7 Professional Wrestlers Who Lost Their Way After Leaving The Industry

Thanks to shoot interviews and shows like Dark Side Of The Ring, wrestling fans have come to learn that there is indeed a dark side to the professional wrestling business. The major reasoning behind this is that these wrestlers are road warriors, traversing the globe to make towns over 250 days a year and are barely home to see their families.

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But the rib is that once they’ve slowed down and retired that’s when real life sets in and some of these wrestlers either spiral out of control thanks to being unable to cope with not being in the ring anymore or their behavior while on the road finally caught up with them.

7 Sunny

Sunny was perhaps one of the most desirable women in the industry, and reinvented what a valet could do. That was her for the first few years of her career until Sable came along. Then there was real heat, not to mention the lifestyle Sunny was living constantly cheating on her high school sweetheart, Chris Candido with Shawn Michaels.

After her brief run at the top had ended, Sunny has been nothing short of a train wreck, most recently getting arrested for making terrorist threats. Perhaps more so than anyone on the list, Sunny still has a genuine connection with her fan base who all hope she cleans up one day before it’s too late.

6 Jake Roberts

The trials and tribulations and rise and fall and rise again of Jake Roberts have been well documented. But just like an onion, there are layers upon layers that complicate not just Jake, but all the children of Grizzly Smith. By his own admission, he was spiraling out of control while still on the WWE roster.

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But after his big run, the drugs really took hold of Jake and almost ended his life, as he just couldn’t care and hated himself so much. As we all know, thanks to the perseverance of his friend Diamond Dallas Page, Jake had lost his way, but was able to find it and find some relevancy in the business again, keeping The Murderhawk Monster Lance Archer company on AEW.

5 Scott Hall

Diamond Dallas Page was able to save another wayward soul / friend of his with his unique brand of patience and positivity. But for a while, it seemed like The Bad Guy, Scott Hall was destined to drink himself to death. As one of wrestling's perennial partiers, Hall also by all accounts has one of the greatest wrestling minds in the industry - he gave Sting the idea for The Crow character that he still uses to this day!

But even as his career was reaching new heights as a member of the nWo, Hall couldn’t stay away from the bottle, and it ruined his run in WCW - the brass even thought it was a good idea to make it a storyline.

4 Marty Jannetty

When The Rockers used to come to the ring, they did so to the tune of Judas Priest’s “Living After Midnight.” That song conveyed Shawn and Marty’s lifestyle just fine. But when they got to the WWE, the partying lifestyle got worse for both boys. Shawn eventually cleaned up, Marty spiraled out of control.

Every single time he was called back up to the WWE, he almost as quickly found a “substance-ial” way to get released almost as quickly.

3 Kanyon

While there are a lot of tragic tales in wrestling; Kanyon’s is certainly one of the most heartbreaking. The Queens, New York native was a natural in the ring, innovating some of the best moves WCW had ever seen; some of which are still seen to this day. But behind the scenes, his struggle with his sexuality took its toll on him (despite all of his friends stating that it didn’t matter to them).

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Unfortunately, he was also dealing with a lifelong bipolar disorder. Thankfully in death, much of his great work in the ring has been celebrated by contemporaries like Chris Jericho and guys that he helped bring up like The Young Bucks and Indy star Luke Hawx.

2 Dino Bravo

The Montreal territory has long been thought of by fans and promoters as a bit of a Twilight Zone for wrestling. Hometown guys like Jacques Rougeau and Canadian Strongman Dino Bravo were heralded as gods to the fans - despite being smarmy, nasty heels to the rest of the world. For his time, Dino was one of the bright spots on the WWE midcard and was able to have a decent match with just about anyone.

Thanks to Dark Side Of The Ring researching Bravo, outside of the business, the Canadian Strongman had ties to the mafia and those ties caused his demise, as Bravo was supposedly involved in a cigarette smuggling ring.

1 Chyna

The Ninth Wonder Of The World debuted at a time when divas in the WWE were tiny petite little things like Marlena. Naturally, the Amazon goddess debuted by flinging Marlena around like she was trying to hand blend a protein shake! Chyna almost immediately became a megastar thanks to her association with DX and yes, her unique look that kept changing over the years by her own design.

Unfortunately, her relationship with Triple H that helped her get into the business was also her demise from it as well. She seemingly was unable to cope with how that relationship ended and after WWE, she headed down a path of drugs and alcohol, and a lifestyle where no friends really had her best interests in mind. When she started to try and clean herself up is also when her life unfortunately ended.