Chris Van Vliet did an interview with Bobby Roode on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. The following highlights were sent to us:
On being cleared to compete:
“Ironically enough, I just got green-lighted. The fusion has completely fused. So as far as like, looking at it from a medical point of view, it’s safe to get back in the ring, I guess. But at almost 48 years old, given the opportunity that I’ve been given now to work as a producer, which was my goal coming to WWE almost eight years ago. I’m quite happy doing this. And I feel like I’ve had a good run, as they say, and I’m happy to do what I’m doing now.”
On a full-time run being out of the question:
“Could I do this full-time? There’s no way I could. Look, to be honest, the injury, I have three levels that are bad. The level six and seven are not good either. So when I got my injury back in 2022 when I re-injured it, I got an MRI done the next day. And I mean, they said that your three levels are just not good. Two levels are not great. You need to get fixed. So I went to Birmingham and saw Dr. Cordover who was amazing. And he thought we need to do a two-level. Because the thing was, is that I wasn’t living in any pain. I didn’t have pain. I could go through the day without feeling any sort of pain, the issue with me was my strength. And then because I was losing strength, I started to lose muscle in my right arm. It just scared me because the first thing I thought it was like Paul Orndorff and his injury, and that’s what was happening to me. I was starting to atrophy really bad in my shoulder and in my bicep.
So long story short, I was set to get a two-level fusion back in November 30 of 2022. And Dr. Cordover called me the night before, and I was in the hotel room in Birmingham getting ready to get up at 5 am the next day to get up and go to do the surgery. And he’s like, I talked to, you know, a couple of the doctors and I think we can just get away with doing one level, I think you’re gonna be fine. So we went in, and we did the one level and I felt great. Not great the next day, but like after the six weeks of doing nothing, and once I started the physical therapy and all that other stuff I felt pretty good, like my strength was coming back. And I felt like the muscle was coming back. And then just out of the blue, I remember March 10th. I just remember having such wild pain that I never experienced before. And I don’t know what happened. We really don’t know what happened. But I remember getting really sick and vomiting and blacking out and then kind of coming to and not being able to like raise my arm up over my head.
So what happened was the level above it just went. So level four and five just kind of went for whatever reason. So in hindsight, maybe we should have gotten both done at the same time. But look, that’s life and we just move on. But I had to get this other fusion done. And that level six and seven, like I said, is still not great but I’m feeling better. And so I just don’t mentally, I don’t think I could take the risk of going back in the ring and working a full-time schedule. Just knowing that as well. I just feel like I look differently too, you know what I mean? I always kind of prided myself in the way that I looked on television. And I love being in the gym and working out. And it’s just when you physically don’t look the same, it’s just a mental thing as well.”
On one more match:
“I think everybody would like to have one last match, right? But sometimes you just when the wheels fall off, the wheels fall off. It’s just that’s the nature of the beast in this sport.”
On transitioning to a WWE producer:
“I mean, it’s like I said, that was kind of like the game plan. When I came to WWE, I had my conversation with Triple H before coming to NXT. And at that time, I was almost 40. So I remember him, I was on a three-way call with him and Matt Bloom and I remember him asking me, like, what do you want to do? Do you want to be a coach? And I’m like, Well, maybe one day. That’s my goal, but I feel like I have a lot left in the tank. And yeah, he gave me that opportunity, which I’m super grateful for and here I am today. I had a pretty good run in NXT and then had a pretty good run on the main roster. And it is what it is. Like I said, when the wheels fall off, the wheels fall off.”
