Does WWE have blood on their hands? Are they responsible for the deaths of wrestlers?

[Toroc102]

A lifestyle Umaga chose. How is that Vince McMahon's fault? Exactly. Its not. As I said in my previous post.

I guess we'll just have to disagree here, I think Vince is responsible for the stress he puts on his employee's, and as the top gun in the business he should be setting more examples, and taking a more definite stance against drugs, alcohol and steroids, and ease the physical load on his talent, even if it costs him money.

Many professional wrestlers (Such as Ric Flair) have said they do not want their children to enter into the wrestling world. Becuase, it does require top physical shape, and it does often lead to drugs, alcohal, etc...But in the end, yes, the wrestler himself chose this lifestyle, and he choses whether or not to take the drugs. To blame that on Vince McMahon, is absurd.

Here's my point on this, as time goes by it will become more and more obvious just how damaging the Wrestling business on people's bodies, already with Benoit and now Test, we've discovered what kind've toll the business can have on someone's brain. As more and more of the dark side of wrestling creeps out, Vince will eventually be forced to change his product whether he want to or not. Test and Benoit are just two people, Test only wrestled in the WWE, for about 9 years and a short stint in TNA. If Test is an example of a 9 year guy in the business, how many more guys are we going to find out have bad brain damage? If we start seing a lot more guys with brain damage, we're going to start seeing some of the changes such as possibly a shortening of the work load, lesser chair shots, less hardcore matches, less high flying, but Vince has pretty much already taken most of that out of the equation. I think in the future the biggest changes will be a bigger clamp down on drugs and steroids enforced by the government, and a shortening of the workload.

You're missing a huge point of Wrestling. Its also entertainment. Its a sport, so they have to be in top physical form. But its also entertainment, in which they have to be able to entertain the people. The WWE wants as much money as they possibly can get because they are a business being a business they're going to get as many people as they can to watch the show. Women, want the men to look sexy while they wrestle. Could you imagine having a bunch of males that looked like this?

I know that its entertainment, but you're going from one extreme to the other, from the bodybuilder look of the WWE to the complete slobs in your picture. There is a way to look good without looking as ripped as many WWE guys do.

You really think John Cena is all that cut? No. Hes short, and eats his fair share of meats. Simple as that. We'll call it, the short guy syndrome.

Um, I guess we'll have to disagree here too, I don't know who you're looking at but John Cena is one of the most cut guys I ever saw. And short? The guys still 6'2, not too much shorter than HHH, and still taller than most guys I know.

Well, he certainly doesn't have "The Look". Just look at Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, CM Punk. These are all realitively small guys, that have all been in the main event level, and continue to rise.

Thats three guys man, Rey Mysterio is not on the rise, in fact he peaked at the Wrestlemania that he won the title at and will never get back(besides that I just can't accept him as an example since he's been caught on steroids). Jeff Hardy, well fine, but then again I have to give it to the fans on this one, they forced McMahon to push him, even though he was an obvious drug user, and apparently still is if his last arrest was any indication. Which is actually a fine obvservation in itself. The fans don't automatically go for the best looking guy every time, in fact there are many I'll call em "bodybuilders" for brevity's sake, that have failed, but they are consistently the most well pushed superstars. I'm a firm believer that the fans will react to the guys who win the most matches, and Vnce always books the "Bodybuilders" to go over the regular guys.

If you notice one thing about Hardy, Punk and Mysterio it's that they all had very weak title reigns, Hardy never defended successfully against anyone but Punk, Punk never defended successfully against anyone but JBL and Hardy, and Mysterio was squashed for weeks in succession, right after winning the belt, RIGHT AFTER WRESTLEMANIA! These we're all over guys and each one was never able to maintain any momentum. Not to mention none of them one under CLEAN circumstances except for Hardy, once against Edge at Extreme Rules, otherwise in Rey and Hardy's case they won in a triple threat, and CM Punk had to cash in his MITB twice. Even though they won the Title, you find more evidence of favoritsm to the big guys just by observing their reigns, even though each was massively popular at the time of their reigns.

Can you prove this?

Naw, that's my opinion, but it is an educated guess, I mean if he really cared then why did he wait for the worst possible situation to arise before instituting a policy either now or in the 90's?

Really? You can prove this how? Benoit and Guererro were pushed to the moon and back for quite a few years. Yes, both fell off the radar on a few occations, but that was because great wrestlers like JBL, Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista, etc were all stepping out into the limelight. These men were not simply pushed because they were on the juice, thats simply absurd.

They we're not pushed to the moon and back, they each got a few shots but never got over the hump until they'd put on much more muscle. Eddie Guerrero was never in the Mian-Event scene before putting it on. Out of the wrestlers you mentioned, only HHH was actually Main-Eventing before Guerrero or Benoit. Orton got his first title from Benoit, JBL from Guerrero, and Batista didn't get it till about 9 months after Orton.

Well with the wrestling world its simple. Its a demanding job, requiring your time, body, and more. Its always been like this, even with guys in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and even today. This standard was set years ago. But this job also comes with money. These men have the money, and have the reason to do so. Don't you think its the easy way out for these men? Of course it is, so they do it.

Exactly, its been a demanding job for years, and its been damaging for years. And NO I don't think its an easy way out at all, and if you think it is I don't know what to say. I can't in any decency blame the guys that get addicted to pain pills for getting addicted to them. Its why I decided not to become a wrestler(well besides the fact that I certainly don't have the look, unless we're talking about the type of look that gets you powerbombed and chokeslammed a lot), I know I would be in pain ALL THE TIME, I go to work and I have back pain from that, imagine if it was actually part of my job description to actually fall on various parts of my body for 5-10 minutes a night and work through injuries. I can't say that I know I wouldn't ever get addicted.

Normally people who are prescribed pain pills, AREN"T supposed to put their bodies through more pain, you're supposed to avoid it, wrestlers just go out and wrestle more matches. I've only taken pain pills about 3 or 4 times in my life, I didn't get addicted to them because I didn't feel the pain neccessary to take them everyday.

You have the Wellness Policy to prove that? Because I've yet to read it. Wheres the loopholes, go on. Prove it.

http://corporate.wwe.com/company/abuse_policy.jsp

There's the policy, loophole in Section 7. Not to mention that WWE is in charge of what actually happens to the Wrestler in the event of a stirke, such as when they let Orton work through his suspension without pay, letting him keep his spot on the card, making sure their storylines didn't lose any momentum.

 

[Freddy4190]

Hell no. They all died because of personal choices. Umaga wouldn't slim down, the WWE had warned him. He was addicted to pain pills and refused rehab, he was released from his contract. Eddie Guerrero led a life of drinking and drug use, by the time he was clean, it was too late. Chris Benoit presumably had roid' rage, along with many concussions. Test was just hyped up on steroids. These are all personal decisions. I can see how you might want to blame the WWE because they could have told Test or Benoit, "Yo, get more muscular, you're not strong enough." They took the easy route, steroids. Why should the WWE be blamed for their fucked up decisions?

 

[Tastycles]

When Umaga first died, I was blaming the WWE on a personal level for sure, but then I took a step back. Wrestlers don't have to take drugs to look the way they do, and there are plenty who look fine without taking them. Clearly, there's a pressure, but you don't have to succumb to it. Umaga did not have to take steroids to look the way he did. So we come to the bigger killer in painkillers. Take them, and they turn you into a shell of a person, and unfortunately its the way a lot of wrestlers have gone.

The thing is, with the schedules they perform, the WWE is very demanding on the body, and sometimes people are going to be asked to work through injuries etc. This is irresponsible, but it isn't what causes the guys to die.

Taking Umaga as the example, the WWE suspended him, then they offered him rehab. What more could they do? You can't force an employee into rehab, and they obviously threatened him with his job, but he didn't take heed. What reasonable course of action could the WWE have taken at that point? There isn't any.

I'm not naive enough to think that the WWE doesn't have a high pressure work environment where drugs are a big answer to difficulties you face there, but it is still a personal decision to take them or not, and the WWE will pay to sort you out no matter when you ever worked for them. If you don't think your body is coping with the rigour, then you can leave whenever you want.

If chair shot concussions are shown at anypoint to influence the deaths of certain wrestlers, then it is another matter, but the WWE disuades the kind of shot that would cause that anyway. I'd say, in isolated instances and in wrestlers who were there when steroids were officially encouraged, then there's a possibility of liability, but in the more recent cases, I'm afraid it's a case of wrestlers reaping what they sow.

 

[xXSlater420Xx]

Yea WWE shouldnt be held responsiable for the death of wrestlers. They make a consious decision to do w/e put them in the situation that ultimatly killed them. Sure WWE suggests that a superstar do this or look like this, but at the end of the day no one forces them to do it.

 

[robbo316]

first off, why is everyone assuming his death has to do with steroids? From my understanding Umaga was heavily addicted to painkillers. I seriously doubt this is a roid related death. on a side note, there is no clear cut evidence steroids kills. What usually kills is the combination of roids mixed with other drugs.

secondly, i am no expert but he died in his sleep , with his nose bleeding..that could be cocaine intoxiation. We should wait to see the autopsy to determine who should be to blame for this death

You do realise that Atilla the Hun, leader of Mongol race, died on his wedding night, of a nose bleed (and presumably heart attacks, which can be caused by a drop in blood pressure) after drinking enough to drown a small country? It is just one of those things.

And, on a side note, I must admit that I have taken steroids that were prescribed to me. I have also had an addictionto painkillers, due to doctors telling me that, when I was 28, I was too young to have a hip replacement, painkillers can destroy kidney and liver but rarely if ever have they been implicated in heart attacks.
Also, everybody saying EG died through drugs, he actually died of "acute heart failure arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease". The following are the causes of ACVD:
* Heredity factor
* Age
* Diabetes
* Menopause
* Obesity and lack of physical activity
* High blood pressure
* Low levels of good cholesterol (HDL)
* High levels of harmful cholesterol (LDL)
* Smoking
* Increased levels of homocysteine

ACVD is also called Coronary Heart Disease, it is the biggest killer in the USA, with more than 15million men and women suffering from it in some form. I have acquired this info straight from the American Heart Association. Almost all the deaths in wrestling is, as many have stated, down to bad choices by individuals, some have been down to heredity factors, and some just down to pure, old fashioned bad luck.

 

[Davi323]

How about placing the blame on those who get killed? Yes, the WWE has a very demanding schedule. Nobody is going to dispute that. However, every one of those wrestlers made a conscious decision to become a pro wrestler. They understood injuries and pain were going to be a persistent part of their life, if they go down that path. They chose to anyway. If those wrestlers are going out on their own, obtaining illegal pain killers, drugs, steroids, etc, how is the WWE responsible for that? You might say, they need those pain pills to be able to compete every night, so they can earn their spots, etc....I say bullshit.

If you have to go against your core values in order to be successful at a job, maybe that job isn't right for you. They aren't forced to be wrestlers, they CHOOSE to be wrestlers. The point is, every one of those wrestlers made choices in their lives. They chose to be a wrestler, they chose to sign a WWE contract, they chose to take pain pills, steroids, etc to try to get ahead. They weren't forced to do any of those things. CM Punk hasn't needed to do any of those things, and he is a 2 time world heavyweight champion. In fact, even though he is a huge heel right now, I am glad the WWE has a CM Punk on the roster, because he is an example to other wrestlers that you can be successful and not have to cheat to get there. Ultimately, the tragic deaths of wrestlers due to extra-curricular activities such as popping pills, etc is the fault of those wrestlers. The WWE environment is harsh, but they chose to live in it.