Richard Holliday gives an update on his health after surviving Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Former MLW star Richard Holliday recently returned to the independent wrestling circuit after overcoming Hodgkin's lymphoma and subsequently being granted his release from Major League Wrestling.
In a new interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, Holliday says he's feeling fantastic and is riding a high of a great few months.
"Most importantly, I’m feeling fantastic. I am just in such a great state of mind, body, spirit. I feel amazing. Every day is a blessing. It is beautiful. I feel awesome, man. I really do. It’s been a really wonderful past couple of months since everything. Everything’s a blessing. Everything is great," said "The Most Marketable Wrestler."
Talking about whether or not his health struggles will be a focal point going forward, Holliday doesn't plan on discussing his struggles constantly. However, he is aware of the community he now represents and knows there will be time to allow his story to inspire others.
"At this point, it’s one of those things where it’s not a topic where I’m going to talk about it all the time, but listen, I’m totally cognizant of what I represent and who may need to hear this," Richard said. "That is so cool for me. If I can help one person by telling my story, that’s amazing for me. In fact, I actually met a kid this past weekend in North Carolina for AML Wrestling and we chatted. Hopefully I was able to help him a little bit.
"Going back to your question, it was the unknown that was the most worrisome for me," Holliday continued. "I remember when I did that match against Hammerstone in New York for MLW, I was living in California for a month prior, and then MLW had flown me in for that show in New York. I’m leaving California just pale and frail and very odd. I didn’t feel good. I just remember getting to the arena that day and just pounding DayQuil. I’m just taking as much of it as I can. I’m telling Court, I’m like, ‘I’m okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll push through.’ Court’s like, ‘Are you okay, man? Are you sure?’ I’m like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ It’s just how we are as wrestlers. We’re just like, ‘We’ll push through. We’ll worry about everything on the backend.’"
Holiday says he was proud of his Falls Count Anywhere encounter with Hammerstone, but days after the match, he still felt ill, and that's when a series of tests led to his diagnosis.
"I ended up going out there and having a match that I was actually very proud of with Hammerstone. It was a Falls Count Anywhere match," he said. "We were all over on the roof in Melrose Ballroom. We’re fighting over people; people are looking at us. I thought the cops were gonna get called. I got thrown into a plant. You just forget about how you’re feeling and get so engulfed into everything. But then after the match and the next couple of days, man, I was just still feeling it. I was like, ‘Maybe I’m just really sick. Maybe I just got a really bad bug or something.’ Then one thing led to another and then test after test after test, and then eventually they came up with the diagnosis which they did."
Discussing his treatment, Holliday says once he got his diagnosis, he was instantly thinking of the next steps and what he could do to begin to feel better, focusing on a return to normalcy in his everyday life before zeroing in on a return to the wrestling ring.
"So once they told me, I was just like, ‘Okay, when’s everything starting?’ There was no time to think," he said. "It’s just like, ‘I’ve been feeling really bad for a long time. It’s about time you just told me what it was.’ So, let’s get through that. Boom, here’s the diagnosis. ‘What do we gotta do? What’s the prognosis behind this? What are the steps needed to take—not so much to get me back to the ring—but how do I get back to just living a normal civilian life? How do I get back to just getting back into the gym and feeling like myself and looking like myself?’ All those things, the more important things. Then the wrestling will eventually follow. I knew that.
"The doctors were so assuring to me," Holliday adds. "They were like, ‘You’re gonna be fine. Everything’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be a process. This is not like something you just snap your finger and fix, but we’re gonna do what we need to do, and you’ll get back in the ring. Don’t worry.’ I never wavered from that. I always just [thought], ‘It’ll be there. Wrestling will be there. The industry’s not going away. The business isn’t going away. I may be going away for a little bit, and that’s okay because I will be back and I will beat this.’ That was my mindset the entire time. I would allow myself M.O.A.’s—moments of anxiety. Just moments, that’s it. I would have a moment of anxiety and then get back into it. ‘Cause it’s just stay on course and do what you have to do, and then you’ll get to where you want to be, and now here I am doing the Fightful interview with you, enjoying a nice Starbucks coffee and loving life."
Richard Holliday has nothing but positive things to say about how Major League Wrestling treated him during that his treatment process. In fact, he says that he and MLW promoter Court Bauer remained close and grew closer during the ordeal, only occasionally talking about the product.
"Yeah, Court and I are actually really close. Me and Court probably got closer during the whole timeframe. We would talk wrestling, sure. But we would talk about life, talk about family, talk about the Yankees, talk about the Giants. We actually have a lot of commonality behind that, so we would just chat. He would just check up on me from time to time. I would always text him and say, ‘Hey, I saw this on MLW. I thought this looked really good.’ We would talk about the product, for sure. We’ve maintained a really good relationship. MLW was very good to me during the whole process, I guess you could say. Obviously there’s not much they could do. They can’t assist in the healing process, but they can make me feel more comfortable about it and they certainly did," Holliday said.
Richard Holliday is now taking independent bookings. He will soon be featured on GCW Crushed Up on Sunday, September 10, in Brooklyn, New York.
Fans can read Richard's thoughts on his return to the ring here.
