A bull broke his back and almost killed him but that hasn’t stopped Simon Cresswell

A one-tonne bull shattered and severed Simon Creswell’s spine and stopped his heart but his devotion to bull riding remains unbroken.

A ONE-TONNE bull severed Simon Cresswell’s spine and stopped his heart but his devotion to bull riding remains unbroken.

He’s been in a wheelchair ever since he died and came back to life 23 years ago in a Victorian rodeo ring.

But now Mr Cresswell tours his Xtreme Bulls Australia rodeos around the country, promising the “biggest and baddest” bulls and “blokes with balls of steel” willing to wrangle them.

Next month the show will bring the king of bucking bulls, Eye Candy, to Mount Hunter’s K Ranch Arena in Sydney’s southwest.

Despite severing his spine and almost losing his life in a bull riding accident, Simon Cresswell pictured with young Colt Cearney, 2, still stages events. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Eye Candy has never been ridden for the necessary eight seconds.

The bulls are purpose-bred to wreak havoc and “punish” anyone in their path by flinging them eight feet in the air or goring them on the ground.

Mr Cresswell still loves the sport that robbed him of any sensation below his hips, despite his involvement constantly rehashing his traumatic acute injuries.

“Just like NRL football, there are dangerous hits and anything could happen, but I still love it,” Mr Cresswell said.

Mr Cresswell is action before his accident 23 years ago.

“It’s a modern day gladiator sport — man versus beast.”

In 1995, when Mr Cresswell was just 25, a bull he’d only managed to cling on to for a few seconds landed on him and crushed his T11 and T12 vertebrae, severed his spinal cord, collapsed both lungs and cracked his ribs.

“I died for 30 seconds, they couldn’t find a pulse, and then I came back to life,” he said.

Mr Cresswell was flown from Shepparton, in Victoria’s northeast, to Austin Hospital in Melbourne for ultimately unsuccessful spinal surgery.

After a three years out of the world’s most dangerous professional sport, Mr Creswell now heads up bull riding tournament Xtreme Bulls Australia, which will next month bring the undisputed king of bucking bulls to Sydney.

The bull called Eye Candy has never been ridden for the necessary eight seconds.