Former WWE star Johnny Jeter — known to fans as a member of the Spirit Squad — has shared the full truth behind his sudden WWE exit, and it’s far darker than anyone realized.
Speaking on Limpin Ain’t Easy, Jeter revealed that he walked away from his dream job because he was battling a severe painkiller addiction that was destroying his life from the inside out. Jeter said things spiraled so badly that he genuinely feared he wouldn’t survive if he stayed on the road.
“I knew I had a really bad pill addiction at the time — painkillers. And so for me, I just woke up one day and was like, you know, ‘I’m going to kill myself if I don’t get help.’ So after one of the European tours, I went home — I called my parents, I told them everything — and then I went home and got clean.”
When John Laurinaitis later called him to return to WWE, Jeter made it clear he wasn’t mentally or physically able to continue.
“When Johnny Ace called me to go on the road again, that’s when I told him, like, ‘Hey, look, I’m in San Diego right now — I moved here for XYZ reason.’ I told him what was going on, and he’s like, ‘Well, you know, we have programs to help you with that. We would have taken care of it.’”
But Jeter didn’t want the situation becoming public — something he feared would quickly leak through wrestling media.
“I just said that, you know, I thought about that, but I just thought this was my problem. I wanted to just do it on my own. And also, I didn’t want it to be so public… I just didn’t want it to — it always kind of got out in the dirt sheets.”
Laurinaitis then asked Jeter where he wanted to go — back on the road, to developmental, or somewhere else. Jeter chose none of the above.
“He just said, ‘Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to come on the road? Do you want to go to Deep South? What do you want to do?’ And I just said, ‘I think I just… you know, I don’t trust myself on the road. I think I’m — not that I’m over — but I think I’m past the point of being in developmental. I think I just need to be around my family right now.’ And he said, ‘Okay, I respect that. Door’s always open if you want to come back.’ And I just never came back.”
Jeter then detailed how the addiction started small — but quickly became terrifying.
“I think before you would take one or two and get a little buzzed, but then it got to the point where it’d do nothing, and then you’d take more and more and more. And then it was like you had this fear of running out… I’m taking them to feel normal — I know if I run out, I’m going to feel like death.”
He said he wasn’t alone — many wrestlers were struggling the same way, especially during long, exhausting tours.
“There were also a lot of guys on the road that were going through that as well — so, like, three‑quarters of the way through a European tour, you can imagine how everyone was feeling.”
Jeter also feared WWE could use his addiction against him if he failed a drug test without a prescription — something that could have ended his career instantly.
“I didn’t want to feel like I’m hooked on this crap anymore — and plus, I thought I would kill myself. There was a very big chance of that happening… I felt like it could be used against me if I ever popped on a drug test and didn’t have a prescription, or if they wanted to get rid of me — they had an excuse and I didn’t want that.”
After working for years to reach WWE, Jeter ultimately chose survival over fame.
“I started September 2001… I got signed 2003… I left August 2008. I worked for years to get to WWE, to be on TV… and now I’m not there. But it saved my life.”
Jeter’s story is a harsh reminder of the era he came up in — a time when painkillers were everywhere, support was limited, and countless wrestlers suffered in silence. Leaving WWE may have ended his career, but it saved his life.
Do you think WWE and other wrestling promotions do enough today to protect talent from the kind of struggles Johnny Jeter went through? Share your thoughts below — your voice matters.
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November 27, 2025 7:11 am
