Ben Carter had the biggest night of his wrestling career....and then he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Carter was forced to withdraw from several bookings after a really hot period. Carter opened up to Fightful about his diagnosis in a recent interview.
"I’m currently still in isolation," Carter said on September 26. "I feel absolutely fine. I think it’s funny that some people have been like, “Oh, well, you caught it in AEW.” It’s like, no, they have a strict testing regimen. Y’ain’t wrestling without a negative test. I’ve got it. I don’t know when. At some point after. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones ‘cause I feel fine. I did kinda, I don’t know if it was a placebo effect or anything, but I was not tasting my food as much as I normally did. Now, I’m fine. Now I taste my food perfectly, but I haven’t shown any cough or anything like that. It’s been a pretty easy ride so far. That’s lucky. But, I’ve made sure I’ve made sure I’ve come into contact with absolutely no one."
Capitalizing off the buzz of his AEW matches would have been huge for Carter, but it's on hold for now. One of the matches that got canned was a dream match of his.
"I’m very salty that I don’t get to wrestle Alex Shelley for Black Label [Pro Wrestling]. ‘Cause he’s been such a tremendous help for me since the turn of the year. I’d say Marek Brave and Seth Rollins are my wrestling fathers. He’s like my wrestling uncle. He’s been so helpful and he was like, “One day we’re gonna wrestle.” Then we finally get the opportunity to wrestle and it gets taken away. So, I hope that happens at some point in the future. Can’t do AEW, couldn’t do Warrior [Wrestling] last night. So, that kinda sucked. But, hopefully soon I’ll be back to normal and everything will be fine," Carter told us.
Alex Shelley wasn't just a dream match for Carter. IMPACT Wrestler Kylie Rae was his replacement, and booked against Shelley. She posted a tearful reaction, which eased the situation a little bit for Ben Carter.
"Yeah, I saw that. I was like, “Ah! Yeah!” I don’t believe everything happens for a reason, I just think that things just happen in certain orders. Nothing is meant to happen in my opinion. But, that was pretty cool. I ain’t gonna say it was meant to be, but I’m glad it’s Kylie Rae getting the nod," he said.
Real life.---------------- pic.twitter.com/gApQ9eetwq
— KYLIE RAE (@IamKylieRae) September 25, 2020
You can see our full interview with Ben Carter at the top of the page, and follow him on Twitter at this link.
