ESPN is reporting ex-WWE and WCW Champion Kevin Nash will donate his brain and spinal cord to benefit CTE research after his death.
Nash told ESPN why he decided to make the donation, saying:
“Chris Nowinski started the program and I’ve had several concussions throughout my life and had scans done and stuff and knew that somewhere down the line, I’ve already had short-term memory problems,” Nash said. “I decided to go ahead. The only way you can diagnose this is after you’re dead.
I went ahead and gave my spinal cord and my brain to the study and I carry a card in my wallet that my brain and spine goes to them. It’s in my will. Of course, my wife’s aware of it.”
Nash added that he’s been knocked out during a match a few times and described the feeling:
“Several times. Yes, several times. You’d flash and just wake up and are so disoriented and then you come back and you’re nauseous and you have a headache and you have a headache and you can’t focus on the TV. But you just think, the old school is that you got your bell rung. No, dude, your brain got slammed against your skull.”
Nash talked about the risks involved in any contact sports, saying:
“I always knew when I got involved in this. I got upended in a basketball game and landed on my head and got knocked out. Anything you do in sports, go ice skate and fall and bang your head. It doesn’t take much for your brain to bang off the inside of your skull.
Anything you do in life that’s athletic that has any degree of contact whatsoever there’s that risk that you could be injured or have a concussion. I don’t blame anything except it is my endeavors.”
Former WWE star and Concussion Legacy Foundation’s Chris Nowinski also commented on Nash’s decision, telling ESPN:
“It’s so powerful when icons like Kevin Nash are willing to pledge their brain for research and talk about it publicly. Brain donation is really driving our growing knowledge of CTE and the long-term effects of brain trauma. And so I’m hoping that we solve this problem before Kevin’s time comes but Kevin announcing this means that other families are aware that this research is important and that if they lose somebody, they may think of the concussion legacy foundation.”
