On Monday, 2-time World Champion Vader underwent successful open heart surgery. His son updated his status after the procedure, but now the legendary big man has personally reached out to his fans.
Just a day after being on the operating table, Vader posted a message revealing he was in a fair amount of discomfort but still in good spirits.
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Fear no Man Feel no Pain!!!! I am sorry to say the feel no pain is a bunch of BS. Worst pain I’ve ever been in, even worse than getting hit in the back with a shovel by @RealMickFoley.
— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) March 27, 2018
A day before the surgery, Vader discussed his grave medical condition in an interview with Bill Apter.
“I literally have 10 blood vessels that are clogged, over 90 percent of my heart. I guess just to put it mildly I’m a walking time bomb. I went in for a routine visit… I was having chest pains. And I go into see him (his doctor), and he says you need to go into the hospital. I go ‘Oh god, when? In the next couple of weeks? I’ve got bookings and I’ve got this and that. He says ‘No, right now.’ So he basically gave me some injectable blood thinners right then.”
The 62-year-old said those blood thinners have been what’s kept him from having a heart attack in the 10 days he’s been in the hospital.
Vader went onto say that despite a number of ominous signs that his heart was in bad shape, he believed that he was still healthy.
“Here’s the deal, I was afraid,” Vader said. “I said, ‘Hey, my heart feels great. I’m wrestling, I’m riding the bike 30 minutes hard. There’s no pain, I’m fine.’ Well guess what, I wasn’t fine. I had blockage, he said the type of blockage that you, over 90 percent in 10 arteries started 15 years ago. So let’s say you came in 10 years, even eight years ago and got checked out and found some blockage. We could’ve gone in there with a catheter, basically stuck a cable into my groin and worked it up through my stomach and cleaned that out.”
Following a two-season career in the NFL, Vader went on to work for the AWA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, WCW, WWF and All-Japan Pro Wrestling between 1985 and 2002, winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Heavyweight Championship three times each.
Vader last appeared on WWE television in 2012, first in a squash match against Health Slater on the June 11 episode of Monday Night Raw and again on the 1000th episode of Raw on July 23. In 2016 he inducted Stan Hansen into the WWE Hall of Fame
