Steve Maclin detailed the injury he sustained at TNA Sacrifice, which he says scared the hell out of him.
During his TNA World Championship match against Mike Santana at the Sacrifice event on March 27, Steve Maclin suffered an injury just minutes into the contest. Santana’s superkick legitimately knocked him out, and the referee had to throw in the “X” and stop the match.
Speaking on the Boots to Boots podcast, Steve Maclin detailed what exactly happened that night.
“I went and sat in the corner, and I was just relaxed. I looked at Ingrid, and I was like, ‘Ah, we’re good.’ Everything was perfect,” Steve Maclin said. “The energy was there. They were cheering for him. They were booing the crap out of me, and then the bell rang. We got about two and a half minutes into exchanging. We tried to wrestle a little bit to still be kind of there, be a little physical with it. And then we just said, ‘Ahh, f**k it, let’s throw the gloves off’ and started hitting each other.
“Back and forth, back and forth, Mike took off, gave me a good old TNA kick to the gut. I hit him with a forearm and the ropes, and then I hit the ropes. And the next thing I remember is, well, actually, I wasn’t knocked out. The next thing I know is I’m on the ground trying to figure out what’s going on with my body, even though my head from the neck up is normal.”
Steve Maclin said the injury scared the hell out of him
“This is the first time I’ve ever been rocked in a match where that’s the complete opposite. Normally, my body’s good, and you’re just in autopilot, moving, and your brain is just like, ‘Alright, we’ll get there, just freaking get to what you need to.’ But this was the complete opposite, and it scared the hell out of me at first, too,” Steve Maclin said.
“Because you see me grab the rope and training always sunk in. Muscle memory of just basics, and this is what I tell everybody whenever you’re hitting those ropes and grabbing that top rope. That saved me from possibly going through the ropes or hitting a rope on the way down,” Steve Maclin said. “I think I did hit a rope on the way down, but I was stopping myself in the ropes, and you even see me throw up the gang signs with my hands. I couldn’t move. My body wasn’t computing with my brain, and it was the first time, and I was like, ‘Oh sh*t! What are we doing?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, cool, just give me a second.”
Maclin credited the referee for being his savior that night
“Ref Alice, as everybody knows her, but her real name is Katie; she was there, and she was the savior I needed,” Steve Maclin said. “That’s why I even asked for her for the match. I always ask for Katie for all my big matches or any match in general, because she gets it. She listens to me. I call my audibles to her beforehand, and she knows to relay that. She proved that she is very proficient at her job that night, just because she stepped in. She knew something was wrong, and when she was talking to me, I was coherently talking to her like we are now, like, ‘Hey, I’m good, just give me a minute. Tell him to give me a minute. Hold on a sec.’
“I knew what was coming next, but my body just said no, and she called for the ‘X,’ and Asa came over, and that’s when Carlos said, even talking with him, he knew uh what happened because he comes from watching MMA for so long uh with all the fighting in that industry. What really happened was the whiplash got me so much off, and he drilled the side of my neck where that nerve is. It’s a dangerous spot to get hit, and luckily, I didn’t have any problems after the scans and the concussion protocol that we went through at the hospital,” Steve Maclin said.
Steve Maclin said it would’ve been hard for Mike Santana as well
“Everybody was there to see what was going on. Ingred was there, Asa was there, obviously Katie, Mike, I can tell, was very concerned, but also trying to stay in the moment, too. Because that’s hard on that end, too. If you hurt somebody on accident, like you’re just, ‘Oh sh*t.’ You want to break character and go to that person right away, and you can’t do that. Especially if it’s on the flip side. He’s a babyface; he could have, but on the flip side, as a heel, you can’t do that, you have to play into it a little bit more,” Steve Maclin said.
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