Seems to be a substance abuse problem within the sport -
“You self-medicate,” the wrestler Marc Mero, a WWE veteran, told The Washington Post after Benoit’s death in 2007. “You suck it up and perform. If it leads to an addiction, that’s part of [the job]. Because, if you can’t [perform], there are a hundred guys willing to take your place.”
Another former wrestler, Carlos Ashenoff (a.k.a. Konnan) described a vicious cycle: The pain justifies the pain killers, and the constant travel and performance demands keep bringing on the pain. “You get into a cycle where you need something to get you to bed at night, then something to get you up in the morning, then something to pick you up during the day, then something to bring you down at night,” he said at the time. “And you’re not getting any real time to recover because you’re working all the time.”