Regal’s Suspension Raises Questions

By:  | Posted: Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm.

By: Bryan Alvarez
The Fight Network
bryanalvarez@f4wonline.com

I’m back! And how strange is it that the last column I wrote was about how awesome it was that William Regal won King of the Ring. Here we are just a few weeks later and Regal has been slapped with a 60-day drug-related suspension, which brings up further questions about the WWE Wellness Policy.

While we do not know what Regal was suspended for, we do have a few clues. We know he had major problems with recreational drugs earlier in his career and was ultimately sent to rehab by World Wrestling Entertainment, a move that he has said over and over again saved his life. We know that he has long since claimed to be clean. Of course, the term “clean” in the pro wrestling industry is funny, as Eddy Guerrero was considered “clean” when he died despite the fact that he was still taking steroids, growth hormone and prescription narcotics. We also know that, according to Sports Illustrated, William Regal made online purchase of the steroids stanozolol, somatropin, genotropin and anastrozole between November 2004 and November 2006.

The belief among some in WWE is that Regal didn’t fall off the wagon and go back to recreational drugs, but that he likely began taking steroids again somewhat recently. One theory is that it was suggested to him (not by anyone in power at WWE, but perhaps by another wrestler) that he get back on the gas since he’d won the King of the Ring tournament and was subsequently being pushed as an active wrestler and not just a suited-up GM. Regal doesn’t have the ripped bodybuilder look that many people associate with steroid use, but he also didn’t have that look when he was buying steroids online.

If Regal failed for steroids, which seems most likely, it sure does say some interesting things about the Wellness Policy, particularly with the bodies that were on display in the main event. JBL is probably clean given his physique, but rumors have swirled forever about HHH, John Cena and Randy Orton. Cena, of course, has always insisted that he’s steroid free, although the fact that he tore his pec off the bone (a common steroid injury) and was able to return approximately four months later (which is nearly impossible without the help of steroids) doesn’t exactly help a lot of people take his word for it. HHH, like Cena, has never failed a drug test, but he’s the biggest and the most ripped that he’s been in years, and as Lance Storm has noted, holding onto your physique as you reach 40 isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world, and Lance lives at home and can watch his diet perfectly. HHH is on the road several days per week and somehow manages to maintain a tremendous amount of muscle with very low bodyfat, and if you remember his physique from about two years ago, he looks better right now at 38 than he did at 35 and 36.

And then there’s Randy Orton. Orton is on at least his second strike, and depending upon what you count as a strike some would say his third or fourth. He’s had the most dramatic recent transformation of anyone, going from a guy who looked like a skinny high school basketball player in late 2007 to a guy who just a few months later is ripped to shreds with a six-pack and more muscle than he’s had in years. And, strangely enough, several years back, from September 2004 to February 2007, in fact, Sports Illustrated discovered that he had been ordering steroids online — somatropin, nandrolone, and stanozolol to be exact.

I don’t have proof, but there is some strong circumstantial evidence that at least one, and perhaps several, of the main eventers on Raw Monday night were on steroids. And even if all of them were clean, only the most naïve fan would believe that everyone that worked the show Monday night was clean. Yet somehow, only William Regal got suspended. This is not to say that Regal should have been spared; rather, the question is how he managed to get nabbed and so many others did not, or more precisely, why we continue to see mid- and upper-midcarders suspended for failing tests, but it never seems to happen with, as Hunter himself called them, the “tippy-top guys”, who strangely enough have the best physiques of all.

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CATEGORIES:Editorial