Wellness Questions

The suspension of Darren Matthews - AKA William Regal - by the WWE has got me asking a lot of questions.

Regal was involved in an angle on Monday night's edition of Raw where he was put into a match with Ken Kennedy with the stipulation being that whoever lost was fired from the company. The latest King of the Ring was defeated and he was left without a job as well as losing his spot as the general manager of the show.

Of course, this was all in storyline. Vince McMahon had to book a storyline change when word of the drug test came in to explain the absence of Regal for the next sixty days. It was a rushed storyline but it had to be done.

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few questions I am asking myself about this and other suspensions. I know fully well that we will never get the answer.

What did he do?

Darren Matthews was one of many performers suspended in the latter part of 2007 after his name was involved with an investigation into illegal Internet doctors that prescribed human growth hormones and steroids to clients. It is possible that Regal had been caught with HGH or steroids in his system during a random urine test. This would fit into his earlier violation of the WWE's Wellness Policy but the concern I have dates way back. In the late-90's he was addicted to recreational drugs and painkillers. He was let go from WCW due to behavioural issues stemming from this addiction and went to WWE. Those demons followed him to his new job and he was forced to leave there, too. He made a return to WCW but was once again fired from there. In early 2000, Regal went to rehab. kicked his addictions and managed to get his job back with the WWE. The overcoming of these problems were highlighted in Regal's autobiography. It would be a terrible thing personally, let alone professionally, for him to have relapsed.

How long ago did the WWE find out?

The cynic in me is wondering how long the result of the test was known by people in the WWE. I ask this because William Regal was getting the biggest push of his career. He was the general manager of Raw as well as winning the King of the Ring tournament a few weeks ago. Let's also recall his recent blacking out the screen at the end of Raw within the past month. It took the WWE a number of years to finally get behind the British wrestler and give him an abundance of television time - I believe there may have been a method to their booking madness. This way they can claim how legitimate their Wellness Policy is by using how they suspended one of their top stars for failing the test. If you think I am barking up the wrong tree then you only need to look at two other suspensions made from the tests. Jeff Hardy was at the top of his game, he had headlined the Royal Rumble and No Way Out and was on his way to potentially winning the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania before the company suspended him for using recreational drugs. This one makes me wonder for numerous reasons as it doesn't necessarily need a urine test to figure out if someone is using, why put a guy in the top slot if you know he is a drug addict? The most suspect suspension was that of D.H. Smith. He was brought up from the feeder company, put on the main show for less than a month before he was suspended. He hasn't been used as much since. Why did they bring him up without any plans for him? They test all performers under contract so they would have been aware if he was using anything before they brought them to the main roster. It is too convenient that he got busted when the WWE had started investing time in him. If I am right in my conspiracy theory it begs another question..

Who else has failed?

I think there has to be more people using banned substances on that roster. I might be wrong with my theory but I can see the suspensions being a smoke screen to protect the major stars in the company. The WWE can deal with the loss of D.H. Smith, Jeff Hardy and William Regal but can they lose stars like Triple H, Batista and John Cena every time a test result comes in?

Third strike?

The Policy suspends violators for thirty days for a first offence, sixty days for a second misdemeanour and termination of a contract for their third test failure. What happens to Regal and Hardy if they fail a future test? Do they get re-signed to a newer contract immediately or is there a year ban from wrestling? I think we know the answer to that one.

What have I proven?

Nothing. We will never know for sure whether the Wellness Policy is legit. All I do know is it is worded well and the performers who are caught by it are people who are conveniently being promoted at the time of their suspension and it is never the top-tier guys. The upper echelon performers look just as muscular as they did before the Wellness Policy was introduced.