Bruce Prichard discussed WWE instituting their Wellness Program which includes a Cardiovascular test and Monitoring Program as well as wellness policy in 2006 during his Something to Wrestle With Podcast.
Here is what the WWE executive had to say:
It is [game-changing] and it was something brought to light, obviously with Eddie [Guerrero] and you see the condition of his heart and Eddie didn’t know, the company didn’t know, and the question was well, a guy that was in as good a shape as Eddie Guerrero appeared to be and performing [at] a level he performed at every single night, there were no indications so, instituting a wellness policy that incorporates all things wellness. From your mental health to your physical health, everything in between and have that monitored and be a resource for talent versus looking at it as — not looking at it as, ‘Ooo, this is the drug policy.’ This is not what it was at all. This was a policy of, ‘Okay guys, how can [you] be the healthiest that you can be and if you have underlying conditions, then if we do regular testing, we are going to discover those conditions a whole lot sooner.’ That’s the general understanding that I have of it and it was done to help talent be able to be in front of things and not look at something like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know that was there,’ because a lot of times, guys were on the road so often. To have a family doctor and to have time to actually go to a doctor and get checked up, they’re just gonna keep going. They’re going to keep moving on. This instituted a policy and this instituted testing. Overall, testing for them that would help them and be source for them to catch sh*t early on.
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