15 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Tony Atlas
5. He Was Homeless For A Year And A Half
This final clutch of entries will take you on some emotional journey. Be warned.
Tony hadn’t been to this park for close to 20 years, but he revisited the old bench he slept on for close to a year and a half after leaving the WWF in the mid-1980s. ‘Dark Side’ didn’t go in-depth on his slide down the cards, or even his claim that he was paid not to wrestle on the first WrestleMania in 1985, but they did talk about him missing shows and the gun stuff that maybe happened in the fed.
Going from superstardom to rock bottom was rough on Atlas; he said he’d been poor before, but nobody knew who he was the first time. Now, being “poor and famous” was really hard. Tony ate what he could from a dumpster, slept on a park bench and would sometimes wake up in a puddle of mud after falling off mid-snooze overnight. That's if he could fall asleep in the first place.
To make matters worse, Atlas was hooked on cocaine if he could score it. He was living a thoroughly miserable existence, and didn't even know if he'd wake up most mornings. It's scary that he went from WWF success to this within just a few short years.
Footage of a thoughtful looking Tony sitting on the same bench all these years later is rather chilling in a way. He's in a much better place mentally today, but Atlas seemed reflective as he sat down and spoke about everything he'd been through during approx a year and a half sleeping rough.