Bruce Prichard Discusses ‘Freak Accident’ That Paralyzed Droz

On the most recent episode of "Something to Wrestle With", Bruce Prichard discussed the tragic injury that paralyzed former WWE Superstar Droz at a Smackdown TV taping on October 5, 1999.

What happened:

"Well, first of all, it’s not ballet. And it was a spot that the guys had done every night for I don’t know how long. So, it wasn’t crazy spot. It wasn’t a dangerous spot — everything is dangerous. Let me take that back and rephrase that, but it was a freak accident. And there’s really no other way to explain it. Nobody was sloppy. It just was — they were off. It was a bad night, and it just turned into a horribly tragic event that you wouldn’t wish on anyone at anytime ever. So, it’s one thing if you can sit back and analyze it, ‘Ah well, it was the first time they ever did it. It was this. It was that.’ It was another night, and unfortunately, on this night, in that moment, something went wrong. And they were off just that hair, enough, that unfortunately Darren was paralyzed and changed both their lives forever."

The mood backstage:

"Well, you can have all the protocol in the world and you can lay out a plan, the reality of the situation is that everybody reacts differently, and you don’t know a lot of times because you don’t know the nature of our business. The nature of our business is to sell moves and to make it look like it’s more dangerous than it actually is sometimes. Sometimes the most dangerous things in the world don’t look dangerous. So, that in and of itself is a bit of a quandary. However, on this night, after the accident took place, I will say this, those that did get involved that after the accident took place, I think that most of the actions that took place after the fact were the right ones. Nobody moved in the ring. People let the medical personnel get to them. And it was just really, really sad. But you’re also hopeful at the same time. You also want to keep telling yourself in the back of your head it’s a stinger. So many times, guys have been injured, and it’s been a stinger, or it’s been something else. And unfortunately, this was much worse than that. And you go through, and you do what you have to do int he moment. So, I can’t fault anyone after the fact, and it just was a moment in time where guys that have done this spot every night missed. And unfortunately, it resulted in a bad way."

Thanks to 411Mania.com for transcription.