10 Most Inspirational Rehab Comebacks In Wrestling

2. Goldust

As rewarding as William Regal€™s story is (he€™s a hell of a guy), we can€™t help but have a soft spot for the last two wrestlers to be profiled here. Dustin Runnels, elder son of the late, great Dusty Rhodes, and the man behind the fabulous Goldust persona and make-up, was and is one of the finest pro wrestlers in the business. But being the son of the American Dream has its own pitfalls. Runnels began to spiral into drug addiction, taking coke before matches, prescription painkillers and muscle relaxants before getting out of bed. As time went on, prescriptions wouldn€™t cover his addiction any longer €“ he was necking forty pills a day, and resorting to buying them from dealers like a bog standard junkie. Money was becoming tight, too: he€™d be borrowing money left, right and centre to pay the rent or the bills, then spending it on vodka or tablets, waking up still wasted, so dizzy that he couldn€™t stand. Like Eddie Guerrero and William Regal, he had to hit bottom before he had the motivation to climb out of the pit: like Guerrero and Regal, he€™d hit a succession of €˜false bottoms€™ before truly crashing out. Runnels credits his partner for carrying him through this time, the rock he clung to: he€™d reconciled with his father by this point too, and Dusty helped him any chance he could. He became sober through a tortuous rehabilitation process in 2008, and every other day is difficult€ but he€™s stayed sober ever since, losing weight and regaining his fitness to the point that when Goldust properly returned to the WWE in 2013, he had most of the old magic back, working with his kid brother Cody to form one of the more exciting tag teams on the roster. It€™s a shame that WWE didn€™t do more with the feud between the brothers Rhodes when they had the chance. The Goldust of today can still go as well or better than any of the younger guys in the ring. Perhaps there€™s still one last chance in the angle left€ only time will tell.