AEW star Rebel recently revealed that she has been diagnosed with terminal ALS. The announcement came after months of health struggles that began in 2024.
Last week, Rebel explained that doctors first discovered a lung mass after she was hospitalized. She later went through multiple treatments and surgery in 2025 before finally receiving the ALS diagnosis.
Following the news, AEW commentator Tony Schiavone opened up about how difficult it was for AEW to address Rebel’s condition on television.
Tony Schiavone explains AEW’s difficulty addressing Rebel’s ALS diagnosis on TV
Speaking on his What Happened When podcast, Schiavone admitted that he had not stayed in close contact with Rebel over the years before learning about her condition. He said, “You know, once I don’t see you, I’m not really good at staying in touch with you, right? You know that, so, I didn’t stay in touch with her that well, and then I discovered that she had been very sick and now has ALS. So, I thought it would be best for us to mention something about it.”
“And I did say to Tony, I said, ‘I think we need to say something about Rebel.’ You went, ‘Absolutely, good call. Absolutely.’ And I noticed there were a couple of signs in the audience, yes, for Rebel.”
Schiavone explained that the company struggled to figure out the right place to mention such emotional news.
“So, I said something to our great producer, Josh Mathews, and told Josh, I said, ‘There are a couple of signs here,’ and we were kind of wondering where to put this because it’s not a good story. It’s a downer, and where do you put it when you’re trying to hype up this guy and get excited about this person going to the ring? You don’t want to bring anything down.
“So, we found a spot and we did it on camera, and I was sincere. It was from the heart. So, she’s a great personality, as you said. She was big for us on AdFreeShows. it’s a terrible story and it just that sometimes the best people have the unfortunate things happen to them. And she’s one of the good ones. She really is.”
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