WWE star Aurelian Smith Jr., known by his ring name Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, was in hospital for four days over a “scary” illness.
Roberts, 69, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), revealed his shock health scare on the latest episode of his podcast, The Snake Pit.
“I had a pretty scary moment last week,” the star began.
Watch the video above.
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“I got incredibly sick, and I wound up going to the hospital on Friday night, about two o’clock in the morning. Don’t remember a damn thing. It’s pretty scary.”
In the leadup, the star said his symptoms were a fever and pain in his gut.
It was discovered the Hall of Famer had come down with pneumonia, which was “not a good thing” given his COPD diagnosis.
He explained with COPD, “to get pneumonia is like you’re flirting with disaster there”.
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According to Mayo Clinic, COPD is a lung condition that can result in inflammation “inside the airways that limit airflow into and out of the lungs”.
Meanwhile pneumonia is an infection that “inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs” and can be in some cases life-threatening.
“I was in the hospital for four days, and very grateful to find out that I’ve got a couple of issues and I did not know,” he continued.
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The retired wrestler said he was found to have blood in his urine and had low iron levels from “leaking blood somewhere in my gut”.
“That’s not a good thing. Then to top it off, I got a problem with my ticker [heart],” he added.
Roberts said by going into hospital he was able to catch these health issues.
The star shared the next step is for him to undergo a couple of procedures.
“It’ll be all hunky dory then,” he said.
Aside from a cough, Roberts assured he was “doing better”.
“It’s quite the surprise, man. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a hospital. That was weird.”
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Roberts is best known for his memorable wresting career, which started in the ’70s.
He debuted in the World Wrestling Federation in 1986.
The wrestler was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.
Roberts later joined All Elite Wrestling in 2020.
In a 2010 interview with Ring The Bell Radio, the star revealed he came up with his nickname on his own after being inspired by NFL player Ken Stabler, who was called ‘The Snake’.
“I always liked the name Jake, and during that time there was a TV show called Dallas. One of the characters on that show was JR. So I came up with Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts.”
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