Tristen Nash, the son of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Kevin Nash, died at the age of 26 last week, and Kevin says alcohol abuse played a role Tristen’s health issues.
Nash opened up about his son’s death during the latest episode of his “Kliq This” podcast. He revealed that Tristen suffered a seizure last Tuesday and went into cardiac arrest.
“He was basically dead in his room on the floor with the EMT working on him. They got him back and got him in the ambulance and they tried to save his life,” Nash said, as transcribed by Michael Schrute of of WrestlingNews.co. “So to the people at Halifax hospital, doctors and nurses, I thank you.”
Nash said the incident took place less than a week after both he and his son decided to quit drinking alcohol. He said the breaking point came when Tristen, who had recently begun working on Nash’s podcast, drank several beers while they were recording an episode of the show. Nash said he was angry about that because Tristen had an incident earlier in the year “where he was hospitalized for almost 60 days.”
While he did not go into specifics, Nash indicated that Tristen’s struggles with alcoholism contributed to his death.
“This is my cross to bear. It’s alcoholism,” he said. “It took one of my dearest friends. It took Scott (Hall). And now it’s taken my son.
“When you look back at things, it’s like, so he wasn’t feeling good. So we were kind of, my wife and I were just kind of like waiting on him hand and foot. We knew he was trying to (quit drinking). One of the things that if you WebMD that, one of the things of cold turkey is that you have an increased risk of having a seizure.”
As Nash mentioned, fellow New World Order founding member Scott Hall died in March. Hall, who would have turned 64 last Thursday, had been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol.
Nash said fellow wrestling legend Ric Flair reached out to him after Tristen died. Nash felt that Flair, whose son Reid died of a drug overdose at age 25, could help him more than “some therapist that is going to look at me and not be able to look past my tattooed arm.”
Tristen was the only son of Nash and Tamara McMichael. Some notable wrestlers shared their condolences on social media after hearing last week that Tristen had died.
