As noted, former ECW Original and WWE Superstar Justin Credible recently appeared as a guest on WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s podcast for an in-depth interview.

During the show, Credible spoke at length about his lifelong battle with drug addiction and what the process of going to a WWE-sponsored rehab is like.

“I got clean off opioids about five, six years ago.” Credible continued, “since then, I felt, I guess, I wasn’t really happy with who I was and trying to find a life outside the [pro wrestling] business because, quite frankly, it wasn’t paying the bills and it was real hard for me mentally. It became a mental health issue, so I started drinking. At first, not too much, just casual. A beer here, a beer there, and it just snowballed, man. It snowballed into, like, 750 litres of vodka a day. You mix that up with, like, Coca Cola and sugar, because I actually hate the taste of booze, believe it or not.”

Credible continued, “Over a period of five years, brother, it snowballed to where I was almost 300 lbs. of just pure bloat, fat, on the verge of death. My liver failing, my calves were… I thought I was going to lose my legs. It was ridiculous. So anyways, I went for help. I asked WWE’s Wellness Policy. I wanted to fit in and I went above and beyond to fit in.” Credible remembered, “I was a young guy, an impressionable kid, not really well-schooled in the real world at that age. I was 19 or 20 years old. I didn’t think anything of it.”

Credible, who worked in WWE as Aldo Montoya, then spoke about how he became addicted to oxycontins while in ECW.

“Man, it was really pain pills that started it all,” said Credible. “It started 30-days straight on the road sometimes, doing those small shots. I was a young kid coming up, trying to make it in the business. And [Austin] know[s] how insecure things were back then. I wouldn’t complain. I was a young man in a big man’s game. A lot of my idols and heroes is was in the business with and you don’t want to seem like… It was a bunch of peer pressure, but it was also doing it just to do it. I needed to to get out there or someone else would take your spot real quick, so it started with the pain pills and when ECW came around, oxycontin started to come out and it became a real big thing. It was everywhere. Unfortunately, I rarely had a doctor and it carried over to when I was in WWE for my run with X-Pac in that tag team for a cup of coffee, a couple of years. And then, when I didn’t really have any employment, I hate to say it, it’s pretty embarrassing, but it is what it is. But when the money ran dry, I did IV heroin because it was cheaper.”

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Credible went on to credit WWE’s Wellness Program for saving his life.

“The Wellness Program, the first time around, saved my life, and that got me good.” Credible said. “But booze is so hard, man. Not to give it whatever, but it’s so hard because it’s so culturally available. Like, I was at my daughter’s christening Thursday, man, and everyone’s kicking back at the afterparty having a cocktail, having a glass of wine, and I know that I can’t have that one. Do you know what I mean? For me, it’s a torturous thing. It’s like, ‘hell, why have one when I can have two or three and feel that feeling?’ And, unfortunately, I know I can’t. I can’t. I don’t have that control and it’s just one of those things and it kind of sucks. But I’m grateful. I’m grateful to just be here, dude.”

In case any other former or current WWE Superstars are interested, Credible also outlined the process of going to a WWE-sponsored rehab program.

“You call the office, Talent Relations,” Credible explained. “There’s actually a network of people, men and women that are a part of the WWE who are in that network, that’s your support team. But they’ll set you up in a facility. A lot of the time, depending on what you use, what your drug of choice is or if it’s alcohol, whatever it is, there is a medical protocol that you go through, detoxification program, whatever you need and they teach you. Man, it’s amazing the level of lifeskills or lack of because it’s a full-time job being an addict.”

Check out the complete Justin Credible interview from the Steve Austin Show podcast at PodcastOne.com.

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