Australia’s WWE star Bronson Reed talks injuries, Paul Heyman and wrestling Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel

Australia’s Bronson Reed knows his job as a WWE superstar is to create moments that fans will always remember. But after leaping off the top of a cage while attempting his signature “Tsunami” move in November, he suffered an injury that he’ll never forget.

Standing on top of the cage several metres from the ground, the 145kg Reed prepared to jump belly first onto his opponent. He took a deep breath and visualised something spectacular, but landed horribly and destroyed the talus bone in his ankle.

The South Australian had spent years working his way up and had just been added to one of the WWE’s biggest storylines. Now he needed major surgery, and six months in rehab with screws holding his ankle together and bone marrow from his hip used to heal his foot.

“I feel like we’re sort of in that business where we have to take those risks,” Reed told The West Australian.

“That’s sort of what we do. But it’s calculated risks. I was not scared jumping off the top of that cage. I didn’t expect what was going to happen. But in a heartbeat, I’d do again. I just think I could nail it again and not hurt myself, hopefully.

“In the moment, I had known that I had injured myself but I didn’t know to what severity. I actually stood up, walked out and went backstage. So, the doctors backstage didn’t think I had broken anything because I was walking around.

“Then about an hour later, the pain set in, and I couldn’t stand up. And I was like, okay, something, something’s gone wrong here.

“My leg was not allowed to be weight bearing for two-and-a-half months. I had to build up all the muscles in my leg again. I had to learn how to walk again on my right leg, and then run, and then jump, and then everything that we do in the ring as well.

“So in the back of my mind, it was a little scary wondering ‘will I be able to get back to where I was or exceed where I was?’ Thankfully, I put in the hard work rehabbing, and now I’m better than ever.”

Reed’s body isn’t the only thing that’s better than ever. He’s become one of the biggest names in the industry and his match at Crown Jewel in front of Perth wrestling fans will be against a man who held the Undisputed WWE Championship for nearly four years. - Roman Reigns.

That reward is even sweeter given Reed remained in the US when WWE travelled to Perth last year to be at the birth of his daughter. This will be his first time performing for WWE in Australia.

You have to earn the chance to be in the same ring as Roman Reigns. That’s a big deal.

You also have to earn the right to be paired with Paul Heyman as your in-ring manager. That happened to Reed earlier this year. Becoming a “Paul Heyman guy” means you enter a new WWE stratosphere because his men have been involved in WrestleMania’s main event in seven of the last eight years.

Heyman’s managerial role might be a storyline, but his real-life impact is unrivalled.

“He is that wealth of knowledge. His whole life is what we do. It’s WWE and he’s been like that since he started in the business,” Reed said.

“He’s been in the business for over four decades now. So he’s seen everything, he knows everything, and he’s always given me different stories of what he’s done, or wrestlers in the past have done. The biggest thing I’ve taken away from him is not so much one lesson that he’s taught me. It’s just confidence. He’s put a lot of confidence in what I do and believing in myself.

“If you look at the people that he’s managed over his career, they are all main eventers. They are all World Champions. So I take that very seriously. I I want to make sure I live up to that hype as well.”

The hype surrounding Reed’s match against Reigns is already huge. They faced off his Paris during August and the night finished with Reed leaping from the top rope to land multiple Tsunamis on his opponent while he was strapped to a stretcher. It was brilliant drama.

Now they’ve been scheduled for a no-rules Australian Street Fight, which opens the door for Reed to really use his imagination.

“Maybe I’ll hit him for six with the old cricket bat,” he said.

“The Australian street fight - I think the difference is, we do it a little bit harder down here. Even with our sports, we don’t wear protective gear or anything like that. So Roman has to be ready to take it up that next notch compared to a normal street fight.”

* WWE is in Perth for Smackdown, Crown Jewel and Raw. Tickets are available at Ticketek and the shows will be broadcast on Netflix around the world and on ESPN into the US.