Mickie Knuckles has finally explained what happened during the flaming casket stunt that landed her in a hospital burn unit, and the biggest takeaway from her story is simple: she says she was given direct assurances the fire would go out — and those assurances were wrong.
Speaking on Jasmin St. Claire’s Off the Rails podcast, Knuckles said she was originally supposed to wrestle JJ Escobar before plans changed. That eventually led to her being placed in a match with Kamikazi, where a flaming casket spot was proposed. Knuckles made it clear from the start that fire was not something she had much experience with, and she said she openly voiced that concern before agreeing to anything.
“Then Kamicazi’s like, ‘I want to do this thing where I’m in the casket. You set off fire.’ And I went, ‘All right, I have questions.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know fire, and you all are a stunt group. Let me ask you some questions.’”
She said she asked what she believed were the right questions and even told those involved that she was not comfortable with the spot. Knuckles said she still went along with the plan because she was reassured it would be safe.
“And I asked what I thought were all the right questions. I even told him I wasn’t really comfortable with it. But I’ve never, you know, this I come from a generation we don’t tell people no about spots. That’s a f*ing mentality and I’m friends with Necro, MASADA and SHLAK. We just don’t do that.”
“So I was like, all right. Well, if you’re sure. The famous last words every single time I’ve gotten hurt has always been, ‘Just trust me.’”
The situation became even more serious when JJ told Knuckles he might get involved at the end and throw her onto the flaming setup. Knuckles said that immediately led to more questions about what exactly would happen when she landed.
“Then next thing you know JJ comes up. He goes, ‘Hey, I might do something at the end and just like pick you up and throw you into, into onto the thing.’ And I went, ‘All right, I got some more questions.’ I was like, ‘Is you sure this is the right stuff?’ He said, ‘Yes.’”
Knuckles said she then asked the most important question of all: what was the fire actually going to do when she hit it? According to Knuckles, she was told the flames would go out. That promise is what Knuckles now says was completely false.
“I said, ‘So, what am I expecting when it land?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, it’ll go out.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay.’ He’s like, ‘It’ll be hot, but it’ll go out.’ And I was like, ‘But you’re positive.’ He said, ‘Yes, I promise. I swear, Mickey. I swear to God.’”
“They f*ing lie, Jasmin. They lied straight to my face.”
Once she was thrown into the fire, Knuckles said she tried to pull herself up using her right side. Instead, her shoulder came out of socket and she dropped back into the flames.
“I went into that fire and I tried to pull up with my, because I’m predominantly right-handed, you know, the shoulder. That’s what I’ve been taking the BPC 157, TB500 for was for the shoulder. And I went to go pull it up and at the angle I felt it just completely rip out of socket and I went right back down to the fire.”
Knuckles credited a man named Steven with getting her out by grabbing her ankle and pulling while she fought to sit up and escape. She said she was trying not to breathe while trapped because she feared burning her esophagus.
“So, if it wasn’t for the one guy, Steven, grabbing me by the ankle and me sitting up as hard as I could as he’s yanking me out of the pits of fire, like the doctor even told me if they would have set off that fire extinguisher while I was in there, that would have killed me because it would have sucked the rest of the air.”
“I was already not trying to breathe because I wasn’t trying to breathe in the flames. I didn’t want to get my esophagus burned, you know? That’s like one of the worst things you could do. So, I’m trying to like, I’m in panic mode, but I’m trying to think clearly of how to get the f** out of this box.”*
Knuckles also made it clear that she had no role in building the casket, choosing the fuel or setting up how the fire spot would work. The end result was exactly as bad as it looked.
“I didn’t build it. I didn’t say it. I didn’t call it. I didn’t buy the stuff. I just trusted people because I am a trusting person, unfortunately.”
“And yeah, I went into the fire, got pulled out of the fire, and suffered second and third degree burns.”
The incident also appears to have changed Knuckles’ entire mindset about accepting dangerous spots. After 24 years in wrestling, she said she is finally realizing that she can say no.
“I’ve come to a point in my career after 24 years where I’m like maybe I should say no. I don’t have to do it now. I’ve done so many things and why would I have to do that? So I’m learning. I’m learning. A little late to the party. Nobody said I was smart, but if you’re going to be dumb, you got to be tough.”
Knuckles also explained that the group had used oil-based charcoal lighter fluid, which she said meant throwing water on the fire could have made things even worse.
“They bought oil-based charcoal lighter fluid. So, everybody’s screaming, ‘Oh, they should have had water on standby.’ That’s the worst thing you could do with anything oil-based. I don’t know if anybody remembers middle school science class, but oil and water do not mix. As a matter of fact, the water will push the oil. So, that thing would have spread even further and probably caught people on fire. I’m happy they didn’t use water.”
Ringside News previously covered Knuckles being admitted to a hospital burn unit after the wrestling match went horribly wrong, including the GoFundMe that was launched after her injuries forced her to cancel bookings and lose income.
Knuckles later drove from Virginia back home to Louisville and tried to keep going before realizing her burns needed serious medical attention. After speaking with a nurse friend, she said she matched seven of the ten warning signs for infection.
“And when he started saying all 10 signs, I checked off seven of the 10 and I went, I might need some help with this. Like, I’m doing well, but I might need some help.”
Before heading to the hospital, she made sure her children were taken care of and said she deliberately covered her burns so they would not see how bad things had gotten.
“So, I tucked my kids into bed that night on Tuesday night. Got all their school supplies ready. Got their lunches ready for the next day. Called their grandparents on their dad’s side. Was like, I don’t know how long they’re going to hold me for, but I need to make arrangements, this, that, the other.”
When she finally arrived at the hospital, Knuckles recalled explaining the entire situation to medical staff in very blunt terms. Knuckles said there was a moment inside the fire when she genuinely thought that was it.
“A grown ass man picked me up over top of his head, manhandled me, by the way, which was the most confusing 20 seconds of my life because I was a little turned on, threw me into a casket that was on fire, to which then I felt like I was going to die.”
“That was the moment I was like, ‘You know what? This might be the end of Mickie Knuckles. This is the end of the saga.’”
This was not just a dangerous spot that went wrong. According to Knuckles, she specifically raised concerns, asked if the fire would go out and was repeatedly assured that it would. She trusted those assurances, ended up trapped in flames and walked away with second- and third-degree burns.
What do you make of Mickie Knuckles saying she was promised the fire would go out and that she was “lied straight to my face”? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
