Ex-WWE Champion Quit Company Due To Addiction
An ex-WWE Champion recently detailed his struggles while being on the road.
Johnny Jeter signed with the Stamford promotion in 2003 and began wrestling in OVW. He debuted on the company’s main roster in 2006 as part of The Spirit Squad under the name Johnny.
The Spirit Squad was a faction comprising male cheerleaders, dressed in a combination of green and white.
Often portrayed as boisterous and troublesome, the faction won the tag team titles once when Kenny and Mikey defeated Kane and Big Show with the help of other members.
However, their most popular rivalry involved Vince McMahon and D-Generation X, when McMahon used the faction to bully Shawn Michaels, resulting in his reunion with Triple H.
Jeter recently appeared on the Limpin Ain’t Easy podcast, where the former WWE star spoke about his addiction to painkillers and how his admission opened up his road to recovery.
I knew I had a really bad pill addiction at the time — painkillers. And so for me, I just woke up one day and was like, you know, ‘I’m going to kill myself if I don’t get help.’ So after one of the European tours, I went home — I called my parents, I told them everything — and then I went home and got clean.
Ex-WWE Star Johnny Jeter Reveals His Addiction Started Small
During the podcast, Johnny Jeter detailed how his addiction started small. He also claimed that there were many wrestlers struggling in WWE the same way.
I think before you would take one or two and get a little buzzed, but then it got to the point where it’d do nothing, and then you’d take more and more and more. And then it was like you had this fear of running out… I’m taking them to feel normal — I know if I run out, I’m going to feel like death.
There were also a lot of guys on the road that were going through that as well — so, like, three‑quarters of the way through a European tour, you can imagine how everyone was feeling.
The former champion admitted that while he worked for many years to earn a contract with the Stamford promotion, probably deciding to quit it saved his life.
I started September 2001… I got signed 2003… I left August 2008. I worked for years to get to WWE, to be on TV… and now I’m not there. But it saved my life.