ECW And NWA’s Pat Kenny (Simon Diamond) Suffers Mild Stroke
Pat Kenney, best known to wrestling fans as former ECW and Impact star Simon Diamond, has a health scare this past week.
According to PWInsider, Kenney, who currently serves as the NWA's director of talent relations, suffered what he described as a mild stroke this past Friday, forcing him to be hospitalized.
PWInsider noted that Kenney was released from the hospital this past Wednesday, but that he is suffering from impaired vision and is expected to have a long recovery period ahead. As such, Kenney will miss this weekend's NWA Crockett Cup events taking place in Nashville, Tennessee; PWInsider also reported that Kyle Davis will assume Kenney's duties.
Originally beginning his career as Lance Diamond, Kenney took on the Simon Diamond persona when he joined ECW in 1998; he remained with the promotion until they closed in 2001. Simon Diamond was best known during this time for his partnerships with Johnny Swinger and later C.W. Anderson, who he continued to team with after ECW's demise.
Following ECW, Kenney had notable runs in both the early incarnation of MLW, where he and Anderson won the MLW Global Tag Team Tournament and Global Tag Team Championships in 2002 and in TNA/Impact Wrestling, where he worked on and off from 2003 to 2017. Reunited with Swinger, the duo won the NWA World Tag Team Championships in August of 2003, holding the belts for three months before dropping them to 3Live Kru (BG James, Konnan, and Ron Killings).
Working as both Simon Diamond and under his real name, Kenney continued to work in the Impact midcard before later transitioning to a backstage role in 2006. He would wrestle his last match in 2010, teaming with Swinger and Kid Kash in a losing effort against The FBI (Guido Maritato, Tony Luke, and Tracy Smothers) at TNA Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand, an ECW tribute show.
Kenney would leave Impact Wrestling for good in June of 2017. He would join NWA sometime after and became director of talent relations in April of 2021.
Wrestling Inc. would like to send their best regards to Kenney as he embarks on his recovery.