Colby Corino Recalls NJPW Contract Being Canceled In 2016 After Drug Overdose

Colby Corino had a contract with NJPW canceled back in 2016 due to issues with drugs, and he recently looked back at the situation. Corino spoke with WU Online for a new interview and talked about how an overdose led to his contract being cancelled and more. Corino noted that he has been clean for almost six years now. You can see some excerpts from the conversation below, per Fightful:

On the contract being canceled: “So in December of 2016, I overdosed on heroin, and when they came to revive me, I had all my drugs around because I just passed out when I overdosed. So they revived me and arrested me. So then I got arrested, I spent a few weeks in jail, and New Japan, they canceled my contract because they don’t want a drug addict [working for them]. Very fair to them. Not trying to be like, ‘Oh my goodness, these people….’ No, that’s exactly what I would have done in that circumstance too. I had a very big problem. Even after that, I still messed up, and I got arrested a few more times. But now we’re at a point where I’m coming up on almost six years clean. It’s not a cloud over my head anymore. I just feel like a regular person now that’s living life, but it’s always something that you can never forget.”

On how he stands with NJPW now: “I couldn’t tell you where I stand with them, unfortunately. I don’t think they really want to talk to me all that much right now. But what I can say is that a few weeks ago, I got to wrestle Rocky Romero. Rocky Romero is basically the American ambassador for New Japan. He does a lot of the communication and office stuff between them. He’s very trusted by the Japanese office. When I got my deal, he was one of the people that put his name on me and helped me out. So when I wrestled him, I was able to apologize to him and I was able to try to make those rights wrong. I made sure I was clear that I’m not trying to get a job because I’m not even sure if I could go there. I’m contracted with the NWA. But person-to-person, I felt like I wronged him, and I just needed to man-to-man apologize to him. So hopefully there’s no bad blood, but I’m not sure you’ll see Colby Corino in a NJPW ring any time soon, as much as I would love to see that happen.”