From Something To Wrestle With… Bruce Prichard: Hulk Hogan 1988 (Ep. 49) Air date: 6/2/17
This week’s episode of Something To Wrestle With is centered on Hulk Hogan’s WWF career throughout the calendar year of 1988. There are lots of fascinating side stories along the way that are not directly linked to Hulk Hogan. Among them is a segment where Bruce Prichard discusses the brutal travel schedule and subsequent drug usage amongst many of the wrestlers of that era.
“It sucked. It was a grind. It was an absolute grind. People ask about the drugs and the lifestyle of a professional wrestler back in the day and, I hate to say drugs were a necessity, but they were an every day part of our life because you took something to get up and then you took something to keep going and then, at the end of the night, you needed something to wind yourself back down to get a couple hours of sleep to get up in the morning to take something else to go do it all over again and it became a vicious cycle.”
Host, Conrad Thompson, thanks Bruce for bringing up the subject and points out that such drug use will not be celebrated or advocated on the show. He says he’s heard other people describe the lifestyle similarly in the past, but never specifics. What does a person take when going through such a cycle?
“Take a handful of speed, caffeine, man. Take a ton of ephedrine. Some guys snorted cocaine.”
“So you do that as soon as you wake up and then you need something before you work out. What would that be?”
“Same thing.”
“And then you would get ready for your match? Are you going to do anything there?”
“Again, same thing. A lot of ephedrine, those white crosses, you know, that the truckers always took. A lot of that going on. A lot of speed.”
And after the match?
“You go grab a beer and maybe take some muscle relaxers and pain killers and smoke a few joints. You’ve got to wind down and relax.”
In the ’90s, somas were big. What about the ’80s?
“Pain pills. Percocet. Vicodin came a little after that, in the ’90s. Meanie greenies. It’s funny, I was with a gentleman from Major League Baseball last night and was talking to him, similar to what we’re talking about now and he went through the list of the ballplayers and, no s**t, same conversation you and me are having right now, but him talking about meanie greenies and quaaludes and the old drugs from the late ’70s and early ’80s that we did and that was a way of life. Whatever was en vogue at the time and whatever would help ail you.”
And at the end of the night, after the drinking. What’s doing the trick in the 80’s?
“Halcion.”
Does Bruce blame the schedule, at least in part, for this drug usage?
“You’ve got a choice. You don’t have to do it. You can get through it and you can muscle your way through it. There were those of us that had a choice and, speaking for myself, I chose to just say ‘well, hell, if I take this, I’ll feel better, so I’m going to take that.”
“Can you point to one person who you know was clean as a whistle 24/7, never did s**t but Diet Coke?”
“George Gray, One Man Gang. There were probably a few of them, but there were probably more of us that were looking for help, but I’ve never known him to do anything.”
Recap by: PWPodcasts.com Contributor Jeff Rush
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