Vampiro Reveals "Brutal" Drug Culture In WCW

vampiro appeared on the Art of Wrestling and discussed his WCW run and more. 

Below are the highlights:

On drug use on WCW: “WCW, that was stupid drug abuse. That wasn’t drug use to get by, not that I’m justifying either one of them. But WCW was f–king brutal, man. I hated WCW. Everybody says, ‘why do you hate WCW so much?’ I was so glad you asked me this because I never got I chance to tell the story. I disliked WCW because of the politics behind the [scenes]. It was f–king brutal. You’ve heard the story a million different times from a million different people and I can confirm that it’s all true…there [were] 27 Mexican guys signed to contracts. How many of those guys wrestled more than once every two years? I’m not going to name names, but somas were being made in Tijuana [Mexico]. What the f–k do you think those guys were bringing in?”

On Bobby Duncum's drug problems: “Bobby Duncum was on the plane with me and he kept popping these pills, these Percocets. I’d never heard of them before. And he was taking not 10. He was taking handfuls. He goes, ‘brother, you have to try this’ and he gave me two or three and I was f–king out. We get off the plane together and he was met by his wife and his baby daughter. I was so devastated that I called the office and I asked to talk to JJ Dillon and I asked to talk to other people in the office. And I said, ‘listen, man, I don’t want to be a stooge, and you guys know what that means’ and I said, ‘I can’t live with myself if I don’t tell you I think this guy has a drug problem and I’m scared he’s going to die’. They never did anything, and sure enough, he had a drug overdose and he died. And I was like, ‘you motherf–kers have just left that young girl, that baby girl, three or four year old girl, without a dad because you didn’t want to deal with that f–king problem’. That was the moment I gave up on [professional] wrestling, pretty much.”

On bringing the Misfits onto WCW TV: “It was in Minnesota. I remember it like it was yesterday. And [WCW officials] said, ‘we don’t know what to do with you’. And I went across the street to a bar because the Misfits were playing there and I said, ‘guys, I’ve never met you before’. I showed up and I said, ‘hey, man, I’m this guy and I’m your fan. How would you guys like to get involved in this little idea I have of you guys coming to the ring with me? It would be great exposure.’ The Misfits have never been on TV and they were like, ‘yeah!’ So we all got Misfitted up and painted up and leathered up and we walked into the [WCW] Monday Nitro as the Misfits and everybody was like, ‘oh my God!'”

On the group leaving WCW: “[Jerry Only] just became the biggest pro wrestler in the world. He wanted to be Hulk Hogan…it just got to the point with Jerry where he started bugging the office so much and they came up with the crazy idea of having him work with Steve Williams, Dr. Death, another guy, rest in peace. And Steve beat him up pretty bad. And then they left because Doyle, the guitar player, I love him, my brother, fell in love with Randy Savage’s girl and she left Randy for Doyle. That was the end of the Misfits and Vampiro pretty f–king quick.”