WWE legend The Undertaker forced to have emergency heart surgery as wife Michelle McCool reveals 'terrifying' ordeal

WWE legend The Undertaker was forced to undergone heart surgery just days after Wrestlemania earlier this year.

The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway, retired back in 2020 after one of the most legendary careers in sports entertainment.

He had been a staple piece of WWE for a number of decades and has since continued to give back to WWE through his Six Feet Under podcast and working in an ambassadorial role for the company.

Speaking on the podcast, his wife Michelle McCool admitted she had been emotional during her own WWE Hall of Fame induction in April.

The Undertaker had inducted McCool into the Hall of Fame as part of Wrestlemania 41.

McCool admitted she had been emotional due to her husband's heart problems, which she labelled 'terrifying', adding that he had undergone surgery the day after they had returned from Las Vegas. 

'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,' McCool said.

'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 Undertaker then admitted 'I wasn’t supposed to go to Vegas.'

'You weren’t supposed to go anywhere,' McCool responded. '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.'

McCool explained that routine tests in March had flagged problems with his heart, with follow-up checks revealed he had likely been in chronic atrial fibrillation (AFib) – a heart rhythm problem - for some time.

The Undertaker’s only symptoms had been an occasional breathlessness.

McCool added that the Undertaker had spent four nights in hospital with an ejection fraction – the measure of blood the heart pumps per beat – of just 30 per cent.

He again suffered from AFib after returning home from hospital, leading him to be readmitted two days later.

McCool added that her husband’s heart problems have been resolved following surgery.