During a recent edition of the “ARN” podcast, Arn Anderson commented on Sting’s injury at Night of Champions 2015, Seth Rollins using the buckle bomb, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Sting getting injured after Seth Rollins’ buckle bomb at Night of Champions 2015: “The key is – and this is entirely up to the guy giving it you – you need to hit that buckle like right above your shoulder blades. Not with your neck. And I think Sting hit it with his neck, and that’s one of those things where there’s not that much margin for error. And to be honest with you – not being a precisionist – I wouldn’t wanna do that to a guy and trust myself to get it perfect. I don’t know that I would’ve ever wanted to take it, and I’ve been in the ring with some great workers. Anything I can’t see that’s behind me – I wasn’t a big fan of German suplexes or this buckle bomb because you can’t see where you are in the air, and you can’t adjust. It’s just a blind faith. Not that Seth was ever reckless – I don’t believe that or that he did anything maliciously. It just was an accident, and accidents happen in this business. And if you’re not used to hitting that buckle and it’s been years since Sting hit turnbuckles – to hit one that way where you can’t even see where you’re landing – it’s just pure accident. It’s all it could’ve been.”
On his initial reaction to it when Sting went down: “Believe it or not, the first thing was that he’s just doing a great job selling. I didn’t think he’s hurt his neck. That didn’t cross my mind. It wasn’t one of those things where he landed on his head or something obvious. It was just one of those things where ‘He’s really selling that great.’ And then obviously when the doctor was sent down and the referee gave the sign that somebody’s hurt, then it became ‘OK, him falling down like that, it’s gotta be something else and something else probably pretty serious.’ Normally, had it not been the main event, they would’ve just stopped that match right there and been over.”
On who makes the decision to stop a match if a wrestler is injured: “The medical staff has a lot of authority to stop a match. That discussion had come up in meetings where we were going over the rules and all those things – what happens if a guy gets busted open, what happens if a guy gets hurt. It’s been stated, a talent cannot tell you ‘I’m OK’ and you let them finish the match. They don’t have that authority. So it’s taken out of their hands. Now this being a unique situation – World title match and the main event of a pay-per-view and he says he’s OK and he can get it done – I don’t know if a quick decision was made to make an exception other than having however many thousands of people wanting their money back because there was no finish on the main event of the pay-per-view. A lot of things probably went into that decision.”
