Arn Anderson On The Match That Ended Tyson Kidd’s Career, Says It Was a Loss to the Wrestling Business

On his latest podcast, Arn Anderson discussed the match that ultimately put an end to Tyson Kidd’s career. Kidd faced Samoa Joe in a dark match in a dark match against Samoa Joe in June of 2015 when Joe was about to sign a full-time deal with WWE. The injury was to Kidd’s spinal cord and required surgery, ultimately killing his hopes of a wrestling career.

Talking about the match and injury, Anderson said that it was just an accident that happened and that Kidd’s loss of his in-ring career was a loss for the industry as a whole. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On the match: “Well, not only am I a friend and a fan of Tyson, I’m a fan and a friend of Nattie. And the word we got was — it was a dark match, number one, before the show started. Vince wanted to see Joe work, and he heard all about him. So they put together something really quick. And they had TJ put his boots on, but I don’t think he had time to warm up and the guys didn’t have a chance to talk. It was a really quick, maybe a five-minute deal, bang-bang-bang. And something accidental happened, not to say anything one way or the other caused it. It was an accident. There is no other way to put it. Accidents happen in our business.”

On Kidd’s in-ring career ending as a result: “That day his career was taken away in that capacity as far as a talent. And it was just one of those mistakes that happened, a guy lands wrong and he’s changed forever. Necks were not made for this business. And your neck controls so many other bodily functions, it can run down your leg, it can run down your arm, it can cause your bicep to disappear, or your rear delt to disappear. I mean, when you tear your neck up, it’s got ramifications all over your body. And that’s what happened that night and it was a loss to the wrestling business for damn sure.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ARN with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.