When informed about Chase Tatum's untimely death, the wrestler once known as Abdullah The Butcher, Larry Shreve, immediately suspected the cause.

"Every time you hear about a wrestler dying young, you think right away it must've been drugs," said the former iconic villain, now an Atlanta restaurant owner. Untimely deaths seem to come with the territory; more than 100 wrestlers under the age of 50 have died from various causes over the last 10 years, according to a list compiled by the London Sun newspaper,

Tatum, 34, was found by a friend Sunday afternoon at his Buckhead home. He was pronounced dead on the scene, and toxicology reports have been ordered by the Fulton County Medical Examiner.

The Kennesaw native was recovering from surgery to repair a degenerative disc in his back just 10 days earlier.

His father, Roy Tatum, said his son had suffered with back pain for years but without health insurance could not afford the costly surgery. He turned instead to painkillers, developing an addiction.

Chase Tatum was best known for being part of WCW's short-lived "No Limit Soldiers," team, sponsored by rapper Master P.

Friend and former roommate Marcus "Buff" Bagwell said Tatum quickly adopted the wrestling lifestyle, indulging in a drug culture born partly out of necessity.

"Every wrestler has their own stash of pills," said Bagwell, himself a popular WCW wrestler from 1991-2001. "And everybody partied, all day and all night. I partied with him. It was part of it. You're going to need some help just to make it on the tour."

Bagwell said Congress needs to intervene, as it has with steroids in Major League Baseball.

"It'll kill wrestling, but wrestling is killing people anyways," he said. "It would be a shame if Chase ends up just another number."

Bagwell, who knew Tatum since high school, described his friend as a "God-fearing man." "He'd have a beer, but he also would have his Bible with him," he said. "He had a super heart ... just a great kid."

Tatum, a former Mr. Georgia, was planning to enter a drug rehabilitation facility in Miami, his father said. "He had a bright future," said Bagwell, who now lives in Woodstock. "I had heard that his movie career was really taking off."

Tatum played "Kidd Clean" in the low-budget 2007 comedy, "Who's Your Caddy?" Roy Tatum said. He starred alongside Antwan "Big Boi" Patton of Outkast, for whom he worked as a road manager and personal assistant.

Roy Tatum said his son had just scored a major part in a movie to be filmed in New York.

"Things were looking up for him," he said.