Welcome back to Sidenote Suplex. Stephen Amell Broke His Back Literally Filming upcoming Wrestling Show Heels Stephen Amell opens up about the back injury he sustained while filming the upcoming drama Heels. Making its premiere on August 15th, the Starz series revolves around the world of small-town professional wrestling. Created by Ricky and Morty and Loki writer Michael Waldron, Heels particularly focuses on a family-owned wrestling promotion and the two brothers (played by Amell and Alexander Ludwig) who battle over their late father’s legacy. Although the promotion for the show is well underway, with a full Heels trailer out now and the unveiling of a featured character posters, a potentially worrying pause occurred back in October of last year when it was reported that Amell had been injured while filming one of his scenes. In a recent interview, the actor spoke out about the experience. During an interview on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, the actor cleared up how the injury happened. Amell explained that while performing a wrestling move, known as the “Coast to Coast”, which involves leaping off the top rope from one side of the ring to the other, he didn’t like how the first take turned out. When he requested to do a second take, that’s when the accident took place. What’s interesting is that, as Amell himself notes, he had performed the same move previously. During his match with Christopher Daniels, at the AEW All Out pay-per-view in 2018, the Arrow star had utilized that same maneuver. Amell remembers that, even back then, he found it to be a challenging experience. It speaks to how, in wrestling, high-flying moves that utilize the top ropes and rely on agility can sometimes be the most challenging. But, on the flipside, for those who master it, they get recognized as some of the most elite wrestlers to grace the squared circle. Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy are two currently active legends that built up their reputation thanks, in part, to their eye-popping moves. Other names, such as Ricochet and Mustafa Ali, are routinely cited as exciting talents to watch and that’s partially thanks to their reliance on the type of moves that resulted in Amell’s injury. The coast to coast has been often used by Shane McMahon in WWE Matches but its Rob Van Dam who first popularized the move in the US while in the ECW pro wrestling brand. Coined as the Van Terminator, RVD would hurl himself across the ring from the top rope and connect with a weapon on the other side sometimes held by a tag team member or manager.
