 Hold my beer, watch this. Alcohol and pro wrestling go together like Hawken Animal, Hawken Andre, and Ric Flair Refusing Rehab. So won't you please grab your beverage of choice, raise your glass high, hit the music, and join me, Kevin Callis, from Wrestling Behind the Themes as we take a look at the drunk side of the ring. I'll drink to that, bring me some damn beer. Before Stone Cold Steve Austin cracked open his first Steve Wiser, pro wrestling's first party animal was the man who made Milwaukee famous, The Crusher. The barrel-chested, beer-guzzling, cigar-smoking, sausage-loving, proud Polish American born Reginald Lazowski. The Crusher was one of the roughest, toughest, and strongest wrestlers of his time, who had the rather unorthodox training regimen of running the Millie Wauke Waterfront with the beer barrel on each shoulder. So it's only fitting, then, that his entrance theme music was the beer barrel polka, known the world over as one of the most popular drinking songs of all time. From the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, Andre the Giant was the highest-paid professional wrestler in the business and a household name across the world. And the one thing that Andre loved to spend his money on more than anything else was booze, and I'm talking like epic proportions of booze. Now consider this number, 7,000. It's an important number and a rather astounding one considering its context, which is this. It's been estimated that Andre drank 7,000 calories worth of alcohol every day. That's not 7,000 calories of food, just booze, 7,000 calories. The Road Warriors changed the wrestling game forever with their badass face paint, badass black Sabbath entrance theme music, and for lack of a better adjective, overall badassery. Now given that it was the 1980s, it should come as no surprise that they indulged themselves in the party lifestyle and Road Warrior Hawk, well, he could hang better than most anyone else. But unfortunately, Hawk was fueled by many different substances, which got substantially worse as the years went by and his alcoholism was even developed into a WWE storyline. Hawk lived life on the edge of a lightning bolt, and it's a shame that it ended early for one of the greatest tag team wrestlers ever. It's amazing how so many wrestlers have passed on at a young age, yet Jake the Snake Roberts is still with us. The man's charisma on the mic and skill in the ring have been overshadowed by his demons and battles with sobriety both on and off camera. It's been said that Jake could often be one of those guys super messed up yet he looked totally sober. So when he acted up, you knew it was pretty bad. Now he's done his best to clean up his act, thanks of course to DDP Diamond Dallas Page, and it's just nice to have him clean and sober and not drunk and high and playing with his pet snake. Say what you will about the Sandman, but the truth is he was a goddamn man of the people, a fighting drunkard that demonstrated the most extreme version of overindulgence, usually drinking before, during, and after his matches. And although he was kind of limited from a technical wrestling standpoint, he remained immensely popular, well because he had one of the most enthusiastic crowd participation entrance themes of all time. Simply put, there is no better example of an alcohol-fueled fighting machine than the Sandman. Any fan of the Attitude Era likely has positive memories of Farouk and Bradshaw as the APA, also known as the Acolytes Protection Agency. These two bruising bodyguards for hire could often be found backstage, puffin' on cigars, playing cards, and downing many, many, many beers. Originally, the duo started off as bad guys, but they were just so damn entertaining that the fans turned them into babyfaces. It also didn't hurt to have a kick-ass theme song to boot. Kevin Nash once famously said the line, I've met rock stars, trust me, they don't party nearly as hard as wrestlers. Considering the main event picture at the height of backstage decadence, it should be no surprise that the click makes this list. I mean, when you hang out with mid-90s Shawn Michaels, pulling all-nighters, definitely came with the territory. Together, these compadres were quite the party animals, which added to their already infamous reputations at the time. I mean, God bless Triple H for being designated driver, right? With all apologies to the aforementioned Sandman, Stone Cold Steve Austin is the one professional wrestler that made drinking beer and kicking ass famous, because he made it a worldwide phenomenon. Now if you went to a WWE event that Austin was on, whether it was on TV or simply a house show, then the chances are you were able to witness a beer bash firsthand, where he would usually take two or three at the same time, smash them together, and then chug them. Sometimes other wrestlers would join him for a drink, but a lot of the time when that happened, that person received a stunner for good measure. Because ultimately, fans just wanted to see Stone Cold beat people up and drink as Steve Wisers. The AEW character arc for Hangman and Adam Page has been one of the most realistic by the sport in a long time, and while the majority of the wrestlers on this list have been portrayed as drinking to have a good time, Page's drinking was rooted in something much deeper and darker. For a while there, the Hangman withdrew from others and was seen drinking heavily on TV, taking beers from fans, and bringing glasses of liquor to interviews, and while the fans loved it, reacting the way that Stone Cold had conditioned them to decades prior, unlike Austin, Hangman's drinking wasn't cool, but the way he overcame his insecurities to become AEW champ was still very inspirational. Ric Flair has joked that he'd be a lot richer today if he hadn't been living his gimmick overindulging in his Playboy lifestyle during his prime. I mean, technically we should blame Jim Crockett for encouraging Ric to live up to his character as much as he could because Flair easily complied, buying ultra-expensive suits, having a limousine for a car, and throwing outrageous parties with the Four Horsemen, where he was known to truly style and profile with the ladies. However, incredibly, despite being such a notorious partier, Nath was still able to keep his hectic schedule as NWA champion. That amazing ability to go night after night after night was a key reason why everybody loved The Nature Boy. Now it may have taken its toll on him as life went on, but one can argue that the man truly lived life to the fullest, which is another reason why he remained such a legend. Have any other drunken wrestling escapades we might have missed? Then let us know what they are in the comment section right down below and don't forget to like share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it. Thank you as always for watching this video, I've been Kevin from Wrestling Behind The Themes, and cheers to ya!