Kyle O’Reilly recently appeared on the “This Is VANCOLOUR” podcast, seen below, and provided an update on his status, indicating that he might not be back in the ring any time soon.
O’Reilly has been out of action since the June 8 edition of AEW Dynamite, where he won the show-opening Battle Royal, but then lost to current Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley in the main event. That match was to determine who faced Hiroshi Tanahashi at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door to crown the interim champion.
O’Reilly noted in this new interview that he’s been working while injured for several years now, and specifically these nagging injuries have been “pretty bad” for the past five years, going back to his WWE NXT run.
“This October, I’ll be wrestling for 17 years now. It’s a lot of bumps, a lot of wear and tear on your body,” O’Reilly said. “Fortunately, nothing serious has really happened to me. I’ve been hurt a lot, I’ve been injured, but I’ve always grinded through, made the date, showed up and performed as well as I can in the ring despite whatever I was nursing. Sometimes, the medical staff needs to save us from ourselves.
“As wrestlers, we’ll go until the wheels fall off. ‘My shoulder is hurt? Okay, I won’t do any moves where I land on my shoulder.’ We’re crazy like that. This is something I’ve been dealing with, it’s a nagging thing that I’ve been dealing with, specifically, pretty bad for the last five years.”
O’Reilly continued and noted that he was “really banged up” during his last few AEW matches. He just recently learned the extent of his injuries, but hoped to know more as of late last week or this coming week. The interview was apparently recorded during the middle of last week. O’Reilly said he was preparing to find out about his recovery and how long it will take, but said he’s focused on coming back better than ever.
“In the last few weeks of wrestling on AEW, I’ve been really banged up and didn’t know the extent of it until now,” he said. “I still don’t know all the information, so I don’t want to disclose exactly what is happening with me. I need more information and I should know probably this week what the recovery time is going to be and what the recovery will entail.
“All I can do is, if there is time off, use it to remotivate myself, get in better shape, and come back stronger than ever before.”
AEW President Tony Khan noted during a recent interview that they weren’t sure how long O’Reilly would be out, but that it was a “big loss” for the company and one that they were not expecting.
Bobby Fish and Adam Cole are also currently on the shelf with O’Reilly. Cole has also been working while hurt, but reportedly suffered a concussion in the Forbidden Door match with Adam Page, Kazuchika Okada, and the winner, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White. Cole should be back soon. Fish is out with an ankle injury, but is expected back much sooner than O’Reilly, according to Khan.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more on O’Reilly. You can see his full “VANCOLOUR” interview below:
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