10 Most Inspirational Rehab Comebacks In Wrestling

6. Joey €˜Mercury€™ Matthews

At one point, Joey Matthews, later to become famous as part of WWE tag team MNM with Johnny Nitro (later John Morrison) and Melina, was mixing booze, crack, heroin and cocaine. That wasn€™t anything new for him though€ Matthews had been a drug addict and an alcoholic for fifteen years by then, since he was a teenager. Over the course of his many addictions, he would overdose three times and wreck ten cars while under the influence. Barely getting by as it was, when Matthews began requiring pain medication his life spiraled completely out of control. An attempt at rehab in 2006 caused him to miss six months of work with the company, but a nasty facial injury during a ladder match in December 2006 caused him to become addicted to painkillers alongside everything else. He ignored it, as he always had, and continued to wrestle: his spot at the time was a good one, and he was frequently featured on both RAW and Smackdown. Eventually he was actually sent home €“ not as a result of WWE€™s wellness policy, or a random drug test, but via a personal intervention from Vince McMahom himself, who sat Matthews down and told him that he was worried he was going to kill himself. Matthews would be released from his contract shortly afterwards, and credits this wake-up call with giving him the motivation to finally kick his addictions €“ along with assistance from friends like CM Punk, who stepped in to buy his house for him when he could no longer afford the payments. Now working as a road agent and on-air enforcer for WWE€™s Authority stable with partner and fellow agent James €˜Jamie Noble€™ Gibson, Joey Mercury is one of the most respected people backstage, having shepherded talent like The Shield to stardom €“ Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns credit him as being like the unofficial fourth member of the stable. That€™s a comeback and a half.