Keith Lee Explains His WWE Absence, Talks About Life-Threatening Heart Issue

Keith Lee put out a video on YouTube explaining why he missed several months of action this year.

Lee said that he contracted COVID in January, then returned after about a one month absence for one match against Riddle on February 8. The next day, he got a call saying that there was something off with his blood work and was told that he had a heart inflammation. He was told by doctors that he could do no physical activity other than light walking or he could die. After several months of testing and what he called a “fight against death,” he said that the inflammation in his heart eventually went back down to normal and he was cleared to return, then it was a matter of getting back into ring shape.

Lee returned to the ring on the July 19 episode of Raw, losing to Bobby Lashley.

A transcript of his video is below.

So as some of you know, toward the end of January, I missed about three weeks on TV. That time I had contracted COVID. And actually, before I continue, let me go ahead and point out something because I did see some disturbing and just rude remarks toward Mia Yim, some stating that it was her fault that I was gone, and some stating that she gave me COVID and what have you, and let me go ahead and clear that up right now. Were it not for her, I don’t know how things would have gone to be quite honest. I contracted COVID, she did not, actually for like 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 so, you know. At the end of the day, I’m 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.

After that, I came back for one match against Mr. Riddle and I believe that was February 8. And then the next day, I got a call saying that there was something off in my blood. Some people may have experienced this thing where there’s an inflammation in the heart or lungs. For me, it was the heart. That led to very scary times. I was basically forbidden from training or any activity outside of a light walk. So there was a fear that doing more than that, that there was a chance that I could just up and pass away. So for three or four months, this was kind of the case and I had several MRIs on my heart. By the way, I don’t fit in those machines. It was terrible and my shoulders really struggled with that. But we had to do what we had to do, right? So this became a fight against death, so to speak. 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 and all sorts of things. Because it was thought that there was a potential I could have a heart disease of sorts. Very fortunately, even though it took a long time, we waited that amount of time for that to allow the inflammation in my heart to eventually go down to normal. So even though the first MRI was bad, and then the second one was worse, over time, things got better here and there and eventually, after that visit, I was cleared to try and get back into some sort of shape. That’s where the real struggle is. It took some time, and to be honest, it wasn’t even certain that I was going to show up in Dallas, in terms of on TV.

So you know, for the people that cared, I greatly appreciate you. You guys mean a lot more than you know. 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 could really ask for. That’s all my family can ask for. And now we fight to make the most of what we can do in this industry and just move forward. Isn’t that what I always say, forward march, the grind continues, it’s forever. We fought death, so I don’t mind fighting anybody else. We move forward and I guess we continue to show exactly what it means to be limitless. Until then, stay up people.