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Shane Douglas discusses TNA Hard Justice, the fire, overcoming his drug addiction, how TNA handled the situation and more

Posted: Aug 16th 2006 By: CMBurnham

The Fight Network issued the following transcript this afternoon:

Sunday night, Shane Douglas was a guest on The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling right after the TNA ?Hard Justice? PPV. For more check out www.LiveAudioWrestling.com and listen to the show Sunday nights at 11pm EST

DL: You?ve seen him all over the wrestling world?WCW, WWE, ECW. He did spend some time in rehab lately but he?s got things back on track. He?s part of TNA, he?s an announcer, he?s the manager of the Naturals. Little bit of fire damage tonight but he can do it all: Shane Douglas. Shane, how are you?

SD: Doing great, man. Like you said, things are a little hot around the Pay Per View tonight but I think we did the best we could with it.

DL: Oh, dude, Shane, despite almost forty minutes where you guys had to kill time, I thought the rest of the show was really quite good and actually one of the best TNA Pay Per Views in the last few months.

SD: Well I appreciate that. We appreciate that and I think it?s saying something because I think TNA has sort of gotten into a bit of a tradition with having pretty damn good Pay Per Views. This one tonight, I think when that kind of a curveball hits and you have to evacuate a building on fire Marshall's orders, it sometimes can throw things off-kilter. And I think our
guys really really went out there and lived up to it and tried to give the fans who were (watching?) them a little bit extra.

DL: Absolutely, I totally agree. I never got the thought that anybody was thrown off and I never got the thought that the crowd was separated. They were really into the action most of the night.

SD: Oh, they sure were. In fact they were pretty irate having to leave the building. The fire Marshall has to do what he has to do but really it was much ado about nothing. It was a pyro had hit a very tiny bag of sorts that hangs from the ceiling and caught on fire. It was pretty much put out by the time they started evacuating but again the fire Marshall has to do his job and play it safe. And for the fan?s sake, it?s probably better to be safe than, you know, god knows you hear crazier things in the news all the time so I think it was handled appropriately.

DL: Now when you came up there and did the promo, were they literally just pushing you guys, whoever was around, to get over there and kill some time?

SD: Yeah, pretty much. They were hopefully getting people on there that they knew they could deliver a promo and to fill up some time as best as possible, still staying to storylines rather than just throw people on there and say, ?Hi! My name?s Joe Schmoe.? They wanted to try and keep things in the gist of storylines. Unfortunately because of time constraints our match of course had to be scratched. But the story will be picked up tomorrow at
TV so it?ll still be fine.

DL: I still thought it was a thumbs-up show. Before we talk about some other stuff with TNA, I just want to let the fans know what happened with you recently. You had a stint in rehab, you?ve been very vocal about what happened. Can you just fill us in on what went down?

SD: Sure. In this business it?s been well documented the numerous injuries that I?ve had over the years. I?ve sort of built up a reputation for working hurt and being injured and still going on, and it finally caught up to me. Several years ago, I went to a pain specialist and you have to preface the whole thing by letting people know that I was one of those guys that never
even smoked pot in high school. Drugs were never my?I might have a beer now and then, but drugs were never my deal. When I went to this doctor and he prescribed all this medicine for me, the new medicine at the time was called oxycontin which everybody then thought was a wonder drug and perfect for chronic pain sufferers. And the thing about it is, while you become addicted, it does work. You take one of those and not only is your pain gone but suddenly you?re twenty years old again. So things that I?d been putting off for months and months and months and in some cases years, I was suddenly back to doing again. It really was a wonder drug in that respect. The downside of it is, you know the old saying, ?You can never have too much good,? and I started to pay for it.

Several months after I started taking it, I tried to stop, and much to my chagrin found out that I couldn?t stop. You hear people say they?re addicted, and it?s a word that just rolls off people?s tongues. You don?t know what that entails. Addiction is a terrible, terrible thing. To be totally unable to stop doing something that you don?t want to do anymore is really, at least for me, a very humbling experience and a very shameful thing. I was really beating myself up over it and it wasn?t until my second baby?well, over the last four or five years, I tried forty, fifty, sixty times to stop taking the things. I would go cold turkey, and I tried Buprenorphine, and I tried all these different avenues?hypnosis and prayer and everything else. Of course, nothing worked, and when my second baby was born, my second son was born on December Sixth, I looked myself in the mirror one day and I started realizing that some of my best friends in the business had died, not just from the oxycontin but from different overdoses. I saw it?s going to be one of two things for me, I can either confront this thing and hopefully?I won?t say beat it because addiction is something that?s waiting forever?but at least manage it. Or I can succumb to it and let it kill me, which it certainly would have done. To put it in perspective, I was taking at some points there toward the end, I was taking fourteen, fifteen eighty-milligram oxycontin tablets at a time. First time I
was talking to a doctor and I told him that, he thought I was lying to him. He said, ?It?s impossible, you couldn?t have been taking that much.? Well that?s what I was taking. I was taking three doses of that per day. The fact that I?m still here and still alive I think is really a blessing. I thank god for that and for my son?s sake and for my sake and my family?s sake.

The reason I wanted to go out and be vocal about it is, without hesitation, I know somebody that?s listening to this is in that same boat. And that person or people that are in that same boat, I want them to know there is help out there. You have to keep looking for it. I mean, we hit several roadblocks and closed doors before we were? don?t give up. Just keep looking and looking and looking and you will certainly find somebody eventually. Be resolved to do it because, if not, the alternative, the final outcome for addiction for any addict is death. So confront it, do what you have to. If you need to contact me through TNAWrestling.com, feel free to do so. Anybody I can help out there, I?m hoping and praying that I can help somebody.

DL: Now the WWE after Eddie Guerrero?s death, they?ve just put their wellness policy into effect for this very same reason. Is there some kind of program in effect at TNA to deal with this issue as well?

SD: I think so. I think TNA wanted to use me as the poster boy of sorts. First of all, the typical addict, the typical behavior is to hide it obviously. So by using me as the example, TNA wants to show the dressing room that, ?hey, we?re willing to work with you.? I mean, TNA was fantastic during this whole thing. Dixie Carter called me up in the hospital and told
me, ?We want you back but not until you?re healthy. Your job is safe, don?t worry about anything.? They really stood behind me and my family in a lot of ways, and I really respect that. That was one of my big fears: if I go to an NA meeting and it turns up on the Internet, then I?m gonna get fired. So just having that threat taken away, eliminated from their head was very helpful, and TNA is?I don?t know if there?s an official program of sorts, a textbook sitting on somebody?s desk, ?If Shane Douglas turns up tomorrow and he tells us he?s addicted to something, do we do a, b, c and d.? I don?t think there?s a program of sorts that way but the company is very, very supportive of the guys, and again using my example wanted to let the guys in the dressing room know that we?re willing to help you in finding help, and we?re supporting you, you don?t have to worry about your job. So it?s an
admirable thing from TNA.

DL: Shane, we?ve got to move on but I want to thank you so much for joining us tonight. Continued success, man, I?m glad you?ve got your health and I?m digging you as the manager of the Naturals. So take care of yourself, brother.

SD: Thank you, guys