WWE veteran on legendary moment with Edge and Jeff Hardy, comments on dangerous spots in pro wrestling (Exclusive)
Ricardo Rodriguez shared his thoughts on wrestlers regularly doing high-risk spots and a moment between AEW star Jeff Hardy and WWE Hall of Famer Edge that got him into wrestling.
Today's generation of pro wrestling stars take dangerous bumps quite regularly. For example, in AEW, Darby Allin executed a risky Swanton Bomb during his No Disqualification Match against Jeff Hardy on the May 11 episode of Dynamite. Meanwhile, in WWE, Theory got F5'd by Brock Lesnar from the top of the pod at Elimination Chamber in February 2022.
While talking to Riju Dasgupta of Sportskeeda Wrestling in an exclusive interview, Rodriguez laid out the positive and negative effects of stars performing dangerous spots. The former WWE Superstar highlighted the risk of getting hurt despite being a supporter of building great moments in the ring:
"What I fear is that we're gonna get to a point where people are going to do a lot of really dangerous things and then get hurt, and then for what? In front of 10 people, in front of 50 people, for what? Fifty dollars, if anything and chances are (...) it's because there's gonna be such a big amounts abundance of crazy clips out there. They're just gonna get lost on the shuffle but then again, I'm a very big advocate of working for the moments." (from 14:13 to 14:43)
Later, Rodriguez added that Edge's mid-air spear to Jeff Hardy from the top of a ladder at WrestleMania X-Seven influenced him as a wrestler:
"That's what got me into wrestling, was that moment with Jeff Hardy and Edge, that's what got me into wrestling, so it's a double side edge to the sword really." (from 14:48 to 14:56)
Check out the clips from this interview:
Former WWE manager Ricardo Rodriguez on wrestlers doing high-risk spots
As the discussion continued, Ricardo Rodriguez cited some disadvantages of wrestlers wanting to outshine one another in taking gruesome bumps:
"That's the only problem that I have with this constant trying to outdo each other is that there's no build up, there's no story, there's no getting crowd engagement and then they're just doing things (...) to do things and then the crowd is just kind of sitting there and then they don't react because they were already expecting something crazy and then didn't meet their expectations and then somebody gets hurt." (from 15:30 to 15:48)
In Dynamite: Blood and Guts, Sammy Guevara took a nasty bump when he was thrown off the top of the cage onto a table by Eddie Kingston. The number of risky spots in AEW has been growing this year, and it'll be interesting to see what's in store for the next few months.
What's your reaction to Ricardo Rodriguez's take on wrestlers performing dangerous spots? Sound off in the comments section below!
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