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Competing in professional sports is a risky business, with the athletes putting their bodies on the line in pursuit of glory.
Ice hockey has long been viewed as the riskiest major sport, although recent research by Betway has refuted that notion.
They found that the NFL is the most injury-prone sport, with over 7,600 injuries occurring between 2017 and 2021.
That figure put it ahead of MLB, NBA, NIHL and the English Premier League, although each of those competitions also accumulated plenty of injuries.
Professional wrestling has long had a reputation for being a brutal sport as the competitors perform risky stunts under the guise of ‘entertainment’.
There have been numerous examples of wresters dying prematurely, often due to substance abuse brought on by trying to mask their various injuries.
Many of the top talents work more than 300 matches per year, giving them little time to recuperate properly from the bumps they take.
The WWE has previously been accused of being indifferent to injury issues, offering its competitors little or no long-term medical care.
Matches have reportedly taken place with inadequate ringside monitoring and treatment, while the documentation of injuries is virtually non-existent.
The lack of an official ‘off-season’ has been cited as another reason why professional wrestlers are at greater risk of suffering injuries.
The WWE has circumvented workers’ rights by engaging its talent as independent contractors, thus discouraging wrestlers from reporting injuries or taking time off for fear of losing their job.
Moves to set up a formal wellness policy have been described as ‘too little, too late’ by many former athletes left addicted to painkillers by their involvement in wrestling.
Long-term head injuries are another area where the WWE has come under fire, with the nature of the sport increasing the risk of brain damage and other associated conditions.
To assess the impact of the WWE’s attitude towards the health and wellbeing of its athletes, criminal Justice expert Dr Karen Corteen has spent more than ten years researching the issue.
She claims that the harms that occur in plain sight within the professional wrestling industry could actually be explained as a ‘state-corporate crime’.
Corteen has also questioned the deregulated status of wrestling within certain states, arguing this can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of its athletes.
In each of her research publications, Corteen has demonstrated what she describes as ‘the woeful neglect of worker safety with professional wrestling in the US’.
She argues that while WWE rakes in eye-watering amounts of money each year, the working conditions endured by its athletes are not what they should be.
The fear of losing their earning potential forces many wrestlers to continue to work despite them suffering with potentially life-changing injuries.
Corteen says the WWE blatantly disrespects the health and wellbeing of its in-ring workers by putting profit above everything else.
Whether any of this will change now that Vince McMahon has stepped aside as CEO will be intriguing to watch, but the WWE clearly has work to do convince the doubters.
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