WWE News: Natalya Teasing Tyson Kidd’s Retirement?
In a lengthy Instagram post, WWE Diva Natalya wrote about the difficulties of being on the road without real-life husband and oft-injured fellow wrestler Tyson Kidd.
Throughout the post, Natalya reflected on her career but referred to her time on the road with Kidd in the past tense, potentially giving away that Kidd may be done with his wrestling career.
During a non-televised match against Samoa Joe last June, Kidd was on the receiving end of Joe’s Muscle Buster finishing maneuver, which caused an injury. A few days later, it was revealed that Kidd had suffered a broken neck and that he would miss upwards of 14 months.
At the time, there was confusion as to the severity of Kidd’s injury. After undergoing surgery to repair the break, Kidd commented on the injury, providing an alarming statistic that shows how few people survive the injury he suffered.
5% of people survive this injury. 16 staples, 4 screws and a rod later and luckily I survived to tell my story. pic.twitter.com/hXpXpA0aAF
— TJ Wilson (@KiddWWE) July 7, 2015
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Kidd’s injury was nearly fatal due to how high the break in his neck was. The only thing that saved Kidd was his tremendous physical conditioning and how muscular his neck is. In layman’s terms, an average human being would likely not have been as lucky as Kidd was in that situation.
In the months to follow, reports on Kidd’s recovery did not offer any encouraging signs. While wrestlers such as Edge, Kurt Angle, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin have returned from neck injuries, Kidd’s injury appeared to be one of more severe ones in recent memory.
In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Natalya spoke about Kidd’s recovery, mentioning that her husband misses the life on the road just as much as he misses the in-ring competition.
“I think the hardest part for him, looking back on everything right now has been the fact that he misses his friends a lot. He misses his friends on the road. He’s very close to a lot of guys like Adrian Neville and obviously Cesaro. He loves the boys. Those are some of his best friends. He misses a lot of his friends.”
Just before the injury, Kidd was enjoying his most successful run with the WWE to date. He was coming off a nine-week run as one-half of the WWE Tag Team champions with Cesaro. It appeared that Kidd was preparing for a run as a singles wrestler after he and Cesaro lost their titles to New Day at Extreme Rules last year.
Teaming with @WWECesaro made me ‘better’ in every way. Friends like him come once in a lifetime. #SlammyAwards pic.twitter.com/q11AZtIbcQ
— TJ Wilson (@KiddWWE) December 21, 2015
However, the neck injury derailed any future plans and put Kidd’s career in doubt. With the recent retirement of former WWE World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan, the belief is that Kidd may never receive medical clearance to resume his in-ring career. With WWE taking a serious approach to any injuries involving concussions or the neck, the severity of Kidd’s injury likely presents more risk than reward.
No matter if he wrestles again, Natalya also told Digital Spy that she is grateful Kidd was not killed or paralyzed during his last match, and that matters more than anything else.
“But I believe in miracles and I believe in one day at a time. The miracle is that TJ’s alive, and he’s not paralyzed and he’s okay. That to me is a miracle. Anything else we’ll take it one day at a time.”
[Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for WWE]
