“All of the allegations set forth in a recent SI.com article mentioning WWE predate the initiation of WWE’s current Talent Wellness Program. This WWE program prohibits the use of performance enhancing drugs, as well as other prescription drugs which can be abused, if taken for other than a legitimate medical purpose pursuant to a valid prescription from a licensed and treating physician. For purposes of WWE’s policy, prescriptions obtained over the Internet and/or from suppliers of prescription drugs from the Internet are not considered to have been given for a legitimate medical purpose. ”
-Official WWE Released Statement
The following is an article from SI.com:
SI.com: What’s the latest? Do investigators believe any of Wilbirt’s “patients” were athletes?
Llosa/Wertheim: Yes. We’d already seen his name come up in conjunction with Kurt Angle, a 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning freestyle wrestler and now a star professional wrestler who allegedly received two prescriptions for trenbolone and one for nandrolone between October 2004 and February ’05. It turns out Angle isn’t the only pro wrestler alleged to have received prescriptions from Wilbirt. According to the official documents we reviewed, Wilbirt was billed for HCG and the steroid stanozolol that were sent to WWE star Eddie Guerrero in early 2005. (Guerrero died on Nov. 13, 2005, in a Minneapolis hotel room due to what a coroner later ruled as heart disease, complicated by an enlarged heart resulting from a history of anabolic steroid use.) Wilbirt also allegedly issued prescriptions for the steroids nandrolone and stanozolol to Oscar Gutierrez, whose stage name is Rey Mysterio. (Through the WWE, Gutierrez declined comment.) When reached at his home Wilbirt spoke with us briefly, asserting, “I’m not even practicing medicine now, so… I don’t remember doing half the stuff you’re talking about.” (The Arizona Medical Board confirms that his license is currently suspended.) Asked specifically about the professional wrestlers, Wilbirt remarked: “I’ll tell you one thing and then this conversation is going to end. They had done blood work and had laboratory work done and they had come to see me.” Wilbirt obviously remains a “person of interest” for the investigators. In total, there were 11 professional wrestlers listed in the documents that we saw. Some of these wrestlers are working as independents; some are out of the business entirely; others are first-tier stars. Consider Randy Orton, who allegedly received eight prescriptions for six different drugs — stanozolol, nandrolone, anastrozole, Clomiphene citrate, oxandrolone and testosterone — between March 2004 and August 2004. (Through the WWE, Orton declined comment.) Interestingly, according to the documents, Orton’s prescriptions came from the same two doctors whose names appeared on the prescriptions in major league outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.’s file.
SI.com: Most of the athletes named in your previous stories were allegedly receiving human growth hormone. It sounds as though the professional wrestlers were allegedly mostly receiving steroids.
Llosa/Wertheim: Right. At some level this stands to reason: The skill-set required for pro wrestling is obviously different from that of most other competitive sports. According to the documents two prominent wrestlers, Adam Copeland, a.k.a. Edge, and Shane Helms, a.k.a. The Hurricane, received HGH. (Through the WWE, Copeland and Helms didn’t respond to a request for comment.) But virtually all the others allegedly received a wide variety of anabolic steroids. In each case these were supplied by Applied, the Mobile, Ala., compounding pharmacy that was raided last fall.
SI.com: Does the WWE have a drug policy?
Llosa/Wertheim: Gary Davis, a WWE spokesman, pointed us to a Talent Wellness Program instituted in February 2006. As to whether anabolic steroids and HGH are banned, Davis sent us an email quoting the policy: “The WWE policy prohibits the use of performance-enhancing drugs, as well as other prescription drugs which can be abused, if taken for other than a legitimate medical purpose pursuant to a valid prescription from a licensed and treating physician. For purposes of WWE’s policy, prescriptions obtained over the Internet and/or from suppliers of prescription drugs from the Internet are not considered to have been given for a legitimate medical purpose. Citing privacy issues, Davis declined to say whether WWE wrestlers have tested positive for banned substances since the policy was implemented.
Only a few weeks after a previous story linking former WWE and current TNA star Kurt Angle to steroid prescription investigation, a story by Sports Illustrated has now linked a number of WWE wrestlers to a series of government steroid investigations in an article that can be read at SI.com.
It was revealed that after documents were viewed by SI reporters Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim, Dr. David Wilbirt of Arizona (who is under investigation from the DEA for writing 3,879 prescriptions for patients that requested drugs over the Internet) was linked with Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio), Randy Orton, Adam Copeland (Edge) and Shane Helms (Gregory Helms) and at least five other unnamed individuals that did not make the story.
Copeland and Helms were listed as receiving HGH (not anabolic steroids), while Guerrero was listed as having been billed and sent stanazol (Winstrol) and Gutierrez (Mysterio) for allegedly a prescription for nadrolone (Decadurabolin) and stanazol. Orton received prescriptions for six different drugs from the same two doctors that appeared in the story.
Dr. Wilbert, who license has already been suspended, stated that the wrestlers had blood work and lab work done before they came to see him. It is interesting to note that all of these documents came from 2004 and 2005, well before WWE enforced its new Wellness Drug Policy following the death of Guerrero in 2005. All of the drugs listed above are illegal under the WWE’s current drug policy.
The WWE wrestlers listed in this investigation don’t appear to be in any trouble as the government is attempting to shut down the distributors and not arrest the athletes. WWE’s Vice President of Corporate Communications Gary Davis stated that the company policy does not allow for prescription drugs to be obtained from the Internet. SI attempted to get further comments from the wrestlers involved in this investigation, but Davis was the only person who spoke with them about the matter.
As noted earlier, Channel 13 in Orlando reported today that an announcement will be made this Wednesday that WrestleMania 24 would be coming to the Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida next year. This confirms reports over the last few months that Orlando was a top candidate for the big event.
