Lucha-libre legend Vampiro was recently interviewed by the Wrestling Inc. Daily to talk about his health and his upcoming documentary, Nail In The Coffin: The Fall and Rise Of Vampiro. Highlights are below.
Says he’s working on his mental health issues:
Amazing. I’ve been in therapy for about a year and a half. Really, really working on my mental health issues, the head traumas, the physical injuries and it’s been brutally difficult, but I’m advancing leaps and bounds. That guy in that movie, he doesn’t exist anymore, and I’m a 130 pounds lighter. I’m a different man.
On believing in putting in the work:
I’m grateful, and it’s because of Michael that I’ve been able to get on this journey. So the movie is a great reminder to anybody who has physical disabilities or mental health issues or the world is against them. I’m living proof that if you really really believe and you put the work in, you can overcome anything. So I’m doing amazing.
Credits his upcoming documentary for saving his life:
It was push and pull. I’ve been sick for years, for over a decade, and I had just been diagnosed, so I was at the height of my mental health issues,” Vampiro noted. “So I wasn’t able to understand where I was in the present moment. Like Michael said, two, three years almost four filming. To me, it was like a month. I can’t distinguish time. I’m still struggling with that. So I told Michael two things, three things. I said, ‘I’ve had a 40-year career. So you’ve got to come with me and see it. We can’t sit down and talk about it.’ So we spaced it out because there were specific events. There was a TV series. There was Mexico. There was this, so that’s why it wasn’t consecutive because we wanted to capture the essence in different countries and really tell a story not just hearsay or he said, she said. No, come and see it. That was one thing, and the nerves is because I was so sick. So I told Michael, ‘please don’t ask me. You do it because if you ask me, I’m going to confuse you by giving you different opinions every two minutes because I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m so protective of what I don’t know.’ I was basically dying.
How he’s drug free and on his diagnosis:
I was diagnosed with the beginnings of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. I’ve got CTE from all the concussions. 86% of my body has chronic arthritis. Some things are incurable, but I’ve been working. I’m doing alternative medicine. I’m doing a lot of meditation, a lot of spirituality. I’m completely vegan. My doctor, he’s from China, his medicine is very ancient, the massage techniques, the acupuncture. It’s just a whole other trip. I’ve lost over 100 pounds. I’ve got my brain back. It’s coming, and I’m completely drug-free like no pharmaceuticals for the pain and I’m just a different man. So it’s such a blessing to even be doing this interview, to still be alive.
Full interview is below.