Vince McMahon nixed plans for Tyson Kidd return

Tyson Kidd suffered a career-ending neck injury when he was hit with a botched Muscle Buster by Samoa Joe. Since then Kidd has been a backstage producer in WWE and kept himself busy in that role. It seems he had an idea for a return at the Royal Rumble, but Vince McMahon was not interested.

 


 

Kidd spoke on The New Day Feel The Power, where he revealed he pitched an idea of returning for one spot in the Royal Rumble. This way he could have retired in a way he saw fit. It would have been a short appearance, but Vince McMahon nixed the idea.

“I kind of did [play with the idea of returning]. I wanted to at least write the final page on that book of me being an in-ring performer, and I thought, ‘What better way than the Royal Rumble,’ in terms of I wouldn’t have to get slammed. I already showed Finn [Balor] how to get eliminated so I know I can get [over the top rope], things like that and I remember talking with Vince [McMahon] about it and he said, ‘You need an answer today or can you give me time to think about it?’ I said, ‘Of course, take your time.’ He said, ‘How much time do you need?’ ‘It’s not a rush.’ When I was just presenting it to him I said, ‘I can do next year’s Rumble.

It doesn’t have to be in four weeks in this one,’ last year in Phoenix. ‘It can be anytime,’ and he called me one day and said they ‘Put a lot of thought into it and that we would try to control everything on our end but what if something outside of our realm were to happen and it were to undo all of the good that has happened over the last two years,’ in terms of me being a producer and physically I do feel very, very good and his thought was, ‘Why risk that?’ Don’t ask me why but in my mind, the visual that kinda played out when he was saying this to me was imagine I’m standing on the steps, like about to come into the ring and just for whatever reason — just [thinking] about some crazy stuff like a fan jumps the railing and pushes me from behind and it whiplashes me and my neck’s super messed up, and so I remember thinking like, ‘Okay, I offer this to Vince. He gave two or three weeks solid thought to it, and this was his answer’ and like I said, and then I had that visual, which is very weird and placed in my weird — not that this was a memory but I had this visual in my mind of a guy coming and pushing me. Three months later, what happens at the Hall Of Fame?

Some dude slides in and takes Bret [Hart] and Nattie down, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is almost like what I envisioned happening to me’ and I remember taking that as a sign like, ‘Okay, know what I am, doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Yes it would be cool if I could write the final page of my in-ring career, that chapter. But, I can’t I don’t think’ so I’ve kind of — when Vince told me no — so the weeks prior, I started to have those and maybe you guys have always had them, maybe you haven’t realized them because they haven’t gone away or maybe — but as a wrestler, I have these anxiety dreams or wake up like, ‘Oh, it’s just a dream.’”

It is unfortunate we never got to see Kidd compete in the ring one last time. Fans certainly would have liked to see him in the Royal Rumble, even if it was going to be a short appearance.

Harrison Carter
Harrison Carter
Harrison Carter has been a huge pro wrestling fan since 2002, and it's been his first love ever since then. He has years of writing experience for all things pro wrestling. His interests outside of wrestling include films, books and soccer.

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