By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

In a segment on “Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel” that premiers Tuesday night on HBO, one of the best sports journalists of all-time, Frank Deford, profiles the effort of Diamond Dallas Page to help former professional wrestlers to recover from their substance abuse issues.

The segment doesn’t have enough times to cover the problems the wrestlers from Page’s generation have and the culture of death that exists from that generation, but it is an effective segment to bring this important topic back into the mainstream spotlight.

The segment does a really good job of focusing on Scott Hall and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who are two wrestlers that by all accounts should be dead because of their issues with pills and booze. The segment does a good job of getting across how things spiraled out of control for Hall and Roberts once their careers began to dwindle. A big issue for wrestlers from that generation is what happens when the spotlight is gone and Hall and Robert’s substance abuse issues and how they were exacerbated after the spotlight faded are well chronicled in this piece.

DDP’s “DDP Yoga” and his efforts to help Hall and Roberts are well documented in this segment. Deford does a good job of challenging DDP’s intentions throughout the segments. At one point Deford point blank asks DDP if he’s just another character. Towards the end of the segment, Deford tells DDP he sounds like an evangelist. Page answers Deford’s accusations each time, but there isn’t enough time for Deford to fully explore DDP’s intentions given the length of the segment.

Deford chronicles how Roberts and then Hall eventually moved to Page’s home, which has been named the Accountability Crib. Roberts and Hall both talk about their issues and how dismal things were for them when Page offered to let them move in with him.

Hall and Roberts still want to be involved in wrestling, despite all it has taken from them. The good news is that both men have gotten on the right path with DDP’s help. On moving in with DDP and staying clean while using DDP Yoga, Roberts says, “I think I knew it was the absolute last chance to survive.”

Both Hall and Roberts still want to be involved in wrestling, despite what it has taken from them and the segment chronicles that aspect of this generation of wrestlers well. Roberts is shown appearing at an independent show. Hall was able to get to the point where he got in good enough shape to go to the gym every day and help train his son Cody to wrestle.

Before the segment was filmed, Roberts relapsed and drank alcohol before entering a 90-day accountability program. Hall has also recently moved out of DDP’s house to live on his own.

Although the culture of death from Page’s generation would require an ample amount of time to cover in-depth, this segment does a good job at objectively showing what Page is doing with DDP Yoga and his Accountability Crib to help wrestlers from his generation. Deford does a good job throughout the piece of balancing things and showing that despite, Hall and Roberts being on a much better path than they were before, there’s always a chance of a relapse. He also is effective in questioning DDP’s intentions throughout the segment and not just taking him at his word. This is a segment well-worth going out of your way to check out tomorrow night on HBO.

“Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel” debuts Tuesday night on HBO at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time with replays available throughout the week on HBO and HBO 2.

***

Please click HERE and click “like” to join the Radican’s Wrestling Community Facebook fan page.

Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

We suggest these recent related articles...

RADICAN'S Beyond Wrestling "Greatest Rivals Round Robin" review 9/26 - incredible show of the year contender, Busick-Edwards top-flight MOTYC, more!

RADICAN'S "The Pull List" (Vol. 5) "Young Bucks Too Sweet Journey" doc review, The Flash season 1 Blu-Ray, Top Ten MOTYC for 2015

RADICAN'S ROH "All-Star Extravaganza VII" PPV BLOG 9/18: Booking issues dampen excellent in-ring action