On the February 18th installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that Konnan, real name Charles Ashenoff, had been hospitalized with a kidney issue that was described as “pretty serious”. Following up on that, F4WOnline ran a story that Konnan was released from the hospital and was doing better after he tested positive for COVID-19.
Konnan returned to his Keepin It 100 podcast and opened up about his recent health issues. He was candid about how serious the situation was and also reflected on his life as far as what he’s contributed while on earth. To start off, Konnan initially said he was not going too deep into the details but said he indeed was in the hospital.
I’m not gonna get into details because I’m not the type of guy that’s, ‘Oh, thank you for everybody that wrote and woah is me and this happened to me.’ Bottom line is I was in the hospital.
He discussed how much his close friends mean to him, mentioning the likes of podcast co-host Disco Inferno, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho and several others. He was asked does he know how he contracted Coronavirus and said he was in a “compromised situation” but did not specifically say how he got the virus.
Konnan then dove into his time in the hospital and conversations with the doctors. He admitted that he gave the doctors a rough time because he did not want to accept how serious his condition was. One doctor gave him it to him straight and told Konnan that there’s a 60 percent chance his heart could stop and that his kidneys were failing.
So let me tell you what happened. I f*cking was in the hospital, I wake up, there’s six doctors in front of me. An Nephrologist, a Cardiologist, an Infectious Disease doctor and they’re very, very mad. They’re angry with me because I’m not taking my pills, I’m being very rude, I’m not listening to instructions. This is in the hospital.
[I wasn’t listening to them] because I didn’t want to believe it was as bad as they were telling me. I didn’t wanna hear bad news. Now the bad news mean I can’t work, I can’t make money, as if that’s everything in life which it isn’t and so they’re f*cking talking to me and one guy just f*cking gives me a kick right in the nuts. He goes, ‘Well Mr. Ashenoff, since you don’t seem to understand the gravity of this situation, I’m gonna put it to you in black and white. There’s a very good chance, and when I mean very good chance, over 60 percent that your heart is going to stop. What would you like us to do with that heart?’ The other guy goes — I just was in shock. The other guy goes, ‘Obviously, that didn’t seem to illicit a response out of you.’ Well of course it didn’t motherf*cker. I’m f*cking in shock. ‘Your kidneys are failing. What would you like us to do with that? Donate it to science?’ They gave us like three or four f*cking things. Then another guy walks in, a Chaplain and you know I hate religion, and the motherf*cker wanted to pray with me. I almost threw him out the window but that’s real sh*t bro, and you survey your life and you go, ‘Okay, so what have I done?’ Had a lot of fun, took a lot of drugs, traveled the world, told a lot of people to go get f*cked. But I did it my way, you know what I’m saying? And at the end of the day, I am not any way, shape or form going to in any way, shape or form cow toe, bend to, kiss ass, just because people in this industry have money and everybody’s trying to get as much money as they can and they don’t wanna tell them the truth. Some of the conversations that I had with my closest friends were, ‘How did you put up with my bullsh*t for so long?’ And one of the things they always told me is, ‘No matter what, at least you kept it real with us.’
He went on to reflect on his life, what he’s done and what or who did he help while he’s here. He said it would not matter if there were five people or hundreds of people at his funeral, adding that he is not overdramatizing by feeling that he’s fortunate to be alive.
I was very, very, very — and I’m not a dramatic guy. I’m not, ‘Oh! Look at how much I work, look at how sick I am. Thank you to everybody.’ That’s just not me. It doesn’t make me better than anybody, doesn’t make me smarter than anybody. It’s just who I am, and at the end of the day bro, I just wanna live whatever I have left. If it’s one day, two days, what does it make a difference if at my funeral if five guys are there or 300 guys are there, I’m dead, you know? What did I do while I was here? What did I help do? My inner being is a helpful person like you Disco [Inferno]. You like to help people, so do I. There’s no way I would’ve helped so many guys that aren’t my family members if there wasn’t a part of me that likes to help people, and so, but what are you gonna be known for? For a guy that just went around bullsh*tting everybody and f*cking — you know what I’m saying? I mean at the end of the day, I just had kind of like an awakening and that’s all there is to it and I’m very — let me tell you one thing: I am fortunate — and I do not overdramatize this — to be alive.
Konnan is out of the hospital and as of the podcast recording, he feels he’s at a 70 on a scale from 0-100. Initially, he ranked how he was feeling at a negative one thousand and said he was looking at death.
He went on to tell stories about times throughout the years where he made decisions that could have cost him his life and hindsight being 20/20, it was pointless to make said decisions. Konnan said it was very scary and he is not ashamed to say that he cried.
From a scale of 0 to 100, negative one thousand. Bro, I was looking at death dude. It’s not a script. So, when you’re looking at death and I’m an idiot because when I was young and if I brought some of the Mexican wrestlers here — Norman Smiley said a very funny story once on a cold open where these military guys took out guns and I told them, ‘Shoot me motherf*cker. What are you gonna do?’ Because I was a f*cking idiot, because I thought I was a badass. What if they would have shot me? I could tell you stories of drug dealers sticking guns in my mouth and me going, ‘Shoot motherf*cker’ because I was a f*cking idiot because I was too busy trying to be a badass, for what? So you look back at that sh*t, it’s kid sh*t, it’s stupid sh*t. Only a f*cking idiot would do that, but I thought I was being a badass. I feel right now like a 70 [on a scale from 0-100] and it took me a long time to get here bro, long time. It was very, very, very scary and I have no problems telling you I cried.
POST Wrestling would like to send our best wishes to Konnan as he continues to recover.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast along with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
