PJ Black, who you may know better as Justin Gabriel from his days in WWE and with the Nexus (as well as some stuff after the Nexus, probably … maybe), clearly has a very powerful love affair with risk-taking. He’s a fearless high-flyer inside the ring, and a far more fearless high-flyer outside of it. Last year, his love of BASE jumping put him on the shelf with two broken ankles, and he reportedly suffered what might be an even more severe injury in a second BASE jumping accident last week.
In an interview with Wrestling Epicenter, Black went into detail about what happened in this latest accident, and it’s absolutely, 100 percent horrifying. When I first read this, I broke out into a full-body sweat/cringe like I was watching those European dudes who free-climb skyscrapers with selfie sticks. Of course, that ALSO seems like something the Darewolf would be super-duper into.
“The short version is, I jumped. My body position wasn’t perfect. The parachute opened with a 180-degree turn, so instead of flying away from the building, I flew straight into the building. I managed to kick off one of the ledges and flip myself around, but in doing that I broke my ankle, and then while I was flipping around my finger got caught in a satellite dish. It ripped the tip of the finger off. I’ve got two titanium plates in my leg, and a pretty messed up finger, but I’m alive so that’s pretty cool.”
Nope! No thanks! Goodbye forever. Thanks for everything, life. We had a good run. Thanks for ever mangling my finger in a satellite dish. Good looking out.
Black says doctors say he has a timeline of returning to the ring somewhere between six to 12 months from now. We hope he has the speediest recovery possible, and that he maybe doesn’t BASE jump again for a while. You can listen to the full interview below. You know, if you feel like putting yourself through that again.
