Update on AEW’s Chuck Taylor

Chuck Taylor sheds some insight regarding his in-ring career.

The AEW star last wrestled on the April 27th episode of Rampage, where he lost to Trent Beretta in a Parking Lot Braw. Orange Cassidy revealed at a later date that Taylor’s wrestling career might be over, something that was confirmed by Fightful Select, who reported that Taylor was interested in moving into a backstage role.

Taylor recently spoke about this topic with Renee Paquette on Up Close. He reveals how the initial injury, which was to his ankle, happened.

In October, I believe, I injured my ankle originally. My foot was down, it was in a match on Rampage, we were tagging with the Hardys. I took a dropkick in the ropes and as I was going out, I left my ankle out, and Angelo Parker fell on my ankle. It was honestly my fault. I went to the doctor and they told me I had a bruised talus, which is a bone inside your foot that connects [other bones] to your foot. I had some ligament damage and they thought I could rehab it. I did rehab, it didn’t get better, and I went back and they believed I needed surgery.

Prior to that Taylor barely had any time off, noting that aside from COVID, this was the longest he had not wrestled since his career started.

I’ve been wrestling for 23 years and the longest I had off was the beginning of COVID. The longest I had gone without taking a bump was the five weeks when COVID started, before we came back. It was the first time I had off. You never want it for an injury. It was interesting because I’m so used to, ‘Okay, time to go wrestle.’ To not do that is weird. Finding out, ‘Now your career might be over,’ was an odd feeling.

However, there is hope. Taylor says that he can reassess about a return to the ring after he has surgery.

I can get surgery, and once I heal from that, I can hopefully reassess. Maybe it is me hoping. We’ve seen a lot of guys and gals come back from a ‘career ending injury.

That being said, Taylor is in no rush, telling Paquette that he wants to continue learning about the backstage aspect. He then says that he doesn’t love taking bumps as much as he used to.

Wrestling, as a verb, I didn’t love it as much as I used to. Just getting old and beat up. It just hurts. Knowing you’re reaching the end of your career kind of puts things into perspective. I don’t want to be a broken down guy just because I wanted another couple of years.