THE STONE COLD TRUTH (39 page)

On my ranch with my pitbull, Sam.

39
Stone Cold on Traveling the Roads and Making the Right Decisions in Life

T
he wrestling business gets a bad rap by its critics, as they feel that our extensive travel schedule is an enemy. They say that travel is conducive to bad habits, that the bumps and bruises, and injuries, and soreness and dings to your body lead to a slew of pain medications.

To hear some people talk, the wrestling business is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s going to breed drug abuse and broken marriages. All the time spent traveling up and down the roads takes away from your family, and you can’t be the father you want to be because of your chosen profession. To me it’s no different than being a major league baseball player, who’s on the road for a hundred and sixty-two games. Basketball players, the same deal. Olympic athletes rarely have a home game. Actors go on location for months at a time. Rock bands go on world tours that last for months. I think sometimes our business takes a bad rap.

As far as I’m concerned, sports, entertainment and wrestling all fall under the same umbrella because you’re out in front of a crowd. Whether it’s a predetermined finish, a scripted play or a straight-out competitive performance, you’re in front of a crowd. That crowd is there to see you perform and the crowd is being entertained. And to get in front of that crowd, you had to travel, then you had your downtime, then you had to go somewhere else to train, work out, practice or whatever.

Being up and down the roads, with the pain and the bumps and everything that comes with it, can be grueling. But that’s true whether you’re performing in a real-deal sport or wrestling. You’re living out of a suitcase and you have a lot of time on your hands. You’re psyched up and you’re trying to come down from that crowd, so you have a couple of beers. You have a couple of drinks. Well, next night, you’re going to do the same thing. And the night after that … and the night after that. You get the point.

In WCW, we were on the road up to twenty-seven days of the month. And I knew of guys who were on the road for a hundred-something days consecutively without going home. You’re going to pick up some habits, not all of them good.

And not just because you’re a wrestler. It’s true also of football, baseball, hockey and any other professional sport. It’s true of an actor on tour. It’s true of rock ‘n’ roll bands. You come off the stage and you’re amped up because of the adrenaline and everything else. You’ve got a lot of time on your hands and a lot of energy to get rid of.

If you live a regular life and you work nine to five, which is what a lot of people do and that’s fine, you’re really not exposed to all that
stuff. But some people still develop these issues just going nine to five. I think it’s the same deal, but being on the road for too long and performing in front of a crowd tends to magnify the problem a hundred times.

I think it comes back to personal choices and how you were raised, and what your values are. I know I was raised like a million bucks and I’ve got the greatest parents in the world, but you know, I’ve done my share of stuff on the road—stuff that hasn’t always been the best thing for my health. I’ve taken plenty of prescribed pain medications. I enjoyed having more than a few beers every night.

But that’s not my parents’ fault. That was my choice and I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me. Hell, if one day I develop a liver problem because of the drinking I’ve done, I’ll look at myself in the mirror and say, “Well, you knew it was coming.” It’s not something I fear or something I think I have a problem with, but I’m also not an angel, not by any stretch.

You see some guys going out on their wives in the wrestling business. They’ve got their girlfriends in this town or that town. In the old days it was even worse than it is now. Let’s say you ran Tulsa every Monday. You didn’t live there, but you were there every Monday. You might see your girlfriend in Tulsa once a week.

The next night you’d go to Little Rock. And when you got to Little Rock, there was some other little gal who knew where you stayed—and you made sure she knew, or at least you didn’t change where you stayed to get away from her. You stayed in the Holiday Inn near the airport every time you were in Little Rock. You could easily have stayed at the Howard Johnson’s or the Sheraton or the Marriott, but the women all knew that you stay at the Holiday Inn.

But I think a lot of guys would have had the same philandering attitude if they had been working a nine-to-five job. I think it’s just some people’s nature to have a wandering eye. You see schoolteachers with wandering eyes, or lawyers or doctors or even presidents. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the divorce rate in wrestling is higher than it is in a lot of other businesses. I think it goes back to your values and what your priorities are.

The same goes for drugs, whether you’re talking about the prescription
kind or the illegal kind. There’s the same chance for abuse as in any professional sport.

The talent takes hundreds of bumps a year, hell, maybe hundreds in a month. And yes, they go and work the next day and sometimes have a prescription for a pain medication from their doctor.

I’ve got no room to talk as I’ve taken my share of pain pills with all the surgeries I’ve had, but I get off them as soon as I can. I screwed myself up with those energy drinks you get at the gym that are loaded with Ephedra, which was why I had that heart attack scare. Who knows? I might have died if I didn’t have people to call right there at the hotel.

I’ve seen the pattern that gets people in trouble. You’ve got an injury and you have to take a pain pill to control the pain so you can function. But instead of taking one pill every four hours as prescribed, you take two pills every two hours. You tell yourself that you’re a tough wrestler. You’re bigger and stronger, so you need more. Then you take two or even four pills instead of one. I don’t think that kind of abuse is indigenous to wrestling as much as it’s indigenous to many forms of entertainment and athletics.

But abuse of anything is bad. Just think, you’ve gotten this golden opportunity to be a professional wrestler for a big company. Don’t blow it—and your life—by being stupid. Vince and J.R. are your “fathers” and you don’t want to disappoint them by doing something dumb, and maybe ending up dead.

I’ve lost a lot of my friends in the past few years due to drugs’ impact on their hearts. I hate to see people flush their careers down the toilet because they’re screwing up with drugs, much less lose their lives at such a young age. And it’s even worse when they leave families behind. As I said before, I will never stand by and watch someone screw himself up again. I just didn’t think these people would actually
die.
They were so strong. But then I thought I was dying too.

That should tell you how unwise it is to mess with drugs, prescription or otherwise. Especially cocaine and some kind of crap called GHB. Too many of my friends have died that way.

Drink beer instead … in moderation, of course.

bm
‘Cause Stone Cold Said So, Raw, April 28, 2003

I
t is now Monday, April 28, 2003, almost a month after
WrestleMania XIX,
where I lost to The Rock.

I don’t drink coffee anymore, and of course I’ve quit drinking those damn Ephedra-laced energy drinks. The only caffeine I drink now is in Coke or Pepsi. In the past month I’ve been seeing my doctor, getting things straightened out and working on what you’re holding in your hands. I’ve also been in discussions with WWE on how to best use me, since I can’t wrestle anymore.

It’s time to get back on that ride, and they’ve got a seat saved for me.

WWE Raw
is going to be broadcast tonight live from Boston on TNN. I’ve had a good workout and a good lunch. I’m ready.

In the
Raw
story line to this point, Eric Bischoff, the general manager of
Raw,
has been abusing his power. He fired me the day after
WrestleMania XIX
because of my health, saying I was a medical risk. The stuff Bischoff read on
Raw
about how bad my health was and why he was firing me were actual quotes from my most recent medical report. Up until then, it had been kayfabed, kind of a secret. All of a sudden it was being read on damned
Raw.

Then J.R. “quit” the following Monday night while in a heated argument with Bischoff over how Eric treated Stone Gold. The third week after
WrestleMania,
Bischoff was back to his harassment, this time with Trish Stratus—a top WWE Diva who had been the WWE Ladies Champion more than once.

We’re more than an hour and a half into the two-hour-and-fiveminute broadcast when sleazy Bischoff is ready to take advantage of Trish, who’s being held down by Jazz and Victoria. The camera switches to the back area, where a long, black stretch limo pulls in. Who the hell is it?

The car door opens and it’s Linda McMahon, CEO of the company, stepping out. Bischoff sees all this on the big TitanTron screen they have in the arena, gets worried and demands that the referees help Trish.

While this is going on, Linda is walking to the ring. Linda gets there and announces to the crowd that Bischoff is being monitored by the WWE board of directors and tells Eric to get back to the ring. The crowd goes nuts with anticipation of what’s going to happen and sings that “Nah-Nah, Good-bye” song.