One half of Ring of Honor’s War Machine, Ray Rowe recently took some time to participate in an interview with PWMania.com. Rowe reveals his past, his present and his future in professional wrestling. He opens up about how his near fatal accident created perspective on life and how to always appreciate what you have.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Working in WWE & ROH:
Some of the highest highs were getting to do things that not many people get to do. I worked for WWE a couple of times early in my career and that was definitely one of the highlights early because that was one of my goals when I first started training. Then meeting some of the fantastic people that I’ve met on the independent circuit are really a high for me because I came into contact with people that would definitely be best friends for life for me and spend time with them if not for professional wrestling I guarantee it. Another one is working for and signing a contract with Ring Of Honor. When I started wrestling, people asked me ‘oh do you want to go to WWE?” and my answer was always, “No. I want to go to Ring of Honor”.
His future goals:
My goals were when I started were once to wrestle in WWE, wrestle in Ring of Honor and wrestle in Japan. I have not gotten to go to Japan so, that’s the one goal I had set for myself that I have yet to achieve. I have new goals now but from the 3 goals I had originally set for myself when I started training but, I’ve yet to get to Japan. I’m working on that though. I really really want to try get to Japan in the near future.
His serious motorcycle accident:
I’ve loved motorcycles my whole life and I was riding my motorcycle and a girl was actually texting and driving and she pulled out from a stop sign in front of me and less than fifteen feet in front of me and I was going about fifty miles per hour on a thruway and I t-boned because I didn’t have time to stop and I tried. I smashed on my brakes but you can only do so much with fifteen feet of space. I didn’t even have enough time to try and lay the bike down or any other evasive maneuvers. I was still smashing on the brakes trying to figure out what I was going to do when we made impact. I hit her going about fifty (miles per hour) and went over the handle bars, I shattered my left arm on impact and broke my thumb and I went over the handle bars and I went through her passenger side window with my face, breaking my nose, lacerating my eye, and I almost lost my eye. The paramedics that responded and the emergency room doctors were all in shock as to how I survived. They literally told me they’ve never responded to a motorcycle accident like mine without a body bag. Then the emergency room doctors said I’ll never wrestle again. The first doctor said I’ll never wrestle again. I went to another doctor said I’ll never wrestle again. I went to another doctor and he said maybe eight months to a year. I went through surgery. It was process with two plates and eighteen screws in my arm and very massive intensive rehab, I handled myself and just really killing it in the gym and really pushing myself and then less than almost exactly six months later after the surgery I was back in the ring.
Rowe also talks about who he would like to face off against, his fondness for the suplex and more. You can read the interview in its entirety at this link.