recalled. “After which the following day he could not really feel his physique from the neck down.”
FOR MUCH OF his profession, Bey had wrestled at one pace: overdrive.
Except for degenerative hip illness that had been nagging him for years, Bey was by no means slowed down by the high-velocity model of his matches. Bey’s small, but muscular body allowed him to drag off outstanding feats of athleticism. Though Bey was a bit of banged up from the earlier night’s match, he and Austin have been snug delivering a toned-down match in opposition to The Hardy Boyz.
“We’re on the highest of highs, after which the following day we thought that we have been going to have one thing lighter to do due to the match we had simply achieved the night time earlier than, however that wasn’t the case,” Austin mentioned. “It was a ‘go laborious’ match once more, however we did not do something overly loopy or harmful within the match.”
The efficiency was going easily till Bey and Austin went for his or her ending transfer.
“[Bey] steps into my fingers, and I launch him again towards Matt. And Matt reversed it into, sarcastically, a neckbreaker,” Austin recalled. “The timing on the touchdown wasn’t excellent, but it surely did not look harmful or out of the strange to me. I watched them hit the bottom and it appeared very regular.”
Nevertheless it wasn’t regular.
“We missed one another by an inch, and Matt leans a bit of bit on high of me,” Bey mentioned. “My neck twists to the proper, inverted, and it simply snaps my neck.”
“In my thoughts I used to be like, ‘Wow, Chris did not get as a lot air as he normally does,'” Matt informed ESPN. “He was a bit of decrease than I anticipated, and I attempted to leap beneath him, however I did not suppose I made contact with him. Once I stand up, we go to the mixture with Austin, and I see Chris laying in the identical spot. I assumed to myself that it was unusual that he hadn’t moved in any respect.”
Immobile on the canvas, Bey may solely watch the match out of his peripheral imaginative and prescient and hope that no person landed on him, probably inflicting additional hurt. Referee Daniel Spencer seen one thing was flawed and communicated with the wrestlers to hurry to a end so paramedics may get into the ring.
“I nonetheless wasn’t certain what was happening, however Jeff modified from doing his signature Swanton Bomb dive off the highest rope to the lightest leg drop he may presumably do,” Matt mentioned. “Thank God Chris had spoken up, as a result of that Swanton may have made issues brutally worse. I hoped that it was only a stinger that he may shake off and stand up from.
“This was the scariest harm I’ve ever been part of,” Matt added.
The ringside physician requested Bey to squeeze his hand, however Bey could not make his fingers shut across the physician’s. He requested Bey to wiggle his toes, however Bey mentioned he could not really feel them.
Bey was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed to the hospital. He was involved that the emergency responders transporting him must spoil the wrestling boots he had lately bought with a purpose to deal with him. Nonetheless uncertain of the severity of his harm, he managed to calmly direct the medics tips on how to correctly take away them.
“I knew that chopping these boots would’ve meant that it is actually over,” Bey mentioned. “The truth that we did not have to chop these boots gave me — at that second at the least — some kind of a sense that this is not as dangerous as they’re making it out to be.”
Austin met Bey on the hospital, the place everybody was starting to totally perceive simply how dangerous the harm was. “His X-ray got here again, and there have been two items of his neck completely out of alignment,” Austin mentioned. “It was nearly just like the letter Z.”
Happily, his spinal wire was nonetheless intact, and a surgeon was swiftly introduced in to function.
“From the second I used to be within the hospital to the second they put me below for surgical procedure was the worst time of my life,” Bey mentioned. “That feeling, which is bizarre as a result of I could not really feel something however ache, warmth in my arms and warmth that is working down my backbone. … It was the worst feeling of my life.”
When Bey awakened from surgical procedure, he was in a position to elevate his forearms however could not use his fingers. Two weeks later, medical doctors knowledgeable Bey that it was doubtless — however not sure — he can be utilizing a wheelchair for the remainder of his life.
“Once I heard that it wasn’t a zero % likelihood [to walk again], I knew that there was an opportunity,” Bey mentioned. “There was one thing price combating for.”
Bey requested his pals and TNA to maintain a decent lid on his harm prognosis throughout his restoration till he was in a position to replace everybody himself. Except for a GoFundMe marketing campaign that was launched to cowl his medical bills — so far, it has raised over $110,000 — few exterior of his circle knew what was forward for Bey.
For the following two months, he did rehab and bodily remedy at DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan six days every week. If there was a chance to do further periods, he added these. He was decided to defy the percentages. Nonetheless, wrestling was the furthest factor from his thoughts.
He returned dwelling to Las Vegas on Dec. 28, 2024, utilizing a wheelchair. In mid-January, he had dedicated himself to rehab with Dr. John Beedle, DC, of Genesis Built-in Drugs, a practitioner Bey had been working with to deal with his hip previous to his spinal wire harm.
“I informed him, ‘You are going to get out of that wheelchair and wrestle once more,'” Beedle recalled. “I did not even know if what I used to be saying at that time was going to occur, however you simply acquired to consider in it.”
Coaching with Beedle pushed Bey mentally and bodily past something he had ever achieved contained in the squared circle, however he remained humble and hopeful that he would make progress towards his restoration objectives.
“I am a really sincere individual about my life, and I am grateful for the time that I had in wrestling as a result of I understand how laborious this enterprise is,” Bey mentioned. “I am a first-generation wrestler who did not know anyone on this enterprise. Nobody helped me get into this enterprise. And in eight years, I achieved a lot and lived my dream. I went out in opposition to my idols, The Hardys.
“I by no means thought to myself that I did not make it. I knew I did. Now, I simply wished to have the ability to dwell and be purposeful.”
By Jan. 21, lower than three months because the harm, Bey had improved from unable to really feel something under his waist to wiggling his toes to taking assisted steps with a walker.
“I at all times thought he’d stroll once more, however I assumed it will take years,” Austin mentioned. “He blew these projections out of the water.”
On his birthday, Feb. 13, he posted a video to social media of him standing and strolling towards the digicam, unassisted.
“Nothing is not possible, you simply must consider and do the work,” Bey wrote in a message posted to Instagram together with the video. “Will I ever wrestle once more? By no means say by no means. I am simply so grateful to be alive. … It will be a protracted street, however I’ll by no means hand over. This would be the Biggest Story Ever Informed.”
FOR YEARS, BEY mentioned he would not attend a WrestleMania till he was a part of the present. However contemplating what he had simply gone by way of, he was grateful to be seated in then-undisputed WWE champion Cody Rhodes‘ household and pals suite at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for Rhodes’ main-event match in opposition to John Cena on Evening 2 of WrestleMania 41 in April.
The occasion capped off a whirlwind week of public appearances for Bey, who had been within the public eye solely as soon as since his harm on the “Beynefit for Bey” present held by Future Stars of Wrestling in Las Vegas on March 23. He was apprehensive at first to step out in entrance of professional wrestling followers wanting totally different than the person they have been used to seeing fly across the ring. However he put his fears apart to soak up the largest wrestling occasion of the 12 months in his adopted hometown.
“I felt like I might’ve been doing myself a disservice to not be there in some kind of a vogue as a result of, in my eyes, I helped construct the town for wrestling,” Bey mentioned. “This was a chance for me to assist have fun what we have achieved for the town and have an opportunity to see all my pals, the followers and individuals who have supported me who might not understand how a lot I respect their help.”
Bey’s week at WrestleMania
Thursday, April 17
10 a.m.: Bey begins his week at a TNA fundraiser breakfast referred to as “Chris Bey, All Day,” the place he and Matt and Jeff Hardy converse and Bey solutions questions on his harm and restoration.
2 p.m.: Bey meets with Beedle for rehab work.
10 p.m.: Bey makes his first televised look alongside Austin at TNA Unbreakable, the place he addresses the gang about his restoration and thanks them for his or her help
Friday, April 18
1 a.m.: Bey drives himself to Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Wale’s annual WrestleMania occasion, WaleMania, and takes pictures with followers who caught him strolling into the venue. He then joins the occasion’s visitor of honor, Jeff Hardy, on stage.
Saturday, April 19
3 a.m.: Bey seems at rapper Westside Gunn’s “Heels Have Eyes: 4 The Tradition” wrestling occasion and delivers a rousing speech for the followers in attendance.
9 a.m.: After a number of hours’ relaxation, he heads to the WrestleCon conference on the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & On line casino to pose for footage and signal autographs for followers.
“It was new for my fingers as a result of I had solely practiced signing a handful of instances at occupational remedy,” Bey mentioned. “It was very strenuous on my fingers, and I left there aching a bit of bit.”
1 p.m.: Bey makes an look at a pre-WrestleMania get together hosted by SiriusXM’s “Busted Open Radio” at Wynn Las Vegas. He participates in a panel with host Dave LaGreca and retired wrestlers Bully Ray Dudley, Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer, the place he addresses his harm and restoration.
4 p.m.: Bey meets Cody Rhodes’ household and pals at a collection in Allegiant Stadium for Evening 1 of WrestleMania. It is the primary WrestleMania he has ever attended in individual.
Sunday, April 20
3 a.m.: Bey makes yet one more early-morning shock look following WrestleMania. He introduces the skilled debut of Brodie Lee Jr., the 13-year-old son of the late Jon Huber (often known as Luke Harper in WWE and Brodie Lee in AEW), at a Sport Changer Wrestling occasion.
“Brodie Jr. requested me if I could possibly be there for him that night time … I might do something for him,” Bey mentioned. “I assumed I used to be going to go dwelling and get at the least a nap earlier than the following day. Nevertheless it was an superior expertise to do this for him.”
10 a.m.: Just a few hours later, Bey is at WrestleCon once more. “I figured WrestleMania isn’t going to be again in Vegas anytime quickly [WWE announced in June that WrestleMania would return to Las Vegas in 2026], so I’d as effectively push myself to the bodily limits whereas I can.”
Would not be a #WrestleMania with out my #NightmareFamily pic.twitter.com/yBB8vYgauU
— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) April 20, 2025
10 p.m.: The week culminates within the Rhodes household suite, the place Bey watches Cena win the WWE undisputed championship for a file seventeenth time. It’s nearly 20 years to the day since Bey’s dad ordered him his first WrestleMania, WrestleMania 21, the place Cena received his first world championship.
“I’ve no regrets concerning the choice to do as a lot as I did,” Bey mentioned. “The love I obtained made me happier than I may ever think about, and it made the idea of having the ability to hold going and hold pushing myself that a lot simpler.”
TODAY, BEY CAN go to the health club and do a number of exercises that embrace gentle weightlifting, plyometrics and leaping workouts. After dropping 32 kilos whereas in rehab, he has regained 15 over the previous couple of months. He nonetheless has some hassle utilizing his fingers for primary features, equivalent to opening bottles and tying his footwear. He additionally has some mobility points stemming from his longtime hip points. In response to Bey, he is “about 45%” of what he was earlier than the harm, a monumental quantity for a person who was thought to presumably by no means stroll once more.
As for wrestling, he is undecided when, or if, he’ll be capable of get again into the ring and is reluctant to place a timeline on making a call.
“It is such a troublesome factor to reply as a result of I do not need something like that to ever occur to him once more,” Bey’s mom mentioned of her son probably returning to the ring. “However I do know my son and I do know his strengths and I at all times knew the day he set his thoughts to changing into a professional wrestler that he would make it. So, if he needs to return again to wrestling and that makes him completely happy, then I’m pleased with it too.”
The boots he had medical employees fastidiously take away from his ft the night time of his harm stay in his closet. He hopes he’ll be capable of put them on once more.
“By no means say by no means,” he mentioned. “Adam Copeland [aka Edge in WWE] was retired for 9 years for a neck harm, and once I talked to him, he assured me that even when I may get again, it does take a number of time. He was in a position to do it at his age [46 years old], and if he may do it, I may positively do it.”
Till then, Bey is all for working in professional wrestling in a unique capability, with every little thing from producer to author on the desk.
“I ought to use my skills in any approach potential to assist proceed and push ahead the following technology,” he mentioned.
It doesn’t matter what the long run holds, this is not the tip of Bey’s story.
“I name this ‘the best story ever informed’ as a result of I used to be residing my dream on the highest stage that folks informed me can be unattainable,” Bey mentioned. “I had a life-altering harm and probably life-ending harm. However by way of the grace of God, with all the percentages stacked in opposition to me, not solely am I again on my ft, however I am within the technique of changing into an athlete once more. And may that day come once we get to finish it my approach, when the music hits and I come again out to the ring in full wrestling gear and a pair of shoes, it is simply the best story ever informed.”