Trey Miguel talks about his concussion history, Tommy Dreamer on how badly Impact Wrestling wanted to keep The Rascalz

Trey Miguel was interviewed by Tommy Dreamer this week on the “House of Hardcore” podcast. Miguel talked about his rough upbringing, getting into pro wrestling, his run with Impact, concussions and his departure from Impact. The Rascalz are free agents and the belief is that they are WWE-bound.

Here are some highlights from the podcast:

Trey Miguel talked about his upbringing: “When I was a month old, I went into foster care for the first year of my life with my older sister and brother. My mom had a substance abuse problem. It got really ugly in court trying to figure out who was suitable to raise us. I spent my first year with a foster mother and then my dad won custody and my mom was in a lot of trouble for doing a lot of stuff. I was left in a crack house when I was only a few months old. I didn’t meet my biological mother until I was five years old. She was arrested for child endangerment and possession of illegal substances on top of identity theft. She had been writing fraudulent checks under other people’s identities. I was really confused as a kid. I knew my dad was my dad but he would always tell me, ‘I’m your mother and your dad’. You have a mom but she’s not here. I was raised by another woman until the age of six that I thought was my biological mother. One day I got a prison letter from my biological mom and that’s when it was explained to me. I don’t remember how I reacted to it at all. I met her and it was the most awkward feeling in my life because I knew this woman that was my mom. I loved her and I trusted her and then I met this woman who I’ve known about and I’ve always dreamt about and wondered about, but I don’t feel any comfort towards her. I didn’t call her mom. I called her Wendy. We spent Christmas together and then two weeks later she robbed my grandmother and she was back on the streets. I didn’t meet her again until I was seven years old. It was another two or three weeks she was around and then she was gone again. I didn’t meet her again until a week before my 14th birthday. My sister picked up the phone and she was crying and there was crying on the other end of the phone. It was my mom. Her and I always had a rough relationship because I never found comfort in a mother-son relationship. When we would spend time together, it was a lot of hurt and she ridiculed my father for what he did to her to make her leave but he stayed. She stayed clean for a while and then I believe it was October and I just moved down to Dayton, Ohio so I could train with Sami Callihan and the Christs (Jake and Dave). I was getting ready to make my CZW debut. As nervous as I was, it couldn’t have been any more than five minutes, I checked the time on my phone and I had a ton of missed calls from my sister and my aunt. I called my sister and she said my mother relapsed and that was after five years of being completely clean.”

Miguel talked about getting concussions: “That was awful. I remember they told me to look at the hard camera and I was like, ‘where? What?’ I’ve never thrown up that much from being sick. That was awful. There were two of them, like two knockout blows during a match. There was one off of two clotheslines. I hit my head on the cell and I laid there and luckily you (Tommy Dreamer) came out and dumped it on my head. I said, ‘that feels amazing, thank you’ and you said don’t move. The other one was off a short clothesline. My feet don’t even come out from under me. I just bump and bend my knees and hips out. That was the worst feeling in the world. I’ve never had a concussion like that before. I’ve had minor ones, but I was like, this sucks.

Dreamer added: “You came to the back. I’m very cognizant of people being concussed because I’ve had so many. We had you sit in the dark. We brought you a big pail because you just kept on vomiting non stop. Then you started remembering and we started checking your brain. Impact was very worried about your safety as well as are you going to be able to kick back and come back from this because we did it three weeks later. When we were taping, we went into the tapings writing four different scenarios in case you couldn’t make it. We were going, ok, if he can do it, we have to go this route, if not, we have to go this route. It was the most bizarre creative session we ever had. When you’re thinking on the fly, that is the beauty of no fans. We had Zack and Ace. First, we had Ace won and then we went back and shot and Zack won. It was so different because as soon as they did the one, two, three, I was like, don’t move. Then we went quickly into the other scenario and we could piece it together.”

Dreamer on The Rascalz leaving Impact Wrestling: “When I heard the news about the Rascalz’ contracts coming up, Impact is cool allowing people to explore other options. We wanted to resign you but if something happens and you want to take more money or you want to take an opportunity or hope to go somewhere else, they are cool with that and there is no heat because of how professional everybody is. I’m like, ‘let’s just tell the truth’. If you only knew how much the creative staff as well as Scott D’Amore wanted to keep you guys. There is a list of people and every time we had a box to check it was always, keep the Rascalz. I feel there was a lot more to do with you guys. You know personally how much you were wanted in the company.  If you’re asking for my advice, you go wherever you need to grow because you can always come back one day as long as you stay on those good terms.  You guys did everything the right way and like I said, all three of you were a pleasure to work with. I think you will succeed with your attitude and work rate.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The House of Hardcore Podcast with Tommy Dreamer with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.