The Comeback
How Long Could A Shoulder Injury Really Take To Heal?
As I left the hospital, claiming I had a ride because they weren’t going to let me drive after the painkillers they gave me for my separated shoulder, I was miserable.
The clock struck 12, and it was officially my birthday and all I wanted was an A&W burger.
I tried three different locations and all of them were closed, so I settled for McDonalds.
The burger wasn’t warm enough to melt the cheese, and the fries were stale.
This had to be karma.
Separating my shoulder was the first major injury I ever had in my life, and it was a major blow.
Before that, I was playing slo-pitch, hitting personal bests in the gym, and wrestling (obviously) but now all of that was taken away from me.
It sucked even more, because the next weekend I was supposed to be wrestling at the Italian Fest here in Edmonton, and was even featured on the poster for the first time.
I found myself in a depressing spot, especially given that these were also my main outlets for a social life.
This became worse, as it made me really think about my old relationship and ex-girlfriend, despite being in what kids would call a “situationship”.
Not having anyone there for me at home to help, not having a solid support system to talk through the frustrations, or just generally having a person to go to in a time like this really made me miss what we had.
One of the things that always stuck with me was never getting the closure I really needed, and unfortunately that lingered with me for a very long time, which led to some pretty dumb decisions in the future…
But we can get to those another time.
While I couldn’t wrestle for for 8 - 12 weeks, I knew I didn’t want to be away from wrestling for that long. Despite not being able to get in the ring, I kept going to wrestling practice.
Even though I wasn’t physically in the ring getting reps in - mentally it helped me get more sharp, and learn what to watch for in practice.
I could see when someone’s footwork was off.
I could see when people took their time instead of rushing through.
I got to sit in on the lessons so I never really felt behind.
And it gave me a new way of looking at things, and an understanding of what I needed to do when I came back.
The rehab side of coming back was much slower than I had wished.
I had seen John Cena return from a torn pec muscle in 2.5 months instead of the 6-12 months it should have taken, surely I could do the same.
Turns out - I was very wrong.
Every week I would go to Physio expecting a miracle.
Each Chiro appointment I thought would magically put my shoulder back into place.
But, the progress was tedious, and frustrating.
There were times I would feel like it had plateaued, and I feared that it would never actually get much better than it was. I was afraid at times I wouldn’t be able to come back, especially with how much pain I was in trying to dribble or shoot a basketball.
But every week, I kept doing my exercises.
I kept trying to do a little more to get better.
Sitting out one show was bad enough, but sitting out a second one was extremely disheartening.
Seeing my friends go out there and perform, and then watching new wrestlers come in for their debuts made it feel like I was getting left behind or forgotten about.
I slowly made my way back into the wrestling ring, being very careful and cautious not to aggravate anything (something I should have been better at with my next big injury).
The opportunity to get back on a show came 11 weeks post injury, and while I was returning slightly ahead of schedule I knew I wasn’t 100%.
Probably more ~80% but I was still nervous about hurting myself again.
Fortunately, the match included a lot of people - so I really wouldn’t have to do too much.
It was going to be a 4-way tag team - and I was filling in for Lumberjack Larry, tagging with Mitch Clarke while he was away.
Over my first few months in wrestling I developed a strong relationship with Mitch - we both had the same horrible sense of humour, and could bully people with the best of them. We had a lot of laughs at other people’s expense and still do to this day.
While Mitch was only a few months ahead of me in terms of wrestling experience, he was light years ahead of me when it came to the technical wrestling portion and seeing as he had one of the most talked about submissions in UFC history - it’s not surprising.
Because I aspired to be more of a technical wrestler - training with a guy like Mitch made me vastly better.
That didn’t change the fact that it felt like my shoulder wasn’t fully healed, and putting together a match with 7 other people was going to be difficult.
It didn’t take long for things to get off the rails, as one of the vets of the match pitched an idea of starting the match doing a “human centipede” spot with everyone putting a leg scissors on each other.
While we sat quietly on the idea, and exchanged glances, I finally, ever so eloquently protested against the spot… calling it “fucking stupid”.
I probably could have been nicer in my approach, and after a bit of a heated exchange, we were able to get back on track and put together the match.
The match went off well, human centipede free.
While I didn’t do much in the match, I was excited that my shoulder held up, and didn’t ache for days after.
We were back, baby!
And all eyes were on going back full force in the ring to gear up for our last show of the year, against my most Massive test yet…