The night the curtain call turned into a horror movie

June 2026 has been a weird month for the wrestling internet. While half the community is dissecting the latest policy proposals from Demis Hassabis regarding how we define intelligent systems, the other half is busy reliving the exact moment Ricky Saints nearly lost his vision. It is a strange time to be online, where you can read about the potential regulation of frontier models in one tab and look at gross injury close-ups in the other.

The conversation around Saints centers on that stomach-churning chair spot with Ethan Page from the May 27, 2025 episode of NXT. We all remember it. One second he was climbing to the top rope, and the next, he was clutching his face while the trainer rushed out. If you missed the graphic fallout covered by Ringside News, consider yourself lucky.

The fan divide: Skill vs. stupidity

Reddit threads are currently nuclear. You’ve got the purists, the ones who grew up on ECW tapes, arguing that this is exactly what professional wrestling is supposed to be. They talk about the art of the impact. Then you have the skeptics, the people who are tired of talent leaving the arena in an ambulance for a mid-card feud.

The purist perspective

One top user on the SquaredCircle subreddit summed it up: "Wrestling isn't supposed to be safe. If you want safety, go watch a game of tag. Saints took that chair like a champ and sold the aftermath perfectly. It added a level of realism to the Page rivalry that we haven't seen since the Attitude Era."

The safety-first crowd

On the flip side, the cynical contingent is screaming that this was plain negligence by the agents. One user pointed out: "There is nothing heroic about potentially losing sight in an eye for a spot on a secondary show. Why are we still doing unprotected chair shots to the face in 2026? It’s not grit; it’s bad management."

My take: The booking mistake

Let’s be real for a second. I am all for a high-stakes match, but there is a clear difference between a high-spot and a career-ender. Looking back at the footage, the spacing on the chair setup was amateur hour. It is a glaring example of why guys need to take agency over their own bodies instead of letting a producer greenlight a spot that hinges on a fraction of an inch.

Saints has clearly moved on, especially after his recent runs in international markets like Saudi Arabia, where he faced Trick Williams at Night of Champions. According to reports from Wrestling Inc, he actually enjoyed the experience. It serves as a reminder that these guys are professionals who want to get paid and get home, not die in a ring for a viral clip.

Ultimately, the argument that this was “tough” is a hollow defense for a messy execution. You can argue the necessity of violent spots all day long, but there is no excuse for a botched chair alignment that ends with a trip to the emergency room. Saints is lucky the damage wasn't permanent. We saw him suffer, and frankly, the product doesn't need that kind of dark cloud hanging over its weekly television tapings.

When you have talent like Saints, you want them in the ring for 20 minutes, not in surgery for 4 hours. If management keeps pushing these borderline death-defying angles, eventually someone won't walk away with their sight intact. It’s high time we hold agents as accountable as the wrestlers themselves.