Luchasaurus has opened up about his 2024 pneumonia diagnosis and why he was sidelined for months after being medically cleared.
In September 2024, Luchasaurus was hospitalised with double pneumonia. The star’s fiancée found him collapsed at home, and he was rushed to the hospital, where it was discovered that his blood oxygen level was below 80%. At the time, Fightful reported that doctors said he was only days away from having permanent lung damage.
When he contracted the illness, Luchasuarus – then known as Killswitch – was part of the Patriarchy faction led by Christian Cage. However, by the time he returned in August 2025, the Patriarchy had been disbanded, and Luchasurus aligned himself with Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian against Cage and Adam Copeland.
During a new interview on Talk is Jericho, Luchasaurus told Chris Jericho that there had been no way to wrap up the storyline before he fell ill. He then described how he discovered he had pneumonia in both lungs, and admitted that he feared it was something worse.
“We had no road to wrap it up because, creatively, everyone wanted something different, and I ended up getting sick. I got pneumonia, which took me into a situation where I was in bed with oxygen for a month. It got to the point where I was about to go out the door for Grand Slam. I was about to hop on the plane, and I had this cold that wouldn’t go away. Something inside of me was like, ‘I can’t get on that plane. I feel weird.’ I texted Doc (Sampson) and he told me to stay home. They covered for me creatively that week. They gave me antibiotics, but it wasn’t getting better. All of a sudden, I felt really bad one day. We thought it was maybe a pulmonary embolism. It was scary to think that.
“They were like, ‘You actually have pneumonia, but it’s spread to both lungs. We can give you these meds and just pray.’ I started learning about how fragile your lungs are. (Brodie Lee) started with something similar to what I had, I’m not sure of all the details, but I do know that he ended up going on the ventilator, and that’s what you don’t want to have happen. If you panic on the ventilator, you blow your lungs, and everything is done. I never got to the ventilator. They just needed oxygen to get my oxygen back up and for the antibiotics to work.”
Luchasaurus Was Medically Cleared 8 Months Before AEW Return
While Luchasaurus was out for almost a year, he was actually cleared within three months. The real reason for his lengthy absence was that he was not factored into storylines.
“I was cleared within three months of it, but creatively, me and him [Jack Perry] found ourselves both at home for eight more months even though we were both healthy.”
Luchasuarus is currently out of action with a shoulder injury. However, he made his latest return to AEW TV at Revolution, where he drove Jack Perry to the arena in a special Jurassic Express bus ahead of Perry’s TNT Title victory.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.
