By Bruce Mitchell, Torch columnist

VIP EXCLUSIVE - Early-release article from PWTorch Newsletter #988...

BRUCE MITCHELL FEATURE
Original Headline: "WWE's Health and Wellness Mystery"
Original Publish Date: September 8, 2007
Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #988

"The WWE does not have a drug policy that's worth a flip," U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) told the Daily News yesterday. "Because the WWE didn't catch them, the district attorney in (Albany) New York investigated and found them."

- New York Daily News, September 10, 2007

The evidence is mounting that WWE cannot or will not protect the health of its talent with an effective drug testing policy of its own.

Any idea that Vince McMahon and his management may have once had of just riding this unprecedented governmental and media storm out and then returning to a profitable business-as-usual seems more remote from reality than ever. Don't be fooled, like the CBS Evening News or the wrestling experts at the Howard Stern Show, by the eleven suspensions WWE passed out - this is no crackdown. This is "oh-my-god maybe they're serious, why don't they leave us alone" panic, and even in the midst of that desperation, WWE can't help showing the arrogance and blindness to long-term business security that got them in the mess in the first place.

There's no getting around it. Last week's news was devastating and raises questions about virtually everything WWE has done in the name of Health and Wellness since Eddie Guerrero died.

These revelations cast new, serious doubt on the integrity of WWE's Health and Wellness program. Consider:


-According to Sports Illustrated reporters Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim, eight wrestlers (Chris Benoit, Chavo Guerrero, Shane Helms, Randy Orton, John Morrison, Ken Kennedy, Charlie Haas, and Sylvain Grenier) received packages of nandrolone after the Wellness Policy went into effect and up to the time that the Internet Signature Pharmacy was shut down by authorities. Why is that news worse than WWE talent receiving Human Growth Hormone from the federally raided Internet drugstore?

Simple - Nandrolone, better known by its brand name of Deca-Durabolin, is reliably detected by drug testing. Athletes who want to circumvent the testing of whatever regulatory agency oversees their sport don't use Nandrolone because it can stay in the body in detectable levels for extended periods of time.

Notice the two NFL personnel so far, Dallas Cowboys quarterback coach Wade Wilson and New England Patriots wide receiver Rodney Harrison, who were suspended because their names turned up on the same Signature Pharmacy lists for receiving drugs banned by the league. Neither received Nandrolone. If more NFL players are named from this Signature Pharmacy list, notice whether any ordered this easy-to-detect drug. Odds are they didn't, because more than likely NFL testing would have caught its use. For athletes looking to put their long-term health at risk for a short-term competitive edge, Nandrolone is out of date, whatever its prescription date.

That's not true for at least some WWE talent. Why did eight WWE wrestlers think they wouldn't get caught taking Nandrolone, even though the company regularly tested them for illegal muscle enhancers? What did they know, or think they know, that made that worth the risk to buy this drug from a clearly banned Internet pharmacy? Why not take the safer route of finding a sympathetic doctor who could provide enough of a medical reason to pass Dr. Black's criteria for what constitutes proper steroid use?

What made these guys so confident they could use this drug and not get caught by the Wellness Policy? Did someone tip these buyers off that, unlike in every other competitive sport that drug tests, they could use Nandrolone and not get caught? What, did one guy accidentally take some Deca, worry for a couple of months, notice he never got suspended, and then tip off the others that, hey, you can use the stuff with no consequence? Did Dr. Black's company, unlike every other sports testing body, just quietly not test for this once commonly illegal body enhancer? Did Nandrolone become the company's unofficial vehicle to cheaply replace the "testosterone therapy"/HGH /insulin cocktail that only the top main eventers could allegedly afford?

Whatever the specific answers to these questions, there's no getting around the simple fact that the WWE Wellness Policy couldn't catch WWE Superstars who used a steroid that was relatively easy to detect and that it took outside prosecutors to tell WWE management what they would have known with either an effective or honest drug testing system.

Did someone in WWE think the "mark doctor" back door escape wasn't enough to insure the talent did what they needed to do to stay marketable in the wrestling world this company created?


-The timing of the suspensions, Nandrolone aside, is also suspect. The Albany, N.Y. District Attorney met with WWE officials on Aug. 14 (Remember, they initiated the meeting with WWE themselves. WWE didn't ask for the meeting or request that investigators cross-reference Signature Pharmacy customer lists so they could find out for themselves who might be circumventing their testing. I wonder they didn't want to know.) WWE knew the names on the customer list at that meeting. Those names on a list that came directly from the District Attorney's office would constitute what Jerry McDevitt, WWE's attorney, would call proof.

It was over two weeks later, on August 30th, that WWE suddenly decided to suspend many, but not all, of the performers buying drugs from a company-banned Internet pharmacy. That meant two weeks of television exposure, of house shows, of a Summerslam pay-per-view payoff, without consequences for violating the Wellness Policy.

Suddenly, and you can tell by the Summerslam results of at least one match - SP customer Umaga pinning SP customer Mr. Kennedy - that the SP list was no consideration in the booking, WWE decided they better start...

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