AEW star Eddie Kingston has opened up about his personal battle with alcohol and drugs during a recent Players Tribune piece. 

Here is what he said about that turbulent time in his life:

 “So I drank. Christ, did I drink. I became a bouncer just so I could drink more. On the weekends I’d start drinking at 1 p.m. on Saturday, bounce at the bar until 7, go and wrestle somewhere, then come back to the bar after and drink til 7 in the morning. Then I’d wake up the next day and it was football Sunday, so I’d drink from noon till 2 a.m..”

He added, “And I just started crying. This wave came over me, and I finally understood what was happening, and I started bawling right there in the car. I have been everything in this life. I have been an angry kid. I’ve been a depressed teenager. I’ve been an addict. I’ve seen so many holding cells it would make your head spin. I’ve messed up and self-destructed and burned bridges. I’ve been down to my last dollar. The only reason I’m still doing this, and really the only reason I’m still on this earth is because of all the friends who never stop having my back.”

“I know how to live with my anxiety and depression. And I’m not afraid to talk about it. I don’t care what the old-school guys in the business have to say about it. It ain’t 1987 no more,” he wrote.