Former WWE star Steve Blackman recently opened up about a harrowing, near-death experience with a severe illness that put his wrestling career on hold for over five years, just as he was about to sign with the company in 1989. “The Lethal Weapon” detailed the devastating physical toll and the arduous journey home from Africa that he barely survived.
A Promising Career Derailed
After a successful run in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling alongside future legends like Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit, Blackman was set to join WWE. Before starting, he honored a prior commitment to wrestle for three weeks in Africa. It was a decision that nearly cost him his life.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Blackman recounted becoming deathly ill. “They said I probably had dysentery and malaria. It was so bad. When I landed in Africa on Thursday, I weighed 267 the next Thursday, when I left the hospital… I weighed 232. I was 35 pounds lighter in six days,” he said. “I thought I was gonna die from just complete dehydration, which is pretty much where you die from with dysentery.”
After his friend Gary Albright helped get him out of the local hospital, Blackman endured a nightmarish trip home that included a nine-hour layover on a 120-degree runway in Kenya and a 12-hour layover in Amsterdam where medical staff initially refused to let him fly. “I said, ‘Look, dude, I don’t have anything contagious. If I’m going to die, I’m going to die in the States. I’m not going to make my family come halfway around the world to retrieve me,'” he recalled telling them.
Bedridden For Years
The illness left him bedridden for years. “I was two and a half years on my deathbed, another two and a half years on medicine,” Blackman said. “If I tried to do push-ups one day… I would literally stand up, crawl over, lay down, and sleep till the next day. It was so debilitating.” After finally recovering, he reconnected with Vince McMahon and was given a chance in WWE, making his debut in 1997.
Steve Blackman has since retired from wrestling and now focuses on his bail bonds business in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which he has successfully operated for the last 17 years.
