During a recent appearance on “The Sessions with Renee Paquette” podcast, AEW wrestler and producer Billy Gunn commented on working with Chyna in WWE, how he was able to turn his life around after addiction issues, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On working with Chyna in WWE and his reaction to Chyna’s passing: “My best friend. She was amazing, she really was in all aspects of life. Great to train with, great to just be friends with her. Even to this day, it will still get me a little rocked up because she was that special to me, like she really was. When she first passed, I was so mad at her, like that’s just life, that’s just what we do. I didn’t know how bad her struggle was because I went through the same thing. Luckily, for me, I came out on the good side of that. It doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with it every day, it just means that today I have it under control. I had connected that with her just a couple of weeks before it happened. She was worried about, ‘I’m trying to get back in the flow of things, but every time I try to go to these promotions, guys are trying to take advantage.’ I said, ‘I get it, all you have to do is call me. I’ll do them with them you.’
“And I’m not trying to make me sound like the savior at all. She was just that good to me. My wife said, ‘Get her out of LA, have her move in with us, and you guys can travel.’ My wife is one of the most special people on the planet, so she is awesome. And she knew our relationship and never had a problem with it. It was more of a brother-sister thing. It’s horrible when things like that happen, but when you stay in that life, it’s gonna get you. It will. There is no might to any of that. It goes downhill until you either die or go to jail, and it’s very cliche, but that’s what happens. I’m allowed to say that because I was there. That’s what was gonna happen. Ask me and Brian [James]. We were deep, deep in it.”
On the turning point in his battle with addiction: “I woke up on my floor and everything that I had was gone. Like my wife, my kids, and my dogs – my dogs didn’t want to be in the same house with me. It was like, my life was done, it was over. It was like, I want to say I reached the bottom, but I was at the bottom to where death was next. And then that’s just being like that was coming next and I knew it. And I was tired of living like that, but it was all on me, it was no nobody else. I went to rehab once before because everybody was telling me like, ‘Hey, you have a problem?’ And I was like, ‘No I don’t, I can do anything I want with this stuff. And I have it under control.’ No, no, it has you. But it’s hard for you to realize that when you’re on this side of it. But when I finally woke up on the floor, I had like some kind of cans around me that had so much alcohol in it because I couldn’t find the drugs that I was wanting and I was miserable.”
On making the decision to go through the rehab process: “Everybody was gone in my life, nobody wanted to be around me. And I just sat there and went, ‘Okay, this is too much for me, something has to change.’ And I literally picked up the phone and within two hours somebody from WWE had sent a driver to my house, and I was on a plane and gone. From that day, from March 11, 2011, I have it on my wrist, that was the day that my life started a new life. And I literally followed the program to a tee, I mean to a tee. I did an 18-month release from rehab. It was a new thing they were trying. They asked me if I wanted to try it because they said, ‘You can go in a sober living house for a while if you want,’ and I said, ‘I would really like to try to get my life back on track. So we did this 18-month thing where they called me every day. And then if I got a text that had a certain number, I had to go and have a urine test or whatever. And I said, at least that keeps me accountable and I’m okay with that.
“And then I did that and then all of a sudden, my wife started talking to me again, my kids started talking to me, and I got jobs here and there. And then all of a sudden WWE hires me back which I had never [thought] because I went on a rant, I went ballistic. But luckily for me, they understood where I was coming from, what I was going through and stuff, and nobody ever held it against me. They just go, ‘You were in a mess.’ But my life today without drugs, I’ve been drug and alcohol-free for 11 years, has been amazing. Like it really like, if you would have told me that before. I would have went, ‘Okay, I get it. It’s a thing you have to do, go 90 and 90 and do all that stuff.’ No, but this time I took it and I did it, and look what I have today.”
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(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
