On Friday night, at Ring of Honor show in Buffalo, Cody Rhodes hurt his knee. He made appearances on Saturday and Sunday, but did not compete. At the ROH show in Toronto Sunday night, his colleagues talked about injury and Cody.
Cody Rhodes on Saturday in New Jersey at the Big Event fan fest. Photo by George Tahinos
After the show on Friday, Cody tweeted,” Going from one side of the crowd to the other last night, teasing a t-shirt toss of all things… heard a loud POP in my knee. Terrifying. Hoping it was just a lil’ meniscus,” he posted.
Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported that Rhodes would be undergoing an MRI on his knee today.
On Friday’s show at Buffalo Riverworks, it was Adam Page and Cody (with Brandi Rhodes) versus Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe versus Best Friends (Beretta and Chuckie T).
Page said it was news to him that his partner was injured.
“I didn’t know he was hurt, man. And apparently he got hurt before the match really started. I didn’t know until afterwards. He said, ‘Man, I think I might have hurt my knee.’ So I didn’t know,” said “Hangman” Page during the meet and greet prior the show at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
ROH announcer Ian Riccaboni did not know either. “We did know during commentary that Cody wasn’t as involved in the match as he normally was and that we didn’t see him as the legal man quite as much in the Triple Threat,” said Riccaboni. “Looking back, in hindsight, it’s something you might be able to tell. Adam Page wrestled a lot of the match. It’s interesting to know going back to see. In this case, we didn’t really notice and it was something, maybe part of the strategy that Adam Page was in there a little bit more and the Best Friends and the Briscoes were duking it out a little more.”
Asked about what he knew, New Japan Pro Wrestling star KUSHIDA thought momentarily, and replied, “I think wrestling includes injury.”
In a one-on-one backstage in the former Maple Leaf Gardens, Christopher Daniels concurred.
“Every time we go out there, there’s danger of injury, and we just try to work to our best abilities to keep that from happening. Nine times out of 10, it’s never the big stuff that hurts, it’s always stuff you don’t think is going to hurt, hurts,” Daniels said. “Friday, Cody twisted his knee, just planted his foot, and the canvas was a little looser than he thought, and he just twisted his knee a little bit.”
There’s a lot of factors in play immediately, said both Riccaboni and Daniels. Everyone is concerned for their colleague, naturally, but it forces the team to step up and fill the void too.
After checking on the athlete’s health, Riccaboni said that the attention shifts pretty quickly to what can be controlled. “Your attention immediately turns to the fans; you think, ‘Who could be a suitable replacement? What kind of match can be a replacement?’ A lot of times, just by the miracle of circumstance, sometimes you end up with a different match or a set of different matches that actually can rise up to a level that maybe exceeds the fans’ expectations,” he said.
The scheduled defense of the NJPW U.S. title against Baretta set for Toronto was scrapped, and instead Baretta took on Juice Robinson. It was a success in the eyes of Cody, seen visibly limping when heading to and from the meet and greet. He tweeted: “Thank you all for coming by during the meet/greet. Shame to not be wrestling in such a historic building, but Juice & Trent are some of the very best in the world and will have an outstanding bout’ #GlobalWars”
Daniels explained what happens behind the scenes to a degree. “As far as what it does to a locker room, well, it forces, first of all, because the matches change and you find out the day of, it forces a little bit of creativity to start flowing because now you might have a different match than you expected than was advertised. But really, the big thing it does, it just really, it shows everybody that we’re all a team back here and that someone’s going to pick up the slack. None of us want any of us to be hurt. But when that happens, we’re stepping into a situation where we might have to wrestle twice or wrestle a singles match instead of a six-man tag, or a tag match that might have been advertised. It’s just that someone’s there to pick up the slack, and we’ll go forward and hopefully Cody will heal quickly.”
News will spread of the diagnosis on Cody’s knee. ROH is ready, said Riccaboni. “We hope that Cody heals up soon, we know Final Battle is around the corner.”
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