The fifteen-year career of Kevin Nash is feared to be over in the aftermath of an unreleased cardiac problem that severely threatened the wrestler’s health in the days leading to a match on a TNA PPV event Sunday night, according to the Wrestling Observer.
He was expected to wrestle in the main event of the Bound for Glory PPV without incident, but the match was doomed when, as a precautionary measure after reporting chest pain, Nash was taken to an Orlando, Fla., hospital Saturday night. The originally scheduled match was replaced by a “gauntlet” won by Rhino, who then defeated Jarrett to win the title to conclude the PPV.
Nash, 46, who has worked a limited schedule for years, has had several bouts with various medical problems. Most notably, Nash fainted unexpectedly during a 2003 WWE tour of Australia. The cause was, at the time, said to be either a pinched nerve or severe exhaustion. Nash also had a severe neck injury and a torn quadriceps muscle among other problems.
In this case, based on an account cited in the Wrestling Observer, the cause of the medical problems has been kept purposefully vague, at the behest of Nash. It is known that he did not have a heart attack.
After a largely unsuccessful reign as WWF Champion from 1994-1995, Nash came to greatest fame in professional wrestling as a charter member of the New World Order in 1997 with Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall. The group was symbolic both of the meteoric rise of WCW to prominence as well as the internal problems that caused the company to self-destruct. A member of the so-called Kliq, a politically powerful group of wrestler friends that stretched across company lines, he was also a polarizing figure both for his control in WCW and his perceived lack of talent.
“I think there was a time when I was really a prick,” he said in an interview with the Pro Wrestling Torch this summer. “I think there were times when I wasn’t the nicest person, that I used my power when I shouldn’t have. I made life difficult for people when I shouldn’t have. There were times I was a prick. I can’t take it back and I can’t sit down and tell every person I’m sorry, but I’m a Christian. I’ve sat down and confessed my sins to my maker and he’s forgiven me. But I’ve been a prick. I have been a prick. I’ve been known to be one of the biggest pricks in the business.”
