Marc Mero Reflects On ‘Really Dark’ Period After Wrestling, When He Hit Rock Bottom

Marc Mero had a very difficult time after he left wrestling, reflecting on how close he came to taking his life afterward. Mero left the wrestling business after his run with the XWF, which closed down in 2002. He entered a very difficult time where he and Sable got divorced, though he recovered and had a short run in TNA before retiring in 2006. He has since gone on to find new stage of his life as a motivational speaker.

Mero spoke on Insight With Chris Van Vliet about that dark period and how he came close to suicide on Christmas Day of 2003. You can see the highlights below:

On His Life Right After Wrestling:

“Oh, man. First of all, life after wrestling was really dark. That’s when I really fell into drugs again, walked away from God, just lived a horrible life. Just didn’t care. I let myself go out of shape, out of money, out of time. It was just where I remember that it came to the point where I just didn’t want to be here anymore, losing so many people in my life, and then, of course, going through the divorce and going through all that again. It’s just the depression got so bad, and I had anger issues also on top of that, you know, because you blame other people, and you live with this bitterness and this resentment, and all these things that come together just weigh on you, and you just feel it. I know someone out there is listening to this right now that’s going, I went through that, or maybe I’m going through that right now, and it came to the point where I just remember that I just wanted to end it. It was Christmas Day, and I drove to Cocoa Beach, Florida on Christmas Day, and I sat under a pier, and I remember the waves just rolling in and out and just thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore.’ I had no place to go. I mean, Christmas was always so big in my life, many of our friends have passed on through the wrestling and, of course, going through the divorce and all the heartache I went through.

“I remember just wanting to end it all, and then, if it wasn’t for me getting on my knees and asking Christ back into my life. I remember just begging him for forgiveness and thinking to myself, What am I going to do? I’m basically starting over again. So I get a job. That’s where I got a job at Gold’s Gym as a trainer, and started, and then this thing started getting better and better and next thing you know, when the schools thing opened up. But let me get back to that little office building I’ve bought for 200 grand, because it’s part of the story. So fast forward. Now, all these years later, I have this little building that I recently sold four years ago, but I held the note. I was the bank, okay, and they gave me a huge down payment, and they have to pay X amount of money for 10 years. And there’s a balloon payment. And the way the Lord works this balloon payment is $214,000, exactly what I bought it for all those years ago. So it’s an incredible story, but it’s just how my life has turned out, that those things, you wonder how this happened. I don’t believe in coincidence. I really believe that things are meant to be. So anyone out there that’s maybe going through a hard time, man, hang in there. It’s gonna get better. You got to believe that.”

On the Christmas Day 2023 Moment Being His Rock Bottom Moment:

“I believe that rock bottom had a basement, and I went right into that basement, and that was it, that was gonna be the end of Marc Mero… It was going through so much pain that when you don’t have anybody to talk to, we don’t have someone in your life that you could just share with. Not saying that there weren’t people that would have listened to me or whatever, but sometimes you feel like you’re more of a pain to people you know, they don’t hear sob stories and I held so much inside, and I think that’s the worst things because when I deal with a lot of students day too, they hold in these suicidal thoughts or self harm, or whatever it is, this pain. And when you hold things inside, it’s like a volcano, and sooner or later, that volcano erupts, and it often erupts in negative behavior, whether it leads to you hurting other people, horrible relationships, anger issues, bitterness, resentments, self-harm and worst case, those suicidal thoughts.”

If you are experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please call 988 in the US and 0800 689 5652 in the UK.