5. Louie Spicolli – Age 27
A drive to succeed as a wrestler was contradicted by an inability to overcome the lure of drugs, leading to Louie Spicolli’s death. Despite an atypical physique for a wrestler, Louie Spicolli found success in the WWF as enhancement talent and reinvented himself in Mexico’s Triple A promotion as Madonna’s Boyfriend, before working as Rad Radford in the WWF alongside the Bodydonnas. However, Spicolli’s fondness for drugs led to him being fired by the WWF after he reportedly ingested 55 Somas and was found face down in a puddle. Drugs ruined his potential run in ECW, but Spicolli impressed WCW enough to get a chance as Scott Hall’s comedic sidekick in the nWo. Spicolli stopped drugs cold turkey and seemed to be doing well until his mother was diagnosed with cancer and Spicolli relapsed. In February 1998, Spicolli’s life was cut short when he choked on his own vomit after mixing alcohol and pain killers. According to Dave Meltzer’s 2001 book, Tributes, Spicolli’s friend John Hannah “…woke up to a really bad odor. When he opened the door to Spicolli’s room, he knew right away what had happened. Spicolli was lying fast first on the floor, there was vomit all over the place, his ankles were swollen, and his body was already discolored.”
