Rikishi says his emergency surgery was “one of those things that was caught just in time”

In a video published to his YouTube channel, WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi commented on his emergency surgery from October of 2025…

“I’m great. You know, I’m not going to go into details about everything about, you know, what happened and so forth. But you know me — the one thing that I would never do is ever miss a booking, you know what I mean? For many years, that’s just a no-no for Big Kish. But for me to be down, it was an emergency type of surgery, and I’m going to leave it at that. It took about six hours to be under the knife, and I woke up feeling great. You know what I mean? I just feel like a new person. And at the end of the day, it’s kind of one of those things where, when you don’t get checked — the normal duties of yourself to go check up with your doctors and make sure you do all the A to Z — you know what I mean? I’m one of those guys that hates to go to the hospital. And it was just one of those things that was caught just in time.

With the grace of God leading the surgeons that were there that day, I’m here today to be able to sit and talk with you, and to be able to say I love you to all the fans. I woke up feeling a different way when I got wheeled back to the room in the hospital — just grateful. Things that, you know, I might have had beef with who and who back in the day — I want to make all that right. There’s so much to life than to be upset at each other. And that’s something that was in my heart when I woke up. Like, every day is not so bad after all when you’re given another chance to live. So I want to thank all the fans out there. Thank you to family and friends — close family, you know who you are. Thank you to all my real ones that are out there.”