The 2005 Royal Rumble match came down to Batista and John Cena. After they both hit the floor at the same time, Vince McMahon came down to the ring to settle things. In one of the most infamous moments in WWE history, Vince tore both of his quads while getting into the ring.
During his live tour with Inside The Ropes, Edge shared his perspective of what happened that night.
Here is what Edge said (h/t to Fightful for the quote below):
“Royal Rumble right? This infamous Royal Rumble. Now everyone remembers that John Cena and Batista were in there last right? And everyone remembers that they went out at the same time and it’s like, ‘Uh-oh’. What you might not remember is I was the third last competitor in there. So, I get eliminated. I’m starting to get up and go down the ramp and I see them both land and I went, ‘Oh sh*t. This is going to be interesting.’ Here’s what is crazy; they hit simultaneously — like you can not map that out any better. I’m still walking to the back and I just see that pompadour come power walking. Vince has a power-walk anyway but this thing was next level power walk. This was like a Thanos power walk — like eating worlds and I just went, ‘Oh no. Oh good Lord’. Now, Vince is not the most athletic man in the world. He’s really kind of like a newborn Colt on ice. You can just tell. He’s strong, he can lift weights, but I wouldn’t put him in a basketball game you know? So, I get through the curtain and all I see is [Vince McMahon] go to dive in, go to stand up and just [fall]. I go, ‘This is odd’. Those guys are standing in the ring now he’s sitting there. Go to get up, [he falls again]. He tore both quads”
On what happened backstage after it happened:
“Yeah. Nobody knew at that time. I just remember like, ‘Oh man, I am getting out of dodge. I am going back to that dressing room’ and then we were told, ‘Don’t go in the hallway’. They kept the hallways clear so that Vince could somehow manage to walk because he refused help with two torn f*cking quads, so that he could get in his car — his limo to take him to a hospital [to] get his torn quads fixed. That was a surreal little moment.”
Vince is truly one-of-a-kind.
On a related note, check out more funny Vince McMahon stories here.