Rico Constantino hopeful for wrestling return following medical treatment
Rico Constantino opened up about his health issues and diagnosis, despite which he remains hopeful to make an in-ring comeback in the future.
Constantino discussed his health issues with Chris Van Vliet on the Insight Podcast. He was diagnosed with DVT (Deep vein thrombosis) in March and put on blood thinner and another medical evaluation led to the discovery of a blockage on the left side of his heart.
“It was great and not until this March, but last March I was doing great in the gym, everything. And Joe Matthews is a promoter, brought me to New York and my fiance has never been to New York.”
“He dropped us off at the airport. Three hours delay. And so by the time I hit my seat, I was exhausted and it’s five and a half hours to get back to Phoenix and I didn’t get up once, so I developed DVT. That’s blood clot in the legs.I got one more in my femoral but what other one that’s more dangerous is I got one in my popliteal artery which is harder to get rid of and it was causing me pain behind the leg and stuff like that. Since then I’ve been on a new blood thinner and the pain behind the legs gone away.”
“I go for an ultrasound next month to see if all of it’s gone away. And in that, within that they were getting my physicals and stuff like that. They found a small blockage on the left side of my heart so I’m going through that now and my sleep apnea returned so now I do AC pap machine at night.”
Given his current medical situation, Constantino proclaimed he is retired from wrestling. However, if the blockage and health issues are cleared, he is ready to get back into the ring, ideally for a tag team bout.
“I would, yeah. Yep, as soon as I get into ring shape, I would. And it won’t take me long. Yeah, I’d love to. And one of the bigger promotions and stuff like that. I’d love to do a tag match. Not ready to do singles yet. I would love a tag match.”
Constantino discussed starting his wrestling career at the age of 38. He also recalled his WWE debut in 2002 as Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo’s hairstylist. He was released barely a couple of years later by WWE.
In 2024, Constantino made a special AEW appearance at WrestleDream Zero Hour to manage MxM Collection.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.