Ryback Discusses Jon Moxley's MRSA Infection, Moxley Almost Dying After His First Bout With MRSA
There was something missing from AEW's All Out last week and that something was Jon Moxley. Just days before the event, Moxley had to pull out with an elbow injury and subsequently announced that he also has a staph infection described as a serious case of MRSA.
Ryback had a staph infection of his own back in the day with WWE and he talked about it on his podcast alongside Wrestling Inc's Raj Giri.
"MRSA is extremely serious. He has had that before and it's not a good thing that it came back," said Ryback. "That kind of thing, the staph infection that I had, and it wasn't MRSA, if I would have had it a week longer, I was going to have to drop the Intercontinental title. It was stressful because I had no control over it. I had put a picture up; it was all ballooned up, and he battled that before the staph infection, sometimes these things, oftentimes they have a mind of their own.
Moxley said he should be good to go for AEW's premiere on TNT on October 2 but Ryback cautioned that these surgeries don't always go as planned. He prayed that this is not the case, but there is the possibility that not all of it is cleaned out when they go in there. Thus, he speculated that Moxley saying he'll return for the TNT premiere is just an estimation.
Ryback then talked about his own experiences with a staph infection while in WWE.
"I remember when I got my staph infection, that weekend before I was wrestling The Big Show, and my thumb, I ended up taking the skin off of my thumb and I don't know if it happened in the weight room or in the match before with The Big Show. But I somehow got my skin ripped off and I was putting stuff on it and treating it, the next night out there I had put tape on there and then the tape came off," recalled Ryback. "With sweating and being out there, the next night on Raw it was a tag match, at a house show I did a dive onto Sheamus where I usually land on my feet on that, I came down and hit my knee on the mat. That was enough where the infection got into my system somehow and I banged my knee and it flamed up and that infection came right to my knee which was the only logical reason I came up with because I had no cuts on my knee.
"But I know with his elbow he has already had it already and I believe you become more susceptible to getting it again after you had it once before. It's a very scary thing and that thing can wreak havoc on your body. There are some horrendous stories out there with people who have had that. For his sake, I hope they don't rush him back on television and make sure first and foremost he is okay for longevity into his career because this is a very small thing in the grand scheme of things."
Ryback referenced Moxley's first bout with MRSA which came after having biceps surgery in 2018. Moxley said he nearly died from the infection and Ryback stressed the seriousness of this to listeners.
"That is not him joking [about nearly dying]. People need to understand that when I got the staph infection on my knee I was in Birmingham, Alabama and I had to go do media that day and the WWE doctor saw me and they instantly told me that I am off TV. They rushed me to the medical center; I was there all week. I wasn't allowed to go home," said Ryback. "I remember they were going to have to operate on me and then the antibiotics started working and I had to stay home for a few weeks, it was just ballooned up.
"Mine went well, so he has something more serious with MRSA and if it goes bad, there are people that have to get their limbs amputated; it's no f***ing joke. I know they will treat this with the utmost seriousness, this isn't something where he has to rush back from just to get back on TV. Get him healthy and make sure that this isn't going to be an issue after this recent battle with MRSA."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Conversations with the Big Guy Ryback with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.