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by
Seth Mates - Credit: WWERaw Magazine
*Thanks to Michelle S for typing this up
for me*
The
hardest part of Rhyno’s rehab is being away from all the
action.Most people would do anything for a year from their job,
an opportunity to sit back, relax, and take a breather from work.
What would you do with a year off? Travel? Renovate the house?
Spend time with family? Sleep in?Most people would say that such
a life is paradise. Most people, however, aren’t Rhyno. “I
want to go back to work so badly,” said Rhyno. “I’m
going crazy sitting at home. I’m bored. I just want to get
back in that ring, get back on the road get back in the swing
of things.”
Of course Rhyno’s vacation
isn’t a typical one. He has been out of action since last
fall, recuperating from spinal surgery. His problems began toward
the end of last summer, when he felt some pain in his left triceps
muscle. Initially, he simply ignored it; at the time, he was involved
in high-profile storylines with The Rock and Chris Jericho. He
was determined that nothing would take him out of the spotlight
he worked so hard for.The pain persisted and, finally, on Thursday,
October 18, he went to see his doctor, who prescribed some painkillers.
But the medication didn’t help, and his triceps problems
persisted. That Monday, he lost the WCW U.S. Championship to Kurt
Angle on Raw, and the next day, he went in for an MRI. The test
revealed herniated discs in his C-6 and C-7 vertebrae. That night,
at the Smackdown! Taping in Omaha, Nebraska, he “indefinitely
suspended,” and walked off WWE television.
Knowing the severity of the injury,
Rhyno spoke with several Superstars who have battled similar injuries,
asking what would be his best option. One of the consulted was
Stone Cold Steve Austin. “I talked to Rhyno about my comeback,”
Austin said, “and I pointed him in the right direction for
a hell of a doctor.”Stone Cold referred him to Dr. Lloyd
Youngblood, who has also performed spinal surgeries on Chris Benoit
and Lita.
Rhyno went under the knife on November
2, to have a bone removed from his hip and fused in his neck.
The procedure would require a full year of recovery time.“When
you’re on the road with the WWE, everything seems to fall
into place, the money is good-it’s so much fun. Then everything
came to a screeching halt,” Rhyno said. “When they told
me I would miss a year, they might as well told the Pope to give
up religion.”Rhyno’s closets friends in the locker room
say that the decision to have surgery was a difficult one for
him to make.“I think it was hard for him in the sense that
he’s never been in the position of being vulnerable like
that before,” said Christian, who has known Rhyno for a decade.
“He thought, ‘My God, this is a career-threatening injury;
what am I going to do?’
Following the initial shock, he
realized that after he had the surgery, it would be a better situation
for him.“I think he realizes that this is going to extend
his career. If he didn’t get his neck operated on at the
time he did, it would have taken years off [his career]. Now,
he’s going to come back stronger and better.”Adds Edge,
another of Rhyno’s longtime friends: “I don’t think
he had a choice. When you start losing feeling in your arm and
hand during a match, that makes the decisions for you.
”After
undergoing the procedure, Rhyno realized that what he was going
through paralleled the stories Benoit had told him about his own
spinal surgery.“I talked to Benoit about two or three weeks
after his surgery, and he was getting better. At the time, I couldn’t
imagine being in the same boat he’s in.’ I just thought
I understood, but until I went through it myself, you can’t
imagine what another person goes through when they’re injured.
You can’t know the hell it is until you’re there.“[Benoit]
is an inspiration to me,” Rhyno says. “He had surgery
four months before me, and I see the gains he’s made. If
it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what I’d do.”
Although Rhyno says life has been
“pretty boring” since the surgery, he is happy to report
that he’s no longer in pain, and that he feels better than
he has in a while.“What’s pain? Our tolerance level
is higher than most. I’m definitely not crying except maybe
to my wife,” he jokes. “There really isn’t any
pain or discomfort. Compared to the pain we go through in the
ring on a regular basis, it was never really painful. Pain I can
deal with. It’s the pain of having time off that gets to
me.”
Rhyno began lifting light weights
again a few months after his surgery, but became so frustrated
at his limited training that, at one point, he gave up all his
training cold-turkey. Realizing that wouldn’t be beneficial
in the long run, he again began his slow journey back-even working
with five-pound weights.“You get really discouraged at times,”
he says. “You do four or five reps with five-pound weights,
and your left arm just dies out. You don’t feel like a man.”
By
WrestleMania X8, he had increased his lifting regimen, and concentrated
much of his efforts on cardiovascular conditioning. In late April,
he began more focused exercises targeting his injured left biceps
and pectoral muscles. Rhyno expects to begin light in-ring training
again in September, and he targets November for his return to
the squared circle.“I’m mentally preparing myself [to
return in November], but I’m going to physically prepare
myself for an earlier return,” he says. “Everybody at
the WWE told me to take whatever time I need to get through this
and put it behind me. I’d rather sit out a couple of extra
months and come back better than ever than come back too early
and hurt myself, and have this be a recurring problem.”
During his time away from the WWE
spotlight, Rhyno has kept himself busy, doing work at his new
home in Detroit and traveling frequently. “I try to keep
busy, because otherwise I’ll go insane,” he says. He
and his wife Mirja, took a vacation in Hawaii this past spring,
and they plan to get a Winnebago and travel up and down the East
Coast this summer.Surprisingly, one thing he hasn’t been
doing on a regular basis is watching WWE programming. “I
haven’t sat through an entire program since I got hurt,”
he admits. “I’ve been unable to. I found it hard to
watch because I couldn’t be part of it. The first couple
of months, when I realized I wouldn’t be working, I found
that to be harder than the surgery.”Although it’s hard
for him to watch the shows, Rhyno says his friends in the locker
room-including Edge, Christian, and Benoit-are keeping him in
good spirits.
“I talk to Rhyno at least
a couple of times a month,” said Christian. “Especially
when he first had the surgery, I would call him at the hospital
and leave joke messages on his answering machine. Usually we call
each other, and if we talk on the phone for a half-hour, about
90 seconds of that is serious; the rest of it is just us goofing
off. The first call I got back from him after his neck surgery,
he was already laughing because he’d listened to my messages.
I try to keep him in good spirits and laughing.”Adds Edge,
“One thing I think he misses more than anything is the camaraderie
with the guys, doing a 200-mile drive with guys who are like your
best friends. There are times he will call and leave me ridiculous
messages, like four a day, and I’m like, ‘Okay, he’s
bored today.’ I think he’s going a little stir crazy.“I
remember once, I had three weeks off because of a back injury,
and at the end of three weeks, I just had to get going. I had
the road itch. I think that’s what’s going through his
head, too.” The “Man-Beast” says his biggest disappointment
about being out of action was that he didn’t have the opportunity
to compete at WrestleMania X8.“I was kicking myself, punching
myself in the head, running my head into the wall because I wasn’t
on the show,” he says. “I think that’s every wrestler’s
goal. But there was nothing I could do about it.”
Although that goal didn’t
come to pass, Rhyno says he has another one: to come back better
than ever and recapture the spotlight he misses so badly.“I’m
glad I can still be part of the WWE by doing appearances, and
I’m glad I’m not in pain anymore,” Rhyno said.
“But now I can see that light at the end of the tunnel, and
I can’t wait to get back.”
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