Lex Luger & TJ Wilson Discuss Their Career-Ending Injuries

03/19/2025 07:40 PM

During a recent appearance on the “Insight With Chris Van Vliet” podcast, Lex Luger commented on becoming paralyzed in 2007 and how Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) helped him through the incident.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On waking up with the feeling of paralysis: "I turned my head back to the front, and I had this burning stabbing pain between my shoulder blades. But you know; football, wrestling, we get aches and pains, little pinched nerves all the time. So…I go 'Man, that didn't feel good…that didn't feel right.' I got to the hotel. I checked in. And I woke up…I'm not sure what time it was. It was just pre-dawn. And I had the worst burning stabbing pain in my lower neck/shoulder blade area. Unbelievable. And it was so bad…I'm a side sleeper. I was on my side towards the night stand. And I was trying to get to a phone. And so I figured 'Maybe I get to the phone like a seal. Hit it with my nose.' I was in so much pain. I fell off the bed and down to the floor."

On how he got through the night: "I thought I was going to suffocate. So now I'm up against the nightstand, can't move, feel like I'm being pulled by magnets through the floor now, and I'm suffocating. I thought that was it. And I tell people this…the Lord came into that room man. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. I was a brand new believer. I didn't even know I had a verse memorized in the Bible, but Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I'll make your path straight.' It was so calming, when I felt like God was actually almost speaking to me. I didn't hear a voice or anything. But that resonated so much with me that my breathing calmed down and my heart rate."

On DDP coming to see him the next morning: "DDP comes into the room. And he convinces me…I wanted the medics, they had picked me up off the floor and sat me in a chair in the hotel room. I'm like…'I'm okay. I think I'm dehydrated maybe.' And D looks at me and goes 'Look, you've got to go with these guys man. This ain't dehydration bro. This ain't effing hydration. You need to go with these guys.’"

During a recent appearance on the “Developmentally Speaking” podcast, TJ Wilson commented on the end of his in-ring career after suffering a neck injury in 2015.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On his in-ring career ending: "I love wrestling. It's given me everything. Everything I got, wrestling. I had no clue what I was going to do. That first night when I got hurt, I'm not even in a hospital room. I'm in the basement of this hospital. It's cold, freezing cold. I had no service, like one bar in and out. I'm sitting there with this neck brace on, with no real answers. The surgeon comes on the morning to kind of give me the news. But I'm very in tune with my body, and in the moment, I knew my neck was broken. I knew I was never wrestling again. I knew that in that moment. In that moment, I did not know what was next. I had no clue. I didn't know anything. I just knew that this dream that I'd seen through, this version of it, was over. I didn't know what was next."

On his being in talks for a new deal at the time: "Prior to that, I did think I had a long-term plan. I remember they were talking to me about signing a new deal. In my mind, I was going to sign. This is just in my mind. In my mind, I was going to sign a five-year deal that would take me til I was 40. At 40, I will have been wrestling at that point for 25 years. I'm 40, everything seemed like a nice, perfect round number, and then I kind of wanted to get out. That was my mind. I'm sure when I got there, that wouldn't have happened. Especially when you start adding AJ Styles and those types of guys to the roster. If I had been afforded the opportunity to stay as a talent, I promise I wouldn't have left. But in my mind at this time, 40 was going to be perfect, and then I would start a wrestling school in Tampa."

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