Ortiz Speaks About His Return To AEW TV, Explains Why He Feels Torn Pec Injury Was One Of The Best Things That’s Ever Happened To Him

A detailed response from Ortiz about why he feels the injury was great for him.

After not being on television since January 2024, Ortiz returned to AEW programming in late December 2025 to reunite with Eddie Kingston.

After recovering from his torn pec injury, Ortiz began working independent dates and did coaching work for AEW. He appeared on AEW Unrestricted and spoke about being back on television.

“Oh man, really good. It was a long journey. Almost two years since I was on television. Yeah, I felt every minute of that. It feels really good because I’ve been working really hard during that time off, and I’m just excited to be able to show everyone and show the payoff and just the best feeling in the world. I love wrestling more than anything. Other than my son and my family, wrestling is my number one.”

He detailed how the torn pec injury happened and opened up about how he feels it made him a better person.

“The end of January 2024. I forget the exact date. 20-something. But yeah, it was on a Collision taping. It was against Bryan (Danielson) and Claudio (Castagnoli) — me and Eddie (Kingston) and it was just from a clothesline. It’s just one of those freak accidents. It’s a move I’ve done thousands and thousands of times, but it was just wrong angle and my muscles were probably tight at the time and you know, it was an unfortunate thing that happened but honestly one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, because mentally, I’m in a better place now. 

I had to switch perspectives. When I initially got injured, I was very sad. I was down and out. Just got broken up with (Mike) Santana at the time; was trying to find myself, was finally getting to do it with Eddie again and it just came very abruptly. It was like, ‘I finally got my shot. Yes, let’s do this,’ and then bam, injury happened. So it was just a very low moment. My confidence, everything, I just — all self-doubt kind of kicks in, and then I felt that for a while and then you could do one or two things: You could either continue down that path or you could do something about it, and I just had to change my perspective and my goals. Just going through that low moment, I was able to come out of it a different person and I like who I am now.”

Ortiz and Kingston scored a victory over Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) on the Maximum Carnage edition of AEW Collision.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit AEW Unrestricted with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.