Samoa Joe has looked back on the muscle buster that inadvertently ended Tyson Kidd’s in-ring career.
In June 2015, Samoa Joe took on Tyson Kidd (whose real name is TJ Wilson) in a dark match which was initially set to air on WWE Superstars. However, during the bout, Kidd unfortunately suffered a freak injury while taking the muscle buster which forced him to retire from the ring. Now, ‘The Samoan Submission Machine’ has reflected on the incident from almost a decade ago.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Samoa Joe was asked whether he thought he’d use the muscle buster again after what happened to Tyson Kidd. Here, he revealed that the injury is the biggest regret of his career.
“No, and to this day that probably remains the largest regret in my career that that happened.”
-Samoa Joe
Van Vliet was understandably quick to point out that there wasn’t anything Joe could’ve done to prevent what happened, but the 46-year-old responded by saying it being unintentional doesn’t change things for Kidd.
“But that doesn’t change things for Tyson. Doesn’t change things for a guy who is probably one of the most passionate people in the world of professional wrestling. For a guy who has an amazing mind for it. WWE is fortunate to have him. Because even though he’s not in a physical role within the company, the finishes, his ability to put together matches and be a producer and agent are unparalleled.”
-Samoa Joe
These days, fans will rarely see the star use the muscle buster. On this, Samoa Joe discussed how he didn’t want to continue using the move after his transition to the main roster to prevent Kidd from being reminded of his injury.
“Well, I didn’t want to. It was kind of like when I got back into things in NXT. In NXT I used it. When I got to the main roster I didn’t. But it was mainly I tried to avoid doing a bunch or making it a thing. If he’s having a bad day, he looks over and he sees that, I didn’t want to replay the car crash in front of somebody. So I did my best to distance myself from it as much as possible. But that’s why just because this guy’s my co-worker, this guy I respect and I care about. I’m not trying to make him have a sh*tty day over it.”
-Samoa Joe
Joe would go on to say that, during the execution of the move, he didn’t feel as if it went any different to normal, explaining that Cesaro’s immediate concern was the thing that made him realise that something had gone wrong.
TJ Wilson now works as a backstage producer for WWE. Helping wrestlers to put their matches together, Wilson particularly known for coordinating the in-ring work of the company’s women’s division.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Samoa Joe and Tyson Kidd as soon as we hear more.
H/T to ChrisVanVliet.com for the transcriptions.
