PCO recently recalled several of the craziest bumps he has taken in the ring despite companies asking him not to do them.
While speaking to Denise Salcedo, PCO discussed his mindset on taking the high-risk bumps, noting that he believes he can do them and that it’s part of his character
PCO is known for being very safe when performing these stunts, which Bret Hart noted when they worked together in 1995. Despite the risks involved, PCO’s focus remains on taking wild bumps and entertaining the fans. He is a stellar example of a wrestler who puts his body on the line for entertainment purposes.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his high-risk bumps: “I’ve done a few crazy things. In the ring, I took a powerbomb over the rip rope to the floor, to the straight floor, with a little mat. That was pretty crazy because that was about a 10-foot, 12-foot bump straight on the cement, straight on my head. That goes up there, one of the craziest things. Against Heath, it was a pretty high stage, [and] I got thrown out of the stage and just [landed] on the floor with some chairs. A powerbomb from the top rope to the apron. A bunch of crazy things [laughs]. I remember doing a moonsault on one guy on the outside and nobody caught me. There was no mattress on the outside, so I busted my head. The craziest one was at Center Stage. I had an electrical malfunction where I kind of lose sight with the reality, and I think there’s someone and I jump onto space. I cleared all the mat, and I banged my head on the cement floor, and I had 14 stitches inside and outside my eyebrow. I spent the night on the hospital.”
On companies pushing back against his bumps: “Sometimes companies, or Impact, they want to be safe. They’ll say, ‘Maybe it’s better if you don’t wrestle tomorrow.’ But I really fight those things really hard. I know it’s a question of health, and I know there’s protocol. But I just feel like I’m not human. That’s what I’m telling then. When they say, ‘You don’t have to do this, PCO,’ yeah, but you don’t understand, I’m not human. I really believe that, that I can do something inhuman.”
On being turned down on a bump: “Yeah, but I managed to be able to do it. [There was] a lot of strong resistance. I remember with New Japan, because we’re working with New Japan, we have some guys from New Japan coming to our shows and things like that. I remember doing a show with New Japan where I wanted to get powerbombed on the floor. The officials at New Japan, they came up to me, like maybe 10 times, ‘No, PCO. We catch, we catch.’ No, if you catch, I’m human. If you don’t catch, I’m not human. That was going on for maybe 10 times, maybe for an hour, an hour and a half, and I had to really fight over [it]. Another time, I was against Jonah, where he was powerbombing me from the ring apron to the floor. IMPACT was like, ‘No, PCO, you don’t need to do that.’ It’s always, ‘You don’t need to do that,’ but once you do it, people are like, ‘He’s different.’ So that’s why sometimes I really want to do it. Especially if I know my body enough that I can control the bump, that I know it’s not my first time, I’ve done it before.”
On why he does such crazy things: “My passion for the business. For me, it was always like, well, I’m willing to do things that maybe others aren’t willing to do. It started like that, just to say, ‘Yeah, I’m really dedicated to this business.’ But also knowing that I was able to maybe pull it off. Even as a kid, I would always do some pretty crazy things. So I always knew I was that guy who could take a lot of pain, absorb a lot of pain, and pretty much get away with it in a way. With bruise, with pain, with a lot of things that would follow that, but then I was able to live with it.”
(h/t – Fightful)
