Jim Ross struggled with drug addiction in his earlier years with the WWE.

Ross recently did an interview with The A.V. Club to promote his book, Slobberknocker: My Life In Wrestling, and talked about the most surprising thing he decided to include in the book. Ross stated that the most shocking thing fans will find is the stories about his history of drug abuse.

The beloved commentator stated that he used Ambien and Xanax together with alcohol because he had sleep apnea (quotes via Wrestling Inc.):

"You're going to hear about my addiction to drugs. I was addicted to Ambien and Xanax, together, with Crown Royal. I was on Uranus, and Pluto, and Neptune, and everywhere else late at night.

"[Because] I had severe sleep apnea – and still do - I stopped breathing 99 times in an hour in a sleep test. So I wasn't in real great shape with that deal."

"Ambien is a temporary medication for insomnia. Temporary. Not ten years. …It's not a [revolutionary] story, it's eye-opening, and shows it can happen to anybody.

"It was like smoking, I just decided one day to quit smoking, and stopped. Done, I'm done."

It's no secret that drug addiction has a history of being an issue in the professional wrestling industry, and has led to the premature deaths of many beloved current and former WWE Superstars - Chyna being the most recent example. It's nice to see someone like Jim Ross having been strong enough to get over his issues before they took a tragic toll.

Now Ross has returned to the company, making his return at WrestleMania 33 to call The Undertaker's last match against Roman Reigns, and is now doing sporadic work for the promotion. He most recently called some shows in the UK for the WWE Network and also claims to have a few more projects lined up for the WWE in the near future.

It's nice to have Ross back on WWE programming as his iconic voice has been missing from WWE TV the past few years, taking a lot of the luster out of the product that fans resonated with so well during The Attitude Era.

What are your thoughts on JR's old drug addiction and his decision to kick the bad habit? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the third episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!

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