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On April 23, 2017, Sean Burke, also known as Flex Rumblecrunch of the Devastation Corporation in CHIKARA and one half of The Gatekeepers in EVOLVE, posted on social media that "cumulative injuries" were forcing him to walk away from professional wrestling. This week on the NAI Network, the Wrestling Podcast About Nothing with "The Kingpin" Brian Milonas and Mike Crockett spoke to Mr. Burke to get insight on his injuries and his career as a whole. Here are some highlights:
On his "cumulative injuries": "I kind of purposely left that a little bit vague 'cause, I don't know, I guess there's kind of a stigma about concussions and I didn't really want to become known as a concussion guy, but it indeed was concussions. Over the last couple of years I've had a few, and I've ended up in the hospital twice on them. Most recently, WrestleMania weekend for EVOLVE down in Florida, I got kicked on the top of the head catching a dive and ... I lost my vision. Everything was kind of blurry for about 20-30 minutes. I'd be talking to you, I know there was a person there but I wouldn't be able to make out who you were in front of me. So they brought me to the hospital and everything. By the time I got to the hospital everything was fine, but in talking to doctors in the next couple of weeks afterward, they kind of strongly advised that it might be time for me to walk away."
On making the call to stop wrestling: "Kind of a hard decision given that I'm fine right now. There's really nothing wrong with me, but it was more risk of future stuff and there's so little known about it. I think the biggest concern I have is certainly, you know, I just had my first child.... The reality is, who knows? In six months, they might come back and say, 'Hey, actually, you know what? We've done more research and maybe you're not at any risk.' That's what's really kind of frustrating."
On Mike Quackenbush and CHIKARA: "He's meticulous about everything that he does - to an extent that sometimes I actually feel that he can get in his own way at times - but at the same time, extremely creative. The whole product is very much a niche thing. I think that's quite obvious and it's not necessarily probably for everybody.... It's definitely got its place, but I'd be lying if I said it was what I always wanted to be doing. But at the same time, I do think it opened some doors for me, so I'll always be grateful for that part of it."
On getting into EVOLVE: "[My Devastation Corporation partner Blaster McMassive and I] went to one of Gabe [Sapolsky]'s EVOLVE tryouts and had a match with each other, which I actually thought was horrible.... [Drew] Gulak told us he really, really liked it, and I guess Gabe did as well. So an opportunity came up about two months later - we got an email from Gabe saying, 'Hey, I need a tag team down in Maryland, can you guys come down?' ... We just kept showing up and helping out.... My career ended up being seven years, so probably about six years at that point, and I was kind of back to setting up chairs and stuff, which was a little bit of a pride hit in a sense, but it kind of showed Gabe that we really wanted it and then he had an opportunity come up where he had an idea for us and we were fresh in his mind 'cause we were always there ... and that became The Gatekeepers."
Hear more thoughts from Sean "Flex Rumblecrunch" Burke on his decision to call it quits, plus stories about doing celebrity boxing, the "Tennessee two-step" rib, wrestling one of his heroes Kevin Nash, and much more on CHIKARA and EVOLVE on the May 1, 2017 edition of the Wrestling Podcast About Nothing on the NAI Network.
The Wrestling Podcast About Nothing, hosted by 2017 Ring Of Honor Top Prospect Tournament participant "The Kingpin" Brian Milonas & pro wrestling referee Mike Crockett, releases two episodes a week - one on the New Age Insiders' NAI Network and one on their own feed for BDARadio.com. Please subscribe to both these feeds by searching WPAN on your favorite podcast platform.
