The Tragedy of Dead Wrestlers
Alot of people probably loved wrestling as they grew up. They had their favourite wrestlers and loved to watch grown men in underwear pounding the life out of each other. Then as the fans grew up they found out that professional wrestling was fake and it was basically a soap opera for men.
Some people continued to watch, as it has become an extremely popular form of sports entertainment today. What people do not realise though is the huge number of wrestlers that have died before the age of 65. In total by some estimates suggest that 255 wrestlers have died from various afflictions related to their careers. That is a very large number of athletes to have died in any sport. Something drastic will need to be done to stop more young promising athletes dying before their time.
The numbers of professional wrestlers that have died in the last ten years is just staggering. 255 wrestlers dead is an extremely large number and if this happened in any other sport it would probably lead to a public enquiry and reforms taking place. Maybe that is exactly what needs to happen in wrestling; reasons need to be found out why this happens to so many wrestlers and if anything can be done to stop it. There are many reasons why this happens these days and these are the same reasons why it took place so many years ago. Even though the match results in wrestling are predetermined and storylines are carefully planned well in advance, accidents still occur and in dealing with these accidents deaths take place.
Wrestling is a tough business; a company such as the WWE is solely governed by money to be made and the ratings that need to be increased. The WWE alone is a company worth over $1 billion and everything the management does revolves around money. Recently the death of 29 year old wrestling star Lance Cade brought the issue of employee neglect into the limelight once again.
In interviews shortly before his death, the star said that the pressure wrestlers go through is immense, (Ted Mann, 2010). Basically what happens is that once a wrestler becomes famous he has to protect his place on the starting roster or he will get cut. When injuries occur they do not take time off because they fear they will lose their place and so they take painkillers to numb the pain.
They eventually get addicted to the painkillers and become lethargic and so have to take drugs to get high and be able to wrestle again. This combination is extremely bad for their hearts and numerous wrestlers over the years have died from heart conditions.
Over the years so many wrestlers have died from heart failure that it begs one to question why nothing is being done about this. In the last ten years, some of the best wrestlers have fallen prey to weak hearts. A list of these wrestlers reads like a who’s who of the industry; Yokozuna died of heart failure in 2000, British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith died in 2002 from a heart attack, Legion of Doom’s Hawk died in 2003 from a heart attack, The Big Boss Man, Ray Traylor died of a massive heart attack in 2004, Eddie Guerrero died in 2005 and the latest athlete to fall prey to a bad heart was Lance McNaught or Lance Cade who died in 2010, (S.I.A, 2010). The pressure to continuously wrestle despite the pain and injury suffered leads to massive pressure on their bodies and they have adverse health effects as a result.
Due to intense pressure on the company and the whole industry, the WWE introduced a Talent Wellness Programme to monitor a wrestler’s health and wellbeing, (Eric Cohen, 2010). This is a step in the right direction because it at least shows that the management at the wrestling company have become aware of the problem and are taking steps to correct it. The next thing they need to do is relieve the pressure on the wrestlers as well and guarantee them a spot on their return from injury. With the steroid scandal behind the company, they now have a new problem facing them.
The WWE and the entire wrestling industry have a lot of work ahead of them if they really want to fix the problem of dying wrestlers and bring their tarnished image out of the gutter. They will win so many new fans if they can fix this problem and they will have a more motivated workforce as well.
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