Chris Bey Details How His Neck Injury Happened

Chris Bey opens up about his “life-changing” neck injury.

One day removed from the 2024 Bound For Glory event, Chris Bey and Ace Austin challenged Matt and Jeff Hardy for the TNA Tag Team Championships as a part of TNA television tapings. Unfortunately, things took a turn when Bay sustained a mid-match neck injury that left him paralyzed. As such, medical staff rushed Bey out of the ring and into a Detroit hospital, where he underwent neck and spinal fusion surgery.

While appearing on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Bey recalled the moments leading up to and following his neck injury.

“First time [we wrestled The Hardys], we didn’t have a lot of time. This time we had more time, so we were all confident and comfortable with what we were doing. I’m in there with my best friend and two of my idols, it’s a night off essentially, and then a spot that you’ve done a million times up until this point goes wrong,” Bey said. “As soon as it goes wrong, you don’t notice what’s wrong, you just know something isn’t right. I felt a jolt. It was a neck breaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt, and I felt a little bit of discomfort.

“Referee Daniel Spencer comes over and checks on me, ‘Chris, are you okay?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so, just roll me out the way’, because I needed help rolling out of the way. I didn’t realize how much help I needed. Austin said it didn’t look like I needed a lot. Looked like I helped too. I just felt like I wanted assistance rolling out of the way quick enough because I knew they had to do some more stuff. I didn’t want them to think that I was just selling and bumping on top of me, expecting me to move. I’ve had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger.”

According to Bey, the neckbreaker spot in reference had worked smoothly in previous outings, with Austin setting Bey up into position for a cutter, which is then countered with a neckbreaker by their respective opponent. On this occasion, however, Bey and Matt Hardy missed each other by an inch, which proved to be life-changing for him.

Bey recalls numbness in the aftermath of the neckbreaker spot

When asked about the initial sensations surrounding his neck injury, Chris Bey recalled a stream of numbness flowing throughout his body. Still, through a rush of adrenaline, Bey wanted to get the title bout back in order, so he instructed Matt and Jeff Hardy to forward to the match-finishing Swanton Bomb from Jeff. Upon second thought, however, Bey realized that might not have been the safest option, given his predicament.

“I can’t get up, I’m already laying here. I’m like, let’s just go to the Swanton, which I’ve never had to cut stuff in a match before so my pride was hurt a little bit. I just knew I couldn’t get up. I didn’t know why, though,” Bey said. “So Jeff starts to climb the top rope, and as he’s climbing the top rope, I’m thinking that I should be able to brace for this. So once again, mentally, I’m doing this motion. Physically, nothing’s happening, and I’m laying there doing this.”

“So I’m yelling at the ref now, telling Jeff not to do the Swanton now as he’s already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn’t do the Swanton. He protects me, drops a leg drop but misses by a mile, protects me and he covers me. I’m just so apologetic. I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match, I messed up. I’m sorry.’ And they’re like, ‘No, are you all right?'”

Bey’s reality sets in

Like The Hardy Boyz, medical staff immediately checked on Bey’s condition in the match aftermath, beginning with an examination of his hands. According to Bey, his fingers could shake, but not squeeze the doctor’s hand. Soon after, the doctor asked him to wiggle his toes, which Bey noted that he couldn’t feel. It was in this moment that Bey registered the severity of his neck injury.

“I can’t move. I can’t look left or right other than with my eyeballs. They put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher,” Bey said. “I remember telling Austin, ‘Hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher.’ I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn’t happening. He laughs, tears in his eyes, he laughs. I’m like, ‘Alright, go tell Jeff the joke. Now tell Matt the joke. I want them to laugh now, lighten the moment a little bit.’ So he scurries over and tells them the joke. They put me on the stretcher, and I start to cry a little bit. I was like, alright, suck it up man. They’re about to take you to the back locker room. I don’t want the boys to see you like this.”

“They take me through the back and they put me in the ambulance, and I wanted them to get my phone so I could contact my people, let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Called my girlfriend. I let her know. She had already kind of heard about it. It was already kind of making the rounds internally and maybe online too with fans, but I know internally it was making the rounds. I called one of my best friends in Vegas, Shogun Stan, I told him that I was hurt and it’s time for him to hold it down because I don’t know what what’s about to happen. They’re speculating that maybe it’s just a neck break. They don’t really know.”

Ultimately, hospital doctors fused the C6 and C7 vertebrae in Bey’s neck. A spinal cord fusion between his C6 and T1 vertebrae also came. Luckily, Bey had Austin, his tag partner, by his side for the surgery, while several others checked in on him through calls and texts.