NEWS

Hugh Jackman denies breaking wrestler's jaw

24th September 2011

(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Hugh Jackman admits that he punched a professional wrestler with all his might this week.

Hugh attended a WWE wrestling match on September 19 to promote his upcoming boxing film Real Steel. A guest of honour, Hugh was able to hang out in wrestler Zack Ryder's corner while the tournament took place.

At one point during the fight, Hugh travelled over to Dolph Ziggler's corner, Zack's opponent. Hugh and Dolph exchanged words and Dolph received a clean punch to the jaw by the actor quickly thereafter.

"I hit him," Hugh told Entertainment Weekly. "[Dolph] said, Hit me as hard as you can.' So I hit him pretty hard. And you can see it in my eyes. I watched [the clip] again, and you can see me going Uh oh ' a little. I'm acting like, Yeah! but I'm really like, S**t, I kinda really clocked him in the jaw.' "

Hugh insists that he didn't mean to clock Dolph with so much force. Dolph tweeted soon after the incident with claims that Hugh put a hairline fracture in his jaw.

"It was scripted that I would go for that punch," Hugh explained. "But just before we went on, Dolph was yelling at me, You hit me man! Just fing hit me!' During rehearsal I said, I'd like to do it, but I've spent 20 years pulling punches, trying not to hit. Trying to make it look real, but not really hit.' He said, There's no way. There's cameras everywhere, there's crowd everywhere, there's no way we can "whiff it," as they call it."

Hugh is not taking Dolph's broken jaw claims too seriously. Hugh is convinced that Dolph may be embellishing the extent of his injury a little bit.

"The next day I read he really broke his jaw and I wasn't surprised but I don't think he did," Hugh said. "He's prone to exaggeration which is why I hit him! Nah, just kidding!"

Real Steel will be released in US theatres on October 7. (C) Cover Media

Tags: