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by
Seth Mates
Although
it will be another six months before Rhyno can physically return
to a World Wrestling Federation ring, he says he wishes he could
go back to work right now. “I’m ready to come back today,
but the doctors won’t let me,” Rhyno told WWF.com in
a phone interview from his Detroit home. “When they told
me I would be missing a year total, they might as well have just
told the Pope to give up religion.” Rhyno was indefinitely
suspended for storyline purposes the week of No Mercy last October.
He had spinal fusion surgery shortly thereafter, and has been
off TV ever since, except for a guest appearance on HEAT.
The procedure is virtually the
same one undergone by Stone Cold Steve Austin and Chris Benoit.
In fact, Rhyno even used the same doctor – Dr. Lloyd Youngblood
of San Antonio. Rhyno met with Dr. Youngblood last week, and says
the prognosis is good, although his rehab could extend another
six months. “Dr. Youngblood says when I heal, I’ll be
stronger than ever,” Rhyno said. “I’m ahead of
schedule.”
“Everybody
at the World Wrestling Federation 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.” He says he never thought that rehabbing after the
surgery would be so difficult “When you’re on the road
a year steady with the World Wrestling Federation, it’s so
much fun,” Rhyno said. “Everything seems to fall into
place, the money is good – it’s so much fun. Then, everything
came to a screeching halt.”
“I
talked to Benoit about two or three weeks after his surgery, and
he was sitting and talking and getting better. At the time, I
couldn’t imagine being in the same boat he’s in. I just
thought, ‘Wow, that’s gotta suck for him.’ I thought
I understood, but until I went through the thing, 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.”
Although Rhyno says his 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 like a baby. 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 that painful.”
“The pain I can deal with.
It’s the pain of having the time off that gets me.”
Indeed, Rhyno says that the hardest thing about his rehabilitation
is being away from the product that he loves so much I haven’t
sat through an entire Federation program since I got hurt,”
he admits. “I’ve been unable to. I found it hard to
watch because I couldn’t be a part of it. The first couple
of months, when I realized I couldn’t be working, I found
that harder than the surgery.”
Rhyno says he may use some of his
time off to travel down the East Coast, perhaps visiting the Carolinas,
he says. He admits that one of his biggest disappointments is
the fact that he won’t be able to participate in WrestleMania
X8, coming up on March 17 at SkyDome in Toronto. “Last year,
I played a big part in Edge & Christian’s match, and
this year, I was hoping to get a match at WrestleMania,”
Rhyno said. “That’s what I was working for; that’s
everybody’s dream. How many people get to have a match at
WrestleMania? I was really looking forward to it. And I still
am, just because it’s WrestleMania. “Hopefully I can
be a part of AXXESS. I hope they don’t forget about me.”
Rhyno says he may drive to Milwaukee or Chicago for next week’s
television events, and that he hopes to be backstage at RAW in
Detroit on March 11.
But aside from those shows and
a couple of personal appearances, he’ll mostly be spending
the next few months getting back into ring shape and preparing
for his comeback. “I’m glad I can do appearances, still
be a part of it,” Rhyno said. “But I can’t wait
to get back.”
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