Steve Maclin recalled the scary incident at TNA Sacrifice where he was knocked out within minutes into the main event. The match was against Mike Santana for the TNA World Championship.
On the latest edition of Boots To Boots Podcast, Maclin detailed what led to the TNA Sacrifice scare and his immediate reaction.
“The energy was there. They were cheering for him. They were booing the crap out of me. And then the bell rang. We got about two and a half minutes into exchanging. We tried to wrestle a little bit to still be kind of there, be a little physical with it, and then we just said, ‘Ah, f*ck it. Let’s throw the gloves off and just start hitting each other.’ And back and forth, back and forth. Mike took off, gave me a good old TNA kick to the gut. I hit him with a forearm and the ropes, and then I hit the ropes, and next thing I remember, the next thing I know I’m on the ground trying to figure out what’s going on with my body even though my head from the neck up is normal.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever been rocked in a match where that’s the complete opposite. Normally, my body is good and you’re in autopilot moving and your brain is like, ‘We’ll get there, get to where you need to’. But this was the complete opposite and it scared the hell out of me at first too, because you see me grab the rope.”
Maclin had a special shout out to referee Alice for her alertness in the matter noting how he often requests to work with her for the same reason. When the incident first occurred, she checked up on him and asked what needed to be done next before deciphering something was wrong and immediately threw up the X symbol.
“Ref Alice, she was there and she was instantly the savior I needed. That’s why I asked for her for the match. I always ask for her in all my big matches, any match in general because she gets it. The referee is always a third person in the ring that you need a part of the match. And for me, she gets it, she listens to me. I call my audibles to her beforehand, and she knows to relay that. She’s good at her job. And she proved she’s very professional at her job that night because she stepped in, she knew something was wrong. And when she was talking to me, I was coherently talking to her, ‘I’m good. Just give me a minute.’ ‘Tell, Mike’s asking what to do’. I’m like, ‘just tell him to give me a minute, just hold on a sec, it’s going to freaking drop down, it’s going to drop down, leap frog, drop down, elbow.’ Seeing me do that with the way I had deer legs probably would not have been entertaining to watch. I knew what was coming next, but my body said no. She called for the ‘X.’”
Maclin detailed that even TNA President Carlos Silva instantly picked up on what had gone wrong given his previous association with MMA.
“That’s when Carlos said even talking with him he knew what happened because he comes from watching MMA for so long with all the fighting in that industry and seeing so many different types of knockouts and what really happened was the whiplash got me so much off and he hit drilled the side of my neck where the nerve is, dangerous spot to get hit. Luckily, I didn’t have any problems after the scans and the concussion protocol I went through at the hospital.”
Following the incident, Santana issued a statement on his sentiments with what transpired. Last week, Maclin took to social media stating that he was back to training in the ring, two weeks after the injury scare.
