Candice Michelle Recalls Shattering Her Collarbone In First Match After Injury Return

Candice Michelle recently reflected on the brutal collarbone injury she suffered immediately after she returned from injury in 2008. Michelle was out of action for four months after cracking her clavicle in October of 2007. She came back on the February 18th, 2008 episode of Raw and had her first match back in March, when she battled Beth Phoenix. During that match she broke the bone in four places and lost out on a planned WrestleMania match because of it.

Michelle recalled the experience in her interview on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. She noted that in the match that initially put her out of action, she was fully knocked out and convinced the doctor 14 weeks later that she was good to come back, even though she wasnt’. She then shattered the collarbone shortly into the match. She would return to the ring in September but was out of WWE by the next summer. You can see the highlights below:

On Getting Hurt Before She Was Released:

“Well, we were overseas, and we were putting together this match, and this is when Arn Anderson and Ricky Steamboat started to really train me. So you see how really towards the end of my wrestling career is when I really felt like I was getting the knowledge. It was the first time I understood that there’s a philosophy to the match. I literally had no idea. I was never taught it or anything. There was something in me and Beth that resonated with Ricky and Arn Anderson, and they really stepped up to the plate, and they said, ‘This is how you got to start working this.’

“The fans were really getting behind us, and overseas, we’re having these great matches, and we had this move where it was supposed to be, you know how you open your legs on the top rope and fall in. I guess I’m not that flexible. I think about it to this day. I just saw somebody on TNA do this move, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not for me.’ So I was like, ‘I’ll do my knees instead.’ That’s a little less flexible. And overseas, I did it one time, and I came back, and all the boys were worried because I landed on my neck. I didn’t feel it. It didn’t phase me. I was not injured. I wasn’t hurt, and so I didn’t really think much of it. But we’re on like a 7 to 10 day tour over there, not much sleep. We fly back to Nebraska. We’re going to kind of do this match again, and my boot catches that rope, and I wasn’t allocated that little extra space, and I landed on my head.”

On Getting Knocked Out:

“I was knocked out. I don’t remember it. The first thing I remember is being on the stretcher, and Stephanie McMahon was leaning over me, and they’re going into Gorilla, and she goes, ‘Don’t worry, we’re flying your husband out.’ I was like, they don’t fly your husband out [unless it’s serious]. So instantly, I was worried. I had a concussion and I broke my collarbone. It came at a time where we weren’t really educated with that kind of injury, and so being dragged to the center of the ring after that happened, if that was my neck, it would have paralysed me.”

On How Long Before She Came Back:

“I think it was about four or five months, and with my husband being a chiropractor, we have an X-ray machine. So I’m like, I’m fine, I’m ready. And he x-rayed me and he’s like, ‘No, actually, it’s still broken.’ He’s like, see? And I’m like, ‘No, not really, looks like a shadow.’ So WWE flies me back out. The doctor looks at the X-rays, and he can even see that it’s a little broken. I’m like, I’m fine, look, and I’m moving my arms like I’m totally fine, Doc. Somehow, I convinced him I was totally fine, and then I went back for my first match, and that’s when I shatter it.”

On When The Collorbone Shattered:

“So in the very beginning of the match, I think I do two clotheslines and a drop kick. The drop kick, I land on it and shatter it.”