An Ethical Analysis of Safety Practices in WWE

An Ethical Analysis of Safety Practices in WWE 

                        By Angelo Cottman  

             Project #1 Management Challenge 

        Class: Organizational Management 3025 

                  Professor: Thomas Walker 

                          October 15, 2015

Introduction:

     Blood sport, the mere mention of this phrase calls forth to the mind vivid images of clashing warriors inside the coliseum and various arenas from bygone eras. Throughout history, countless cultures worldwide have pitted man against man in the dance combat. In the pursuit of higher social status, wealth, glory, freedom, completing rites of passage, as well as to entertain the viewing masses, people have commonly fought to the death. It is commonly understood for a warrior, there was no more noble a death than to die in battle. Humanity left the barbarism of death matches behind, replacing it with the supposedly safer more evolved corporate run platform of contact sports. Today, society wisely dictates that the life of the athlete is protected over the trivial outcome of whatever contact sport he or she is playing. It is both the legal and ethical obligation of sports corporations to educate the athletes they employ about the risk of the activity and to the best of their abilities, preserve the overall health of said athletes.

     As a Sports Management Major, I have taken an interest at how prominently voiced the debates on player safety have become through the recent United States media. It's near impossible to not hear about concussion controversy in the NFL or controversy involving damaging steroids in pro baseball and boxing. Each of these issues and various more are indeed valid in their intent to question what level of culpability a sports organization bears to for their player’s safety and health. Over the years, listening to player unions attend courts on the behalf of current and retired competitors, I began to wonder about the fates of athletes in sports without union representation to argue the perspective of the workforce, such as boxing or UFC. Which ultimately leads me to question is anyone advocating the need for safety protocols in the pseudo-sport acrobatic venue that is World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

     It is a purely unethical practice to employ a person without explaining to them known safety hazards of the job (De George, 2014). This distasteful and illegal practice is what the National Football League has been accused of in a collection of joint class lawsuits. Claims were filed against the league by players whom say the sports organization withheld vital medical information concerning the long-term affects of head injures from players who at which point continued to play for the company. As of April 22, 2015, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania approved a settlement between the NFL and NFL Properties, retired NFL players, their representatives and family members. The NFL has not admitted any guilt in disregarding the affects of serious head injuries to players; specifically concussion injuries that occur when the brain continues to rattle around in the skull cavity after the body endures blunt force trauma or stops abruptly. Testimony from NFL employees in this case say not only were players not informed by sanctioned league doctors about the long-term affects of chronic multiple concussions, which commonly occur during the average NFL players career, many players were encouraged to knowingly play through concussions or fake results on concussion detection test, thus avoiding missed games due to not being medically cleared. Regardless of the “he said she said” surrounding this case, if the NFL is truly guilty of these accusations, it is a cruel act they’ve committed against their workforce, yet it becomes apparent the WWE is responsible for worse actions.

                        

Challenges faced by Organization:

     It’s abundantly clear that WWE is a company in the business of sports entertainment, a market where the goal is to use colorful acrobatic athletes in unorthodox amusing combat situations. The television and live events that WWE produces are as theatrical as they are scripted. Despite the staged aspect, the stunts performed by the well-trained professionals take tremendous physical risk. Particular attention should be paid to the parallels between WWE and legitimate pro sports companies, given that most physicians who have treated WWE wrestlers or as they are often referred to “Superstars”, compare the damage sustained by Superstars to that of NFL athletes (Cox, 2014). Only WWE workers don’t adorn the helmet or padding to dull the impacts of their bodies against the padded wooden ring, metal objects (barricades, stairs, and ladders), other bodies, and concrete. 

     Former face of WWE, current UFC fighter, and ex-WWE Superstar Phillip Brooks, better known by his ring name CM Punk, is reported in a 2014 journal article by “The Washington Post” saying the WWE concussion protocol amounts to “bull [expletive]”. Punk went on to say, “WWE doesn’t do anything to protect the wrestlers, they do things to protect themselves. … They don’t let everybody know that they’re doing all these fantastic things for concussions for ‘the boys. They do it so it looks good on them in the public.” Punk’s use of the term boys refers to his fellow professional wrestlers. Moreover, the article concludes with Punk commending the power of the NFL Players Union to force the leagues hand about instilling legitimate concussion protocol, an outcome he didn’t see happening in WWE. Well there is a concussion policy, however, when compared to the extensive six page document the NFL released about their concussion testing/mandatory recuperation policy, the mere two PowerPoint slides produced by WWE entitled “ImPact Concussion Management Program,” is made to look as incomplete, illegitimate, and laughable as CM Punk would have us believe. The manuscript doesn’t even list the symptoms of a concussion. 

     As previously mentioned, WWE performers do not have a union representation and are employed as independent contractors. Therefore, the wrestlers lack a powerbase to respond when legal rights of workers are violated. Such was the case when CM Punk admitted in an interview with Colt Cabana on the “Art of Wrestling” that he’d been pressured to keep wrestling after receiving a concussion in 2014 and again immediately following his elbow surgery. “I got a concussion in the Royal Rumble. It’s pretty godd*** obvious. I knew I had a concussion. Everyone knew I had a concussion. And they were like we want you to take this test and I said your test is bull***. I took the test while texting you [Colt Cabana] and listening to my headphones and I “passed” with flying colors. But then they were like we want you to go to the ring and run the ropes. And I was like but I just passed your test and they were like yeah, but we still think you have a concussion. I was like so your test is worthless.” Within the two hour interview, Punk describes multiple occasions when he was cleared to wrestle following injury by WWE doctors without even being examined by them. An incident following Punk’s elbow surgery involved him without a medical examination, being cleared to wrestle over the phone by WWE doctor, James Andrews, who was out of state at the time (Paglino, 2015) As egregious as these business practices are by the WWE, they are lucky it only resulted in CM Punk retiring from the company due to health related reasons in 2014. The consequences of unethical medical practice have often been much higher.

                  Management’s Response to Challenges:

     The two biggest changes to WWE medical protocol came on the heels of tragedy. Chris Benoit and Eddy Guerrero, two names most every WWE fan correlate with great triumph and great despair. On November 13, 2005, Eddie Guerrero died of heart failure due to underlying atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease a narrowing of the blood vessels that supply oxygenated blood to the heart. He was a former WWE champion. The body of Chris Benoit was found on June 25, 2007 after he had sedated and killed both his wife and son Daniel. Benoit was a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The Eddie Guerrero case was simple. Doctors concluded that Eddie’s intense workout regiment he performed to stay in shape for the WWE circuit, combined with his past substance abuse of painkillers and human steroids caused his heart to give out. Substance abuse is a prominent problem in most professional sports, yet even more so in WWE because the amount of muscle mass and endurance level required for wrestlers to perform weekly at the highest stage demands the use of stimulants and painkillers. Almost immediately following Mr. Guerrero’s passing, WWE announced a new drug testing policy to detect the use of particular steroids (Cantor 2005).  As for Chris Benoit, it is known the plethora of concussions he suffered during his career caused critical brain cell damage that in other cases have led to dementia. The Benoit story is often mucked up by public misconception with people assuming, like Eddie Guerrero, that Benoit was on steroids leading to killing his family uncontrollable rage. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, as no anabolic steroids were detected in Benoit’s body. Leaving brain damage as the most likely cause for his peculiar actions, a theory with which WWE avidly disagrees. Though ironically, in the aftermath of the murder-suicide scandal, WWE initiated its current ImPact Concussion Test Program (WWE, 2015). It would be remiss not to mention that in addition to Chris Benoit‘s public life in private he was a loving father and husband adored by his friends who to this day find his final acts uncharacteristic. 

                     Analysis of Management Response:

     The aforementioned settlement between the NFL and their players resulted in major benefits made readily available to Class Members in the case. The NFL must now offer baseline medical exams for retired NFL players and extensive education curriculum about football safety (NFL Settlement, 2015). Also, the NFL may award funds to parties diagnosed with ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia and certain cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can only be diagnosed after death. As shrewd corporations, often WWE and the NFL avoid taking responsibility for the concussions, substance abuse, or injury their productions help to cause. Players forced the league’s hand by taking legal action, so perhaps the same must be done to the WWE for them to have legitimate policy reform (Zygna, 2015). Clearly, improvements have been made in the WWE safety protocol, yet it has all been retroactive in response to death. Initiative must be taken by the WWE to confront issues before they occur or all progress is hollow. For instance, WWE may want to begin by adjusting its Impact Testing since the only behavior it mentions are chair strikes to the head, which are now explicitly prohibited during shows. However, it should be noted that wrestlers in WWE are commonly required to get kicked in head, slammed through tables, leap from ladders/cages of greater than 20 feet, and endure impacts to the head from metal barricades or ring stairs.

              My Ideal Resolution to WWE’s Challenges:

     As a devotee to the sport of wrestling, I have watched more than my fair share of events. I understand the violent atmosphere in which extreme stunts are performed is the main draw of WWE’s genre of shows.  It can be difficult to tow the line between safety and extreme, so I would respond to the ethics problems WWE faces, first by acknowledging the medical issues caused by intensive wrestling, then by establishing a form long-term medical coverage for retired wrestlers.  WWE has taken little, if any accountability for the health of its staff, either current or retired. By acknowledging the problem, the WWE should educate the world about the risk of wrestling. This way there can be a more open dialogue about wrestler injury and WWE can hire a higher quality of professional medical personnel. I understand that medical coverage for current wrestlers may be good, but long-term injuries warrant long-term medical coverage. Obviously, this would be expensive, but when you take into account the amount of funds WWE has dedicated to causes like breast cancer, the armed forces, and St. Jude’s it seems reasonable to think that they could set aside some money to aid the workers that help build the legacy of WWE. Overlooking the fact that wrestlers are independent contractors, once their careers have closed someone should help these performers who’ve given up their lives to compete.

                                  Closing:

     In 2015, modern day gladiators perform their craft in professional fighting rings competing not to the final breath, but to the final bell. The final straw for ex wrestler CM Punk reportedly came when WWE Dr. Chris Amann misdiagnosed a deadly MRSA staph infection as a “fatty deposit” on the wrestler’s back in 2014 (Paglino, 2014). After succumbing to illness, Punk broke ties with WWE to begin healing, his contract was terminated the morning of his wedding day (Cox, 2014). Many onlookers, including Punk himself felt this was a personal message regarding how he left the business. Regardless of personal disputes between management and employees, there is always the ethical obligation of a company to best protect the health of its workforce. Professionally, the WWE has failed this challenge and must make great strides in the future to have access to the next crop of talented upcoming wrestlers who have the option of working for other wrestling entertainment corporations, like Global Force Wrestling, TNA, Lucha Underground, and Ring of Honor Wrestling. Moreover, if WWE hopes to retain the support of diehard wrestling fans like myself they must do justice to the dedicated men and women who make the sport possible. 

                                                  WORK CITED 

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