News to Start Your Weekend 08.31.07

In a posting made on its website this afternoon, WWE announced that ten of its performers were being suspended for violations of the company’s wellness policy. A later statement by WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt on FOX News indicated that two more suspensions may be made tomorrow. The initial posting stated that the suspensions were based on an investigation that was being conducted by the district attorney of Albany County, New York. The original WWE release did not reflect exactly what the Albany County D.A. was investigating or how it ties in with the wellness policy, but it was abundantly clear to those who had been keeping a close eye on the recent controversy over drug use in professional wrestling. Albany County was investigating Signature Pharmacy, an internet service that is suspected of providing “patients” with prescriptions for medication despite the fact that these individuals were never examined by the doctors making the prescriptions. Needless to say, the legality of this sort of activity is questionable. Furthermore, WWE’s wellness policy explicitly bans performers from receiving prescriptions from internet pharmacies.

Of course, the first question that wrestling fans will want answered is “Who was suspended?” However, we don’t know that right now. In fact, for reasons that will be discussed below, we may never know. What we do know, though, is that Sports Illustrated is reporting the names of numerous wrestlers who received prescriptions from Signature as well as the drugs that they received AND the dates on which they received those drugs. To break things down, I’m first going to provide brief descriptions of what the drugs in question are and then move on to the list of the wrestlers, the drugs that they allegedly received, and the dates during which they received them.

The Drugs

Anastrozole – This is not a steroid. It is a drug predominantly used in the treatment of breast cancer. However, it has properties that suppress estrogen production and is therefore often used in conjunction with steroid cycling in order to reduce the side effects of the drugs, most notably breast growth.

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) – This is also not a steroid. However, it is often used in conjunction with steroids. Steroid use, as many people know, will reduce the body’s natural production of testosterone. HCG can offset this shutdown and thus prevent side effects of steroid use, most notably shrinking of the testicles.

Nandrolone – This is an anabolic steroid, often sold under the name Deca-Durabolin.

Somatropin & Genotropin – These are both forms of human growth hormone. They have legitimate uses, including benefitting children who are not developing normally, though obviously a substance that causes people to grow has benefits for otherwise healthy people looking to enhance their physiques.

Stanozolol – This is an anabolic steroid, often sold under the name Winstrol.

Testosterone – Though naturally produced by the body, additional injunctions of testosterone act as an anabolic steroid.

The Wrestlers

Shane Helms: Helms, who is currently recovering from major neck surgery, was listed as receiving testosterone, genotropin, and nandrolone as recently as February 2007, one full year after the WWE wellness policy was enacted. In March of this year, Helms was named along with several other wrestlers as purchasing HGH from a group located in Florida. At that time, Helms posted a message on his MySpace.com blog, which read, in part, as follows:

“[S]everal years ago I had hurt my knee and was advised by 2 different doctors to undergo this particular therapy. I didn’t ask for it, hell, I didn’t even know about it, all I knew is that I didn’t want to have to have surgery. Not to mention that I would like for my life after wrestling to be as painless as possible. I won’t be able to wrestle forever and I would hope that I’m entitled to the best quality of life available to me when that time comes. I would like to think that it’s well in my human rights to take whatever a doctor tells me to if it helps my condition and relieves my pain. Isn’t that what everyone goes to a doctor for? Shane Helms committed no crime and did absolutely nothing illegal. And that is a FACT!!! Trust me, there are a million ways to get any kind of legal or illegal medicine/drug you want. However, I was under the assumption that going thru a doctor, getting treatment and therapy for a totally LEGAL medicine was the right way to go about dealing with this particular injury.”

Randy Orton: Orton was listed as receiving somatropin, nandrolone, and stanozolol as recently as February of this year. Orton was named in the same March probe as Helms, during which he allegedly received prescriptions for eight different drugs. Sadly, he didn’t write any blogs about it.

Edge: Alongside Orton and Helms, Edge was also named in the March probe. He now allegedly has received somatropin, genotropin, and stanazolol as recently as February of this year from Signature. When named in the March probe, Edge also posted an entry on his MySpace blog, which stated that, though he did use steroids in 2003 to recover from his neck surgery, he had not used steroids since the institution of the wellness policy.

Chris Benoit: Benoit was listed as receiving nandrolone and anastrozole as recently as February 2006. The WWE Wellness Policy was actually instituted on February 27, 2006, so it is entirely possible that these prescriptions were filled before the policy was in effect. However, it should still be noted that federal indictments state that Benoit was receiving massive amounts of steroids from Dr. Phil Astin while the policy was in place.

Eddy Guerrero: Guerrero allegedly received nandrolone, testosterone, and anastrozole as recently as two weeks prior to his November 2005 death. This would unfortunately seem to refute the widely-held belief that Eddy was “clean” at the time he died.

Chavo Guerrero, Jr.: The younger Guerrero, who found his uncle’s dead body in 2005, is reported to have received somatropin, nandrolone, and anastrozole as recently as May 2006, three months after the institution of the WWE wellness policy. During an interview on the Greta van Sustern in July of this year, Chavo claimed that the wrestling industry did not have nearly the drug problem that it used to.

John Morrison: Morrison is yet another individual who reportedly received drugs from Signature as recently as February of this year. He also has the longest list of prescriptions, including somatropin, anastrozole, testosterone, stanazolol and HCG.

Funaki: Yes, that Funaki. He reportedly received somatropin in March of last year. Depending on when exactly WWE decides that punishment under the wellness policy should begin, Funaki could technically be in the clear since he got the drugs mere weeks or possibly even days after the policy went in to effect.

Brian “Crush” Adams: Despite the fact that he was not wrestling a full-time schedule, Adams received testosterone, nandrolone, and somatropin as recently as December of 2006. It is interesting to see his name on the list provided by SI alongside so many current stars. I can only assume that it was included due to his recent death and that other, less notable former wrestlers may also have been connected to Signature in some way but were passed over by the mainstream media.

Charlie Haas: Haas, whose brother Russ passed away due to a heart attack at the age of 27, reportedly received anstrozole, somatropin, stanazolol, nandrolone and HCG as recently as January 2007.

Umaga: Umaga allegedly received somatropin as recently as December 2006.

William Regal: Regal reportedly received stanozolol, somatropin, genotropin and anastrozole as recently as November 2006. Like Guerrero, Regal had supposedly overcome a past history of drug use, and this would seemingly once again underscore the fact that the wrestling industry and the real world have very different definitions of the word “clean.”

Sylvan Grenier: Grenier allegedly received somatropin, nandrolone, genotropin, and stanazolol as recently as July of last year. Grenier was recently released from his WWE contract, although Dave Meltzer is reporting that the reasons for his release were unrelated to any drug use.

Ken Kennedy: Oh, Ken. Kennedy allegedly received anastrozole, somatropin, and testosterone during a period beginning in October 2006 and ending in February 2007. Of everybody listed in the Sports Illustrated piece, Kennedy comes off as look the worst. By far. Earlier this month, Kennedy was interviewed by the Sun, a newspaper in the United Kingdom. He had this to say:

“I don’t take steroids. I have taken steroids in the past. I never took a lot of steroids, but when I was working the independent scene I was trying everything I could. I never took massive amounts of steroids and do you know why I stopped taking them? Because of the Wellness Policy.”

You will note that, in fact, Kennedy was working for WWE between October 2006 and February 2007 when he reportedly received these prescriptions. WWE is not a part of the independent scene.

The Implications

Before moving along, I feel that it should once again be stressed that the men named above are not necessarily the men suspended by WWE. They are simply the men that Sports Illustrated has reported are connected to Signature, with WWE not yet releasing the names of those suspended. Yet, regardless of who fits on to what list, we’re not yet dealing with a benign story that will have no effect on the wrestling industry.

The first thing that comes to my mind when looking at the names above is that the credibility of WWE’s wellness policy and drug testing programs is completely shot. For those who have not read the policy, let me provide a little bit of background. According to the version of the policy that was made available to the public on WWE’s corporate website, if a wrestler was tested and had otherwise banned substances in his system, he could avoid failing the test by providing a prescription for that substance from his “primary care physician.” Under no circumstances could “primary care physicians” include an internet pharmacies such as the one that the men listed above are alleged to have used.

If you combine the above with the fact that several WWE employees appear to have received prescriptions from Signature while the wellness policy was in effect, one of several things would have to be true:

1.) WWE knew that these men had internet prescriptions and looked the other way.

2.) These men had internet prescriptions but also had prescriptions from their primary care physicians that they used to trick WWE in to thinking that otherwise banned substances in their body were legitimately prescribed.

3.) WWE testing never picked up on the banned substances in these mens’ bodies, meaning that they never would have asked about prescriptions.

If any three of the above are true, WWE’s policy can be seen as nothing more than a sham. In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of any scenario in which these revelations do not make the policy look like a complete failure and/or joke. This is not a good situation for WWE to be in given that they are currently staring down the loaded barrel of Congressional investigations. Though it is true that WWE made the right P.R. move by issuing these suspensions so it appears that they are taking a firm stance against drugs, any congressman with half a brain will certainly be aware of SI’s piece and will certainly ask to know how WWE was unable to make an earlier detection of the Signature connection. The company had better be working on one hell of an answer to that question. Though it is true I’m nothing more than a layperson, I’d like to think that I’m a fairly intelligent layperson . . . and, for the life of me, I cannot think of a way for WWE to spin this situation that will not result in their taking some serious heat from the committees investigating them.

Of course, fans will want to know about the impact that this will have on the wrestlers themselves. That may be more difficult to discover than it seems. All we know at this point is that the men involved are “suspended.” However, WWE has not told us what “suspended” means in this case. When the wellness policy was originally instituted, a suspension meant that men were completely pulled off of house shows and television for a period of thirty days. However, after this style of suspension repeatedly required cards to be changed at the last minute and angles to be reworked, it was shelved. Under the new system, suspended wrestlers still worked televised shows and pay per view events but were not paid. Yet, WWE seems to have changed its stance one more time, as Jeff Hardy was recently suspended. His suspension involved removal from all WWE events for a period of several weeks. At no point has it been made clear exactly what type of suspension these men will be facing. If they are pulled from television, their identities should become clear within the next several weeks, even if their names are never announced. However, the possibility remains open that “suspension” simply means that their pay will be docked, in which case it could be virtually impossible to determine who the Albany D.A. has fingered.