The WCW Conspiracy Iceberg EXPLAINED!
14. Kevin Nash Faked Heart Issues To Get Out Of Doing A Job
Kevin Nash was one of the smarter wrestlers of his day. Trace his path through the 1990s.
He went from abysmal, unfancied jobber to WWF champion in near record-setting time. He quite infamously did not draw in the role, but he was enormous and, super-rare for the era, very cool. He remained near the top of the card for the remainder of his run, which he leveraged to bag himself a massive downside guarantee in WCW. There, he was the chief beneficiary of the sea change put in motion by Eric Bischoff. He was allowed to be Kevin Nash onscreen and off, and played the game so smartly that, for a few months, he booked the show. It was terrible and he laughed it off live on air because he cared more about being cool than anything else. He was unflappable. Or was he?
Nash was scheduled to face the Giant at Starrcade 1997. Nash had proclaimed himself the one true giant of WCW, and the Giant stepped up to prove him wrong. The match was cancelled; when (over)-celebrating Christmas, Nash, drunk on anything nearby he could grab and having just ingested several pot brownies, suddenly felt very “f*cked up”, as he has mentioned before on several podcasts. The trauma of having experienced the grief of his father dying of a heart attack spooked him, and he admitted himself to hospital. After 24 hours of observation, it was revealed that his heart was fine.
Some people think that Nash faked a medical emergency to get out of a job, which might sound very Nash, but come on. He couldn’t fake chest pains and also do whatever he wanted at all times with a cocky shrug at the same time, could he? Those things can’t both be true. Also, the match was simply postponed until the next pay-per-view, and Nash won.
It’s an easy leap to make, but Nash wouldn’t have had to jump through those hoops himself.