During the January 27 edition of RAW, The Judgement Day's JD McDonagh teamed up with Dominik Mysterio to battle The War Raiders for the World Tag Team Championships.
It was a competitive bout, but when McDonagh hit a backflip from the second rope to ringside, it looked like his head collided with the announce table. The gnarly spot quickly went viral on social media and there were reports that, after the match, McDonagh immediately collapsed backstage.
We've since learned that he suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung; McDonagh has received widespread praise for continuing the match and earned the respect of fans for his fortitude.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, The Judgement Day member shared an update on how he's doing. "Time heals all. I wasn’t like this the first week or two after but I’m feeling a lot better now. [I’m feeling] pretty good," he confirmed. "My lungs are good. My ribs are good. I’m just kind of waiting for the bones to knit back together before they clear me."
Reflecting on the bump, McDonagh said, "I needed to be on that side of the ring for something that was going to come up later on. So I said, I’ll just do it on the announce table side. I’ve done it on that side before, but whatever happened on this one, I just was maybe a foot too far forward or a foot too far back and wiped out."
"In that moment I was just thinking, when’s the next breath gonna come? I knew that I didn’t hit my head that hard, because I knew I’d missed a spot in the match and I knew what was coming up next ... Everything goes really slow in moments like that. I wasn’t thinking I gotta get through this match. It was just okay, what’s next? Can I do that? Let’s do it."
"I didn’t want to leave the guys, especially because it was one of the first few weeks that we were on Netflix. Everyone’s excited about it, huge audience watching you for the Tag Team Titles, War Raiders’ first defense, yeah, I didn’t want to [quit]. If I can stand up and keep participating, then I’m gonna," he added.
As for what really happened when he got backstage, McDonagh confirmed he didn't collapse in Gorilla but did immediately lay down on the other side of the curtain. "They caught a photo of my feet sticking out into the entrance way they said JD has just collapsed backstage," he recalled. "But I just had to lie down and catch my breath. It wasn’t a full collapse.”
As for how long it will be before we see McDonagh back in a WWE ring, he revealed that he's aiming to stop back into the ring "within a month." Understandably, that's going to hinge on whether the company's doctors will clear him. WrestleMania is now a real possibility.
Check out the full interview with McDonagh in the player below.