JD McDonagh Says the WarGames RKO Was His Idea

– During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE Superstar JD McDonagh spoke about the aftermatch of his recent rib injury, taking an RKO from Randy Orton after beating through off the WarGames cage at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2023, and more. Below are some highlights provided to us by Insight:

JD McDonagh after suffering his rib injury: “So we got back behind, not even to the curtain. I had my arms over Dom and Carlito coming up the aisle way, and that was really hurting me. But I couldn’t take my hands off them or I would have fallen down. I didn’t want to fall down in Gorilla because there was loads of people waiting to go out to the next match and you don’t want to sell for anybody in the office. So I just lay down on the other side of the curtain thinking that I was out of the eyeline of people, but I was in view of the fans. They caught a photo of my feet sticking out into the entrance way they said ‘JD has just collapsed backstage.’ But I just had to lie down and catch my breath. It wasn’t a full collapse.”

On the WarGames RKO being his idea: “Yeah, that was my idea. My first idea was I was going to moonsault off the cage and they said, ‘No you can’t do that. Charlotte’s gonna do that.’ I said, ‘Okay, well then in that case, I have a slightly more dangerous suggestion, super RKO.’ They asked do you think you can do it safely? I said, ‘I’d have to eyeball it. I’d have to get up there onto the cage and see the height and see, but I reckon I could.’ When we were coming through, when I was 12 or 13, you’re just a kid, you learn how to bump and hit a crash mat or whatever.”

On a game he used to play as a kid: “We used to have a game where we would try and jump from ascending heights and put our hands behind our back and just take the flat crash mat. So you’d start standing, might go to the bottom rope, the second rope, the top rope, we’d be pushing each other and daring each other to go higher and higher. At the end of it I was jumping off a ladder in the ring onto the crash mat on the floor and hooking my hands behind my back.”

On what he was thinking before the spot: “So honestly, it felt like when I was up there on the cage just about to do it, and Randy’s walking over and he’s eyeing me up and stuff. I thought about all those bumps that I took, I was like okay, just do it like that. Just put your hands behind your back and leave your head out there for something for him to grab and, yeah, thank God it came off great.”

The WarGames match saw Team Cody beat Team Judgment Day at the premium live event.