Summary

Luchasaurus says the illness that took him off AEW television in September 2024 became far more serious than a lingering cold.

While speaking with Chris Jericho on *Talk Is Jericho*, Luchasaurus recalled that he was preparing to travel for Grand Slam when he decided something felt wrong and stayed home. He said the situation escalated quickly, with doctors eventually diagnosing pneumonia in both lungs.

The absence came in the middle of his storyline with Christian Cage, who had been calling him Killswitch. Luchasaurus did not return to AEW television until August 2025, first reprising the Killswitch role before later aligning again with Jack Perry under the Luchasaurus name.

Quote from Luchasaurus

"We had no road to wrap it up because, creatively, everyone wanted something different, and I ended up getting sick. I got pneumonia, which took me into a situation where I was in bed with oxygen for a month. It got to the point where I was about to go out the door for Grand Slam. I was about to hop on the plane, and I had this cold that wouldn’t go away. Something inside of me was like, ‘I can’t get on that plane. I feel weird.’ I texted Doc (Sampson) and he told me to stay home. They covered for me creatively that week. They gave me antibiotics, but it wasn’t getting better. All of a sudden, I felt really bad one day. We thought it was maybe a pulmonary embolism. It was scary to think that."

Luchasaurus later went on to say:

"They were like, ‘You actually have pneumonia, but it’s spread to both lungs. We can give you these meds and just pray.’ I started learning about how fragile your lungs are. (Brodie Lee) started with something similar to what I had, I’m not sure of all the details, but I do know that he ended up going on the ventilator, and that’s what you don’t want to have happen. If you panic on the ventilator, you blow your lungs, and everything is done. I never got to the ventilator. They just needed oxygen to get my oxygen back up and for the antibiotics to work. I was cleared within three months of it, but creatively, me and him [Jack Perry] found ourselves both at home for eight more months even though we were both healthy."

What It Means For Luchasaurus In AEW

Luchasaurus being medically cleared within three months, but still remaining off television well beyond that point, helps explain why the Christian Cage story stalled when it did. It also adds more context to how AEW eventually brought him back into the orbit of Christian, Adam Copeland, and Jack Perry before restoring the Luchasaurus name a month later.

The comments also frame his 2024 absence as a major health scare rather than a routine injury layoff. For AEW fans, that makes the stop-and-start nature of his return easier to understand, especially with Luchasaurus also currently sidelined by a shoulder injury.

Sources

Luchasaurus while speaking on the Talk Is Jericho podcast