JD McDonough is equal parts courageous and lucky after a scary ordeal on Monday Night Raw. And probably equal parts foolish.
On Monday night just moments into his and Dominik Mysterio’s match against the War Raiders, the budding World Wrestling Entertainment superstar broke ribs and punctured his lung, along with surely concussing himself, after overshooting a dive from the ring apron down to the floor. He seemingly caught too much air … and missed Ivar, his opponent, whose job it is on such a move to absorb the brunt of impact from McDonough.
Instead, McDonough slipped through Ivar’s hands, landed awkwardly with his back facing the nearby announcers’ table, crashing against it as he landed with a thud, his head violently jerking backward and cracking the the announcer’s table, as announcer Michael Cole screamed out of concern.
Somehow, McDonough, who suffered injuries that will sideline him for months, didn’t miss a beat, not only refusing medical attention, but not even letting on that there was a thing wrong with him. He worked what had to be another 10 to 15 minutes of the match, taking several more bumps and moves along the way.
When the match concluded, McDonough made it to the back inside Gorilla Position, and collapsed.
The following day, he announced his injuries on social media and said he will be out of action for the next couple of months, but thanked the fans for their concern.
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Somehow, some damaged ribs and a punctured lung, and what is surely a concussion, seems pretty fortunate if you saw the fall live or on replay. The violent nature of the blow to his head immediately had viewers concerned he’d broken his neck.
Others, yours included, couldn’t help but hope McDonough didn’t suffer an epidural hematoma, the same injury that killed the likes of Natasha Richardson and Bob Saget, which can happen when you suffer an injury similar to McDonough’s.
McDonough and WWE should consider themselves very fortunate that the superstar’s injuries were what they were and not more severe.
It does beg the question about whether talent should be doing high-flying or riskier moves using the announcers’ table, or if those should be kept to the sides of thing without dangerous obstructions like the table.
McDonough showed tremendous courage and dedication to the company to stay in that match and insist on doing all of his other spots. Risky behaviour, but if you’ve ever competed at anything in your life, you can appreciate the competitor within him who risked it all.
Star-studded Royal Rumble a throwback to its origins
For the first time in a very long time, there is no clear favourite for what is arguably the WWE’s most anticipated event of the year, the Royal Rumble.
In years past, a smattering of big names would highlight the event, which features 30 competitors vying to earn the chance to choose which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania later in the spring.
Typically, the Rumble features maybe three or four “odds on favourites,” names in the past like Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre, Triple H … the list goes on and on.
Of those three or four, fans can often look at the storylines and gather a pretty good sense of who is winning the Rumble.
For example, for the last two years, Cody Rhodes has won the Rumble. With Rhodes embroiled in his well told, long saga to “finish the story,” which meant capturing the WWE Universal Championship, it was pretty clear his road to WrestleMania had to include winning the Rumble to get there.
Rhea Ripley’s meteoric rise in the women’s division made her the odds on favourite in 2023, where she would win the women’s Rumble.
That said, WWE will surprise fans along the way, such as when Toronto’s own Edge made a shocking return to WWE in 2021 at the Rumble and went on to win it. Absolutely no one saw that coming.
But this year, the men’s Rumble has that early days vibe it had back in the 1980s and 1990s, when only the best of the best held spots in the match.
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Consider the 1990 Royal Rumble, just as an example. It would be the first of two straight Rumbles won by Hulk Hogan. That year, the most mid-card talent to hold a spot in that event might have been The Red Rooster or Bad News Brown, both icons today. Names on that lineup that had a legitimate claim on winning it included: Ted DiBiase, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Bret Har, Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, The Canadian Earthquake, The Ultimate Warrior, Hogan, Shawn Michaels, The Barbarian, Mr. Perfect and Hercules, just to name some.
This year’s men’s Rumble has that same vibe. So far, half of the 30 spots have been claimed, by names like John Cena, CM Punk, Jey Uso, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Logan Paul, Penta, Chad Gable and Bron Breakker among them.
On the women’s side, we see the return of Charlotte Flair, plus names like Nia Jax, Bayley, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky, to name some.
The women’s might be the easier of the two to predict. The house money is on Flair winning it and setting up a dream match against Ripley at WrestleMania.
The men’s Rumble, however, is anyone’s guess.
Reigns makes sense. Punk makes sense. Rollins makes sense. McIntyre makes sense. Cena makes sense. Uso makes sense. Zayn and Paul even make sense.
Truly, it’s anyone’s guess in what could go down as one of the greatest Rumbles of all time.
Jan Murphy is a reporter and former editor with the Kingston Whig-Standard, a national pro wrestling columnist and the 31st entry into the Royal Rumble.