Substance abuse is a problem that professional wrestling has dealt with for many years. Although it isn’t as prevalent in the industry today as it was in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, substance abuse has ruined as many careers as injuries – if not more.
The life of a wrestler is long, hard and lonely with time spent on the road while also taking bumps on a nightly basis. Some can’t deal with this and get hooked to one substance or the other to help with the nights spent in a hotel and the daily bruises a little easier.
Drugs and substances like alcohol, painkillers, steroids, HGH, oxycodone and cocaine have been prevalent in the industry for decades and ruined countless careers. Quite a few of the wrestlers in this article had their lives tragically end because of substance abuse.
5: Jeff Hardy
Jeff Hardy started off as a tag-team wrestler but his popularity saw him eventually rise to the main-event. Jeff is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and could have ascended to the main-event slot sooner and could have stayed there longer if it hadn’t been for his well-documented issues with drugs and substance abuse.
Jeff rose to fame as part of Team Xtreme along with his brother Matt and quickly became a fan favourite. He went on to facing The Undertaker for the World Championship in a ladder match on Raw but was released soon after in 2003 because of erratic behaviour, drug use and refusal to go to rehab.
Hardy eventually signed for TNA but his drug problems continued. He famously main-evented 2011’s Victory Road PPV completely hopped up on drugs to the extent that Sting had to end the match within 2 minutes with a Scorpion Death Drop because Hardy was completely out of it.
He returned to WWE between 2006 and 2009 where he rose to the main-event briefly before asking to leave to heal up injuries.
Jeff could have been a bonafide main-eventer for WWE but his drug problems and arrests have always held him back. In WWE’s current PG Era, they simply can’t trust Jeff to stay clean, which is one of the reasons why WWE isn’t getting him back.
4: Luna Vachon
Luna Vachon was born to a famous wrestling family who discouraged her from pursuing wrestling as a career because she was a woman. Luna wasn’t discouraged and followed her dream. She wrestled from various promotions for 8 years before signing with the WWE in 1993.
Even though she never won a WWE Women’s Championship, Vachon was one of the top female wrestlers of the 90’s. She started her WWE career managing a young Shawn Michaels, which led to a feud with Sherri Martel. Vachon then moved on to feud with Alundra Blayze, who she’d feuded with before signing for WWE.
Vachon stayed in WWE till 2000 but WWE never really trusted her because of her addictions to various drugs. She was a skilled wrestler but her personal demons always held her back in the eyes of the management.
After leaving the WWE, she went to rehab twice – sponsored by the WWE on both occasions but sadly, she could never quit. She died in 2010 from an overdose of oxycodone and benzodiazepine.
3: Kerry Von Erich
A member of the illustrious and tragic Von Erich wrestling family, Kerry one of 6 brothers – the children of Dallas wrestling legend and promoter of World Class Championship Wrestling, Fritz Von Erich. Kerry was the most accomplished and famous of all the Von Erich’s but his career was another what if.
Kerry got hooked to drugs from an early age and was arrested on his way back from his honeymoon carrying a large amount of pills, drugs and cocaine. However, Kerry life was scarred by the 1984 death of his brother David. What drove Kerry’s habit over the edge was his 1986 motorcycle accident which led to his foot getting amputated which led to Kerry living and wrestling with a prosthetic for the rest of his life.
The pain from the amputation and injury, however, led to Kerry’s drug habit becoming uncontrollable. Kerry signed with WWE in 1990 and was immediately given the Intercontinental Championship but his WWE career didn’t go anywhere because of his ever-increasing dependence on drugs. He left the WWE 1992 with his substance abuse problems getting worse.
Kerry succumbed to his demons in 1993, taking his own life in his father’s ranch in Texas. Bret Hart later recalled Kerry telling him that he wanted to join his late brothers and that they were calling out to him.
2: Sunny
Sunny was the original diva. She is also regarded by some as one of the best managers in WWE history – even though her career would end up going off the road due to substance abuse issues.
After starting her career in Jim Cornette’s Smoky Moutain Wrestling, she joined WWE managing her high-school boyfriend Chris Candido and Tom Pritchard – The Bodydonnas. The Bodydonnas went on to win the WWE Tag-Team Championships at Wrestlemania and Sunny’s popularity shot through the roof.
She was AOL’s most downloaded woman of 1996 and won PWI’s Manager of the Year award for 1996, becoming the first woman to ever win the award. Sunny then moved on from the Bodydonnas and Candido to manage Farooq, The Godwinns and the Smoking Gunns in quick succession before becoming a crossover star after appearing on Entertainment Tonight and MTV’s Singled Out.
Sunny also hosted a lot of WWE’s shows at the time and also managed the Legion of Doom in 1998. However, she was eventually fired from the WWE for her out of control addiction to painkillers. Sunny was never really able to quit her habits and even though she appeared on ECW and WCW, she never reclaimed her popularity – her career getting derailed by her drug habit and erratic behaviour right when she was about to break out into superstardom. Sable’s arrival didn’t help either.
Her addiction reached its peak in 2012 when she was arrested 5 times. She recently appeared in a pornographic movie but needless to say, she’ll probably spend a part of the money continuing to fuel her drug habit.
1: Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts
Jake Roberts was one of the biggest stars in wrestling in the 90s but his demons got the better of his career just as it was reaching its peak. Accompanied by his pet snake Damien and his chilling personality, Jake was one of the top heels in 90s wrestling.
Jake could have easily been a main-eventer in the WWE but his addiction to alcohol and drugs stopped WWE management from pushing him to the very top. After leaving the WWE due to his issues, Jake appeared at intoxicated at several independent wrestling shows and his substance abuse eventually saw him get separated from his family.
WWE tried sending Jake to rehab but he just kept falling off the wagon until his old friend Diamond Dallas Page eventually took him in and helped him get sober – as seen in the documentary “The Resurrection of Jake the Snake”.
Jake suffered one of the most famous downward spirals in wrestling but unlike some, he’s healthy and sober today. His career may not have reached the heights it was capable of but at least Jake is alive and healthy today.
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