AEW is Saving Wrestlers’ Lives
For too many of its participants, pro wrestling is not just life but death. Combine the hard hits of our most brutal sports, the grueling, isolated lifestyle of a road comic and the under-regulation of a parking lot carnival, and a long, serene retirement is far from guaranteed. The latest reminder: Scott “Razor Ramon” Hall, who died on March 14 at the age of 63.
An iconic figure for wrestling fans of a certain age — and the catalyst of the biggest boom in wrestling history — Hall’s death was a shock. Despite his long battles with substance abuse, it seemed like he had finally gotten his life back on track since hooking up with Diamond Dallas Page in 2013. But sadly the toll he had taken on his body was eventually too much.
Hall is a unique case: his wrestling career didn’t begin until after a major traumatic incident, when he killed a man in self-defense after an altercation in 1983. The case wasn’t widely reported until about a decade ago (and details continue to emerge), after Hall had destroyed his body and his career. Many wrestlers have turned to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate their ring-spawned pain; Hall was grappling with that and more.
“I can tell you Scott Hall has neither a drug or alcohol addiction, Scott’s problem is he suffer’s [sic] from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Drugs and alcohol aren’t the problem, to Scott they are the solution,” Kevin Nash wrote in 2011, adding prophetically, “The media will want to blame wrestling when Scott passes. Scott was broken way before he broke into the ring for the first time.”
While Hall’s preconditions are unusual, his outcomes are familiar to wrestling fans. Wrestlers from the bad-old-days have seen their ranks depleted for years. But the song remains the same for wrestlers on the indie scene, especially at its more hardcore extremes; Jimmy Rave died at 39 in 2021 and Danny Havoc died at 34 in 2020.
While WWE’s PR-minded Wellness Policy has certainly helped keep current and former wrestlers alive, chief competitor AEW is doing its part in a different way. Much has been made of AEW’s success as a contrast to the creatively and morally bankrupt WWE. Surely that has been part of the appeal for the likes of CM Punk and Chris Jericho, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, Miro and the late-great Brodie Lee (Lee passed away due to a lung condition in December 2020), and many others. But AEW is also a refuge for recovering addicts who just want to be around wrestling.
This became clear in November, with news that Jon Moxley had entered an inpatient alcohol treatment program. Moxley had been open about his drug and alcohol use, especially his recently released autobiography, but the news was a surprise, not just because he seemed to be functioning at a high level, but with the support he received from throughout AEW, from owner Tony Khan on down. Punk — still in his honeymoon period since returning to wrestling in August — opened the next episode of Dynamite with a promo that both celebrated Moxley’s decision to take himself “off the hamster wheel” of wrestling and called for others to do the same in their lives.
“I don’t want anybody to criticize Jon Moxley because I am goddamn proud of him,” Punk said to cheers. “If anybody here, anybody at home watching on television… if you’re in a place where you think you need help, get it. Ask for it. Reach out. Text somebody, call somebody. There’s nothing harder that you can do in the world but there’s nothing more courageous as well.”
In true wrestling fashion, Punk quickly and deftly pivoted his promo to further his storyline feud with Eddie Kingston, Moxley’s real-life and on-screen friend. Smartly, the war of words between the two gifted talkers never addressed the Moxley-sized elephant in the room. And with the larger spotlight that a feud with Punk provided, Kingston soon used an essay in The Players’ Tribune to highlight his own struggles and how he used to self-medicate his depression.
Two summers ago, Kingston, a 20-year veteran of the independents, was nearing the end of his career and possibly worse when he cut an impromptu, shit-talking promo that called out champions across the wrestling landscape. The promo caught the ear of AEW, who signed him for a one-off match and then to a full-time contract, bringing him back from the edge of the abyss and giving the wrestling obsessive the biggest platform of his career. Now, he was using that platform to share his story and help others.
“If I wasn’t on Zoloft, if I wasn’t getting help for my mental health, if I was too afraid to talk about this stuff, I’d end up killing myself. Period. I’ve lost too many friends in this business to shut my mouth and bury all of these emotions with pills and booze,” he wrote.
The Player’s Tribune has been a reliable place to hear first-person accounts from athletes that have struggled with mental, physical and emotional health issues. Just days before Scott Hall passed, wrestling legend Sting shared his story for the publication. The 63-year-old — who is still, somehow, really impressive in the ring! — told a familiar tale to many of his peers in the business: how painkillers, muscle relaxers and booze went from a way to unwind after a show to a full-blown addiction.
Sting has been sober for 24 years, since he hit rock bottom and found Jesus, and after a few lackluster matches with WWE and a few years in retirement, Sting is back on TBS and TNT. This time around, he’s not a franchise player, but a living legend doing what he loves and giving back to the business.
“AEW gave me the ability to write a proper final chapter, not just for me but for my family,” he wrote. “And so I want to be a little bit of a beacon for the young men and the women in this dressing room, if I can be. If they want me to be. I don’t go around preaching. But I’ve seen my share of darkness, so anything I can do to be a light for the next generation of wrestlers, I’m happy to do it.”
AEW recently added another wrestling veteran that seems ready to serve as a guide for the next generation of wrestlers, both inside and outside of the ring. After 22 years with the company in various functions, William Regal was released by WWE in January as part of their to-the-bone cost-cutting efforts. Regal showed up two months later to smack some sense into proteges Daniel Bryan and Jon Moxley, who returned to AEW earlier this year. Regal has been open about the drug and alcohol issues that sidelined his career, and recently detailed the long list of injuries and health maladies that had nearly killed him (and likely were the key reason for his substance abuse).
“Let’s face facts: I’ve lived more than the hard life. I’ve made it that way, through battles in the ring, through battles with myself,” he said in his first AEW promo. “I know that I’m not long for this world. Too many empty bottles, thousands of them. And a few broken hearts, sweetheart.”
Regal says he’s healthier than he’s been in many years, but the tearful promo underscored the years wasted, the career that could have been, and what he can still do as a mentor for Moxley, Danielson and the rest of the locker room. He may be a decade younger than Sting, but he looks a decade older and certainly won’t be lacing up his boots ever again. No doubt, Hall’s death was a reminder that a clean bill of health can’t undo decades of damage. But AEW is giving him one last chance to leave his mark in pro wrestling, while he’s still here.
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