Dear Smarks: Stop Bringing Up Roman’s Wellness Suspension

So the wonderful Greg DeMarco recently did a study. He showed non-wrestling people at his place of employment photos of Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns and asked them who they would pay to see, just based on the pictures; all of them chose Roman Reigns. As you can imagine, the anti-Roman contingent threw a FIT about this, saying that he shouldn’t be asking non-fans about who is a draw because they wouldn’t know who either guy was, which was the point of the whole experiment.

I’ve been showing non-wrestling fans at work these pics today, with the question “Who would you pay money to go see?”

Every single one has said “the guy on the right.” pic.twitter.com/cxPlRXAIfo

— Greg DeMarco (@ChairshotGreg) May 17, 2018

One of the complaints about Reigns that his detractors like to drag up, when they get tired of trying to claim he has no wrestling ability, mic skills, or charisma, is his 2016 Wellness Policy suspension. According to them, Reigns’ suspension is a dealbreaker, he should never be allowed to be The Guy ever again because of this mistake. Really? One Wellness Policy violation over Roman forgetting to give WWE his prescription for Adderall because he was having trouble sleeping and he should be forever barred from being The Guy? Have you all conveniently forgotten about all the Legends and top guys that had or still have serious substance abuse problems? Well, if you have, let me remind you. Here’s a list of people that either had Wellness Policy violations or were known in their day for having a drug and/or alcohol problem:

1. Jeff Hardy *
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin. * **
3. Shawn Michaels * **
4. Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) **
5. Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid, X-Pac)
6. Kevin Nash (Diesel). * **
7. Road Warrior Hawk **
8. Eddie Guerrero * **
9. Carlito
10. William Regal. To the best of my knowledge, Regal’s substance abuse issues weren’t widely known for much of his career, but he has admitted to them in interviews.
11. Sunny **
12. The Iron Sheik * **
13. Randy Orton *
14. Rey Mysterio *
15. Paige *
16. Eva Marie
17. Alberto Del Rio *
18. Edge * ** (part of the fallout from Chris Benoit’s death).
19. The British Bulldog
20. Ric Flair. * **
21. Tully Blanchard **
22. Kerry Von Erich *  **(The Texas Tornado)
23. Luna Vachon
24. Chyna *
25. Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts **
26. Curt Hennig (Mr. Perfect) **
27. Lex Lugar *
28. Miss Elizabeth.
29. Umaga
30. Joey Mercury
31. Road Dogg
32. The Fabulous Freebirds **
33. Roddy Piper **
34. ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan **.
35. Dustin Rhodes. Note: This one wasn’t known until recently, and Dustin has been very honest about his issues.
36. Kurt Angle. * **. Note: Angle never had a Wellness Violation that I’m aware of, but he and Vince have said that his drug issues and refusal to go to rehab partly lead to his departure from WWE in 2006.
37. Don Muraco. **
38. Cowboy Bob Orton. **

*= Became Heavyweight Champion/Women’s Champion

**= Hall of Famer

As you can see, a lot of wrestlers past and present have either run afoul of  WWE’s Wellness Policy or were known to have issues with drugs and/or alcohol. Many of them are now considered Legends and/or Hall of Famers. I know there are more than this, but these were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. Several of the people listed that were WHC of some description, often during the times of their issues. Few of them found their careers hindered by their issues alone, more than half of them are in the WWE HOF and the ones who aren’t are still considered legends. If they get a pass on past bad behavior and poor decision making, why am I supposed to buy Roman Reigns’ one mistake as an insurmountable barrier to his becoming the top guy and Universal Champion?

Yes, Reigns made a mistake back in 2016 with that Wellness violation, but he also owned up to it publicly, we’re told that he apologized to the locker room, and took his punishment humbly. There’s no actual reason for this to keep him from being champion, especially since his violation was because he didn’t turn in the prescription in time, rather than he got busted for illegal drugs. Of all the ‘reasons’ smarks give for why Roman shouldn’t be The Guy, this is one of the most pathetic because it blatantly ignores the fact that so many of the ‘Legends’ smarks looked up to struggled with substance abuse issues and still had successful careers in the wrestling business while finger pointing and shaming Reigns for a relatively minor infraction. Let’s grow up a little, people.