William Regal was released by WWE back in January after over two decades with the company. After he was let go, many questioned if he would continue his career in the wrestling business, and eventually made his debut for AEW at the Revolution.
Since making his debut reports have surfaced about Regal’s health. Regal personally cited that his health is “the best it’s been in years.” On the most recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Regal went into detail about a health scare he had back in 2018 that was dire and almost cost him his life.
“I went home two weeks before Christmas (2018). The last time my family was all together was 2018 for Christmas and I was in the hospital for eight weeks. I was given 24 hours to live. They were going to cut my leg off. This was January 4, 2019. I insisted on going home for Christmas. I had a hell of a year, 2018. Since 1998, I had pericarditis — an inflammation of the sac around the heart — it scars that sac. Your heart can beat, but that sac can lockdown. I might not have looked like it, but I trained as hard as I did and taking bumps, it kept that from locking down and going solid, the skin around your heart. I went to India, got really sick, and was out for a year. I had bouts on and off”
During the interview, he would eventually would come back around to the topic. Regal recalled attending PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2018 tournament and then having to go to the hospital a couple of months later.
“November, they send me for a scan. My legs are swelling, they do a scan of my abdomen. Fortunately, for me, there is a cardiologist in the room and this lady saved my life. She went, ‘Hang on a minute, there is something above that that doesn’t look right.’ They couldn’t scan there, this is Friday, because I’ve already been injected, so they need to do another scan because of the fluid. I go back Monday for a scan I never had before. I went home, within an hour of me being in the house, my cardiologist called going, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ ‘Why?’ ‘We should have thought of this years ago. It doesn’t pick up on a regular scan.’ ‘What?’ ‘You’ve probably got less than six months to live.’ What happened was, the sac around my heart had completely calcified. It looks like a goose egg. It was completely constricted and had grown into a solid rock. They cut me open and he’s tapping on this goose egg. Three hours later, you can see where he’s peeled it all off and you can see a beating heart. If they didn’t take it off, I would have had six months to go. It’s called a pericardiectomy, it’s very rare operation, only a few people can do it. Fortunately, WWE got me a doctor in Atlanta that did this. I was eight weeks in the hospital after that. This is November 23, for the first time in my life, I was like, ‘I’m not going to make it, I’m going to die.’ About four weeks in, fluid leaking out of my legs, I was swollen like the Michelin man. I had a drip in both arms, I couldn’t move and cramping up. I insisted on going home. It was New Year’s Day, I was screaming and was cramping from my eyelids to my toes. I fell out of bed and on the floor, my wife couldn’t move me. Bailey, Regal’s son, came in and my other son picked me up off the floor. They got an ambulance and got me back in the hospital. I thought I was going to die. January 4, I got sepsis in my leg. January 4, my wife gets a call, three in morning, ‘Your husband has sepsis in his leg, we’re going to cut his leg off. He has probably 24 hours to live if we don’t.’ This doctor who was looking after me, his wife is a doctor, she was on call, she overheard a conversation that there is a fellow who had a pericardiectomy, she heard this, called her husband at home, ‘they’re about to chop his leg off.’ He called them and was like, ‘Inject him with this, this, this, and this.’ Somehow, that worked and saved my leg. I’m lying in a hospital bed after open heart surgery and two days before the NXT UK from Blackpool, where [WALTER/Gunther] debuted, and something in my brain went ‘click’ and I thought, ‘I’m gonna be okay.'”
Regal is now in much better health and shows no sign of stopping. We will have to see what the future has in store for Regal now that he has joined AEW, where he is aligned with Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley.
Below is the full episode of Talk Is Jericho featuring Willam Regal.
H/T Fightful for quotes.
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