Chris Bey Speaks Candidly About Pain He Experienced After Neck Injury, Provides Update On How He’s Feeling In His Day-To-Day Life

Updates from Chris Bey.

It’s been well over a year since Chris Bey underwent surgery for a broken neck injury that he suffered at TNA Wrestling’s post-Bound For Glory television taping.

Present day, Bey is on the rebound and getting around on his own accord. He has appeared at several TNA events, most recently delivering the attendance number at Bound For Glory 2025.

Bey further opened up about the aftermath of his injury as he was on Wrestling Observer Live. He said the pain brought him to a point where he felt like he wanted to die. He said he would not wish that level of pain on his worst enemy.

“If we’re being honest, from the moment the injury happened, to the moment I was put under, I wanted to die because the feeling was insane. It’s weird because you’re paralyzed and you can’t feel, but there is a feeling, and something about what I could feel that I can never actually put into the words was the worst pain I’ve ever been through, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, and I wanted to either die or be put under with anesthesia so I could just be relieved of the pain, and when I woke up the next day, and I didn’t have the pain anymore and everything was just numb, I was just grateful to be alive. I thought it was a blessing…”

Bey would go on to discuss how he’s feeling present day. He said people see him getting around on his own, but in actuality, he still feels inflammation and his lower back is tight, among other inconveniences.

He said some of his body was still numb, but he’s regaining those feelings and sensations. He’s grateful, although it is painful.

“I can still feel the difficulties. It’s internal right now. A lot of people see me and they think — because like you just said — it looks like I’m walking great so a lot of people were — (Ace) Austin went to AEW. ‘Are you gonna be at AEW the next show? Are you gonna be there at the end of the year? You’re tagging with Austin again. You look great,’ or I’m in the gym these days and I’m able to lift well and do things independently so, people are like, ‘Oh man, you can do that, you should be able to do…’ Or, ‘You’re probably able to do this.’ In reality, my lower back is still very tight, and inflamed. Airplanes destroy my legs right now still, and are inflaming my legs a lot. I have days where I get out of bed and I have to just tell myself to not do anything all day and I just lay in the house and have to rest… I’m out of physical therapy now but I do a lot of maintenance on my body like shockwave treatments, cupping, dry needling in my neck. I do a lot of different things to try to relieve some of the pain that I’m going through, and at first, my body was still numb, even after I first got on my feet. Up until July, my legs, my waist down was still pretty numb. I could probably only feel 30 percent of it, 40 percent of it. So I remember one of my first times in the gym, I dropped a 10-pound plate on my foot, and I remember going, ‘Oh!’ And realizing, well, I guess I can’t feel it… That saved me. But when I got home that night and took my shoe — my foot was inflamed and it was just swollen. I was like, oh, well, still gonna feel the ramifications but I can’t feel it, whereas now, I’m getting a lot of feeling back which is great. But now, it’s turning into the pain that I didn’t feel initially because I just couldn’t feel. So, when I’m walking, I feel it in my hips, I feel it in my knees, I feel it in my low back. If I’m standing for long periods of time, I feel my low back starting to compress. If I’m sitting or laying down, no matter what, it activates my spasms whenever I stand up and I have to move again. If someone came in here and was chasing me, I’m not gonna escape, you know?” Bey laughed. “So I know the difference between what was normal and what’s my new normal. But this is a hundred times better than where I was a year ago from today so I don’t complain about it.”

Before Bey’s career came to a halt, he was one-half of the tag team ABC with Ace Austin. Austin has since wrapped up with TNA and is now signed to All Elite Wrestling.

On the TNA front, the promotion has locked in a television deal with AMC. For more information on that, click here.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Wrestling Observer Live with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.