Former WWE Superstar Marc Mero was a recent guest on the Prime Time with Sean Mooney podcast. Mero gave a deeply reflective interview to Sean Mooney and opened up about his past cocaine use and Dusty Rhodes’ disappointment in him:
The drug of choice back then was cocaine. Everybody was pretty much partying on cocaine and what happened was I started missing shows and you know how that is. You can’t miss shows. If your name is on the marquee, you don’t miss an event. I’ll never forget that Dusty Rhodes after missing a couple of events….called me into his office at the CNN Center and when I came into his office – and you know how jovial Dusty was, fun and always laughing, just a great guy. I’ve never seen him so sad and so serious. It was heartbreaking. He just looked at me and he said with this really stern look and sadness about him and he said, ‘Kid, I made you and I can break you. If you miss one more show, you’re done.’
Mero, in jeopardy of losing his job at WCW, was able to control his drug use enough to make shows; but, continued to party. Eventually he found his way into the WWE and wanted his wife (Sable) to be involved with his career. Vince McMahon was somewhat indifferent to the idea until he saw Sable and had an instantaneous reaction:
We walked into Vince’s office and when he saw her he said, ‘I’ve got to put you on TV.’
Mero talks about his first encounter with Sable in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hg5Q7S_O-w&t=49s
Sable eventually became a huge star in the WWE, effectively leaving Mero in her shadow. Mero contests that he didn’t care too much because he and Sable were in love and being well paid. Some of the wrestlers in the locker room; however, took exception, especially when Sable began beating Mero in the ring:
I’d let her take advantage of me, power bomb me and beat me up and, of course, it did not sit well with the other guys. They’d go, ‘You ruined your career.’
Mero credits Sable’s appearance in Playboy as the beginning of the end for their marriage:
Playboy first came and offered us this huge deal to do Playboy and they offered us a deal where she would get a quarter an issue over their normal sales. Well, of course Vince [McMahon] really pushed that on television and it became one of the fastest selling Playboys in history. We made a lot of money on this Playboy…..at that time we were thinking, ‘Wow this is so much money. This is life changing money.’ But, we were Christians. We were going to church, praising God and living a nice life and all of a sudden this comes into our life. I’ll never forget we were sitting at a table and saying, ‘Should we do this, should we not do this?’ And then I was like, ‘God will forgive us.’ God does forgive you; but, there are consequences to our actions in life. If I look back in life I believe that was the beginning of the end of our relationship.
Things grew worse for Mero before any improvements were made:
During my marriage with Rena [Sable], my mom died at 58. Two weeks later my 21 year old brother died. My sister died earlier at 21 from cancer. My dad died while I was holding him in my arms. Then my ex-wife Rena left me. I remember it was the lowest point of my life. How much can your heart take? Losing everybody that mattered to you – my other brother Joe was incarcerated in prison, my other sister Jody tried to end her life through an overdose of pills. It was like everything was a perfect storm in my life. It was Christmas day and I found myself all alone…through our struggle, we find our strength and this is the biggest blessing of my life. If I never understood or knew that feeling, I would never be as successful as I am today helping, changing, and even saving lives all over the world.
Mero credits his re-dedication to Christ as a major factor in getting his life back on track. He is now a published author and works as a motivational speaker. Readers can visit his site HERE.
Readers interested in hearing Mero’s interview in its entirety may do so HERE.
RELATED: Former WCW Star Shares Before & After Pics
