WWE News: Why Have There Been So Many Wellness Suspensions Lately?

WWE talent seems to be playing a very dangerous game of “catch me if you can” as of late.

After a huge drop in the number of suspensions for violating the WWE’s Talent Wellness Program over the last couple of years, the company has seen a sudden, very noticeable increase in Wellness-related suspensions.

Since July of this year, the WWE has suspended four performers: Sin Cara (the former Mistico) on July 18, referee Mike Chioda on Aug. 15, Darren Young on Oct. 5 and Heath Slater on Oct. 17. Though never confirmed by the WWE, Tough Enough winner Andy Leavine was also reportedly suspended in August. 

That marks as many as five possible suspensions in a four-month span after only three wrestlers got caught in 2009 and 2010 combined.

That begs the question: Why have there been so many suspensions lately?

Admittedly, it would be a lot easier to answer that question if the WWE publicly acknowledged what its performers test positive for, but the company doesn’t do that.

Therefore, we’re left to ponder what’s going on and why.

We can all speculate just by looking at the performers what illegal substances they may have taken, but that’s really not going to accomplish all that much.

Instead, we should focus on what seems to be the real issue here: synthetic marijuana.

This is from a recent report by F4Wonline.com:

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As noted before, Heath Slater has been suspended for 30 days after violating the WWE Wellness Policy.

We don’t know yet if this was the reason he was suspended, but talk among some of the wrestlers is that several people have failed the test for synthetic marijuana, or “spice,” over the past few months.

The belief is that people are failing tests for the fake marijuana so it’s causing some of the talents to go back to smoking real marijuana. Testing positive for real marijuana just gets you a $2,500 fine with no suspension.

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“Spice,” “K2,” “Voodoo” or whatever name it’s going by these days is said to produce effects similar to that of marijuana, and it gained popularity because it was viewed as a “safe” alternative to the real stuff, not to mention one that wouldn’t show up on drug tests.

However, the harmful effects of spice quickly came to light, and a number of states—such as Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana—banned any and all sales of the substance.

Yet, it’s still available in some states, and people are still smoking it.

Are some of those people who are puffing the magic dragon’s cousin under contract with the WWE?

The answer is simple: We really don’t know.

However, the report by F4Wonline.com and the widespread use of “fake weed” in society in general leads me to believe that this could—let me stress that could part—be the reason why as many as five wrestlers have been suspended in recent months.

Of course, there’s always a chance Sin Cara tested positive for one thing, Slater for another and Young for something entirely different. However, if that was the case, then I don’t think we’d see the suspensions all lumped so tightly together.

We could say the WWE is “cracking down” on the Wellness Policy no matter what the substance is, but looking at a few guys who appear on WWE TV every week leads me to believe that’s not what’s going on.

The crackdown has apparently been relegated to one substance—spice—and it’s likely the hallucinogenic drug is what has caused a sudden surge in the number of Wellness violations.

Much like that little owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial says, though, the world may never know.

Note: Here is a full list of the suspensions under the WWE's Talent Wellness Program.