In 2007, Konnan underwent a successful kidney transplant surgery. Sadly, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio is reporting that the WCW legend needs a second kidney transplant.
Konnan doesn’t currently need dialysis, but it could be necessary eventually. Right now, he is on a kidney waiting list in the United States that is 7 years long, so he is looking at getting the procedure done in Mexico. It is possible that he has already found a doner.
This is especially scary now as not too long ago he underwent a successful heart surgery caused by his fight with Covid in February of last year.
During an interview with Wrestling Inc. in 2018, Konnan spoke with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor, Nick Hausman, about his prior health issues:
“I feel like I just want to say ‘goodbye’ to the fans as a [pro] wrestler, as an active wrestler,” Konnan said at the time. “I just want to be able to say ‘goodbye’ on my terms because 10 years ago, I had to have hip surgery. I had a hip replacement and when they went in to do my hip replacement, my kidneys were damaged, so I had to get a kidney replacement, a kidney transplant, and a hip replacement.
“And, bro, I was in really bad health and I hadn’t wrestled in 10 years. So all-of-a-sudden, I retired because I was hurt or disabled and everybody’s like, ‘well, what happened?’ So I just want to kind of like go out on my own [terms] and be able to say, ‘goodbye’ to everybody one last time.”
Konnan went on to work several matches in 2018 and 2019 including in the Copa TripleMania match at AAA TripleMania XXVII in August of 2019. So it is possible that if everything goes well, we could see him involved in wrestling after he is fully healed from his transplant surgery.
