As was documented within the recent “Dark Side of the Ring” episode, Junkyard Dog’s recognition within the ’80s rivaled that of nearly anybody else, a lot in order that Bill Watts constructed his Mid-South promotion across the Black wrestler and had plans to make him the corporate’s World Champion earlier than he jumped ship to WWE. Unfortunately, JYD’s fall from grace occurred simply as rapidly as his meteoric rise, with the wrestler falling lure to the perils of drug habit like a lot of his friends.
Jake Roberts, who intently noticed JYD’s rise to prominence in Mid-South and later WWE, continues to be in disbelief over how a lot struggling his late good friend endured throughout his last few years.
“He simply wasn’t there anymore,” Roberts stated of JYD on his “The Snake Pit” podcast. “You attempt to have a dialog with him and it is simply nothing. [It] was actually unhappy. It actually makes me sick, man, after I look again on it. I ought to have accomplished one thing, stated one thing, or tried one thing, however there was no reaching him at the moment. You simply could not attain him. I attempted a number of instances to succeed in out to him however I obtained nothing.”
When requested if he noticed the indicators of JYD’s deterioration throughout the finish of his run in Mid-South, Roberts responded within the affirmative and admitted that his good friend was “already starting” to go downhill. But he could not do something to stop the identical, and Roberts was coping with demons of his personal.
JYD died in a automobile accident in June 1998 whereas driving home from his daughter LaToya’s highschool commencement in North Carolina. He was solely 45. In 2004, the late wrestler was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
