10 Wrestlers Who Escaped Certain Death
5. Scott Hall & Jake Roberts
Such was the rapid mortality rate in professional wrestling circles throughout the 2000s that a morbid hobby emerged online usually labelled as the 'Dead Pool', in which online forums and communities would predict who would be next to roll a seven.
Scott Hall and Jake Roberts were almost always at the top of most people's lists.
For the better part of two decades, both men were lost to a sea of drug and alcohol addictions that looked certain to take their lives, if they didn't do it themselves first. Both have spoken openly about wanting to commit suicide at their respective lowest ebbs, with their resilience visibly eroding by the year in increasingly upsetting independent wrestling appearances.
Enter Diamond Dallas Page.
With a willingness to give back to the industry icons (and cannily build his brand in the process), Page opened his heart and home first to Roberts and later to Hall in an effort to show them that a cleaner, brighter life was still possible.
In the years that followed, both lost weight, largely conquered the worst of their demons and even earned spots on WWE television and the Hall Of Fame having proved their sobriety long enough to be trusted (and trust themselves) in the environment that helped drive them to the precipice in the first place.