"I could've been paralysed"- 26-year-old star reveals popular move is now retired after scary botch on WWE SmackDown

WWE Superstar Austin Theory opened up about the scary botch that occurred a few weeks ago on SmackDown.

The former United States Champion took on Carmelo Hayes in a singles match on the blue brand last month. However, the match ended in No Contest after a Seated Spanish Fly from Thoery went wrong and both men had a scary landing. Luckily, neither star suffered any serious injury.

During a recent interview with The West Sport, Austin Theory reflected on what went wrong.

"So in this scenario, with Carmelo Hayes, going for a move I've done plenty of times. Just so happens as we're going through the rotation, if you go back and look, the back of his foot as he is rotating off hits the top rope. So all the momentum of us rotating when his foot hits, it takes a straight down. Just based on the video it looks insane. To be honest, I seriously could've been paralysed or you know my career could've been done. I could've been seriously hurt or broken my neck there."

The 26-year-old also revealed that the move is now retired.

"So many factors but luckily as we came down, for some reason, I let go to catch myself and I turned my head all the way to the left and when we landed, just the back of his head hit my face pretty hard. When we were laying there, I was fine. I didn't feel like rocked or you know lost or that feeling of what's going on. I felt fine but at the same time too you know that's such a scary moment. Especially when you're out there and something goes wrong and doesn't feel right and then seeing the video footage back, myself upside down literally on the top of my head. Wow. Like very grateful for that and that move is retired for Austin Theory." [15:49 - 17:03]

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Austin Theory is expected to make an appearance at WWE Elimination Chamber

While Austin Theory is not on the card for WWE Elimination Chamber, the 26-year-old is in Australia and could make a surprise appearance.

Theory's partner Grayson Waller is set to host Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes on his talkshow and it is widely expected that the former United States Champion could also get involved in the proceedings.

The 26-year-old WWE star was a part of the last two Elimination Chamber matches. He defended the United States Championship against five other men at last year's event.