Beth Phoenix Recalls A Slap Breaking Her Jaw During Her Singles Debut On WWE Raw

Beth Phoenix recounted the story of breaking her jaw during her singles debut on Monday Night Raw.

The Hall of Famer is the focus of the next episode of WWE Icons, and in a sneak peek released online, she shared that the injury happened because of a slap during her match with Victoria. At first, Phoenix thought she had just lost a tooth, but it wasn’t until she saw others recoil at the sight of her mouth that she realized that it was probably much worse. She said the following:

“I’m finally going to have my debut as a singles wrestler, and I’m facing Victoria, and we had something planned where I was supposed to slap and then slap back. When Victoria hit me, I had had my mouth open ever so slightly. I knew something was wrong. I stuck my tongue between my teeth and I was like ‘Oh there’s a gap there.’ So I thought something had happened and I’d lost a tooth. Trish [Stratus] took one look at me saw that I had a little bit of blood on my mouth, she’s just telling me ‘smile, look up, it’ll be okay.’ So Trish walks me up to the ramp and then they hustled me into medical. I’m sitting there and I’m kinda like ‘guys, I just lost a tooth, I’m sure it’s okay. I’m sitting on the thing and then they opened my mouth like this and I saw everyone in the room recoil [jumps back] like that and that’s when I knew it was probably bad.”

Quickly rushed to the hospital, Phoenix was told that she had shattered her jaw and that she needed to have full plastic surgery to put everything back into place. Understandably in shock, she says she didn’t understand why after all of her hard years of work everything was going to end like this. Here’s what she said:

“They take me to the hospital. I get x-rayed. They said your jaw is shattered, dislocated, displaced. One mandible’s up, one’s down. You have to have full plastic surgery to put everything back. You have to have steel plates in your face and screws, and it was a lot to take in. I just cried. I didn’t know what else to do. I just processed everything. I was like ‘I just had a singles match on Monday Night Raw and it’s over. Hold it. I just didn’t understand why after so many years, things were going to end like this and set me back.” 

Beth suffered her injury on June 5, 2006, but after rehabbing and working her way back into fighting condition was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling rather than back to Raw. Forced to start over, Phoenix made her return to Raw on July 9, 2007, over two years after her singles debut. 

Phoenix would go on to win the WWE Women’s Championship three times, and the Divas Championship once. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017. She currently serves as a member of the NXT commentary team.

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