Chuck Carroll sent along the following:

I wanted to pass along an interview I did with TK O’Ryan for CBS. He gave me a detailed account of what actually happened the night he violently snapped his shin at the Ring of Honor pay-per-view in Las Vegas. Cameras captured his left foot dangling awkwardly without the support of bone above. To say the injury was brutal would be an understatement.

If there is a silver lining in all of this, he successfully lobbied ProWrestlingTees.com to sell “I Broke TK’s Leg” t-shirts which are hysterical and selling quite well. Despite the notoriety he’s gained, he really doesn’t want to be known for the injury. O’Ryan will be at the Ring of Honor Best in the World pay-per-view this Friday. Here are some excerpts.

Walk me through the injury.

It’s basically been the defining moment of my career, which is bizarre to me. It’s like, I can wrestle too, I don’t just get hurt! I’m usually pretty durable…We were having a great time, and then the show day happens. Everything was going smooth. We got to the arena early and had some nice food. We were energized and ready to go right up to the match. The second our music hit. we got a strong… pretty much booed-right-out-of-Las Vegas reaction. We felt like we were cooking and then in this one instant all of the sudden… For as cool as everything had been for the first 48 hours, the next 48 hours were probably the most miserable hours of my life. It was crazy. It’s hard to explain, because when I bounced off the rope going for the moonsault, the last thing on my mind was that I was going to smash my leg on the guard rail. I was more concerned that I would slip and fall on my butt and look like an idiot.

So what happened in Vegas? Were the guardrails too close?

It’s easy to go back since it didn’t turn out well and say, ‘oh, well the guardrails are too close. You should have done it on the other side.’ Well, no kidding. But if I stuck that move then no one would have said a word about it. People will talk all the time about having the heart and passion and desire for pro wrestling. But when it comes down to doing professional wrestling things, and you’re in that spotlight, and it’s time to do something and make it yours and it doesn’t go right, now you’re the idiot. It’s funny, one way or the other, you’re either a genius or a moron. It’s just a matter of having the guts to go for it and finding out which one you might be.

How’s the rehab going?

The first 10 days after surgery was probably 10 out of 10 pain. Constant throbbing relentless pain. But once that let up I’ve been pretty pain free other than moving around and being uncomfortable. I’m still a bit of away from being able to get back in the ring. For one, the bones aren’t completely healed yet. Secondly, once the bones are healed my left leg is noticeably smaller than my right leg. I would be doing myself, Vinny, Taven, Ring of Honor, anyone in the ring with me a disservice if I was in there before I was able to do what I do at my best quality. There’s only a slight danger that if the bones don’t heal back together properly they’ll have to go back in there. There’s a metal rod and four screws — two by my ankle. If it doesn’t completely heal, they’ll go back in and take out the two screws in my ankle. As I walk it will push the bones back together and force the regrow. That wouldn’t be ideal because that would add a significant amount of return time.

The interview is available in full at this link.