Female star "was partying heavily" before getting injured in infamous RAW match; how Vince McMahon reacted
Mike Chioda has revealed Vince McMahon's reaction to an infamous women's match on RAW that ended with Candice Michelle getting injured.
On the October 22, 2007, edition of WWE RAW, Candice Michelle, and Beth Phoenix competed in a Two Out Of Three Falls match. The bout's final moments saw Michelle falling off the top rope face-first.
Chioda believes that Michelle was hungover from partying all week and didn't have ample experience either. He added that Vince McMahon let him have an earful after finishing the match.
“Candice had been partying all week. She was partying heavily. She wasn’t a very experienced wrestler at the time as well. I remember she got hurt. She almost got knocked woozy. She did get her bell rung. I remember something happened out of the corner and they were screaming at me. I remember the finish went down, something went down, and I told Beth to pull her out from underneath the bottom rope to cover her,” said Chioda. [H/T WrestlingNews]
Vince McMahon "ripped into" Chioda after the match
Chioda added that Vince McMahon wasn't happy when he told Beth Phoenix to pull Michelle in the middle of the ring to cover her after the fall. The WWE Chairman approached Chioda backstage and yelled at him over what had just happened.
Michelle's injury took her out of action for about 14 weeks. She wrestled a handful of matches upon her return in early 2008. She later spoke up about the incident and recalled seeing Stephanie McMahon after regaining consciousness.
"The next thing I remember is barely being able to see Stephanie McMahon leaning over me saying, 'don't worry, your husband is being flown in.' I knew this was real, they never fly your husband in. The diagnosis that night was a concussion and I shattered my collarbone and it shattered my dreams of ever wrestling again," said Michelle.
One wonders how far Candice Michelle's career would have gone if it hadn't been for her injury. Judging by the match in question and several of her in-ring outings at the time, she was extremely talented. You can check out the full match and the aftermath in the videos embedded above.