When it came time for his debut, Samuray was still spitting out blood and was using an oxygen machine.
In 2021, Samuray Del Sol f.k.a. Kalisto spoke candidly about his bout with COVID-19 that he stated could have been fatal. He spent some time in the hospital and three weeks after he got out, he was contacted by AEW President Tony Khan about competing on Dynamite.
Del Sol made his AEW debut in November 2021 and tagged with Aero Star to challenge FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) for the AAA World Tag Team Titles.
While guest appearing on The Sessions with Renée Paquette, Del Sol shared that his wife was not happy about him taking the booking considering the health issues he battled through. He did inform FTR of what he was dealing with so they could be aware and added that Wheeler and Harwood took care of him. Samuray then went on to speak about the tweet he sent out about the late Jon Huber (Brodie Lee) after the match.
Once I got out of the hospital, three weeks later, I’m having dinner with my wife, my phone rings, it’s Tony Khan. We talked and he offered me a match with FTR. I’m excited, I’m not even thinking of me being sick and I hung up. I looked at my wife like, ‘What the hell did I just do? I just got out of the hospital.’ Like oh my God. So everything’s running through my mind, everything’s just hitting me. I went to the bathroom and literally started balling, like man, can I do this? You know what? I’m gonna roll the dice on this. I’m like, ‘Babe, you need to support me in this.’ She was kind of mad at me. It’s like, ‘No. Your heart. You need to stop. Isn’t this a sign?’ ‘No. This is a sign too’ because my very first major injury back in 2011, I messed up my head really bad and I had the same scenario. Seriously, I had a (bad injury) and I’m like, ‘Woah, WWE called me for a tryout. Let’s keep going.’ So, I had to tell FTR. I worked with them for a long time. They took care of me. That’s why they’re the best. They’re the best and that’s why I’m forever grateful for them because I told them, ‘If I have a heart attack or anything, just roll me underneath the ring.’ I didn’t even tell anybody about this but that’s why I felt so emotional and I had to pray for my friend, I called him (Luke) Harper. The day before the Day of the Dead, Día de los Muertos. So it’s a tradition, we pray. We always pray to our loved ones, our friends. Me, when I first went up on the road and many people don’t know, we bonded. He kind of helped me mentally too like, ‘Hey man, it’s gonna be cool. It is your first tour in WWE.’ The boys will know the boys, you know? And I had that cool, strong connection with him like, ‘Hey Dragongate buddy. Hey Dragongate’ because we were in Dragongate. So it kind of hit me there because us Latinos, we pray a lot and it kind of felt right for the first time like, you know what?… I felt his presence. To me, it was like, man, when you helped me the first time I got on the road in WWE, like mentally, I kind of felt the same there because I didn’t feel scared… I’m like, man, I’m gonna have a heart attack in that ring (he laughed). But no, everything went well, FTR took care of me. I was surprised. At the end of that match, I just started balling. Oh my God. I went to my room, I didn’t even think. I had to do an emotional tweet man. I’m like, ah…
Samuray tweeted that he “prayed and talked to John (Brodie Lee)” before his match and said Huber gave him the strength and energy he needed. His tweet was not received well by the likes of Chris Jericho and Brodie’s widow, Amanda Huber. Both commented on Samuray spelling Jon’s name incorrectly.
He stated that he was shedding tears as he tweeted it out and was just emotional because he got through the match despite what he was dealing with. Samuray talked about how Brodie was there for him during their time in WWE. He then said around the time of his AEW debut, he had to have an oxygen machine.
I knew him (Jon Huber) and he kind of helped me out and I’m like, wow, that’s cool and I kind of felt it had the same feeling when I went there (AEW) too and I’m like, that’s why I had to do that prayer and I just didn’t know it was gonna affect so much people the wrong way or it was just heartbreaking to me… I misspelled his name… I wasn’t even thinking. I was just really crying when I was tweeting (he laughed). I’m like, man, I’m alive. I went asleep, then I woke up, I saw what was happening and it’s just like, ah. Man, I just felt sad.
I was just emotional, I was crying. I was just grateful I was alive but again, nobody knows the other side of my story that I literally almost died and three weeks later, I’m wrestling in AEW (for my) debut and had to tell FTR, ‘My lungs are burning.’ I was spitting out blood still. I was still on oxygen machines back at home and I was actually gonna bring my oxygen machine. That was the only request. I was trying to see, ‘I have a machine I might bring just to help me breathe’ but I didn’t really tell them why, and it was requested that I had to carry my oxygen machine because I couldn’t breathe and actually, I couldn’t even walk as much too but I had coffee, what else? Pre-workout, whatever it took for me to get that energy and a couple Advil and C.B.D. just for me to go through the match because I was nervous that I was gonna have a heart attack in the ring.
There was a period of time after the tweet was sent out that Samuray went through depression. He stated that he could not get bookings for a while after that ordeal.
For a while, I did feel like the door did close for me to get bookings after that (the tweet he sent out after AEW debut). I did kind of went into depression for a bit… I don’t know (if it was because of the tweet). I couldn’t get work.
Some people thought it was for clout and I just always say, the boys know the boys. It’s okay. The kids are not there, the families are not there, the wives, the husbands are not there, whatever, you know? I just felt heartbroken and I’m like, you know what? I just pushed it aside, let’s keep going no matter what because I didn’t let that stop me after my depression because I had to reevaluate my life, reevaluate my thoughts, my mind, everything that I’d been through, that I worked for, I felt that it was taken away. But, again, lucha (he laughed).
In March, Samuray made his debut for DDT Pro-Wrestling. He competed against Yuki Ueno in his debut and in his second showing, he tagged with Konosuke Takeshita.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
