Dave Meltzer provided more details on what was going on with Brian Christopher Lawler before his passing. During a breaking news audio update, he said that Brian was in jail for the last 3 weeks after he was charged with a DUI and evading police. His father Jerry Lawler had done everything possible to help him over the years but this time opted to let him stay in jail so he could learn a lesson. He hoped that this recent jail stay would be a wake-up call for him. As previously noted, his issues date back many years and the story was that he was fired by WWE in 2001 after being caught with meth and steroids at the Canadian border.
âBrian hung himself in prison, I guess last night or today and was pronounced brain dead,â Meltzer said. He said that he heard early this morning via text messages from Lawlerâs friends that he was pronounced brain dead and was not expected to make it. Meltzer noted that Brian would get into trouble in the 90âs and oftentimes it was drug-related. Sadly, he never cleaned himself up despite attempts by his father to help him.
âHe was on $40,000 bond and Jerry has been doing stuff to get him out of things and just felt that he needed to learn and he wasnât gonna get him out this time.â He continued, âJerry is good with grief. Heâs a unique person but still, could you imagine? You have a kid. Even if the kid goes wrong, youâre gonna always love the kid. He did what he thought was the right thing. Heâs 46 years old [and] he should have grown up a long time ago and you canât keep bailing him out of his trouble. So sad. Brian couldnât handle it in prison, I guess. Whatever it was, he hung himself today. Itâs like a Von Erich story. Very much like one. [He was] a second generation wrestling trying to live up to the name of the father.â Meltzer noted that Brian recently talked about wanting to be just like his father.
Jerry tried to help him through the years. Meltzer said, âJerry had told him many times âif you can clean yourself up for a year, Iâll get you a job, whether itâs a trainer at the Performance Center or something but youâve got to clean yourself up for a year. There would be periods where he would get clean to a degree but it never lasted a year. One of his friends told me it was a couple of months and another friend told me that his version of clean was him on methadone and things like that. Which is not my version or probably your version of clean but I guess itâs the wrestler version of clean.â Itâs similar to what people said about Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero was âcleanâ from alcohol but was still taking a lot of pain pills up until his death. Brian had periods when he wasnât messed up and he was a cool guy when he was âcleanâ but when he was messed up he could come off as obnoxious.
Meltzer added, âThere was a suicide attempt before that not too many people know of. I didnât even know of about today.â He said that the suicide attempt was 3 or 4 years ago.
Brian Christopher Lawler was just 46 years old.