Randy Orton shoved a ring crew member out of his way during his brawl with Cody Rhodes on SmackDown, sending him face-first to the floor in the process. The landing looked nasty enough to make the commentary team yell out in shock, and now we know the person who took it wasn’t just some random crew member.
Following the August 14 episode of SmackDown, WWE referee Jason Ayers took to Instagram and revealed who was working ringside when Orton suddenly shoved him out of the way. It was independent wrestler Rhys Maddox Ayers. Ayers posted a photo showing Rhys working with the ring crew shortly before his unfortunate encounter with The Viper and had some fun with what was about to happen.
“Moments before disaster with @randyorton. @rhysmaddox2gk paying his dues, pulling cables better than @brendan.shep.”
Moments before disaster” ended up being pretty accurate. Rhys was pulling cables at ringside when Orton and Cody’s fight came charging in his direction. Orton shoved him out of the way, and Rhys went forward before landing flat on his face. Even the SmackDown commentary team immediately reacted to how rough it looked: “Oh man! What is he doing?”
Rhys isn’t exactly unfamiliar with taking bumps either. He has competed across the independent wrestling scene for promotions including ROW, PWK, DREAMWAVE and CCW. He has even appeared in a dark match connected to AEW Dynamite.
The whole thing happened after Orton made sure Cody Rhodes’ scheduled main event against Sami Zayn never even started. Orton attacked Cody during Zayn’s entrance, and the two ended up fighting around ringside and through the crowd before SmackDown went off the air with officials trying to separate them.
Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, one member of the ring crew ended up taking one of the nastiest-looking falls of the entire segment. He showed up to SmackDown to pull cables. He ended up taking a bump courtesy of Randy Orton on WWE television. That’s one way to pay your dues.
What do you make of the reveal behind the ring crew member Randy Orton shoved on SmackDown? Did you realize he was an independent wrestler when it happened? Let us know in the comments below.
