Beer City Bruiser entertained pro wrestling fans from 2015 until 2021 as part of the Ring of Honor roster. During his time with the promotion, he created memorable tag teams with Silas Young and Brian Milonas, who became known as The Bouncers. The big man’s ROH run came after more than a decade on the independent scene, where he worked a very stiff and physical style.
In a Haus of Wrestling exclusive interview, Bruiser revealed that just as he was signing his first ROH contract, he was told by doctors that he was going to need hip replacement surgery. At that time, he was told he could get around on his hip as it was for maybe five more years, but nearly ten years and hundreds of matches later, he just recently had it taken care of.
“I went in for the imaging for the surgery, and the x-ray tech, she goes, ‘Oh, are you a paratrooper?’ I said, ‘No, no,'” he recalled. “She goes, ‘Oh, have you served in the army for like a long time?’ I said, ‘No, ma’am.’ She goes, ‘Are you a firefighter?’ I say, ‘No, no. I’m a professional wrestler.’ She goes, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She goes, ‘This is the worst hip I’ve ever seen for someone your age that isn’t a paratrooper.’ She compared it to a paratrooper jumping out of a plane for 15 years and then landing.”
Following his intake with the nurse, Bruiser was prepped for the surgery. Initially, the surgeon told him the procedure would take about an hour; however, due to the extensive damage to his hip that they discovered after cutting him open, it wound up taking about double that amount of time before everything was said and done.
“The best way to describe it is everything in my right hip was completely dead. The bone, the labrum was gone, the cartilage was gone. My femoral head was actually being absorbed into my pelvis bone,” he described. “The doctor had said I had bone spurs on the head of the femoral, which is normal for any type of breaks or stuff.
“When he went in there, the reason it took the extra hour is because I had two particular bone spurs that were the size of his fist that were encapsulating the femoral head, and he had to take a chisel and chisel them out because they couldn’t move my leg to get the fake hip in. And he came out and told my wife, ‘I’m surprised the way that hip was when we went in there; I’m surprised he walked in here this morning.'”
Bruiser is now about two weeks removed from his surgery, and he says he is feeling much better. He describes the pain as rehab pain, which is better than the constant pain he was incurring walking around with his untreated hip. Based on what his doctors are telling him, it will take about three to six months for him to recover from the surgery, and after about a year, it will be “completely a part of my body.”
Once he is fully healed, the question of continuing his in-ring career can fully be addressed. As of now, the doctors are telling him it is a possibility but not a guarantee. However, Bruiser is more than content serving in a backstage role for the time being and possibly permanently. He tells me that he is working as a trainer and producer for AML in North Carolina and has aspirations of doing more work like that in the future.
My full conversation with Beer City Bruiser will be released this coming Tuesday as part of the latest Haus of Wrestling episode. It will also feature Stephanie Chase joining to talk about the top pro wrestling news of the day and will be released in video form at Noon EST on Premier Streaming Network. It will be available on the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed later in the afternoon.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and link back to this article