Colt Cabana on AEW Contract Status & Almost Dying During Match with Chris Jericho

A recent episode of the Art of Wrestling podcast featured host Colt Cabana discussing his thoughts on his AEW contract status and almost dying during his match against Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship earlier this month.

On the topic of his contract status with AEW, Cabana stated that his contract with the company did briefly expire at one point.

“I did this podcast at AEW, a place where I’ve been contracted, I would say off and on, I was not contracted for two days, for the past almost three years.”

On the topic of his match with Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship on the November 2nd AEW Dynamite show, Cabana stated that he almost died during the match due to a blood flow issue caused by the non-wrestling replacement socks he wore for his gear that night.

“A couple of weeks ago, I wrestled Chris Jericho. And I wanted to share the story of how I almost died wrestling Chris Jericho. Not a lot of people know this story. Some of the people in the back know this story, the doctors know this story. I’m not telling this story to make an excuse, nobody would have even known, everyone complimented me on my match — and I’m appreciative for that. But this is just a fun story and in 20 years I will laugh about it. In the moment, I did not laugh about it. I guess a couple weeks afterwards I can laugh about it.

Of course, in my laundry room is my wrestling gear. I’ll wash my kneepads, I’ll wash my singlet. I don’t dry them, though. Just wash them. Hang dry them. And of course, I wash my wrestling socks. Now, I’m sure those of you with a washer/dryer in your home know about the case of the disappearing socks. Well, I don’t know where my wrestling socks went. They went somewhere. And with me, I like long black soccer socks, long wrestling socks so there isn’t a gap in-between my boots and my kneepads. I don’t want just like airy skin, so I like the long soccer socks because it fills in that space.

So before I was going to wrestle Jericho, I had to go out and buy a new pair of socks. And of course I procrastinated. So I waited until the night before. I went over to Target, I asked where the soccer section was, and I looked for the soccer socks. I went over there and they only had long black socks for the kids. So my next move was, I guess, going to the men’s socks section. And as I make my way over there I do see a pair of long socks. Now, these socks are called compression socks, which I kind of know what they are but not really. That’s fine, they’ll fit and I’ll wear them under my boots and my kneepads.

So I do. And I wrestle against Chris Jericho. Now of course that match, there was many emotions, there was a lot of tension going into it. My anxiety was high, tensions were high, the building was hot. So as I go to wrestle Jericho, I put on my compression socks, my kneepads, and my boots. What I don’t realize is that I have essentially just made a tourniquet for the bottom half of my body.

Here you go, I’m going to read this from the internet right now. ‘What is the benefits of wearing compression socks? Compression stockings are specifically designed to apply pressure to your lower legs, helping to maintain blood flow and reduce discomfort and swelling. They may be prescribed by your [general practitioner] if you have a condition that causes poor blood flow in your legs.’

Well here’s the thing, my blood flow is absolutely perfect, so essentially what I did was restrict everything. And I remember vividly thinking, ‘Man, I can’t feel my legs. I guess it’s just the nerves.’ But it was nerves. It was the anxiety. But it was also the compression socks. And by the time I did that moonsault to the outside and had to run myself into the ring to go give Chris Jericho a Flying Assh*le, I had absolutely nothing left in my body. And I just attributed that to the night of wrestling, but no, it was because I literally cut off the supply of blood to my own legs, causing high blood pressure and low, low oxygen. I knew I was on live TV, I knew it was in front of a giant crowd, I knew it was a big moment for me. So I figured a way to do it to Jericho knowing the match would come to an end very quickly. It did, I for some reason could not move as I make my way back to the trainers’ room asking for electrolytes and the trainers being like, ‘We’re not sure what’s going on.’ And me just saying, ‘I gotta get this stuff off of me. I feel so compacted.’ And I ripped my singlet off and it still didn’t feel like enough. And I couldn’t breathe, I felt lightheaded, I had a headache, and my head was pounding. Then I’m just like, ‘Can you take my boots off?’ And I felt like such a schmuck asking a grown man to take my boots off. But the trainer was like, ‘Of course, that’s my job.’ He rips my boots off. Then I’m like, ‘Can you take my kneepads? I just feel so constricted.’ He takes my kneepads off. And then I’m like, ‘Can we get my socks off?’ And I say, ‘You know, I bought these compressions socks last night.’

The eyes of the trainers are just like, ‘What?’ As I was asked to lay back for the next two hours while ice was just put all over my body. I was educated as to why you should not professionally wrestle in front of 10,000 people and almost a million people at home in compression socks. Hopefully my wrong can help somebody in the future and you are either a current or a future pro wrestler. And you, needing socks, know just grab the regular ones.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com