Remember when Joey Mercury got his face destroyed by a steel ladder?
I remember watching this PPV live, and being completely stunned. Part of the reason I chose to feature this is because I can't believe it slipped my mind when I wrote my post on injuries in the ring. This is one of the only times someone has actually been removed from a match due to an injury. Immediately following this, Joey Mercury (Adam Birch) was rushed to the hospital. Part of the reason was probably because his eye would have fallen out had he stayed in the ring, and the other was because it was an 8-man match. So he was able to leave without compromising the entire match.
You can see in the video that right before Jeff jumps on to the ladder, Matt Hardy smacks Mercury and Nitro's heads together, before putting both their heads in position for the spot. Seems to me that with Mercury's gaze being straight down, he had no idea that Jeff had already leaped off the turnbuckle, and couldn't get his hands up in time. He took the full force of a steel ladder leg right to his nose and left eye.
The impact shattered his nose and orbital bone, and he received twenty stitches; five on the outside and "fifteen on the inside", which makes me shudder just hearing it.
Mercury said that at the time that it happened, he was certain he had lost his eye. You can see in the video that the first thing he does after the impact is clutch frantically at his left eye, to see if it was still there. The after-effect?
Try telling that guy that professional wrestling is fake.
Great write-up JT. I remember the PPV as well. I had the chance to work with Mercury on a couple of shows and he is one of the most determined and hard-working guys I have ever met. I'm glad he made it back to WWE after being released, just sucks that they're doing nothing with him. He's got a sharp mind as well, which I'm guessing is why he's down at FCW helping the younger talent out. He never really did get his big break.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching that PPV too. The real surprise is not that a serious injury occurred on a live PPV due to a 'miscue", it's that it doesn't happen more often. These guys take good care of each other in the ring while doing some very dangerous stuff, and timing is everything.
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