Chelsea Green is back inside the ring, but the road to getting there was much more serious than fans realized.
Speaking with TMZ’s Inside the Ring, the former WWE Women’s United States Champion detailed her years-long battle with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), the frightening medical emergency that finally led to heart surgery, and the emotional recovery that followed. Despite everything she went through, Green made it clear there was never a point where she considered giving up wrestling.
Green explained that doctors struggled for years to diagnose her condition because they could never catch one of her episodes while connected to an EKG. That finally changed during WrestleMania week while she was signing autographs at WWE World. After explaining how difficult it had been to get a diagnosis, Green recalled the moment everything changed.
“When we caught it, it was actually WrestleMania week. I was at the WrestleMania Superstore, the WWE World, and I was sitting doing a signing. I hadn’t had an energy drink, I hadn’t been drinking coffee. I was just sitting there relaxing… and my heart rate jumped up to 228 beats per minute at a resting state.”
“It stayed like that for well over 10 minutes, probably just under 15. We were able to get the paramedics to come and do an EKG. That is basically how we finally were able to catch it and book emergency SVT ablation surgery.”
Green admitted one of her biggest fears was suffering an attack during a WWE match, knowing she had no way of predicting whether it would stop on its own. After explaining how dangerous prolonged episodes could become, she revealed why wrestling with the condition had become such a frightening possibility.
“That was the fear. I cannot be in the ring in front of 10 or 20,000 people and go into tachycardia and still finish a match. The risk of death is obviously huge.”
The surgery itself proved even more traumatic than she expected. Green revealed doctors woke her up while they were still operating so they could intentionally trigger another episode and verify the procedure had corrected the problem. Describing the experience, Green said it stayed with her long after she left the hospital.
“When I came out of it, I had weird PTSD of being in that surgery and being woken up while still on the table and having them still operate.”
“They wake you up, they strap you down… and they flush your IV with a medication that makes your heart speed up. That exact feeling that I would get at the height of my SVT is what I felt immediately.”
Although the physical recovery went well, Green said the emotional recovery required therapy because the experience left her dealing with nightmares. Reflecting on the months since surgery, she explained how much things have improved.
“The waking up in surgery traumatized me more than I thought it would… there are a lot of nightmares that I have about it.”
“Now we’re a couple months out… I feel good. I feel better than I ever did before. I’m not getting the tachycardia attacks the way I used to.”
Even after facing a potentially life-threatening heart condition, Green said retirement was never part of the conversation. Explaining why she never thought about stepping away from WWE, Green delivered one of the interview’s strongest remarks.
“Look, at this point, I’ve broken my nose five times, I broke my collarbone, I broke my ankle, I broke my arm three times. Like there’s nothing that’s going to stop me from wrestling unless I was dead.”
Green is now back on SmackDown and preparing for another major opportunity at SummerSlam. After years of unanswered questions, she says the surgery finally gave her peace of mind and allowed her to move forward without worrying about when another episode might strike.
What did you think about Chelsea Green’s story and her decision to continue wrestling after everything she endured? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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