Recently on Busted Open Radio, former WWE Tag Team Champion Bubba Ray Dudley (aka Bully Ray in TNA and now ROH) spoke about the nasty bump that John Cena took in his match with Shinsuke Nakamura Tuesday night on SmackDown.
In Bully Ray's opinion, no one needs to reprimand Nakamura for anything, as neither man was really at fault. It's just one of those things. As a matter of fact, a similar incident happened to Bully Ray in a match with a young Brock Lesnar.
"I don't think anybody needs to talk to Nakamura because - as you noticed after the match, as Nakamura is walking over to John Cena he says 'I'm sorry.' John looks at him and says, 'There's nothing to be sorry about.'
"One thing that we all understand as wrestlers is the risks we take in that ring and we know damn well that anything can happen at any given time, and we try to take the most calculated of risks. John doesn't want Nakamura to feel bad about himself, John knows the push Nakamura is about to get, John doesn't want Nakamura to doubt himself because John knows where Nakamura is about to go. So, I think that moment in time is all the talk that Nakamura really needed. I guarantee you when they got to the back John brushed it off, no big deal, it's all good. And I don't think it'll be an issue going forward."
"There's no doubt (that Nakamura just got a little over-excited(, and the throw that they did - it's a little different because it's from a different side of the body. He hooks it from a different side than we normally do. The throw is a little awkward because your body is going in a different direction than it's used to from the side of the body it's not used to. So that was a bit of a high throw. So yeah, adrenaline could've gotten the better of him, Cena could've given him more of a boost than he was expecting - but if you go back and slow it down like I did, you can tell it's a high freaking throw. The reason I'm telling you about John did not want Nakamura to feel bad, I'll give you an example of when that happened 15 years ago with Brock if you guys wanna know.
"When Brock was first starting out I was one of the first guys that he worked with and they had told me what they had in store for Brock. So, 'Hey Bubba, your job is to go out there on these house shows and have the best matches you can with Brock, try and get him as ready as possible, he's going to win the King Of The Ring - all this stuff, and I think we're in Penn State one night - or some place in Pennsylvania, and Brock went to give me a Belly-To-Belly over the head throw and we slipped and he dumped me straight on my head. Brock was terrified. He was apologizing his balls off in the ring, and I got up and I said 'Do it again!' He said 'No, no, no!' and I said "Do it again!" I forced Brock to give me three more of those exact throws, because I didn't want Brock to be nervous about dumping guys on his head. I knew where Brock was going, I knew the star that he was going to be one day. So I didn't want him to have any fear, and that's what John did for Nakamura last night. He said 'Don't apologize, don't say sorry, because he doesn't want Nakamura to have any fear.'"
"I keep watching the gif of the throw, and I'm breaking down the mechanics of the throw and watching their bodies. I don't think Cena has ever taken an exploder like this before. So it was a very unnatural position for his body. I'm watching his body as he's going up and their is no doubt that he is in position for a Belly-To-Back Suplex. I'm sure he knew the move was coming, but he's positioning for a landing much like a Belly-To-Back, his head is never coming forward to allow his body to fully get over. So I think it's just one of those things where the mechanics broke down in the middle of the move, and we're all lucky that it didn't go worst."
"There's no blame anywhere, it's just one of those things that can happen anywhere. And when you're not used to - a guy like John, he's very in command of his athletic ability. He knows exactly where he's going at all times. And I shouldn't just say a guy like John, most pros, they know exactly how to position their body to protect themselves. But every once and a while you get a little confused in mid-move. I'll give you an example, I always wanted to take the Styles clash from AJ, but I could never get my head to bend in this weird direction. It's like, you're used to tucking your chin, but in the Styles Clash you're not supposed to tuck your chin, but I couldn't correct it and that's why I never took it. And I think that's why in this particular move right here, just going over the move really slowly, looking at the mechanics, I just think in mid-move John is in Belly-To-Back Suplex mode and not getting totally flipped over 180 style mode."
You can listen to Bully Ray's full comments in the audio player below.
