An update from Smith Jr.
On October 12th, Davey Boy Smith Jr. was pulled from a scheduled MLW World Heavyweight Championship match at the organization’s Slaugterhouse event. Smith Jr. would go on to reveal that he underwent emergency surgery and as a part of the procedure, he had to have part of his colon removed along with some of his appendix.
In his first interview since the emergency surgery, Smith Jr. spoke in depth about what occurred and provided an update on how he’s doing. He shared with McGuire on Wrestling that doctors discovered he had diverticulosis. According to the Mayo Clinic, diverticulosis is when small, bulging pouches develop in your digestive tract. When one or more of those pouches becomes inflamed or infected, that’s when it develops into diverticulitis.
Smith Jr. was told that he’s a rare case in that some people have colons that are longer than others. His colon was pushing against his appendix and by it being infected, it was pushing against it even more.
So to see if you have diverticulitis, they have to do what’s called a CT scan and they go, ‘Well we can’t get you in for that but we have to take care of this first. We can get you in for a CT scan but it’s gonna be like, a few hours and in a few hours, we’re gonna be doing surgery…’ So, they cut me open and then they found that I have something called diverticulosis, which is a little bit different than diverticulitis. It’s the same thing but when they open me up, they saw that my colon was very infected and swollen, and basically what diverticulosis is-is where they cut — Brock Lesnar had like a foot of his colon cut and I think his came back again, or he came back, came, happened like mine and then it was diverticulosis which I’m praying doesn’t happen but, so where they cut a foot of his colon whereas mine, they just trimmed like an inch off and they trimmed the infected area because it’s not as bad as cutting a foot off your colon. When you think a foot, like, oh! That’s — but when you expand your colon out and stretch it, it’s 12 feet or something. So then they came in and they vacuumed a bunch of the infection out and then they do what’s like a trimming, like a haircut… And then, on severe antibiotics after that because the colon’s infected and basically what happens is-is the issue with the colon but it’s caused by the appendix and what they said to me was I’m just a rare case but some people have a longer colon than others and mine was pushing against my appendix, and when it got infected, it just was pushing more into it so, where it was blocking the appendix there, it’s causing — so it was both. So then they cut and trimmed. So I have three different incisions on my stomach now.
He went on to add that he’s scheduled to get a colonoscopy in a month or two. He stated that doctors can’t attribute what went wrong to any one thing such as his diet or it being hereditary. Smith Jr. mentioned that his aunt Alison experienced what he’s experiencing.
The good news is it looks like I’ll be alright and I got a colonoscopy in about a month or two to make sure everything’s good and just hopefully it doesn’t come back because, you know, Brock Lesnar’s came back and he had to get the diverticulosis which was the full foot of his colon removed and it’s — I can’t attribute this to anything. People said that Brock Lesnar’s case, ‘Oh, well it’s because he’s eating wild animals that he’s been shooting in the wild’ and you know, my aunt Alison had the same thing. A lot of people say it’s genetic and my aunt Alison’s a healthy librarian and believe me, she’s not eating wild meat that she’s hunting. She’s eating stuff from Safeway but, they can’t attribute it to certain kind of diets. It happens. It could be hereditary. Like my aunt Alison had the exact same thing and hers was okay after a while so it’s just knock on wood and hope.
Circling back to the MLW date he was scheduled to work, he credited MLW CEO Court Bauer for consistently checking on him. Smith Jr. said Bauer dealt with what he is experiencing and told Smith Jr. to come back when he’s fully ready.
Few days I recovered, couple days. After that, I’m gonna go to MLW. Then it was like the next day, it was way worse and I told him — I got in touch with him then and I said, ‘Hey listen, there’s something wrong’ and actually, funny enough, Court Bauer, the owner of MLW, he had diverticulosis exactly like mine and he knows exactly… he’s been a great boss because we’ve been chatting back and forth and, ‘Yeah, so how’s week one going?’ ‘Oh yeah. I’ve been there.’ So, he’s been great. He’s been checking in on me and just told me that I can come back to the ring when I’m ready and he’s like, ‘Believe me. I’ve literally been there. I know exactly what it’s like…’ So he’s been a good help. He’s been checking in on me every few days and stuff so…
Smith Jr. was asked if there is a solid timeframe for him to get back into the gym and in the ring. He mentioned the December 16th Dungeon Wrestling event and potentially being at that show and returning. Smith Jr. feels that if he stays on the right path and things go according to plan, he should be able to make the show.
Hopefully, I’m back in the gym slowly the next week or so and they gave me a good four-week prognosis that even though it was the appendix being removed which is a two-to-four week, it’s more like a month and when you get the diverticulosis, it’s a good month of recovery. So we’re going on week three of it now so, I should be good. It’s just gonna be a slow recovery and I’ll be good by December 16th and as long as we’re going and I’m training and feeling good, I just gotta take it day by day, you know? And see where we go but as far as I know, I’ll be good by then. It’s just gonna be a rough time getting back into the gym and stuff. It’s a shock I’ve never had so…
The 37-year-old Smith Jr. last wrestled on August 27th for PROGRESS Wrestling in England. His scheduled match at MLW Slaughterhouse was going to be his first match for the organization since April.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit McGuire on Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
