Growing up, one of of Nicholas W. Wilson's heroes was Lawrence Taylor, the gifted but troubled pro football Hall of Famer and occasional professional wrestler. 

Like "L.T." did on the field, Wilson has the seemingly superhuman ability to absorb punishment. And like Taylor, despite his success in professional sports, Wilson's personal demons overwhelmed him. 

Just a few months ago, Wilson, 30, was a big draw for Combat Zone Wrestling, a Philadelphia-based independent wrestling operation known for its ultraviolent matches. 

He wrestles under the name Nick "F'n" Gage, and among fans of hardcore wrestling, he's a hero. 

Now, he sits in the Camden County Jail, charged with robbing a PNC Bank branch in nearby Collingswood three days before Christmas 2010. 

In an interview on Monday morning at the jail, Wilson said he's been battling an addiction to Oxycontin and other prescription painkillers for at least 10 years. 

He was high on Oxy, he said, when he walked into the bank that afternoon. 

He was also cold and desperate after being tossed from the Camden home where he and his girlfriend had been living with her mother. 

"To be honest with you, it was spur of the moment, " he said of the Dec. 22 bank robbery. "I didn't wake up that morning and say, 'I'm going to take this bank down today.' I had no money, nowhere to go."

So, Wilson said, he walked into the bank, scribbled a demand note on a deposit slip and handed it to a female teller. 

Police said that in the note, Wilson threatened to shoot the teller unless she handed over cash. But Wilson denies ever threatening to harm anyone during the robbery. 

"I was actually really nice," to the teller, he said, "I even said 'thank you,' when she gave me the money and 'it's going to be OK.'"

Wilson walked out of the bank with about $3,000, police said. 

But he didn't know what to do next. 

"I walked in and robbed a bank, and walked out not knowing how to get out of there (the borough) at all," he said.

Eventually, he said he made his way to a friend's house, and then to Atlantic City with his girlfriend to play roulette, winning at the tables.

Wilson said at the time, his girlfriend had no idea he'd just robbed a bank—until she saw his photo on the evening news.

Police released a clear PNC surveillance photo of the bank robber—and almost immediately, tips started pouring in from wrestling fans who noticed the striking resemblance between him and fan-favorite Nick Gage. 

"I guess I didn't realize how popular I was until the photos came out," he said. 

Police charged Wilson on Dec. 29 with the robbery, while he was still on the run. 

After several days, another friend convinced Wilson to turn himself in. Wilson and his girlfriend, 28-year-old Sondra L. Culbertson, arrived at the Collingswood police station around noon New Year's Eve. Culbertson was arrested on warrants unrelated to the robbery, and was also transported to the county jail.

"I realized what I did was wrong, and wanted to start the New Year on the right foot," Wilson said of his decision to surrender. "The cops are too good at their jobs to run forever."

Sitting in a visiting room at the jail Monday morning, Wilson wore a red jail jumpsuit instead of wrestling tights. 

His forehead bears the jagged battle scars that come from being whacked with folding chairs, free-falling from 20-foot tall metal ladders and being raked with barbed wire by an opponent. 

Wilson grew up in National Park, Gloucester County, as a fan of East Coast Wrestling—a precursor to the wild, outlandish style of CZW. He and brother Chris, learned the ropes at a wrestling school that became a feeder program for CZW. 

Over the next decade, he went on to become CZW's first-ever World Heavyweight Champion, and a 2009 CZW Hall of Fame Inductee.

CZW owner D.J. Hyde said in an earlier interview that Wilson's downslide surprised him. 

"Nicky's (CZW wrestling) character is this crazy, bad-ass kind of guy," Hyde said. "But Nick himself is a great guy, so it's really sad. You don't want to end up like this."

To Wilson, each injury he's suffered is a medal of honor. 

"I'm just a tough guy, and I like to prove it to people," he said, "It's called ultraviolent wrestling for a reason."

He's particularly proud of a long scar under his right armpit, which came from an incident during a 2009 match in which he severed arteries on jagged glass from fluorescent light tubes while being thrown out of a ring. 

Bleeding out, Wilson was rushed to a hospital, where he flatlined for 15 seconds before being resuscitated. And 32 staples later, "Gage" was back in the ring just a week later to inflict—and receive—more punishment. 

He said most of the money he's earned over the years wrestling across the United States, and in other countries such as Germany and Japan, went to scoring painkillers. 

"Instead of putting money aside, I'm busy buying stupid pills and eating them up," he lamented. 

He said his dependence on painkillers had nothing to do with the near-constant pain with which many wrestlers have to live. 

"I just liked taking them," he said. 

During the interview, Wilson said he wanted to apologize to everyone in Collingswood. "It's such a nice town," he said, "and they didn't need me to do that in their neighborhood—especially around Christmastime."

Before the bank robbery, Wilson had one prior brush with the law. In September 2005, police in Woodbury, Gloucester County,  charged him with receiving stolen property—a doctor's prescription blank, with which he fraudulently tried to obtain Oxycontin. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and paid a $250 fine plus court costs. The fraud charge was dismissed. 

But now, in the aftermath of his latest arrest, Wilson is seeking drug treament at the jail. Wilson said Monday he's been sober for 10 days—since arriving at the jail.

He has an initial court appearance scheduled for Wednesday in Camden, during which he'll be represented by a public defender. 

Wilson is sure that it's not too late to turn his life around. After he does his time he wants to return to the place he loves best: the ring. 

When asked if he had a message to relay to all his fans, he paused, and said, "Tell my fans the king will be back.

"When I go into the ring, I'm Nick Gage," he said. "But when I walked into that bank, I was Nick Wilson. No, I was drugged Nick Wilson."