On the latest episode of the Talk’n Shop podcast with The Good Brothers, NWA World Heavyweight Champion Thom Latimer opened up about his long battle with alcohol abuse, a struggle that cost him his WWE career and nearly a decade of his professional life.

Latimer said that his current championship run feels like redemption. “Getting my shit together [has taken] me an incredibly long time. I’m sort of like a decade behind where I should or thought I was going to be,” he admitted. “It’s taken me a lot of time to get to this point, but I want to be able to at least look back at the back end of my career and go, ‘That’s the guy I should have been the entire time.’”

Signed to WWE’s developmental system FCW at 23, Latimer admitted he was not ready for the opportunity. “I was 23 and I hadn’t lived… I hadn’t grown up mentally,” he said. “In my brain, I was a child.” The harsh reality of the business hit him immediately, as he witnessed numerous trainees quitting under pressure. With drug testing limiting options, alcohol became his escape. “There was no other out there, right? You’re drug tested… the only thing you can do is drink. So, drink.”

Latimer revealed the incident that ended his WWE run. “We were supposed to go up, The Ascension, at least me and Ryan [Konnor O’Brian], after The Shield,” he recalled. “Was supposed to win the NXT Tag belts, the first ones, and then go up… And I went out, got drunk, got arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer and drunken disorderly. And I’d already gotten a DUI my first week in developmental and they’d let me off on that… three days later, I sat home, I got the call, right? ‘That’s it, you’re done.’”

He said John Laurinaitis emailed him to “go away and sort out your demons,” advice he ignored for years. The same cycle followed him to TNA and Japan. “It was just like this repeating pattern of being given the ball by companies, and just kicking it away,” he said.

By 2019, Latimer realized he had to change. “It was time to sort of get sober and grow up,” he shared. “I’ve burnt every bridge, so to still have a bridge remaining and be able to do it, it’s a blessing for me.” He and host Karl Anderson, who is also sober, discussed the challenges of adjusting to life without alcohol. “You have to learn how to do it because for me… I’m not someone that can have a piece of chocolate… And it’s the same with one beer… it would lead to the 20 to 40 to whatever,” he said. “What I found, at least for me, is nothing bad 99.9% of the time ever happens to me now that I’m sober, because it was always drink related.”

Latimer began wrestling at 17 in the UK under Drew McDonald and Jeff Kaye. Through connections with Finlay, he got to train with WWE when they toured the UK, even wrestling a match on WWE Heat in 2005 with almost no experience. He signed with WWE in 2010 and was part of the original Ascension alongside Konnor O’Brian, calling it “super, super cool and super down my alley.”

Now in his late 30s, Latimer reflects on how differently things might have gone had he been mentally ready back then. “My brain now is at the point where I could survive a place like that and maybe thrive,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t mature and ready enough at the time.”

He added that being so young and naïve made WWE’s reality difficult to accept. “I went, ‘Oh, my dreams, absolute bullshit.’ And it’s my own fault, because I went in there with a certain mindset on what it was going to be,” he said. “My dreams just shattered in front of me on that very first day, and I went, ‘Oh, this, I don’t like this.’”

Now one of NWA’s leading stars, Latimer has learned to appreciate the journey. “All I wanted to be was a pro wrestler… I grew up on American TV. I want to be American,” he said. “So even just being in America, that was a dream in itself.”

He spoke about learning to be present and appreciate each moment. “You’re always on to the next thing, so you never really have time unless you force yourself to be in the moment,” he said. “The thing about this job is, it’s all a moment, isn’t it? And you have to remember that, because we’re constantly pushing for this journey, this destination, and when we get there, it’s going to kind of suck. It means it’s all over.”

Latimer is currently in a feud with “Thrillbilly” Silas Mason for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship.

As the conversation closed, Latimer shared advice for younger wrestlers. “There’s only so many spots in professional wrestling that really exist,” NWA’s Kyle Davis said. “Just to say you’re a professional wrestler, you are in the 1% of a field that most people will never be able to attain to.” Doc Gallows added, “Don’t take no for an answer… You just can’t take the negative route and put your head down. You know, you got to keep showing up and keep swinging.”

For Latimer, his story is one of redemption and resilience. “This is who I am,” he said. “It’s taken me a lot of time to get to this point, but I want to be able to at least look back at the back end of my career and go, ‘That’s the guy I should have been the entire time.’”

The full interview is available now on the Talk’n Shop podcast.