WWE: Does Edge's Retirement Indicate Better Care Being Given to Wrestlers?

Edge's retirement announcement came as a shock to most WWE fans.  His retirement is due to the fact that the problems with his spinal cord are getting worse, not better like he had hoped.

According to various reports, Edge has been feeling numbness in his arms lately and has been in more pain than he had been in recent months. 

After a stellar performance at WrestleMania, Edge passed all the required tests given to him by WWE officials and doctors, but they decided to get more testing done for Edge's sake.

The MRI results showed that Edge is suffering from narrowing of the spine due to taking bumps after having spinal fusion surgery on his C5, 6 and 7 vertebrae. 

The narrowing of the spine is causing Edge to not get as much spinal fluid flowing through his spinal cord as he should have.

Doctors told Edge that if he continued to wrestle he risked paralysis and even possibly death.  The fact that WWE had Edge go in for additional testing shows me they are taking greater steps to ensure the health of their talents.

Being a professional wrestler with WWE may just be the most strenuous job in all of sports.  They are traveling and performing up to 300 days per year, and in between that, they are working out and trying to stay in shape, all while racking up thousands of miles driving and flying to different events.

This is not to mention all the personal appearances and charity work these athletes do every year. 

John Cena is the most notable, having recently become one of only five people to have granted over 200 wishes for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

These athletes live out of hotels, duffel bags and the trunks of their rental cars.  A few select individuals who make a ton of money have bought tour buses which allow them to rest their injuries more, as well as take some of the strain off them by not having to drive around.

Randy Orton has credited his tour bus as being the reason he can perform at such a high level.  Orton said his tour bus allows him to go out after a match and just relax, as well as spend time with his family. 

Many superstars aren't as fortunate and have to go weeks at a time sometimes without seeing their friends and family.

WWE has been pushing its wellness policy really hard since the Benoit tragedy a few years back, and they have received attention in the press for their efforts to crack down on the use of steroids and non-prescribed painkillers. 

Edge is not the first person to retire to save his health and he won't be the last, but this was not Edge deciding to go, it was the medical results that decided for him.

Even if you don't like the WWE and how they treat their athletes, you cannot deny that in recent years they have made efforts to make sure their performers are healthy and drug-free.

WWE has even gone as far as to offer to pay for rehab for any past and present WWE superstars who need it. 

This move is probably their best in terms of trying to take care of wrestlers because so many of these guys have gotten hooked on drugs, painkillers and alcohol while trying to ease the pain of a full-time wrestling schedule.

Steroid use is almost nonexistent in WWE these days, and it shows.  Certain people who were known users of steroids and human growth hormones have trimmed down and gotten smaller due to the lack of these drugs in their systems. 

Kurt Angle is one person who has gotten noticeably smaller in the last couple years.

Steroids first became big news in sports in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially in baseball.  Wrestling, however, may have been an even worse offender because there is no national wrestling council setting guidelines to follow—it is instead up to promoters to follow the laws.

Vince McMahon and his company have been very vocal about their efforts to improve the quality of living for their athletes, and despite the fact that some people think it was to try and counter the negative publicity that came about due to the Chris Benoit tragedy, the fact that they are making these changes is what is really important.

With McMahon approaching the age where he may want to settle down and spend time with family, it will soon be up to Stephanie McMahon and her husband Paul Levesque (Triple H) to make sure their wrestlers are taken care of.

Having a former wrestler like HHH at the helm of the company could mean even greater strides towards taking care of the health of wrestlers. 

Being a wrestler himself, he knows what these guys go through and therefore has the best possible knowledge on how to better the lives of WWE superstars.

I am sad to see Edge go, but happy for Adam Copeland that he will not end up in a wheelchair after taking a bad bump. 

The fact that he was about to go into a ladder match is kind of scary considering it is one of the more dangerous matches in WWE for the wrestlers. 

Taking a bump on a ladder is totally different than taking one on the mat. 

My hope for the stars of WWE is that they all get to leave the business on their own terms and in good health, because any other way would mean either injury or being fired, and no one wants that.

What do you guys think about WWE's efforts to improve the quality of living for their performers?