WWE Suspensions & Rumors

The WWE announced it suspended 10 of its performers this past Thursday night, August 30, 2007. An 11th suspension was acknowledged the next day by WWE attorney, Jerry McDevitt. WWE said the suspensions were based on information received from the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney's office. Jerry McDevitt also stated the suspensions were due to wrestlers buying human growth hormones.

Suspensions under the WWE Wellness Program are for 30 days without pay for a 1st offense and 60 days for the 2nd offense. A 3rd offense results in termination. According to various sources the majority of the suspensions given were for 30 days with one wrestler receiving a 60 day. No official list of names has been released by WWE, but rumors and speculations continue to fly.

A Sports Illustrated article listed 14 names of wrestlers who had received some kind of steroids, human growth hormone or other performance enhancing drug from a pair of facilities in Florida that were raided by federal authorities as part of a government investigation. (3 of the names: Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Brian "Crush" Adams are deceased. Sylvain Grenier had been released by WWE.)

 

Ken "Mr. Kennedy" Anderson

Mike "Simon Dean" Bucci - released by WWE

Adam "Edge" Copeland

Edward "Umaga" Fatu

Shoichi Funaki

Chavo Guerrero

Charles Haas, Jr.

Shane "Gregory" Helms

John "Morrison" Hennignan (Johnny Nitro)

Darren "William Regal" Matthews

The 11th suspended wrestler could potentially be Robert "Booker T" Huffman, Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella), or Chris "Masters" Mordetsky, whose names have also been rumored as suspended by various sites. Eugene and Cryme Tyme were recently released by WWE, but have not been mentioned amongst the suspended names. Randy Orton was mentioned originally as amongst the various suspended wrestlers but appears not to be at this point.

David "Batista" Bautista was also rumored by sites but does not appear to be amongst those suspended. Both wrestlers were recently announced as being a part of the Unforgiven Pay Per View card, scheduled for September 16.

For more info, see WWE Characters Blog.