10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Terry Gordy
9. Gordy’s Behaviour Wasn’t Abnormal
It's easy to imagine that Terry Gordy stood out due to his larger-than-life personality, nightly drinking and substance abuse issues, but his son Ray says that isn't actually the case. A lot of pro wrestlers acted with the same reckless abandon, meaning Terry was just one in a long line of hyper-charged party boys in the 70s and 80s.
Ray doesn't defend the hard lifestyle his father had though. He acknowledges that drinking pretty much every single night then sweating hangovers out in the ring during matches was never sustainable, but that was Terry's choice. Still, things didn't really go off the rails until Gordy traded booze and weed for pills.
That happened pretty swiftly and was a slippery slope.
Ray didn't seem sure exactly when his father began taking pills, but other talking heads chimed in to suggest that it might've happened when Terry was tearing it up on tours in Japan. They took an extreme physical toll on him, but also messed with Gordy mentally too.