Jake Roberts Opens Up About Drug Spiking Culture In 1980s WWE
WWE Hall Of Famer Jake Roberts has spoken candidly about the drug spiking culture that permeated the wrestling business during the 1980s.
Speaking on a recent edition of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, wrestling legend Jake Roberts discussed the drug abuse culture that was rife in the 1980s wrestling scene. Roberts, who has been open about his own past issues with drugs and alcohol, explained how stars at that time often turned to pills to help them get some sleep.
“The number of pills that were being handed out at the WWE, at the time, was mind-boggling. There was a doctor that would meet us in Hershey Park and he walked in with six or seven suitcases full of pills and steroids.”
“That was a big foul-up because you could go in there and ask him for Valium, Halcion, steroids, pain pills, whatever your heart desired. And then what you do is you would try to find out what would get you from day-to-day. Because it was hard from day to day.”
“When you’re only getting five or six hours of sleep a night, you can’t go from the ring to a hotel room, lay down, and go to sleep. I don’t give a damn who you are. Nobody in the world can do that, because you’ve got such an adrenaline high going.”
“So if you go to your hotel at say midnight, you need to eat something. Okay, there is another hour. It’s 1:00 AM. ‘Okay. I need to lay down.’ You still can’t lay down. So, what do you do? You take a pill. The pill, you gotta get up at seven. That’s six hours. You were lucky you got six hours.”
“Most of us had this down to where we would break Halcions up and just take bits and pieces because we knew if we took a half of one, we would sleep for three hours. And the good thing about Halcion was there was no after effect. If you took a Valium, you’re like ‘blah blah blah’ and it was horrible. But you could take a Halcion and three hours later you wake up and you’re ready to go.”
Jake Roberts went on to talk about the darker side of the culture, saying that some wrestlers began spiking others with Halcion leading to incidents where people woke up in hospitals.
“But what happened was people started taking too many of them and then you had some clowns that thought it was really funny if they snuck a couple of Halcion on you and you’d be knocked out on a plane and they can’t wake you up. Well, something is wrong with this guy.”
“Next thing you know, they’re putting you on a gurney, taking you to the hospital to find out what the hell is wrong with you. Or they do it to him in a bar and God knows what will happen. There were so many incidents in bars where guys will throw them in somebody’s beer and people would drop them.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.