‘Survivor’ Star Brady Booker Opens Up About Gruesome Thumb Injury

Eric Wilson (0:07)

Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of the TMZ Podcast. I'm Eric Wilson. Today, I am joined by professional wrestler. You've seen him in all of the top promotions around the world. But most recently, you've seen him on Survivor 51 as already one of the most memorable contestants. Please welcome to TMZ pod, Brady Booker.

What up, Brady?

Brady Booker (0:31)

What up, Brody? How are we doing?

Eric Wilson (0:32)

How are we doing? How are we doing?

Brady Booker (0:34)

I mean, I'm ecstatic. I'm excited. Any opportunity I get like this, you know, come on and talk to the Brody's and maybe make some new Brody's always fires me up.

Eric Wilson (0:42)

Absolutely.

Brady Booker (0:42)

I guess watching Survivor, though, if the wind changes, I probably get fired up.

Eric Wilson (0:47)

Yeah, that's true. That's true. And we hope that, you know, everything we talk about in this podcast really gets you more Brody's because I think a lot of people are interested in you. I mean, just from your gameplay alone, I got to say, watching the first episode, I'm a big Survivor guy as well, you already kind of put your mark on the show.

And then this moment in episode two, I mean, I don't know that there's many more memorable moment. I mean, you have to compare to when the guy fell in the fire phase first. I mean, that's the only, I think, comparable moment to how severe this crazy thing is. So let's just jump right into it. How is the thumb?

Brady Booker (1:23)

The, you know, the thumb right now, it's good on the show, you know. So as long as it doesn't give me any troubles, as long as that infection doesn't come after your Brody, hopefully we got some Brody antibodies to take that on. But like once it happened and once he cleared me, the internal turmoil that I had thinking, this is why I'm going to be out of the game. And you Brody's are seeing how hard I'm playing.

I sometimes think I'm back on the football field and I'm shouting plays to my dogs. I can yell at those guys and they get it, but maybe watching it back, I could have tried to tone it down a little bit, but your Brody gets excited. I love the competition.

Eric Wilson (2:06)

How much more adrenaline could have been flowing through you in that moment? I mean, I don't think anyone judged your reaction. You could have gone a lot worse, just in many different ways.

Brady Booker (2:15)

Yeah, I thought the box getting dropped on my ankle was going to be the injury that I had to deal with, because that guy had me limping and gimping for a little bit. But yeah, no, I definitely woke myself up that next day. And but like after the challenge, I adrenaline or not, it was just a throb. Like my thumb constantly had a heartbeat, but like it was nothing to a pain that would stop me from throwing kill beat to the finish line. And you know what I mean, or lifting that 500 pound whale dog, I never even push pressed 500 pounds. And I don't know if you can see, you know, Brody's are up on the beach filming, they don't want to be in the water. And I was underneath that guy the entire time.

Eric Wilson (2:56)

Well, that's what I was going to ask you. So the next challenge immediately after the thumb incident, you need your grip for a lot of the activities, both of the challenges, the reward and the immunity challenge. So how was it like jumping right into that?

Brady Booker (3:10)

You know, after I was cleared and I felt so thankful for that opportunity and like that weight was lifted off my shoulders because it was dark and scary. I went through like the five stages of grief. Yes, exactly, grief. And you Brody's got to watch, you know, very vulnerable time with the Brody's there on national television. But once he like let me play, I was, all right, we bite the bullet with everything else. How tough really are you? You know, there were so many times in my football career and even in my wrestling career now, you know, your Brody's had seven surgeries. My both shoulders twice, both knees, a foot, elbow.

There's so many times in my life where I've kind of been like, how tough are you? So when I saw that challenge and it was grabbing onto the ropes and it was dragging Brody through it, I was like, yeah, dude, let's find out. You know, so I'm sick. It excites me. I hate it.