By no stretch of the imagination can Pat McAfee be considered a ‘juice head.’ He’s in great shape, sure, and a former athlete, but he isn’t stretching or tearing any sleeves on any of his t-shirts, that’s for sure. But yet it was him that provided a recent update on WWE’s policy for drug testing.
These days, WWE tests and not only for steroids. For the longest time though, WWE was known as the land of the giants, and if you didn’t have at least 18 inch biceps, then you didn’t make the cut as far as being a main event player was concerned.
The steroid scandal of the early nineties is something that most fans who lived through it are likely not to forget, and now with Vince McMahon in trouble for a plethora of other reasons that have nothing to do with steroids, it still calls to mind all that previous drama. The steroid thing remained to be a problem for years and many stars who worked in WWE were suspended for use and investigated at intervals.
It was in February of 2006 that WWE put the wellness program, as it was called, in place. Soon after, a particular investigation put into motion by the Albany County, N.Y., D.A.’s office incriminated many WWE stars and the company was forced to take action. This was a statement they made back then:
“Based on independent information received from investigators from the Albany County, N.Y., D.A.’s office, WWE has today, under the penalty provisions of its wellness policy, issued suspension notices to 10 of its performers for violations. It has been WWE’s practice not to release the names of those who have been suspended, but notice has been sent to all WWE performers that names of anyone who is suspended under the Wellness Policy as of November 1 will be made public.”
Some who were on that list include: Batista, Randy Orton, Booker T, Chavo Guerrero, Shane Helms, John Morrison, Mr. Kennedy, Funaki, Charlie Haas, Umaga, William Regal, Edge, Sylvain Grenier, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and even Chris Masters, Santino Marella and Brian “Crush” Adams.
via Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson on YouTube
At the time Batista denied ever using any of the illegal substances included in that report—specifically Signature Pharmacy substances which included Human Growth Hormone:
“I categorically deny a report on and repeated by other media outlets, that I am or ever have been a customer of Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, an on-line pharmacy company that is a target of an investigation by the Albany, New York District Attorney’s Office…
I am being tested regularly by the WWE and I am in full compliance with the WWE Wellness Program…I regret the inaccurate reporting, and I will do all I can in the future to stop any publication or anyone from making such false accusations.”
via militarynews.com (link above)
It was later in 2007 that things would change even more though.
McMahon and company backpedaled and backpedaled big after the Chris Benoit family tragedy and all because the media started to blame the whole ordeal on steroids; despite the fact that steroids weren’t even in Benoit’s system the autopsy revealed. But we’ve been here before, haven’t we dear readers?
Of course we have.
Regardless, it was then that Vince McMahon, and in order to shy away from the attention steroids had brought to his doorstep, the Benoit stuff being the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, he focused his gaze on stars like CM Punk at the time, who was ‘straight edge’ (no drugs or alcohol) and much thinner and hadn’t probably ever stuck a steroid needle in his arm, despite his great athletic frame, albeit smaller.
Bryan Danielson found similar success, but yes, WWE stars have gotten smaller over the years. Some are in epic shape and remember folks, you can get big and be in epic shape without taking a single steroid. It is possible, it just takes a long time and few are capable of being patient.
But stories from Jacques Rougeau have proven that indeed WWE was in fact a rave party of steroids in the eighties/early nineties, as he has mentioned, but these days the scene is drastically different.
via WWE on YouTube
So yes, the voice, or rather half of the panel that calls SmackDown from week to week, Pat McAfee, who has seen some action in the ring this year, at Mania and at SummerSlam, decided to let people in on how often drug testing goes on in WWE. Here’s some of what he had to say while on the Dan Patrick Show:
“They drug test rather often at the WWE…Yes, they actually do now. There are always going to be people that talk about some people maybe aren’t getting tested. There’s always conspiracy theories about everything, but I’ve been tested and given my blood to the WWE numerous times…
There was a lot of things that happen whenever you start injecting your body with stuff. And people who were already maybe high energy or very emotional, and then there was some stuff that has happened through the evolution of human and the evolution of WWE where they have had to put in different rules.”
