Chelsea Green is opening up about just how determined she was to get back in the ring after suffering a broken orbital bone during an August 7 SmackDown tag match against Fatal Influence. The injury came only weeks after she’d won the WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Green said she knew something was seriously wrong the moment it happened, describing an intense feeling of heat rushing through her face and calling it the most painful injury of her career to date.
Chelsea Green’s Most Painful Injury
In the moment, her mind raced through everything her title win and the years leading up to it meant, along with real worry about what the injury would mean for her championship reign.
Immediately, it happened. I looked at the ref, and people have spotted this. I looked at the ref. I said, ‘My face is broken’, and that was it. I knew. I always know. Wrestlers are very in tune with our body. Athletes are very in tune. You know immediately when something’s wrong, even if it’s like a minor little thing.
But I’ve had quite a few things broken. I did think it was my cheek. I didn’t think it was my orbital bone. I thought I had cracked my cheek because I’ve had that before with a broken nose.
But I heard kind of a crack, and then I heard a crack, and then I felt a whoosh of heat. Whenever you break something, it’s just your adrenaline takes over, especially in front of a live audience. I should say, when you have 10 to 20,000 people watching you, usually you don’t feel the pain; you feel a big rush of heat. But this was my most painful injury to date, and that should tell you something,” she said.
That concern proved warranted, and on the August 14 episode of SmackDown, Green was given a 30-day window to defend the title or be stripped of it. But rather than wait passively through recovery, Green said she pushed hard for answers immediately, refusing to leave the emergency room until doctors gave her some sense of a realistic timeline to return.
If you don’t take care of yourself, and you don’t push to get answers medically, you could be out for as long as you want to be out for. You could be out for ages, just rehabbing. We’ve got so many things wrong with us, all of us do. So I just always want to make sure I get ahead of it. ‘No, no, no. Give me a date now. If I can beat the date, great.’ [It’s] rare, but if I can beat the date, great.
Severity Of The Injury
She explained that she deliberately sought out a specific surgeon in Orlando and insisted on getting written medical clearance with an actual date attached, understanding that WWE would need to be especially cautious given the location and severity of the injury.
It was a rough few days, and then I found a surgeon in Orlando. I went to him, and then I doubled down and made sure I had a written note that said when I could come back, because WWE, they are so careful. They have to be.
This is my eyeball, and if I break it anymore, if I break my orbital bone anymore, that means my eyeball drops down an inch. That’s disgusting. It means a plate in my eye. That’s a big deal. So they are always going to be more cautious and careful with us, and make sure that they’re taking care and that we’re 100%.
Green did return to in-ring action in a tag match on the August 28 SmackDown, teaming with Tiffany Stratton against Nia Jax and Lash Legend, but she has not yet defended her Women’s Championship since the injury.
