Beth Phoenix On Suspicion Of Drug Use?

-- A question was recently asked on an edition of Wrestling Observer Radio regarding Beth Phoenix not being used by WWE for nearly a month, noting she had been left off of television for four weeks. Considering four weeks is the approximate amount of time a talent suspended by WWE over a Wellness Policy violation would serve, this led the person to ask if she had failed a drug test. Show host Dave Meltzer replied she did not.

The conversation then transitioned into the hosts discussing how surprising it is that not a single woman has ever been contested by WWE's drug testing policy despite everything's that gone down over the last few years, specifically noting the various drug busts.

"I'm stunned," Meltzer said.

It cannot be said that the WWE female talent roster of the last few years has been 100% in compliance with the company's drug testing policy as at least a few female performers were indeed customers of Signature Pharmacy at one point, which closed shop in February 2007 after being raided by Albany County and Florida law enforcement agencies. Authorities allege that Signature Pharmacy illegally distributed steroids and other prescription drugs to clients who had not by examined by doctors, many of whom being professional wrestlers. Purchasing pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy is a direct violation of WWE's drug testing policy.

During the radio show, Meltzer relayed a story from August 2007 about a WWE wrestler telling him how he was "scared to the death" that his name would show up on the Signature Pharmacy list because he had been getting drugs through them. The wrestler in question told Meltzer he got put in touch with Signature Pharmacy through one of the women's wrestlers, with the women's wrestler telling him "many of the women" get their stuff through Signature Pharmacy.

For those wondering why no female WWE performers' names came up on the dreaded list, simply put, they were very lucky. Due to the sheer enormity of the Signature Pharmacy client list, authorities were just not able to throughly investigate every single file and computer at the pharmacy's Orlando-based office. Many more wrestlers were customers of Signature Pharmacy, but were simply not named because every file and computer had not been searched - including all female wrestling talent as well as the wrestler who was "scared to the death." Those that were named - such as Mr. Kennedy, John Morrison and Charlie Haas - were unlucky as authorities just happened to come across their files. They could have just as easily not been caught had their files not been randomly searched.

As noted earlier, the drug of choice among women throughout the wrestling industry - presumably including WWE - is a weight loss diet pill called Zylene, which helps suppresses hunger. This pill is exclusively available online as it has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, Zylene has yet to be added to WWE's banned drugs list, so the company's female talent are free to use it without penalty.

-- Ticket sales for WWE's Breaking Point pay-per-view on September 13th at the Bell Centre in Montreal currently sits at approximately 9,000 tickets sold. This can probably be considered a disappointment considering this is WWE's first pay-per-view in Montreal since February 2003 and the city is historically one of the best wrestling cities in North America. (source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

-- Unlike most all WWE drug suspensions, Rey Mysterio's recent violation of the company's drug testing policy has garnered all sorts of media coverage in Mexico. The situation between Mysterio and WWE is being covered as a major news story because he's one of the most popular athletes of any kind in the country. (source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Dumb rumors,dumb news and dumb story.

That was stupid.