WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio appeared on “What’s Your Story?” with Stephanie McMahon to discuss various topics, including how his painkiller addiction began in 2009.
Mysterio said, “The surgeries. My knee surgeries. I’ve had over 14 of them on the left. So it was just an accumulation of constantly having surgery after surgery, ACL, PCL, meniscus. That led to me feeling so good, but at the same time, it was taking away so much pain every time I would wrestle so I could perform the way I was performing, that I didn’t think it was an issue. I did not think it was an issue until it became an issue.”
On getting caught in Cancun:
“I was busted, 100%. We would always do a family trip yearly. This time we went to Cancun, and I had two bottles of pills. I wouldn’t say the size of a water bottle, but a little bit shorter. When we got to the hotel, I decided to hide one behind the TV and one somewhere else in the closet. We went to an island on a little boat and did some sightseeing, and then on the way back, Angie saw that I was a little bit slower with my voice, and I was almost tripping when I was trying to get onto the boat. She didn’t say anything about it. She stayed quiet. When we got back, she said, ‘I’m going to go up to the room really fast,’ and I stayed with the kids. She went up, and she came back down. We were with another couple, and she told the other couple, ‘Can you take care of the kids? I’ve got to go up and speak to Rey.’ And sure enough, she said, ‘What are these?’ She opened them up and started dumping them in the toilet. I was like, ‘No, no, you’re going to kill me.’ It was bad. At that point, it was bad. She ended up saving half of the bottle, and I said, ‘I promise you, when I get back…’ She said, ‘You have two choices: your family or your pills.’ And I said, ‘My family, of course.’ ‘Okay. When we get back, you’re going straight to rehab.’ We didn’t ruin the vacation, at least not for anyone else. For her, yeah. But I think it was a time, and it happened for a reason.”
On telling Vince McMahon he needed to go to rehab:
“I went through my painkiller addiction and went into rehab. I remember speaking to your dad for the first time right before I went into rehab, and I told him, ‘I need to take care of myself, and I need to go away for 30 days. I have a problem.’ He said it takes a great man to accept his wrongdoing, and he said, ‘Go do what you’ve got to do.’ And I went to rehab for 30 days, and Angie put me there. When you have time to go back to that day, I remember when I was busted and I had to admit it and I had to take care of myself. And again, I wouldn’t have been there without Angie putting me there.”
On hiding the pills:
“Subconsciously, I knew. But I said I can pull through. Those are the things that, as an addict, you know you’re doing bad, but it’s okay if I do it this one time, and then this one more time, and then this other time. So it just becomes a pattern.”
On rebuilding himself:
“It’s a slow mental process, and I think the deeper you’re in, the more difficult it is to get out. It’s all psychological. At least for me it was, because I thought that there was no life without being able to use. Once it was gone, and I started to reset my brain and my soul to be able to continue on this path that I was on prior to it, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is what it felt like. I know this feeling. This feels good.’ But it’s a reset. It’s a mind reset, and it’s a lot of willpower to be able to cope through it and be able to accept yourself. And you made a mistake, and you hurt so many people, because you didn’t only hurt yourself. Dom was little, Aalyah was little, and Angie, on top of her having to take care of me, and when I would come home, protecting me so I could catch up on my sleep and go train or do whatever I had to do. Now I’m away for 30 days. She has to tell the kids something else, that Daddy’s going to be doing something, but not being direct with them until they got older. So all those things play a big factor in life in general.”
On being able to laugh about it now:
“That was probably 2009. So after all these years, we just openly, occasionally discuss it, like about the rehab center. ‘Wow, remember when this happened? Remember when that happened?’ We go back and laugh at it, and it’s good.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
