In 2015, Tyson Kidd - a.k.a. TJ Wilson - faced Samoa Joe during a non-televised dark match that took place before RAW. The match ended when Joe hit his patented "Muscle Buster" finisher, but Kidd was badly hurt.
Suffering a spinal cord injuring that only 5% of people typically survive, Kidd had 16 staples, four screws, and a rod inserted in his neck. It was the end of his professional wrestling career, and he's since become a backstage producer for WWE.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Joe reflected on the incident. "To this day that probably remains the largest regret in my career that happened," he admitted. "But that doesn’t change things for Tyson. Doesn’t change things for a guy who is probably one of the most passionate people in the world of professional wrestling."
"For a guy who has an amazing mind for it. WWE is fortunate to have him because even though he’s not in a physical role within the company, the finishes, his ability to put the other matches and be a producer and agent are unparalleled," he added.
Asked whether he believes he did anything wrong, Joe said, "No, not at all. No, didn’t feel any different. It’s just when I turned around and went for the pin and got back up, the only thing that even hinted that there’s something wrong is when Cesaro looked back up at me. I know when Cesaro is concerned and then I was like, 'Oh my God, I hope everything is okay.'"
"Then we got in the back and he went to hospital and everything got checked out. But I mean, the whole circumstances regarding that and everything, it just makes me sick to this day that guy is not out there being the Tyson Kidd that I know that he is."
"He’s an amazing human being," he continued. "He has a great understanding of a greater picture, and when you talk about guys who who are great finish men, guys who can produce, he’s going to be heralded as one of the dudes there if he isn’t already."
Joe still used the Muscle Buster in the years that followed but admitted that, initially, he didn't want to. "It was kind of like when I got back into things in NXT...in NXT I used it. When I got to the main roster I didn’t, but it was mainly I tried to avoid doing it a bunch or making it a thing," he explained. "If he’s having a bad day, he looks over and he sees that. I didn’t want to replay the car crash in front of somebody."
"So, I did my best to distance myself from it as much as possible," he recalled. "But that’s why just because this guy’s my co-worker, this guy I respect and I care about. I’m not trying to make him have a sh*tty day over it."
Samoa Joe is now part of AEW, and as noted, Kidd continues to work backstage in WWE (where his wife, Natalya, serves as an active wrestler). It's a great shame his in-ring career ended when it did as he had more to give, but we know Kidd has also contributed a great deal as a producer.
You can hear more from Joe in the player below.