Alleged Inconsistencies In WWE Drug Test Failure Punishments – With news that WWE’s Matt Riddle has reportedly been suspended for failing a drug test, supposedly not his first failed drug test of the year, attention has been drawn to the punishment stars receive.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez took a deep dive into alleged inconsistencies over policy violations.
Addressing the reported second violation by Matt Riddle, Meltzer stated:
Meltzer: “If that story is accurate, there are a lot of questions on that one because the claim is, it’s a second failure.
“But he was never suspended for the first failure.
“And they’re supposed to announce every failure on the main roster, and they haven’t announced either failure.”
The pair would then share insight into the drug test police and how WWE are delivering it, explaining:
Alvarez: “Well there’s been a lot of weirdness, because sometimes people allegedly get popped and don’t get suspended.
“Sometimes they get popped and they don’t get suspended, they just get fired.”
Meltzer: “Well every situation’s different, and they should treat every situation based on…”
Alvarez: “Well actually they should treat them all the same if there’s a policy.
“If the policy is ‘you fail, you get suspended’, then you shouldn’t be fired.
“Unless it’s some egregious offense.”
Looking at the more serious violations of the drug policy, Meltzer and Alvarez said:
Meltzer: “If it’s really, really bad and they say, ‘You’re in bad shape, you gotta go to rehab’, even if it’s the first time, and you say no, they absolutely can fire you, and I don’t have a problem with that at all.”
Alvarez: “There was one person this year that I believe was popped for something – I don’t wanna be too specific about this – but they were fired.
“And it was not a situation where this was something egregious or there was something that was drastically affecting their immediate wellbeing or anything like that.
“It was that they got popped for something that a ton of people are doing and somehow not getting popped for, and they were immediately fired.”
Meltzer: “That’s true, that’s true.”
The time scale of violations also came under question, with both exploring the story of Riddle further:
Meltzer: “Just the way that (Riddle) story came out, it was like ‘something happened in the summer’ – he didn’t take any time off this summer, he was there every week.”
Alvarez: “I think he did disappear but it was for a short period of time, it was like three weeks or something like that.
“It was something weird.”
Meltzer: “Not 30 days. Other times, a guy will pop, and like months later, he’ll be suspended for it, when it’s more convenient.”
Matt Riddle is scheduled to be out of action for six weeks, with an attack by Solo Sikoa on December 5 being given as the storyline reason behind his absence, which is believed to be a 30-day period in rehab.
Despite the reported situation, Riddle was still referenced heavily during last night’s December 12 edition of Raw, with Elias throwing him a “tribute concert”.
Alleged Inconsistencies In WWE Drug Test Failure Punishments
