When Kyle O’Reilly arrived in AEW at the end of 2021, he had already had a pretty great career between stints in Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and WWE. But in the blink of an eye, it all seemed to vanish after O’Reilly suffered a neck injury in June 2022 during a match against Jon Moxley. The injury would ultimately force having neck fusion surgery, and it would be almost two years before O’Reilly finally returned to wrestling at Revolution 2024, with many wondering if he could recapture his previous form.
A year and a half later, O’Reilly seemingly has the most momentum he’s ever had in his AEW career. In the last month, he’s picked up a DQ win over Moxley, wrestled Moxley to a double countout in a rematch, and secured a spot against Moxley and the Death Riders in the upcoming men’s Blood & Guts match. Given all that, it’s hard to argue that Moxley isn’t the key component in O’Reilly’s journey back, and while appearing on “AEW Unrestricted,” he explained why his recent battles with Moxley brought him full circle from his injury..
“The last match that I had, before being injured for two years, was with Jon Moxley,” O’Reilly said. “And now my most recent match…it was with Jon Moxley…So yeah, I feel like I actually have kind of reached as close to back to normal as possible. Does that make sense…Because, like, the first few months of getting back…I’ve been wrestling back over a year now again. I think it’s coming up on almost two years since I’ve been back wrestling. And I feel like [I’m] just kind of getting my stride again. And as wrestlers, we’re always pursuing the best version of ourselves, and it’s always going to be a work in progress. But I feel like I’m kind of getting closer to how I felt pre-injury, if that makes any sense.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “AEW Unrestricted” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
