On the latest “Oh You Didn’t Know” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg talked about his release from WWE in 2000 when he was going through personal issues with substance abuse.
Road Dogg said, “I talked With Jim Ross and I talked with Bruce Prichard. I was even hammered when I did that. It was definitely the downward spiral. This went down at television. I’ll skip ahead a little bit. I had a match with Ron Killings against D’Lo And Headbanger Chaz. I think that was Headbanger Chaz and I was messed up. I’ve made it out to the ring and made it in the match. I was messed up clearly. I went out there. I had the match. I don’t want to watch the match ever again. I’m ashamed of myself. The integrity of my profession was destroyed by me. That part hurts me the worst that I would go out there and risk other people. All those people are my friends. They didn’t do anything negative to me, but at the time, I probably was hot at them because they stooged me off or something, like nobody could tell I was screwed up. I’m bouncing off the walls trying to get to the Gorilla position. But look, that’s on me and there’s no other two ways to put it. That’s on me and it was a bad part of my life.”
“I honestly was like, ‘How are they going to do SmackDown or RAW without me?’ That’s where my head was at man. It was in a drug fueled, egotistical, just a haze of chaos. It’s so disturbing to think about my day-to-day existence at that time. Like. I just thank God I don’t have to live like that anymore.”
On being angry with everybody when he got released:
“It was me not looking at it through a proper perspective. It was me being mad because my gravy train ended. They took my gravy train away because I was behaving in ways that were unbecoming of a WWF superstar. Now, I can see that and say that. At the time, I was still looking through drug-addled eyes and not making sound decisions., but basing decisions off of my feelings, which we all know is not the right thing to do, I was mad. They took away my paycheck. How am I gonna buy drugs now? I was angry. I was mad at everybody. I was mad at the world.”
If he held it against Jim Ross:
“Yeah, I did. If I told you I didn’t, I’d be lying. JR is the first dude I called when I got sober. He was the first person I made amends with and he’ll tell you that today. I’ve talked to him 10 times since then and we have a great relationship. You heard how he talked about me. Even in firing me, it was like, ‘We think he’s got a ton of talent.’ He put me over and they did make me a star. They did everything right. I did everything wrong. I was mad about it at the time because I was still doing everything wrong. Fast forward to 2011, I think it was, I stood outside of my meeting place and I called Jim Ross. I said I did a lot of bad. I made amends to him. It was the first phone call I made.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
