Aside from a series of bad slasher films, one associates Friday the 13th with bad luck, a day where an individual will be inexplicably cursed with misfortune and perhaps even disaster. Usually I'd dismiss this as superstitious rubbish, however for once the negativity is perhaps justified as I have had one of the worst days in quite some time.
For me personally, the day started off on a dull note as Weston was once again a victim of the stereotypical English Summer, showers of rain, in between fleeting bursts of sunshine. Wonderful. As the day progressed, I was the recipient of bad news (Nothing too serious and I'm against airing personal problems in public so I will not disclose the details.) and minor inconveniences that culminated with me being LATE FOR WORK. Unacceptable. Then, I started coming down with a cold and as any grown man will know, this calls for round the clock attention from your significant other and since she's not around I have to suffer....alone. Unacceptable.
And to top it all off, there will be no airing of Friday the 13th this evening.
'Joking' aside the day became truly tragic as the wrestling world suffered yet another loss.
Former WWE wrestler Lance/Garrisson Cade (Real name Lance McNaught) died today, apparently of heart failure.
I'd be lying if I said I was a fan of Lance, although he was a decent worker and had an entertaining feud with The Hardyz with tag team partner Trevor Murdoch I never found his ring work or personality particularly compelling and despite WWE's best efforts neither did the majority of their audience. However, despite this WWE continued to push him on television (Wrestling carny for building a star and featuring him heavily on their programming), unfortunately young Lance's career was derailed when he was found intoxicated and seizuring aboard a plane and was subsequently let go. As lead announcer and former head of talent relations JR put it 'he made a major league mistake whilst utilizing bad judgement'. Indeed.
You see, wrestling has always been riddled with all kinds of substance abuse, whether it be steroids, alcohol or recreational drug use. Although steroids have no doubt always been prominent in the sport and I am not educated in the area enough to say for certain,I'd go out on a lim and say that substance abuse really became a problem in the eighties and early nineties when wrestling was at it's peak and the wrestlers themselves lived the so called rock and roll lifestyle.Aside from recreational drug abuse, the physical nature of the business leads a lot of wrestlers to take prescription medication (Usually painkillers of some sort) which often leads to addiction, at the time of writing it seems that it was an addiction of this nature that cost young Lance Cade his life.
Over the years the major league promotions (Primarily WWE) made various attempts to put a stop to this kind of behaviour and in 2005 after the tragic death of Eddie Guerrero WWE instituted a Wellness policy to try and deter tragedies like this from happening again, wrestlers noticeably decreased in size and wrestlers who showed up in 'no condition to perform' were sent home on suspensions. However, after the media coverage died down and the heartache of those involved began to subside it went back to business as usual. All this would change just 2 years later.
In the summer of 2007 beloved wrestler Chris Benoit snapped and killed his wife, son and later himself. As well as being severely brain damaged from 20 + years of physicality and careless shots to the head, Benoit was also in possession of large quantities of steroids. The event has forever left a black mark on the sport and the immediate PR nightmare that followed forced WWE to try and clean up it's act, reinforcing its inconsistent wellness policy in an attempt to control any substance abuse by those under employment. As well as the wellness policy, WWE also reached out to any ex employees and offered to pay for them to enter rehab, more than likley in an attempt to repair its public image.
Although it was arguably the severe brain damage Benoit was suffering from that caused him to commit such an unspeakable act, the media circus that followed his death pointed the finger solely at substance abuse, specifically steroids. As a result WWE apparently no longer turns a blind eye and those who violate it are punished. Although the policy usually includes a 3 strikes and you're out rule, Cade was released almost immediately afterwards, no doubt because of the public nature of his offense and despite entering rehab, it seems that Cade never was able to overcome his addictions.
Having followed wrestling now for ten years, I have seen many wrestlers die young, some of whom I have been great fans of and it's always hard to take. Whether a wrestler is working the WWE road schedule or small venues for dirt money, those bumps and bruises take their toll and it's no wonder that some individuals are unable to avoid these traps.
It would be unfair to place the blame on WWE, they are cleaning up their act and they did offer a chance at rehabilitation once they released him, but as someone said to me today, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force them to drink.
Lance was only 29 years old and is survived by his wife, two daughters and stepson.
No comments:
Post a Comment