Transcription by WrestleZone.com Senior Editor Tyler Treese.
Many consider WrestleMania X-7 to be wrestling’s highest point and the show is emblematic of the “Attitude Era” of pro wrestling. In fact, it’s so reflective of the time period that one of the competitors competed while on drugs. Duke “The Dumpster” Droese revealed this during a shoot interview with The Hannibal TV.
“I was severely addicted to drugs,” revealed Droese. “A lot of drugs, painkillers, a lot of cocaine. I was doing drugs to the point where I had to go to a methadone clinic. The reason I bring it up is WrestleMania X-7, I call Bruce Prichard. Of course he acted like they had been looking for me, ‘Where have you been?’ They brought me up for that and if you look I was really skinny, white and gaunt. You could tell I wasn’t in good shape. One of the guys at the methadone clinic was a wrestling fan and he gave three days of methadone to take with me or otherwise I couldn’t make it. That’s how bad I was. I was strung out, but I did the gimmick battle royal. Thank God I didn’t have to do any spots.”
He went on to state that he was “in bad shape during that gimmick battle royal. On methadone and whatever else.” He ultimately was glad he did it since “it was a decent pay day, though, and it was WrestleMania so I still remember it. “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan were awesome. They were so nice and really cool to me.”
If you’ve never seen the classic match, you can see Duke “The Dumpster” Droese in action below:
