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Wellness-A-Maniacs
In a business as dangerous and unique as professional wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment has instituted a wellness program designed to help save lives.
Anyone who says professional wrestling isn't real probably hasn't been hit with a steel chair. Or been thrown into a table. Or had a 300-pounder jump off the top rope of a wrestling ring and land on his or her chest. Sure, the matches are scripted (don't tell your 8-year-old kids) but the physical and mental toll on the wrestlers is all too real. In World Wrestling Entertainment and competing leagues, wrestlers are on a seemingly endless tour, performing as many as 300 times per year, according to some estimates. The grueling lifestyle has led some athletes to turn to pain medication, drugs or alcohol -- not to mention steroids. What's more, wrestlers seem to be dying young -- and some dying during the prime of their careers. On Dec. 4, 2009, the wrestling world lost Edward Fatu, better known as Umaga, "the Samoan Bulldozer." He died from a heart attack at the age of 36. His death was preceded by that of Andrew "Test" Martin, who died in March, 2009 at age 33. At least 22 pro wrestlers ages 45 and under have died since 2003, according to data culled from various news reports. With such extraordinary circumstances and certainly a one-of-a-kind business, how does WWE -- clearly the largest and most recognized name in professional wrestling -- take care of its talent? It attempts to do so with its Talent Wellness Program. Instituted in February 2006, the initiative requires mandatory participation in medical wellness testing, which includes testing of cardiovascular systems and brain impact as well as substance-abuse and drug testing. All of WWE's wrestlers are independent contractors, and the wellness program is administered by third party doctors, according to Robert Zimmerman, vice president of corporate communications and public relations at WWE. Under the plan, wrestlers are tested for drugs (narcotics and performance enhancers) four times a year, according to the WWE Web site. If a positive test is received, the wrestler is suspended without pay for 30 days. For a second positive test, the wrestler receives a 60-day suspension without pay. A third positive test means that the WWE will terminate the wrestler's contract. After a wrestler tests positive, he or she can be tested an average of 16 times the following year. The organization also tries to proactively address substance-abuse problems of former WWE talent. Since September 2007, the group has been running the Former Talent Rehabilitation Assistance Program devoted to helping retired wrestlers combat drug addiction. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon sends an annual letter to all of its former talent, stating that all those who have had a contract with the WWE in the past are eligible for free rehab treatment to fight addiction. They can call a confidential hotline and be admitted to a certified treatment center, where all expenses are paid by the WWE the first time that a wrestler utilizes the program. The letter acknowledges that "over the last 10 years, an inordinate number of wrestlers passed away" and that some of those deaths "may, in part, have been caused by drugs or alcohol." To date, about 4 percent of the former wrestlers have accepted assistance, according to the WWE Web site. Zimmerman calls the utilization "a good sign." But with all these precautions, wrestlers are still dying young. Zimmerman argues that only five wrestlers have ever died while under contract with the WWE. One of those was a suicide (the highly publicized murder-suicide by Chris Benoit in 2007) and another was a mechanical failure during a show (Owen Hart falling 80 feet to his death in 1999). The others died of heart disease, says Zimmerman. Fatu, the latest wrestler to pass away, was disciplined by the WWE wellness program and terminated in June for violating the program and refusing to enter rehab, the WWE says on its site. Martin, who died in March, was released by the WWE in 2007. Zimmerman says wrestlers continue to die early because of their personal choices when they're not under WWE's auspices. "We don't know what they took as kids. We don't know what they've done after they've left," he says. "So the only thing we can do is obviously do what we're trying to do, which is make them abide by the Talent Wellness Program when they are contracted by us and then offer any kind of rehab assistance after they've left."
January 7, 2010 Copyright 2010© LRP Publications |
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