Jake Manning has been in the wrestling business for nearly 20 years and during that time, he's suffered his fair share of injuries.
Manning remains active in the ring, but also works for AEW in their merchandise department.
Speaking with David Bakker on I Did This Instead Of Killing Myself, Manning revealed that he's suffered a torn ACL, which has yet to be repaired.
"It was a torn ACL, they said I would need surgery, it was going to cost $3,000, which at the time was all the money in the world. It was going to be eight months off. Where I was at in my wrestling career, I was like, 'Nobody is going to remember me when I come back in eight months. This is the end of my career and I'll fix this.' It wasn't just an ACL tear, it was a bone bruise and meniscus damage. Those things heal. I was able to kind of walk a little, but had an issue. I found a brace that was okay. 'I only have two or three more bookings, I need this money, especially if I need to get $3,000.' Braced it up, gutted my way through two of them, and the third one, I was like, 'That wasn't too bad.' I go into my gym and am like 'I have a torn ACL.' 'You've been working out with a torn ACL?' 'Yeah, I have wrestling bookings. Is there anything I can do to get through?' 'If you structure the muscles around it, take care of your calves, do leg extensions, don't do heavy weights, you might be able to get by for a few months.' I started doing that, started feeling good and normal," he said.
Manning said when he was able to perform his knee facebuster and things went fine, he felt more comfortable proceeding with the injury rather than getting surgery. He said he's been wrestling on the torn ACL for two years and admits he has some issues with his right side. He also said he's careful when how he lands coming off the top rope and doesn't do any running to protect his knee.
He continued by revealing he's also dealing with minimal CTE.
"My knee and very minimal CTE. I have noticed a couple of things that are not great. Taking care of my brain. It was stand up that made me realize that I have brain issues. I was wrestling...I record all my (comedy) sets. I was working on this one bit. I felt like I nailed it on a Thursday. I came back on a Monday and it didn't hit. I had wrestled several matches over the weekend, it was a very hard-hitting one, full-on open hand slapping each other across the head and face. A lot of head blows. I was like, 'what was so wrong about Monday?' I listened to it from Thursday. 'How is it different from Monday?' On Monday, I was slurring my speech, my words were off-rhythm. 'Oh, that's from this weekend.' I have multiple like mini-concussions, and that's what has caused this. Every time I land on the mat, it's a mini-car crash," he said.
Manning last wrestled at the October 28 AEW Dark tapings when he teamed with Channing Thomas & Teddy Goodz against The Factory (Cole Karter, Lee Johnson & QT Marshall).
He also remains active on the Independent scene.
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