The 'Scary' Reason Buddy Valastro Nearly Missed Buddy Vs. Duff Season 3

The race was tight at the tail end of "Buddy vs. Duff" Season 3, according to Guilty Eats. The two stars arrived at last year's finale with everything tied up; each had scored a win from a previous season, and each had accrued 1,600 points from the current competition. Buddy Valastro and Duff Goldman, along with their teams, dedicated themselves to a three-day cake-making extravaganza during which each team built a giant replica of a monster: Goldman's a Frankenstein-like creation and Valastro's a Godzilla lookalike. But the finals — and the entire season, for that matter — almost didn't happen, thanks to a gruesome injury Valastro sustained a year earlier.

Making cakes is in Buddy Valastro's blood, but the hope is always that his blood stays inside his body, which wasn't the case following a horrific 2020 accident in his home bowling alley. One day that September, his right hand got stuck in the bowling pinsetter and was impaled three times while he was trying to fix a malfunction. "I looked at my hand and blood was gushing everywhere. It looked like a Halloween movie," Valastro told People.

Valastro is thankful he was able to compete at all

When it came time to appear on "Buddy vs. Duff" Season 3, Buddy Valastro was still receiving care to remedy his injury. According to People, Valastro has had to undergo five reconstructive surgeries on his hand, one of which he received when he first reached the hospital after the incident and the fifth of which occurred just weeks before the filming of the recent season of the cake competition began. Thankfully, the surgery immensely helped with Valastro's hand skills, as he told People, "Before [the surgery], I really couldn't do nothing. I couldn't do cakes. I really couldn't squeeze a bag. My fingers were so stiff, I couldn't even bend them."

In the Season 3 finale, Valastro did end up taking first prize with his team's Godzilla creation, and while a win is always great, it seems as though Valastro was grateful to be able to participate at all, as he wrote on his Instagram, "I would like to thank and express my gratitude and appreciation for a speechless #BuddyVsDuff season."