In an emotional and candid reveal, WWE Hall of Famer Michelle McCool shared on the Six Feet Under podcast that her husband, The Undertaker, quietly went through a frightening health scare in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania 41. The WWE legend, real name Mark Calaway, ended up undergoing heart surgery the morning after the event.

McCool explained how difficult it was to put on a brave face during such a tense time. “I think it’s important for people to know some of the details. I felt that when people would come up to congratulate me and ask how I was doing, I was almost in tears. I would say I’m okay, but they could tell I wasn’t. They thought it was probably just because of the speech, but it was because of the heart issues you had been having weeks prior, which we found out by the grace of God. It ended up being terrifying. The day we got home from WrestleMania, the next morning at 6 a.m., we were at the hospital for heart surgery.”

The former Women’s Champion detailed the internal struggle she faced during this period, especially with Calaway trying to keep the situation quiet. “You weren’t supposed to go anywhere. You didn’t want me to tell anybody. I really didn’t fair to me. Not fair to me. Not fair. We were in the hospital for four nights, two weeks before WrestleMania. Yeah, you weren’t supposed to go. That’s that old school mentality. I’m not mad at it, because I’d probably be the same patient, but it was terrifying. I couldn’t focus on anything else. All I wanted to focus on was you, your heart, getting you in with the best cardiologist, which we eventually did, but that took a lot of phone calls, several nights in the hospital, lots of doctor visits, and by the grace of God, yes, you were here, but out of the words of the doctor himself, it could have turned out badly, have we not found it that day.”

The health issue came to light after McCool scheduled a routine heart scan for Calaway in January. Though the test was initially refused in March despite his resting heart rate sitting around 140, McCool pushed for further evaluation. What followed was a diagnosis of chronic atrial fibrillation (AFib), which had gone undetected due to a lack of typical symptoms. A brief attempt at treatment with medication failed, leading to an emergency room visit where doctors found his heart’s ejection fraction had dropped to just 30 percent.

Despite a cardioversion procedure to restore his rhythm, the condition returned within days. Calaway, ever the professional, downplayed his condition and tried to carry on through WrestleMania weekend, but McCool remained worried due to his fluctuating heart rate and low blood pressure. Fortunately, after surgery and proper medical care, she reports that The Undertaker is now doing well.