On the June 29 episode of NXT, Mercedes Martinez teamed with Jake Atlas to take on Xia Li & Boa.
The match was stopped just over eight minutes into things after Xia Li knocked out Martinez with a roundhouse kick.
Speaking on DNC Digital, Martinez reflected on the incident.
"The match, everything was going fine. We were going to the end of the match. Xia had to give me a roundhouse kick. Mind you, I've taken it so many times. I don't know if it was timing or if our spacing was wrong, but she basically kicked the living daylights out of me, knocked me out on impact. She's reckless, I've wrestled her and I was her first match ever in WWE. I really trusted her and we've had our matches and trained together. It wasn't like I didn't trust her. I trusted her, you have to trust your opponent. She gave me the roundhouse kick and, you have to protect yourself, but I've always been that person where realism comes into play. She's given me the kick before, I really trusted her, I didn't even have time to put my hand up. As soon as I walked in, that kick hit me too high up on the temple and knocked me out clean. I don't even remember falling. I guess from that impact, being knocked out, hitting the ground, I DDT'd myself, that's a double whammy of an impact. I don't remember anything after that. I remember getting up on the apron with the doctors and the trainers and I was like, 'What happened?' Basically, I had a concussion. I knew it. They stopped the match because I was out and not coherent," she said.
Martinez continued by saying, "I always tell Aja [Smith], who was the referee, she's my guardian angel because she knows me so well. She knows how I am and knows I can take hits really hard and keep moving. For her to call the match off, she genuinely knew that I was hurt. She's always been my guardian angel in the ring. God bless her. I basically had a concussion. Went to the hospital, they did the scans, all the scans came negative, no broken neck, no nothing. Within two days after that, I passed my concussion protocol impact test. I was knocked out silly on TV, had the headaches and soreness and was diagnosed with a concussion, but I was able to pass all my tests within a week or so after. It's like I needed to be knocked out to get shit back to normal [laughs]."
The bout ended up being Martinez' last match on NXT as she was released by the company on August 6.
"It took three weeks to officially get cleared. Once I got cleared, they continued the program with me, Jake [Atlas], and Xia. They were going to continue it, but they put it off because Xia got hurt, and I got released maybe a week after I got cleared," she said.
Martinez has already made a handful of appearances at independent shows and she is set to take part in the IMPACT Knockouts Knockdown tournament on October 9.
You can learn more about Martinez' appearance for IMPACT by clicking here.
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