Former WWE Superstar Talks About His Addiction To Painkillers And Working For WWE

Former WWE and WCW star "The Patriot" Del Wilkes recently spoke with Mike Mooneyham of The Post & Courier.

Wilkes was taking up to 150 pills per day to deal with his injuries and was sentenced to 18 months at the Lower Savannah Prerelease Center in Aiken, SC back in 2002. Wilkes began using steroids back in the 1980's while playing football at USC. He said:

"It was easy getting my hands on steroids. You could go into any gym and get them. It was like buying multi-vitamins. It was a big part of what we were doing."

Wilkes last worked for WWE in 1998 and said he was a physical wreck and heavily dependent on painkillers by the time that run was over. He said:

"It was a big deal to be able to come back and work in the states for Vince (McMahon). To get a win over Bret Hart on Monday night was big. But I knew at that point it was a matter of time. I was battling injuries. I couldn't stay healthy."

He continued about his addiction:

"A couple of pills before a match one night several months later had blown into 100 or 120 pills or tablets a day. It got completely out of control. You get hooked on the pain medication. It comes from the same plant that heroin comes from. It has the exact same qualities that heroin does, which is the most physically addictive drug there is. When you have a drug problem with opiates or heroin, and you try to come off of it cold turkey, the sickness you have to go through is unbearable.

"I can honestly say I don't know anything in my life that's ever intimidated more than the sickness you would go through trying to get off those things. There were so many days I would say, "God, I don't want to go through this, I'm tired of living like this.' You couldn't tolerate the throwing up, the horrible muscle aches and cramps and what your body would go through. That was a tough thing to overcome and deal with.

"It takes over to where your every waking moment is spent trying to find a way to get more pain pills. And that led to me calling in prescriptions myself. I learned how to do that from a buddy of mine who was a doctor. That led to a bunch of arrests which eventually led to prison."

Wilkes got out of prison in 2003 and has been employed at Dick Smith Nissan in Columbia, SC for nine years. He got married to an old girlfriend last year.