You may have noticed that PTandMe is working with AEW, All Elite Wrestling, to provide physical therapy and athletic training services backstage to their athletes. Our talented physical therapy partners at Ability Rehabilitation have been on-site at their most recent Florida Events (Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen) and we wanted to catch up with some of the team, Jon and Sacsha to see how it went.
Q: What did you think of your first live AEW wrestling event?
Ability – Sacsha (A-S): I was completely impressed by the amount of planning and choreography it takes to wrestle
Ability – Jon (A-J): It was a very unique experience for me; it was my first experience with professional wrestling, not just in sports medicine, but in general. There’s more to pro wrestling than I thought.
Q: Who were you most excited to see backstage?
(A-S): JR!
Q: Which match was your favorite?
(A-J): I thoroughly enjoyed the first match at Fyter Fest. It featured Best Friends, SCU, and Private Party.
Q: What type of injuries did you see?
(A-J): A lot of the injuries were chronic of the back and neck. It was mostly general soreness, tenderness, etc. of those regions. We also had some head injuries including a laceration on the top region of the head that needed 12 staples.
Q: What was most surprising to you about working ringside and backstage with AEW?
(A-S): How caring each wrestler/staff is towards another when an injury occurred.
Q: What advice would you give to wrestlers to prevent injury?
(A-J): Continue to stretch and foam roll routinely in your off-time and prior to workouts to limit the long term, lingering injuries. Also, watch out for barbed wire and chairs.
Q: What’s the biggest difference between working a high school football game and a pro wrestling event?
(A-S): Based on this event I feel that football requires more preventative treatments such as taping, verses wrestling is busier after each fight for post-event treatment.
(A-J): The crowd is much more into the sport than the average crowd of a high school football game, and the athletes were much more appreciative of the services than an average high school football player (probably due to maturity).
Q: Any other comments about your experience?
(A-S): Thank you so much for setting up this amazing opportunity to work with these talented wrestlers!
A huge THANK YOU! goes out to both Ability Rehabilitation’s physical therapists and certified athletic trainers, as well as to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) for letting us take part in their athlete’s well-being backstage. If you are looking for a physical therapist for your team or sports injury we have over 500 locations to choose from in our Find A PT page.
More photos from these events can be found on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages so make sure to like and follow PTandMe!