Indeed. In most states, wrestling is legally classified as a “cultural event”, a broad category that includes everything from rodeos and monster truck shows to bridal expos and Disney On Ice. WA and OR are the only states I know of that regulate it as a sport, though I believe there are a few others. Besides the requirement to have medical staff on hand, it also means the insurance rates for wrestling shows are much higher up here, which contributed to the death of Portland’s wrestling scene in the '80s and Rowdy Roddy Piper’s failed attempt to revive it a few years ago, as well as the folding of our local lucha libre league here in the Puget Sound area. (A few years back they had a couple hundred luchadors rally at the state Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to get them to change the laws.)
But I digress - WWE does indeed have an in-house doctor, albeit one who’s been accused of misdiagnosing a potentially fatal MRSA infection as a “fatty deposit” and softballing medical exams so injured wrestlers could be told to get back in the ring sooner.
Disturbing video of a terrible accident. Aquayo looked to be a little woozy after the first two moves in that video - that may have contributed to him being unprepared for the kick. It does seem that the large guy in the striped shirt was not taking any care trying to get him off the rope and then shaking him to get a response. That guy needs basic medical training before he works with injured wrestlers again.
“As has been mentioned” as though it’s a given. It isn’t. There was a very good reason for him to think that Aguayo was severely injured. He was unconscious, non-responsive, rag doll-like. Konnan shook him precisely because he perceived that Aguayo was not responding to anything, not moving. That is not only a reason to think that Aguayo was somehow harmed, I think it tops the list of reasons one might think someone was harmed.
And when someone is being thrown around and smashing into things, then shows evidence of harm in the form of being non-responsive, unconscious and rag doll-like, only a total knuckledragging troglodyte would think “Oh, I should use his skull as a handle to shake him into consciousness!”
But it’s a wrestling match, those guys are pretending to be non-responsive, unconcious and rag doll like every ten minutes.
I didn’t know any of the people involved and when I first watched the video I didn’t immediately know that the guy leaning on the ropes was the one in trouble, because a guy leaning on the ropes like that looked exactly like a guy pretending to be goosed when he really was waiting for the other guy to come along and do a move on him.
They basically cry wolf professionally, its hard to be too critical that this time the non-doctors didn’t immediately spot that the usually fake was real for once.
I wonder if he actually partially fractured his neck during an earlier move or something? The setup for the 619 looked fine and seems massively unlikely to be fatal on its own.