FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Former wrestling great Marc "Johnny B. Badd" Mero conducted a two-day, three-event tour on post last week, delivering his message of hope and self-empowerment to thousands of Soldiers and Army civilians during Fort Drum's observance of Suicide Prevention Month.
"I want to share my story with you," said Mero, who fought substance abuse and suicidal behavior in his past. "It's a story of tragedy and triumph, victory and defeat. But it's a message of inspiration, hope and believing your dreams."
Born in Buffalo in 1960, Mero spent his teen years near Syracuse. After graduating Liverpool High School, where he excelled in football and hockey, he said he pursued his "true love" -- boxing. He eventually went on to win four New York Golden Gloves titles, leading to the prospect of a professional boxing career.
But just two weeks before his first professional match at the Syracuse War Memorial Arena, Mero's nose was shattered in an accident. After reconstructive surgery, he could have no full contact for a year.
"Surgery went great," he recalled. "But sometimes, when you have a lot of free time, you are presented with many choices. And I started making some really bad ones."
Mero said the company he kept was the very first thing he did wrong.
"We become who we surround ourselves with," he said. "Your friends and co-workers are like elevators: They either take you up or they take you down. You show me your friends and I'll show you your future.
"How do I know this?" he continued. "I hung out with losers, and I became the biggest loser of them all. I gave up on everything I had dreamt of as a little boy because of who I chose to surround myself with."
As he began attending parties where heavy drinking and drugs were the norm, Mero's one year of recovery turned into two. Two years of bad choices turned into four. He said it would be 10 long years before he shook himself free of a dead-end construction job and self-destructive behaviors.
"Sometimes in life, you get another chance," he said soberly. "Sometimes."
Mero's second chance came in 1990, when, despite many naysayers, he embarked on a career in professional wrestling at the age of 30 -- first with World Championship Wrestling and then the World Wrestling Federation.
One year later, he signed a huge contract and the money began pouring in. With cash on hand, he not only built himself a house in Marietta, Ga., but he also fulfilled a childhood dream and bought a home for his mother in Sarasota, Fla. Mero also purchased pricey items, like a speedboat and a Cadillac.
In 1994, he married model and WWF diva "Sable," whom he would later star alongside during major fights.
At every turn, Mero said people flattered and congratulated him: "Marc, you've made it! You're rich! You're famous! I saw you on TV! You are so lucky!" But despite his good fortune, he said he began resorting to his old ways, eventually running with the wrong crowd and falling back into drug and alcohol abuse.
"My world started spinning out of control," he said of his eventual collapse. "I'm a multimillionaire, (but) I was never so empty in my life."
During this time, Mero said he watched dozens of his friends die, mostly to bad choices like suicide, criminal activity or drug overdoses. He also lost his mother to a stroke, his sister to cancer, his brother to a freak accident and his father.
Meanwhile, his own bad choices led to a divorce.
"The saddest part about my drug and alcohol abuse was that the people who I hurt the most were the people who loved me the most," he said. "The way I treated my family was horrible. It took me years to forgive myself."
Although the substance abuse was not new, losing loved ones and family members pushed Mero to the brink of suicide. With nowhere to go on a dreary Christmas Day about 10 years ago, he sat under a pier at the beach watching the waves roll in and out as he contemplated ending his life. He said he then drove home, grabbed his handgun and placed it to his temple.
But that's when his life -- all of the faces and voices of everyone he ever loved -- "flashed" before his eyes, and he said he suddenly realized he had a choice to live or die.
"And I wanted to live," Mero said. "I wanted to live, and I wanted forgiveness."
He said his change of heart that day changed his life.
"I thank God every day that I didn't make that decision to take my life," he said. "I would have never known all of the beautiful things that were to come. I thank God I didn't give up."
Mero, who founded the nonprofit Champion of Choices in 2007, has since travelled around the country bringing his positive message to schools, corporate events and other venues.
"There's a purpose for all of us," he said. "I don't care how broken or how hurt you have been in your life, it is going to get better. There are good things coming. I never would have known all the beauty coming to my life if I would have ended it that day.
"I want to encourage you," he added. "There may be something in your heart that has been brewing for a long time. I challenge you to write it down and put it somewhere that you have to see it.
"Follow your dreams, your passions," he concluded. "Get promoted. Do all of things you want to do in life, and don't let anybody hold you back. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. But first you have to believe it in your heart."
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