Former WWE Star Returning To Wrestling After Dealing With Bad Case Of COVID-19
Former WWE Superstar Mojo Rawley (Dean Muhtadi) is returning to pro wrestling.
Rawley has been away from the ring since WWE released him on April 15 of last year, which came after 10 months of inactivity. He has made a few signing appearance since WWE released him, but that's about it as far as pro wrestling goes.
The former WWE 24/7 Champion and 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner took to Instagram today and announced that he is making his return to the squared circle.
Rawley noted that he caught a bad case of COVID-19 just over 1.5 years ago, and almost died because of how bad his lungs were. He said he's still not quite 100%, but he's getting better, and has kicked up his training a notch. Rawley did not say when or where he will be returning to the ring at, but he's planning a comeback to the sport.
"I've been asked a ton about when I'm coming back to wrestling or if I'm officially retired, so let me go ahead and answer that now," he said. "About 19 months ago, I got COVID extremely badly. I had to go to the hospital, I almost died, and my lungs were just in really bad shape, so much so that in the beginning I couldn't have any extra pressure on my lungs or else it would suffocate me. I couldn't even speak for days on end because I couldn't get enough air in to talk. Maybe the scariest part of the whole thing was the fact that the doctors had no idea what to say because it was so new, but fast forward 19 months later, and I'm not quite 100 percent, but I'm getting pretty close. My training has been kicked up and I'm feeling good enough to announce, officially, that I'm coming back to wrestling, baby! COVID thought it got me, but it must have forgot... I stay hyped!"
He captioned the video with, "To everyone that knew about this beforehand, thank you for your discretion and allowing me to announce on my terms. It has been an extremely up and down 19 months. There's been days I've felt normal, there's been days I couldn't breathe. The only constant has always been that I STAY HYPED!!!! Not 100% yet but close enough to announce: I am coming back!"
Rawley has not wrestled since losing to current RAW Tag Team Champion Chad Gable on the June 15, 2020 edition of SmackDown.
There's no word on if Rawley has had talks with WWE or AEW, or any other promotions, but we will keep you updated. You can see his full Instagram video below: