Big Bill looks back on getting sober and how he wants to help other recovering addicts.
Bill was inactive from wreslting from September 2019 to February 2021 as he went on his journey to sobriety, as after his release from WWE mid 2018, Bill cited his addiction along with anxiety and depression also playing a part.
In August of last year, Bill would sign a fulltime deal with AEW, changing his ring name from W. Morrissey in favor of the name he uses now, Big Bill.
Now, in a recent clip that Bill filmed for AEW Together, he reflected on his journey to sobriety and coming up on four years sober.
"My name is William Morrisey. I'm from Queens, New York. Super Bowl weekend of next year, I'm coming up on four years of sobriety. The final time that I was in rehab from January to February of 2020, we watched the ESPN 30 for 30 Unguarded, which is the story about Chris Herren, his battle with addiction and his rise to stardom in the NBA and his downfall and how he worked through all that, you know, adversity and came back to being the person he is today and helping out other people. I probably watched it three or four times and I decided I was gona look into Chris Herren. I saw that he had the Herren Project scholarships for people who can't afford, you know, an extra 30 days in rehab or can't afford to go to rehab for 90 days because of insurance or because of... there's so many reasons why, you know, some people can't go to rehab, the appropriate time that they need to go to rehab for, and the difference between 60 days and 90 days for some people could be the difference between life and death. And then what Herren Project also did was they would place people in sober living because when you get out of rehab,everything's new and life is totally different than before you went in. So sober living is incredibly important to a person's recovery." he said
Bill would continue on, detailing how he wanted to give back to Chris Herren and The Herren project for helping to turn his life around.
"When I decided to come back to wrestling I wanted to use maybe my story as motivation for other people. I was selling t-shirts that said straight out of Step 12, so I wanted to donate every dollar I made from that t-shirt to a good cause. I decided to reach out to Chris himself and I spoke with him quite a bit and then he put me in touch with Bonnie Sawyer over at the Herren Project and I asked if I could use their name and donate all the proceeds I made from those t-shirts and the next set of t-shirts that I had to the Herren Project. The things that they do, you know, to help people overcome addiction and guide them in the right direction, not only in rehab after rehab, which is just as important if not more important. Working with the Herren Project has been a blessing. Chris is a huge inspiration to me and I hope to one day maybe sharing my story touch as many lives as Chris has touched. That's the goal because the more people we can help the better obviously, because when push comes to show it is human lives, we're talking about here. So we are, you know, helping to save lives."
Big Bill is a fantastic human being. He has now been 4 years sober.
— Dark Puroresu Flowsion (@PuroresuFlow) October 27, 2023
He teamed with the Herren Project for adiction recovery & donated all the money from his “Straight Outta Step 12” t shirt to the project. pic.twitter.com/bUDgvPxt5S
Bill is currently one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions alongside Ricky Starks. The pair captured the titles from FTR on the October 7th edition of AEW Collision.
If you wish to donate to The Herren Project, you can do so here.
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