Tony Nese Discusses Wrestling With No ACL, Hiding Bicep Tear From WWE

Tony Nese is the “Premier Athlete” and he’s proven that throughout his career, wrestling a good chunk of his career with no ACL in his left knee. 

Nese appeared on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast discussing his career when injury talk popped up. Dreamer has had his share of injuries throughout his career, but for Nese, he’s been mum on everything he’s been through in terms of major injuries. 

“I do have tears myself,” said Nese. “I have a torn bicep on my left arm. That was an accident. I popped my hip when I was up top, then I popped my elbow and hyperextended my arm, and it snaped my bicep. I wrestled two days later on TV. I just got signed at the time and I was really scared to tell them that I tore my bicep. So, I just hid it and wrestled on it. I’m sure that’ll be all over the internet. They know already, they didn’t care. As soon as it happened, I looked at my wife and was like, ‘I think my career is over. I think WWE is going to release me.’ Then, I started going through denial like, ‘I think I just hyperextended it, it’ll be fine.’ It was so swollen, you couldn’t tell. Then, as the swelling went down, I realized it was torn. At that time, luckily, the pain was gone and I didn’t even bruise from it. It was just snapped and that was it and I moved on from it.”

Continuing on, Nese revealed that he’s been wrestling without an ACL for years. 

“Years before I started doing House of Hardcore, I tore my ACL in my left knee. I’ve been living without it in my left knee since then. It was at a PWG show. I was doing a dive and went right over my opponent. Landed right on my leg and it popped out to the side. I took two weeks off and was right back in the gym. I was on my way to go to Japan for Dragon Gate. It was a week before and the swelling in my knee wasn’t going down. I went to a surgeon to see if he would drain it for me. He wanted to do an MRI and tells me everything. It was a fully torn ACL, a partially torn PCL, MCL, and both meniscus torn. He was like, ‘we should do surgery tomorrow, you shouldn’t even be walking.’ That morning, before I went to the doctor, I was doing box jumps and I thought I would be alright. I just wrapped it up and went to Japan,” he said. 

Nese did a Japan tour for Dragon Gate beginning in October 25, 2013 after competing at a PWG event on October 19, 2013. 

Elsewhere during the interview, Nese revealed Vince McMahon’s reaction to his match at WrestleMania 35. You can find Nese’s full comments by clicking here. 

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