All Elite Wrestling got the injury bug in a bad way throughout 2022. Top stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Kenny Omega and more all missed multiple months of action last year due to various physical setbacks. While a number of the aforementioned names have returned to the ring, some remain on the shelf, and even more names have unfortunately joined them. Among those is Tay Melo, the Jericho Appreciation Society member that last wrestled on the January 13th edition of AEW Rampage in a brutal street fight. While she was not specifically hurt in that match, the bloody battle did end up aggravating a long-running injury.
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“I have a protrusion on my back, so it’s something that I’ve been dealing with for more than 10 years by now. I know how to go about it. Before the match, I started feeling it a little bit, and the doctors in AEW, they’re super good. I told them, they helped me see if it was okay to do it,” Melo told Elite POV. “They asked me, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna do it. Let’s go.’ I’ll never say no, let me tell you, unless I’m really dying. I was like, I’m in pain, I knew I was in pain. The day before, let me tell you, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t walk. At the airport, the walk was so long, we had to get a wheelchair for me because I was not able to walk for too long. It was really bad.”
Melo noted that she went into the bout understanding the risks, which her fellow wrestlers recognized.
“It was getting better. The doctors helped me a little bit. The day of the match, in the morning, they were helping me with a massage and stuff. So I was able to do the match, bur after the match, I knew it would suck because I was already in pain,” Melo continued. “All the girls and everybody was so nice, and they were helping me because they saw in my face. I’m always super excited, I was excited, but you could tell that I was in pain. I’m trying to kind of hide it and let people get worried about me. I’m like, ‘No, I’ll be fine,’ but people know.”
This has resulted in Melo being put on the shelf for now, as the Brazilian star is currently not cleared to compete.
“Then after the match, I checked everything. I went to a couple different doctors and our doctor in AEW. So I’m not cleared for now, but I will be really soon,” Melo said. “I’m good, don’t worry. I want to be cleared, but the doctor trying to hold me [back] a little bit to make sure I’m 100%. They told me I will be cleared in the next couple weeks, so I’ll be fine.”
