In a candid interview on “The TWC Show” podcast, WWE Intercontinental Champion “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio opened up about some of the serious injuries he has sustained during his career, including a punctured lung that he suffered in his very first match as a heel.
“Everyone Thought I Was Faking It”
Mysterio began by confirming that the rib injury that kept him out of action during his storyline with AJ Styles was, in fact, legitimate. “My more serious ones, like, I have my ribs. A couple weeks ago, I dislocated my two lower ribs, and they were digging into my cartilage,” he explained. “So that was why I was actually, like, hurt. Everyone thought I was faking it, but I was actually hurt.”
A Punctured Lung
He then detailed a much more severe injury that occurred at the very beginning of his run as a member of The Judgment Day, in a match against WWE Hall of Famer Edge. “My first match as a bad guy, wrestled Edge, and I did a Frog Splash, and I cracked my rib and it punctured a lung,” he revealed. “And then I finished the match, and then I just remember not being able to catch my breath.”
A Scary Post-Match Scene
Mysterio described the scary moments after the match when he realized something was seriously wrong. “I told the doctor. I was like, ‘no, no, I’m good.’ Went back to the locker room. 10 minutes later, I was like, ‘I still can’t breathe.’ I was like, ‘this is like, this ain’t right,'” he recalled. “Sure enough, went to the hospital, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you got a pneumothorax. You can’t fly home.’ I was like, ‘Oh, sick.'”
The Toughest Sport in the World
He stated that “living through the pain” is the hardest part of being a professional wrestler. “No matter what, you’re always gonna have aches and pains and the traveling and stuff. And it’s like people don’t really realize, like, the kind of toll that actually takes on your body,” he said. “Like your back calluses up because the ropes are so hard… your body’s got to get used to that, taking the bumps and going through all this other sh*t and then having to do it again the next day.”
Despite the physical toll, Dominik Mysterio has become one of the most durable and consistently featured performers on the WWE roster. The full interview can be heard on “The TWC Show” podcast.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The TWC podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
