As Richards was going through it all, experiencing tremendous pain and hitting something of a personal low point, he didn’t let his pride or ego stop him from keeping people updated despite some reservations. Ultimately, he’s so thankful for that.

“Going back to the beginning, morning, like late January … I had one of the best workouts,” he continued before quipping that must have been a sign of the jinx that was coming. “But my back was a little stiff.”

Obviously, after a decades-long career in professional wrestling coupled with the fact that he’s north of 50 years old, that isn’t too uncommon. And then things got significantly worse.

“About three hours after my workout, I was completely stuck right in this chair that we’re talking to each other in right now,” he explained. “I could not get up. My back was completely at the time thought locked out, and my wife literally had to come home and peel me out of this chair.”

From there, Richards’ wife physically moved him into bed, gave him a heating pad, and they hoped for the best. The opposite happened.

“Then, it just progressively got worse within seconds — not minutes, not — I mean literally. It just accelerated … From 9 AM till about 12:15 PM, my entire world, my entire life just completely changed.”

A diagnosis didn’t arrive immediately, and by the time it did things were already significantly worse.