d_henderson1810
Mid-Card Championship Winner
First off, Benoit wouldn't have got fired. He'd have been suspended for 30 days for his first violation. Second of all Angle wasn't released for Wellness reasons. He was fired so that he could sort his fucking life out and not die on their watch. Which he needed to because he was taking dozens of Vicodin a day and being a complete and utter loony. NB: Angle never failed for Vicodin despite (allegedly) taking 56 a day. Though that figure cane from Angle and he's terribly unreliable.If you've read the WWE Wellness policy you'd know that if a wrestler has a valid prescription from a legitimate doctor he can have anything in his bloodstream in pretty much any level he likes.
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But the problem was, he didn't go to a legit doctor.
I did some reading at the time about different things related to the Benoit case. One thing I read was that Chris Benoit was seen at his doctor a few hours before the police belive Nancy was killed. There is proof that Benoit was at the doctor's, because a boy, who was a wrestling fan, recognized him, and asked to take his photo. Benoit complied, and the photo (the last photo of Benoit when he was alive) was actually printed in the magazine I was reading. The police verified the photo and the child's evidence. So, it can be proven that Benoit was at this clinic. Now, the timeline that the police have was that Benoit had flown back from a week of touring with WWE. Instead of going straight home, he visited his doctor. Now, firstly, most people go directly home, as they can't wait to see their family again. Also, if Benoit needed a doctor, why didn't he see WWE medical staff? He had just come from a show, so he could have seen a WWE doctor. Yet he was spotted at this clinic, on the day Nancy died. The interesting thing is that Benoit's doctor (I can't remember his name) was arrested two weeks later after a raid found that he had over-prescribed steroids to hundreds of sportsstars, including WWE stars such as Edge, Rey Mysterio and John Morrison. This was the same doctor named in the Pharmacetical scandal, which resulted in these WWE stars, and a few others, being suspended for thirty days for Wellness Violations, which they hadn't been caught for, previously. So, Vince wouldn't have approved it, as Benoit got his drugs from this dodgy doctor, and I suggest that he got strung out, had a fight with Nancy, and killed her, in a bout of "roid rage".
No it wouldn't, given that Vinny Mac has no influence on the results of a wellness test.
Well, the Wellness tests are done in-house, and not by an independent body. So, since WWE are doing their own drug tests, it is very easy to test some and not others. You can't ever fail Wellness, if you are not tested. I have heard that the testing is random, but I suspect that some are never tested, or if they are, it is not recorded.
But Benoit apparently failed three times, according to "Power Slam" magazine. But Vince wouldn't fire him, because if Vince did that, since Benoit's contract was almost up anyway, Benoit could have instead taken the offer that Jeff Jarrett was making to get Benoit to TNA. Chris Jericho was out of the company at the time too, and Jarrett had a plan to sign both Benoit and Jericho. Vince, possibly feeling that it is like the WCW stealing his talent all over again, didn't want to lose a talent like Benoit to the competition (I don't see why he was worried, if he doesn't consider TNA a threat). Also, Vince had fired Angle, and then Angle went to TNA. So, firing Benoit may have lead to the same result.
What Vince should have done was put Benoit in rehab, to get him off his steroid addiction. It could have saved the man's life, and, as a consequence, his family's lives as well.
There's an endemic drug problem in wrestling full stop. Guys feel pain, they take painkillers, they form a habit and bingo jingo they get hooked. It's the nature of the beast unfortunately.
You say it is the nature of the beast, but over 50 wrestlers have died in the last decade because of drug abuse. It is an epidemic which needs to be addressed. What made the Benoit case worse was that it wasn't just him affected this time, but there is a strong case that his wife and child died as a direct result of his drug addiction (which is medically termed "roid rage"). These are people's lives we are talking about. I don't want to see another wrestler die because of drugs. However, it is going to happen, which is why it is so sad.
But that's not the reason WWE tightened up on the Wellness policy. They tightened up because they had to. After Benoit died, they were put under the microscope by the press. If they were lax about it and kept the suspended guys on the road like they used to they'd get slated for it. That just wasn't an option. They had to bee seen as doing something so they bucked up their attitude and took a more serious stance on drugs and wellness in general.[/QUOTE]
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But Vince promised to tighten the Wellness Policy after Eddie Guerrero died. Yet the Benoit murders showed that nothing changed. Also, Vince said that there wasn't drugs involved, (he would), so then why tighten the Wellness Policy?