TNA News: Former TNA Star Claims 'I Was a Complete Drug Addict' While in TNA

The past few months have not been too kind to WWE's main competitor TNA.

With stories of ex-wrestlers not getting paid, sexual harassment claims and backstage creative disagreements—needless-to-say they have run the gamut, and now news has broken of a former wrestler claiming he was an addict during his TNA run. 

According to wrestlinginc.com, former tag team star Jimmy Rave is claiming he was indeed addicted to drugs while with TNA from 2007-2009.

For those of you not familiar with Rave, he was part of a tag team managed by Christy Hemme, and his partner was Lance Hoyt, better known in WWE as Vance Archer.

At the time they went by, "The Rock and Rave Infection."  Both he and Hoyt carried Guitar Hero guitars to the ring, Hoyt dressed in garb similar to rock-star Slash and Rave looked like a guy you would find at a dance rave.

His initial statement came from the Road to Mania Blog. In that article, Rave stated:

"

"My 2009 run, I was a complete drug addict to be honest. I didn't give a damn about wrestling because I just cared about scoring more pills and numbing myself. Which people probably could notice about what kind of shape I was in and how I looked and even my wrestling."

"

It should be noted that TNA eventually released Rave. However, it was not due to his drug addiction, it was simply due to a lack of storylines from TNA's creative team. Rave later returned to Ring of Honor. They, however, noticed his addiction issues and released him.

This forced Rave to sober up as he stated:

"In turn, I went to rehab, got a job as a director of a Wellness Center, and I now help people realize they throw everything away that they love when they start abusing drugs."

This is a story that, so far, has a happy-ending. Sadly, not all wrestlers are able to turn things around and eventually die from their addictions. Hopefully, TNA will start to help out their wrestlers as the WWE has been doing. Otherwise, we will see more main-event disappointments like Jeff Hardy's at Victory Road.

UPDATE: after further review turns out Rave was referring to his time in ROH.