Shawn Michaels Admits 1990s Drug Use Spiral Nearly Cost Him His Life

Shawn Michaels isn’t holding anything back when it comes to his darkest years, opening up about his struggles with drugs during the height of his WWE career in the 1990s.

During The Heartbreak Kid: Becoming Shawn Michaels documentary on Peacock, the WWE Hall of Famer spoke openly about the substances he relied on at the time and how what started as partying eventually turned into something far more dangerous. Michaels explained that the lifestyle around him made the behavior feel exciting at first, but it didn’t take long before things spiraled into a place he didn’t fully understand at the time.

“Mostly it was pills, blow, and marijuana. It kind of starts out as what you believe is fun, certainly. Then it begins to delve into something way more serious. This Elvis lifestyle, this Jim Morrison, this Rebel Without a Clue idea—very endearing and sounded very cool and rugged. And there was a time in my life, didn’t really care if I lived past 35. I didn’t even know what living till 35 or 45 would even look like. I didn’t think about tomorrow.”

Michaels didn’t shy away from addressing how his behavior affected the way others saw him, admitting that negative reactions from people around him only made things worse. He explained that feeling disliked fed into the cycle, pushing him further into destructive habits as he tried to escape from the person he believed he had become.

“Being liked is way better than being hated. I knew everybody hated me, and that’s what starts a lot of the downhill spiral stuff. It was all about running and escaping, and honestly, running and escaping from the dude I’d become. There’s very realistic functioning drug addicts, and that’s exactly what I was.”

Despite everything happening behind the scenes, Michaels said he was still able to perform at a high level whenever the cameras were on. He acknowledged that fans looking back at his performances might assume he was out of control during matches, but he insisted that wasn’t the case in the moment.

“You can go and look at stuff now and see me doing stuff on TV, and people are like, oh my goodness, he must have been out of his gourd. Like, I was never not well on TV, you know what I mean? I always, you know, I was not well afterwards.”

Michaels’ honesty about that period of his life adds to the legacy of one of WWE’s most influential performers. His career included some of the biggest matches and moments in wrestling history, but stories like this show how much turmoil was happening behind the curtain during those same years.

What do you think about Shawn Michaels opening up about his drug struggles from the 1990s—does hearing stories like this change how you view his career during that era? Let us know your thoughts and drop your feedback below.