Paul Heyman says a hospital stay led to his noticeably intense tan during a WWE RAW appearance.
WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman was the latest guest on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast. During the conversation, Vliet asked him the story behind the noticeable tan he had for a few weeks. Heyman joked that he was competing with Bron Breakker over who would look more “ridiculous” with their self-tan.
However, he went on to reveal that he needed it to cover up how “god-awful” he looked, as he was hospitalized due to a severe medical crisis at the time.
“I was competing with Bron Breakker as to who could look more ridiculous with the self-tanner that we were applying,” Paul Heyman joked. “Actually the time that I did that, I needed it because I looked god-awful at the time. Here’s something I’ve never revealed publicly, and it just goes back to how you approach this industry or performing in and of itself.
“I know the exact episode that you’re talking about, because it’s a meme now, where I crashed out when I was talking to Jey Uso, because Jey Uso said I screwed over the Tribal Chief, and it’s like, ‘No, it’s always my fault, it’s always me, me, me, but not this time, I’m not the one, I’m not the betrayer, I’m not the double crosser…’
“That crash out was very real to me, because at the time, I always get sick right after WrestleMania, because I wear myself so down going into WrestleMania, so I always get sick. I always end up with a sinus infection, or bronchitis, or something, inner ear infection. Something goes wrong with me the week or two after WrestleMania, every single year,” Paul Heyman continued.
Paul Heyman suffered from a severe urinary tract infection
Paul Heyman revealed that he got a urinary tract infection after passing a kidney stone. He had to be hospitalized after the infection began spreading through his system. However, he says he asked the doctors to release him by Sunday night so he could travel for WWE RAW.
“At that particular moment I got a kidney stone, or several kidney stones, and in passing the kidney stone it was so sharp it cut my urinary tract, and besides cutting my urinary tract, it left my urinary tract in a position to where I could catch an infection, and man, the last place you want an infection like that is in the urinary tract, because it’s tough to get rid of,” Heyman said.
“So now the urinary tract inflames, presses up against the prostate, irritates the prostate, the infection now starts to spread, and now the infection is in the urinary tract and in the prostate, and it’s spreading through my system. I end up in the hospital. Shout out to White Plains Hospital, because, wow, they took wonderful care of me. I end up in the hospital, and all I’m asking is, I have to be out of here by Sunday night, because I have to be on the jet on Monday to go to Raw.
He checked himself out of the hospital against doctors’ advice
Speaking further, Paul Heyman noted that he repeatedly checked himself out against medical advice to charter private jets to WWE shows, and performed with a catheter and a PIC line hidden beneath his clothes. He didn’t tell anyone about his condition, continued to travel, and then checked back into the hospital over the following weeks. Heyman described the entire ordeal as the most miserable experience of his life next to trying to book the rebirth of ECW in 2006.
“They’re looking at me saying, ‘You have a very serious infection.’ I mean, they’re bringing in people from infectious diseases, because I’m allergic to penicillin, number one, and number two, any antibiotics that they’re giving me, none of them are working. Infection is getting worse. My temperature is rising, and the effects of the infection are taking hold, but I won’t miss work. So I checked myself out that Monday morning. I chartered a jet on my own to Raw, did Raw, flew on the WWE jet back to White Plains, checked myself back into the hospital, didn’t tell anybody.
“Meanwhile, when I did that scene, and for a couple weeks afterwards, when I would jet myself to Raw, take the jet back home, check myself back into the hospital, when I did that scene, I had a catheter and a PIC line. Next to trying to book the rebirth of ECW in 2006, perhaps the most miserable experience of my life. But there was work to be done, and I wasn’t going to miss work, especially because we had just launched The Vision, and to miss television, then would be abdicating my responsibility to that story,” Heyman said.
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