Why do wwe wrestlers so often die young?

David Rhodes of the BBC (no relation to the Rhodes family of WWE) wrote a short article this weekend asking the question, “Why do wrestlers so often die young?”, in response to the passing of beloved pro wrestler Rowdy Piper, just 61 years young. In the article, he cited two studies conducted by Eastern Michigan University and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog that make clear the fact that professional wrestling is a dangerous sport, and the physical artists that work in this field die younger when compared to similar professions. As Rhodes points to in his article, of the 62 wrestlers who died between 1988-2011, Eastern Michigan found 49 of them died before the age of 50. Even more depressing, 24 of them died before the age of 40. These are alarming statistics. Too many wrestling obituaries have been written, even though they’re usually written well, with a clear reverence for the sport, by Grantland’s The Masked Man, among others.

WWE has made statements alluding to the lifestyle choices of the 70s & 80s as arguably the main culprit in the short lifespans we see from these gifted athletes, and there’s a measurable unit of merit to that disingenuous position. Both MLB and the NBA dealt with major drug scandals. The greatest baseball team of the 1980s, the New York Mets, featured two once in a generation superstars who would be ravaged by cocaine. The #1 overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft died of a cocaine overdose the night he was selected. The NFL had its issues as well. In fact, drug use was so prevalent in the NFL, that top level superstars such as Lawrence Taylor freely admitted it. I’m not sure why, but I find the NYT description of crack as a “powerful cocaine derivative” hilarious. LT, who would wrestle Bam Bam Bigelow (RIP) at WM 11 to cap an underrated feud, later poked fun at his own drug use in Adam Sandler’s The Waterboy. So why didn’t the WWE wrestlers from the 1980s, like Hawk, or Curt Henning, live long enough to poke fun at their reportedly wild lifestyles? I have two words for you: offseason & union. MLB, NBA & NFL have both. Could that be the difference in lifespans? I would argue that it is.

I’m not the first, nor the last person to comment that WWE TV needs an offseason, not only to refresh an exhausted creative and advertising staff, but also to keep the wrestlers healthy and from dying before they reach what used to be old age, but is now middle age. John Cena’s nose shouldn’t have to split in two like the ten commandments for him to get some time away from the ring. He’s been wrestling and fighting in televised double digit length matches week after week this year, something no other WWE superstar has ever done before at his level. Find me the four consecutive RAW matches Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Triple H, Edge, CM Punk, Undertaker, Lesnar, etc wrestled for ten minutes+ at a PPV level. John Cena, along with every other WWE wrestler, would benefit from an offseason. Raw After WrestleMania can serve as the season finale, and the first week of July can be the season premiere. All of the men and women studied by Eastern University and FiveThirtyEight.com likely would have lived longer if their schedules were shorter, and they wrestled more infrequently. The current roster just finished wrestling in Vancouver, BC and Sydney, Australia in the last few days, all before tonight’s live three hour RAW in Washington state. How much is too much? Given the WWE taped Smackdown in Sacramento, California on Tuesday, flew to Syndey, Vancouver and now Washington state, they have totaled well over 15,000 miles of travel in less than six days. All before a live three hour show tonight! Are you fucking kidding me? When MLB scheduled two games in Australia in 2014, do you know how long the players had off after it was over? FIVE DAYS. Say the beginning of the MLBPA prayer with me: “Our holy negotiator, who rests in Heaven, Marvin Miller be thy name…”

The Wellness Policy has certainly helped, and I believe the WWE is so hyper reactive to public perception today that they will be proactive going forward protecting the health of their contracted wrestlers. But what will happen decades from now, after the contracts run out, when the lights of WrestleMania moments are faded, dimmed, and lost in the fog of head injuries and physical deterioration? Who will protect the next Rowdy Piper, or Randy Savage? Maybe the WWE will, but the best bet for all wrestlers would be from the collective power of a union.

Read this description of the Screen Actors Guild Union. “Stunt performers” are covered by this union, and even though that description is ill-fitting for the first rate athletes and actors/actresses competing throughout the WWE, it would mean life long benefits outside the WWE. Health coverage, pensions, assistance managing money- these are attractive options to anyone, not just the real life action heroes of the WWE and other wrestling organizations. Bret Hart and CM Punk have both spoken out in favor of unions for pro wrestlers. One of the more ridiculous assertions anti-union advocates make in regards to wrestling is that unionization will lead to a complete breakdown of creative and booking. As if televisions shows shut down because a star doesn’t like the way he’s booked on a certain episode. Did a union advise Stone Cold Steve Austin to walk out of WWE, rather than wrestle Brock Lesnar in an unadvertised RAW main event? No. Does the SAG union get involved in storylines during development, shooting down lines of dialogue or scenes altogether? Of course not. And neither would a union representing professional wrestlers. The heroes of the squared circle would live longer and healthier if they pooled their resources and had a union negotiating for them. As Jack Shephard says on LOST, “We live together, or we die alone.”

My hope is that the WWE continues to improve in this area and does whatever is in their power to reach out and take care of the men and women who haven’t taken care of themselves, or those who tried, but failed to do so on their own. Will the WWE take the memory of Rowdy Piper, and all the others who left behind their families and loved ones far too early in life, and create an offseason and allow their wrestlers to form a union? I don’t know, but I do know the pattern can be broken. John Cena doesn’t have to die at 61.

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