Lance Cade: Who's Responsibility Should Wrestlers' Health-Care Be?

It has been well documented throughout the years that several wrestlers have died extremely young. The tragic deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit raised the issue of the lack of health-care for professional wrestlers, both physically and mentally. With the recent news of Lance Cade’s death, who previously worked for WWE between 2001 and 2008 and briefly worked for WWE’s territorial company in 2009 through to mid 2010, it raised the concern of wrestlers dying young within the business. 

After the sudden death of Eddie Guerrero in 2005 WWE set up a drug-testing programme called the talent wellness programme, in which all WWE wrestlers have to be screened for drug tests on a regular basis. If a wrestler is tested positive they would be suspended for 30 days, and then after for 60 days and fired if tested positive 3 times. 

Debra Marshall, the ex-wife of Stone Cold Steve Austin, was the victim of domestic assault of her then husband Steve Austin in 2002. She blamed Austin’s use of steroids and drugs as the cause of him hitting her on several occasions. She presupposes that the frequent use of steroids and drugs can lead to wrestlers to become aggressive and violent.  She believes wrestlers should not be encouraged to use drugs or steroids. 

WWE claimed that the wellness programme was set up for health purposes due to the high number of younger wrestlers deaths and due to the concern of the mental health of wrestlers.  However, the wellness programme came under attack with the death of Chris Benoit and his family. People began to question the legibility and health benefits of the drug tests.

However, WWE showed evidence of the health benefits of the wellness programme when their contracted wrestler MVP was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which could have been fatal if undiagnosed and not treated early on. MVP made a healthy and quick recovery due to the early diagnosis. 

WWE recently banned unprotected chair shots to the head due to health concerns of repeated concussions that some wrestlers have endured. The concern of concussions was raised after the double murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family.

Tests were conducted on Chris Benoit’s brain after his death and results showed that “Benoit’s brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year old Alzheimer’s patient”. Tests further showed that Benoit suffered from severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and had brain damage in all four lobes of the brain and brain stem. It is lead to believe that the repeated concussions Benoit suffered contributed to severe behavioral problems, which can also lead to dementia. 

Christopher Nowinski, a retired professional wrestler who is still under WWE contract as a political correspondent, only wrestled in WWE for short time before suffering from post concussion syndrome in 2003 and eventually retired. Nowinski retired due to symptoms of post concussion syndrome lasting for a year.  He blames this syndrome on sustained head injuries and is supportive of wrestlers being more protective of their head during matches for health benefits.

Due to this over whelming evidence and pressure from the public, WWE had no choice but to be more cautious of attacks to wrestlers heads. This move has been welcomed by many due to its health benefits and because of WWE’s current PG rating.

But with the recent death of more young wrestlers such as Umaga and Lance Cade, and previous WWE employees questioning the wellness policy and lack of free mental and physical health care it has, again, become under the spotlight and raised peoples concerns over the health problems of wrestlers and lack of help they receive.

Should wrestlers receive free health-care from their employee’s or should it be their own responsibility? Wrestling, unlike other sports does not have an off-season or benefit from free health care. Some say it is not a ‘real’ sport so therefore they should not be entitled to free health-care.

However, wrestling is a physically demanding and dangerous job with high injury rates and a considerable amount of young deaths.

Due to this and the lack of off time the wrestlers receive, which not only makes them more prone to injury, but also can make them mentally unstable because of the long periods of time they are away from their friends and family, I think wrestlers should be entitled to free health-care benefits.