10 WWE Stars Who Made Amazing Recoveries From Drug Addiction 7

7. Chris Candido

He was expected to be a statistic, and he was, just not the way anyone expected. A ridiculously talented all-around performer who started wrestling when he was 14, he was already strong in-ring worker well before his 20th birthday. He broke out as a personality and promo when Jim Cornette brought him to Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1993 when he was 21, was in WWE at 23, and his life quickly spun out of control.
Like many wrestlers, his vice was painkillers, at one point even experimenting with Nubain, an especially potent drug that was especially popular among bodybuilders. It was more salacious for fans and wrestlers to make cocaine-related jokes about them, though, to the point that one promoter even offered to pay them crack based on their “reputation.” They refused since it wasn’t their drug of choice.
An episode where he caused a scene while blacked out in 2003 was the last straw, which he explained to Larry Goodman later on:  “I went to a MLW show in Orlando. What happened, I have no idea. I just know what the story is, I don’t know what’s true and what’s not, but somehow I wound up in the lobby of the hotel running around naked, and I was going to get arrested. […] But one time I get f***** up and run around in a hotel lobby naked, and the whole world knows about it. That was definitely the last straw. I’m not getting any younger.”
He quickly became the most respected veteran on the indie scene, having great matches with a wide variety of opponents and becoming a mentor to a lot of future stars, including CM Punk.  A great TV match with A.J. Styles got him a job with TNA, but he was going to be allowed to work on WWE’s ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, in the dark match of the first TNA Lockdown pay-per-view, Sonny Siaki mistimed a dropkick and Chris broke his leg.  He seemed to be recovering fine, but he passed away suddenly a few days later, believed to be from a blood clot since he wasn’t told to elevate the leg.  His heart may have also been damaged from past drug abuse.
What can you say that hasn’t been said in the last nine years?