Keith Lee Reveals Why He Was Off WWE TV Earlier This Year
Keith Lee has lifted the lid on his recent absence from WWE.
The former NXT star recently returned to Monday Night RAW having been absent since February.
Lee’s absence had been the cause of much consternation among fans as there has been little comment from either side about the Superstar’s disappearance from TV.
Lee had been scheduled to appear at WWE Elimination Chamber but was reportedly pulled from the show for undisclosed health issues. Lee was replaced in the match by John Morrison who was pinned by Riddle as he won the United States Championship from Bobby Lashley.
Speaking in a new video posted to his YouTube channel, Keith Lee addressed his absence. He first explained how he contracted COVID in January, before praising his fiancee Mia Yim.
“As some of you know toward the end of January I missed around three weeks of TV. At that time I had contracted COVID. And actually before I go ahead, let me point out, because I saw some disturbing and rude remarks toward Mia Yim, some stating that it was her fault that I was gone. Some stating that that she gave me COVID and what have you.”
“Let me 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 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’m grateful to her, and it’s unfortunate that some of your are ungrateful as the reality is, there’s no telling how things would have gone without her assistance.”
Lee then explained how he came back to WWE for one match against Riddle, where he was informed the next day that there was something off with his 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. There was a fear that doing more than that, there was a chance that I could just up and pass away.”
“For three or four months that was kind of the case, and I had several MRI’s on my heart… this became a fight against death, so to speak. It took up until the company sent me to Pittsburgh to get looked at, it was at the point that I was going to have to undergo genetic testing and all of those kind of things because it was thought that there was the potential that I could have a heart disease of sorts.”
Lee explained that waiting that amount of time allowed the inflammation in his heart to go down and return to normal. This was despite the first MRI being “bad” and the second being “worse.” The former NXT Champion detailed how things did improve, leaving him cleared to train.
“It wasn’t even certain that I was going to show up in Dallas, in terms of on TV.”
“I don’t even know what’s next for me. The idea for me is that I fought the battle that mattered the most and and I’m healthy, and that’s all I can 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.”
“We fought death, I don’t mind fighting anybody else.”
After losing his comeback match to WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, Keith Lee has since exchanged victories with NXT Champion Karrion Kross.
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