|
According to what I've found on Wikipedia:
Drozdov's active wrestling career ended suddenly when he suffered a severe neck injury during a match with D'Lo Brown during a WWF SmackDown! taping on October 5, 1999 at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Drozdov, in an interview, states he was wearing a loose shirt during the match. When Brown went for his signature running powerbomb, he wasn't able to gain a proper grip on Droz while Droz wasn't able to execute a proper jump to aid in the lifting of the powerbomb. As a result, the move was botched. Drozdov landed on his head, and fractured two disks in his neck.[3] He was immediately rushed to Nassau County Medical Center where he underwent hours of surgery to reduce and stabilize the pressure on his injured neck. Even with intensive medical care, his injury left him a quadriplegic.
Fellow wrestler Mick Foley recounts in his 2001 book Foley Is Good: And the Real World Is Faker than Wrestling, that he was at the hospital with D'Lo Brown after the match. Brown was extremely upset at what had happened. Foley tells how Drozdov (on a stretcher) told Brown not to blame himself and that it was an accident. Brown was also so upset about the incident, that he deeply considered retiring from wrestling all together.
|