Rey Mysterio Opens Up About Painkiller Addiction
WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio has battled many injuries throughout his illustrious career but they came at more than just a physical cost as the star struggled with addiction to painkillers as a result.
Speaking to Logan Paul on the Impaulsive podcast, Rey Mysterio spoke frankly about his battles with addiction and revealed that his wife gave him an ultimatum to get clean during his first run in WWE:
“So during my big run in WWE and after so many surgeries, I got hooked on painkillers for a very long time. My wife caught me one time. We were on vacation. She saw that I was just out of it completely, so she gave me an ultimatum. She goes, ‘So when we get back home, you can either take your pills or you can take your family. You choose.’
“That really opened me up and it made me a stronger person because I remember getting back home to San Diego, I flew to TV, and the next day, I spoke to Vince. I told him, ‘Boss I need to check myself in. I’m gonna need some time off.’ He was cool with it. He was like, ‘It takes a fu**ing man to man up to what you’re doing.’
“That was a big life changer for me and a different perspective of life and the appreciation of family and the support of my wife. It’s crazy. She’s been there from day one. She went to my first match. It was bad, and to be able to recognize it, and check yourself in, and put everything aside and move on with your life to a positive note, it was crazy.
“I really enjoyed that phase of my life because I learned so much of what not to do. I was there for 30 days. I haven’t told that story before. Another thing that was really big to me was that my kids were young. Dominik was maybe 10 years old, 12? My daughter was very young. I was really bad prior, but once I eliminated all that toxic mindset, clean.”
Mysterio continued, noting that he eventually had to undergo yet another surgery and his wife became responsible for dishing out the medication despite Mysterio saying that he didn’t want to take it due to his past issues:
“After I went to rehab, probably three years later, I ended up getting another surgery and it was probably the worst one of all. I remember I was in mad pain. I tore my ACL. I sprained my MCL. They said pretty much my knee was dangling by one thread. So it was pretty bad. I remember I wrestled in San Diego that night and we were the main event. I was wrestling Alberto Del Rio. In the first two minutes of the match, I felt that snap. I was like, ‘Ah, sh*t. I’m fu**ed up. Like, no, let’s go home. That’s it. I was like, ‘No, no, no, let’s keep going.
“We kept rolling, but then afterwards, I probably damaged it more in the 10-12 minutes that I stayed in the ring. I had the surgery. I came home and the doctor gave me painkillers. I took one, and throughout the night, because they had to drill two holes, my knee, I remember it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt from the surgeries that I’ve had in the past.
“I would tell my wife, ‘No, I’m not gonna take anything. I’m not gonna take anything.’ and I controlled my pain as much as I could until she said, ‘I can’t stand watching like that.’ So it was pretty bad. I remember I was balling out with this. She actually had them so she controlled everything, but I didn’t want to take them.”
Rey Mysterio looks like his problems with his son Dominik will continue into Backlash in Puerto Rico with the former WWE Champion rumoured to be teaming with Bad Bunny to take on Dominik and his Judgment Day partner Damian Priest.