GREEN BAY – Christian Watson watched enough WWE as a child to know a dramatic entrance when he sees one.
The Packers star receiver just never expected to be the one on the receiving end of such a thunderous ovation.
But that's what happened Thursday night when Watson emerged from the home tunnel at Lambeau Field late in the third quarter of Green Bay's eventual 27-19 victory over the Carolina Panthers, returning to the game approximately an hour after he was sent to a nearby hospital to undergo a CT scan on his chest.
Tests showed Watson indeed broke a rib on the play, but there was no internal bleeding after two Panthers defenders landed on him at the end of a 53-yard reception in the second quarter.
With a green light to return, Watson hopped in the ambulance and headed back to the stadium. Once there, he was quickly greeted by broadcast cameras.
"It was super dramatic," said Watson with a laugh. "I used to watch WWE as a kid. I felt like I was watching WWE Smackdown vs. Raw or something, seeing the cameras on me when I was coming out of the ambulance. That was a little crazy."
Watson was off to yet another torrid start, catching six passes for 100 yards before the injury. His 53-yard catch was the biggest play of the evening and keyed a nine-play, 90-yard scoring drive that ended with Josh Jacobs' 1-yard touchdown run, propelling the Packers to a 13-10 lead they wouldn't look back from.
Watson wasn't sure if he came down on the ball or his elbow, but he struggled to catch his breath after the play. He walked off under his own power but was spitting up some blood on the sidelines, which led to team doctors calling for a CT scan.
The wait for test results nearly felt as painful as the injury itself, as all Watson could do was track play-by-play on one of the doctor's phones. That's how he learned about Green Bay taking a 27-10 lead thanks to touchdown passes to Matthew Golden (in the second quarter) and Jacobs (in the third).
Watson said his return shocked several of his teammates, who looked at him like he was "resurrected or something." Count Golden and safety Xavier McKinney among those who had never seen anything like that before.
"I think it shows resiliency, I think it shows toughness, and I think it just shows the love that he has for this team," McKinney said. "Sometimes, you might see that happen and he had his 100 yards, and he could've just sat it. But the fact that he wasn't satisfied and the fact that he felt like and he knew that we still needed him out there and he still said, 'OK, I love this team and I want to be able to go out here for this team and do that,' that gains our respect."
Conversely, Watson didn't know he hit 100 receiving yards until he returned, and teammates began congratulating him on his "Honeybun" in the first half.
Wearing a molded pad around his ribs, Watson made a critical catch with a little more than two minutes left in regulation, bringing in a 7-yard pass from Love on third-and-2 that forced Carolina to use its final timeout.
Watson finished with a team-high 113 yards on a career-best eight catches (14.1 avg). to become the first Packers player with 40-plus catches, 700-plus receiving yards, six-plus receiving TDs and an average of 16.5-plus yards per catch in the first eight games since WR Jordy Nelson in 2013.
"Before I even left (the hospital), I wanted to get back out there," Watson said. "This means everything to me, to be out there on the football field. I've had injuries that I was not able to go back out on the field after for, and I missed a significant amount of time with injuries. So, any chance I get to go out there on the football field, I'm going to be out there on the football field."
Hopper-tunity knocks: With Zaire Franklin missing his second straight game with a shin injury, third-year linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper once again stepped up in a big way with eight tackles, two quarterback hits, a sack, interception and three passes defensed.
His second-quarter interception of Carolina quarterback Bryce Young was Hopper's second in four games and led to Green Bay pushing its lead to 20-10 at halftime after a 24-yard touchdown pass to Golden on the ensuing drive.
"I was just able to get my hands up," said Hopper, who tipped the ball to himself before picking it off. "We knew (Young) was a shorter guy, so they talked about getting your hands up throughout the week. And I was able to do that and get my hands on the ball."
With his performance, Hopper became the first Green Bay linebacker (since 2000) to post three-plus passes defensed, a sack and an INT in a game and the first Packers defender to accomplish the feat since Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson at Detroit on Nov. 26, 2009.
"The physicality he plays with is like nothing else," said safety Evan Williams of Hopper. "I'm glad that people are seeing what he's capable of now. He never got that shot coming in and for him to step up to the plate and do what he's doing is big for our defense."
Six-Pack of sacks: The Packers posted a season-high six sacks, with six different players each tallying one (Hopper, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, and edge rushers Lukas Van Ness, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Brenton Cox Jr. and Barryn Sorrell).
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon stayed aggressive throughout, sending as many as seven rushers on occasion while hitting Young nine times overall.
"We all did our part up front," Wyatt said. "We didn't let him get out of the pocket. We all knew how elusive he was in the pocket. We all just did our jobs, just winning our 1-on-1s and squeezing the pocket where he could get out."
Banks returns: Aaron Banks retook his starting post at left guard after missing five games due to knee and toe injuries.
"Definitely a little bit of rust, but I feel like I started to knock some of that off come third quarter a little bit," Banks said. "I got (stuff) to fix. Yeah, we (expletive) all do. It's an imperfect game. But I was just excited to get out there and actually finish the game and play. It's been an uphill battle getting to this point and felt good."
With Banks back in the lineup, veteran Laken Tomlinson slid across the line and made his first start at right guard in 10 years.
While the Packers didn't allow a sack of Love, the struggles on the ground continued as the offense finished with just 66 rushing yards on 26 carries (2.5 avg.). Jacobs had 52 total yards on 27 touches and scored twice (one rushing, one receiving).
"Obviously we got a lot of injuries in that (OL) room. So, it's a lot of guys trying to get a feel for each other," Jacobs said. "But I just try to make the plays when they're there and then when they're not there, still try to create and get the most out of every play. But definitely when they're there, I just try to make the play and it's just something I feel like as a unit we gotta be better at."
Brewers make an appearance: The loudest ovation of the evening might have belonged to the Milwaukee Brewers, who brought the Commissioner's Trophy to Lambeau Field less than 24 hours after their World Series win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
"It was crazy man," Williams said. "Seeing them accomplish the biggest feat in baseball is pretty cool. They was turnt up. You could tell. That was probably the loudest crowd pop I heard at Lambeau aside from some big plays. That was a really cool moment I feel like for the city of Green Bay."
