Keith Lee Details Health Scare And Months-Long Absence From WWE TV, Confirms He Had COVID-19 In January
Photo Credit: WWE
Keith Lee was in the fight of his life, and now the grind continues.
In July, Keith Lee told fans that he felt like he needed to share his story with them, and said he would in due time. On Thursday, Lee posted a video that explained his absence from WWE television this year. Lee explained that he was first taken off of television for approximately three weeks in January, which he said was a result of contracting COVID-19.
Lee then paused the discussion to address some rude remarks that were made towards Mia Yim, Lee’s fiancee and fellow WWE Superstar. Lee explained that Yim was blamed by some fans for “giving him COVID,” but he said she actually did him a lot of good during that time.
“Were not for her, I don’t know how things would have gone, to be honest. I contracted COVID, she did not, actually, for about three weeks, and the only reason that she did contract it was because she refused to not be there and take care of me. And unfortunately, that ended up costing her an opportunity in the Royal Rumble, but that was a chance she was willing to take. At the end of the day, I am grateful to her and it’s unfortunate that some of you are ungrateful because the reality is there’s no telling how things would have gone without her assistance.”
Lee continued, noting that he came back for one match before he was told that he got a call saying something was ‘off’ with his bloodwork. He says some people might have experienced a similar situation where there’s inflammation in the heart or lungs, and his was in the heart. He said that led to some scary times, and he was banned from any kind of training and physical exertion outside of a light walk.
“There was a fear that doing more than that, there was a chance that I could just up and pass away. So, for three or four months, this was the case and I had several MRIs on my heart—by the way, I don’t fit in those machines, it was terrible, my shoulders struggled with that—but we did what we had to do with that. So, this became a fight against death, so to speak, and it took up until the company sent me to Pittsburgh to get looked at and it was to the point where I was about to have to undergo genetic testing, all sorts of things, because it was thought that there’s the potential that I could have a heart disease of sorts.”
Lee said the first MRI was bad and his second was worse, but eventually, his health improved and the inflammation went away, and he ultimately got cleared after that visit to try and get into some kind of shape. He says it took some time to figure out and it wasn’t even certain he’d be back on WWE TV in Dallas (the first WWE RAW event with fans in 2021), but he greatly appreciates the support from his fans.
“At the end of the day, I don’t really know what’s next. The idea for me is, I fought the battle that mattered the most and I’m healthy, and at the end of the day, that’s all I can really ask for. It’s all my family can ask for, and now, we fight to make the most of what we can do in this industry and we just move forward. Isn’t that what I always say? Forward march, the grind continues, it’s forever. We fought death, I don’t mind fighting anybody else. We move forward and I guess we continue to show exactly what it means to be Limitless.”
Lee has worked at least one match each week that he’s been back since returning as Bobby Lashley’s surprise opponent in Dallas on July 19. Lee has split wins with Karrion Kross on RAW, and won two dark matches this week against Austin Theory (at SmackDown) and Chico Adams on RAW.
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