WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash has opened up on the tragic passing of his son Tristen Nash, who passed away on October 19 at the age of 26.
Nash noted on the latest episode of his “Kliq This” podcast that Tristen passed last Wednesday morning following a seizure caused by cardiac arrest. Nash revealed that he and Tristen had recently decided to stop drinking alcohol, but they went “cold turkey” and were not feeling well in the days leading up to the tragedy.
“The seizure caused a cardiac arrest. He was basically dead in his room on the floor with an EMT working on him and they got him back, got him in the ambulance, and tried to save his life. So, to the people at Halifax Hospital, doctors and nurses, I thank you,” Nash said.
“We both had decided that we were going to stop drinking,” he continued. “So, it was a situation where we both went cold turkey. I don’t think either of us felt great because you stop drinking coffee for a day and you get a headache. I think that we were both dealing with it but also because we’re so close to the cruise lines here, that norovirus shit is always relevant.”
Nash was asked what led to the decision to stop drinking alcohol.
“He had had a couple of incidents and we actually sat up here last Wednesday and during the course of the show, he drank four or five beers, unbeknownst to me,” Nash said.
Nash said he “got pissed” at Tristen, who had recently started working on the podcast, for drinking the beers because Tristen had issues with alcohol.
“He’d had this situation at the beginning of the year where he was hospitalized for almost 60 days. This is my cross to bear, it’s alcoholism,” Nash said.
Nash added that alcoholism took a friend of his last year, and contributed to the death of his friend, legendary WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall. Now it has taken the life of his son at just 26.
“It took Scott, and now it’s taken my son,” Nash continued, later adding, “Alcohol is such a nasty drug, and it’s a drug. Anybody out there, if you haven’t drank, you’ve probably done yourself an incredible service.”
“I have spent half my life glamorizing the rock n roll, hard-charging, hard-drinking, drug-partying, wrestling world that I grew up in and lived in and I really need to take a step back from that and go, ‘you’re part of the problem, Nash, you glamorize a lifestyle that kills people and you’ve got to stop doing that.”
Nash later talked about how Tristen had a high IQ, as well as Asperger’s syndrome.
“My son was autistic. My son was Asperger’s, my son was very highly educated, very high IQ but my son was autistic on top of all those things,” he said. “My wife and I learned so much from him because he was always exploring and investigating.”
Nash noted how several people have reached out to him, including former WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon, Vince Russo, and WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.
“Vince [Russo] and I talked on Twitter direct message. He was very, very kind,” Nash said. “I got a message, it was a Connecticut number, and it wasn’t in my phone. I said it was probably somebody from the office and I started to read it and it was Vince (McMahon). He said, ‘This is my new number, you need me, I’m here.'”
Flair, who lost his son Reid in 2013 at the age of 25, talked with Nash and gave him some good advice.
“Ric [Flair] reached out to me and I reached out, I said, ‘Can you talk?’ and he said, ‘Sure’ so I went out by the pool and said, ‘how did you do it with Reid?’ And we went over it and that’s what makes this shit work, not some therapist that is going to look at me and not be able to look past my tattooed arm or the fact that I was a mediocre wrestler. Ric gave me some really good advice,” he added
Nash later said that his son helped him get through the recording of the podcast that was released today.
“I’ve wanted to break down this whole show, he won’t let me,” Nash said. “He’s just like, ‘Dad, this is what we got to do.'”
“I was really looking forward to spending my golden years with my boy. I’ll find ways to try and stay connected,” later said.
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(H/T to F4W for the quotes)