Je’Von Evans is finally clearing up exactly what happened during the strange commercial-break stoppage of his match against El Grande Americano.
The match, which took place during the January 19 episode of Raw in Belfast, ended abruptly during a commercial break, with Evans being helped out of the ring by the time the broadcast returned.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Evans finally walked through what happened behind the scenes. According to Evans, he and Americano accidentally butted heads shortly before the break.
He briefly saw stars, but his instinct, shaped by years on the independent scene, was simply to keep wrestling unless he genuinely couldn’t continue. So that’s exactly what he did, working through the rest of the segment until Raw cut to commercial.
Basically, I think before we went to commercial, me and Grande butt heads, right? And for, like, a couple seconds I was, like, seeing stars or whatever. But, like, I’m from the indie scene, bro. Like, you get hurt, bro, you keep going. You know what I mean? Unless you can’t go no more, you know? So, we butt heads and I was kind of stunned for a little minute, but then I continued and then we went to break.
Once the cameras were off, though, Evans made the decision that changed everything: he told the referee what had happened. He tried to frame it as a non-issue, insisting he was seeing stars but felt fine.
The referee wasn’t taking any chances once a possible head injury was mentioned, and asked whether medical needed to be called. Evans pushed back, given how early he was into his main roster run, but the referee made the call regardless once it became a head injury situation.
So I went to the ref. I’m like, ‘Hey, look, I’m seeing stars — but I was seeing stars — but I’m good. I’m going good.’ She’s like, ‘What?’ And then I’m like, ‘I was seeing stars, but I’m okay.’ She said, ‘Do we need to call medical?’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, we don’t. We don’t. I just got here, dude. Like, I’m okay.’
Medical staff came out during the break to evaluate him. Evans kept insisting he was okay, but between the head collision and his own admission about seeing stars, WWE made the decision to stop the match.
And then she’s like, ‘No, no, we gotta call medical because it’s a head injury.’ So we got medical and then they was asking me questions. I was like, ‘I promise I’m okay.’ But because we hit heads and because I was seeing stars, yeah, we had to call it.
The explanation clears up lingering questions from that night. At the time, Bryan Alvarez had reported that Evans and Americano mistimed a spot and collided heads, with Evans continuing to wrestle afterward — fueling speculation that someone backstage had spotted something during the break and ordered the stoppage. Evans’ account confirms it was actually his own conversation with the referee that triggered the call.
