SECOND UPDATE: Daily News Names Names

News

The New York Daily News has reported the following names were linked by the Albany, NY, district attorney investigating an “Internet doping scandal,” in an article found here. Here are the names of WWE stars listed in the article as being identified as clients of Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, FL, which was “raided by Albany County and Florida law enforcement agencies in February for distributing steroids and other prescription drugs to clients who had not been examined by doctors” as part of a bigger Internet drug investigation:

Randy Orton
Charles Haas, Jr.
Adam “Edge” Copeland
Robert “Booker T” Huffman
Shane “Gregory” Helms
Mike “Simon Dean” Bucci
Anthony “Santino Marella” Carelli
John “Johnny Nitro” (“John Morrison”) Hennigan
Darren “William Regal” Matthews
Ken “Mr. Kennedy” Anderson
Chavo Guerrero
Eddie “Umaga” Fatu (added to updated version of article)
Shoichi Funaki (added to updated version of article)

As we reported earlier today, WWE has announced that ten superstars have been suspended for violating the company’s Wellness Program, which covers Internet prescriptions as well as other behavior. If you take Bucci’s name off of the above list of eleven, since he is now part of the company’s talent relations team and not an active wrestler, you get ten. That being said, the Wellness Program has only existed since February 2006, so Dave Meltzer at WrestlingObserver.com has noted that some of the wrestlers on this list may have obtained Internet prescriptions from Signature prior to that time, therefore wouldn’t necessarily have been automatically suspended by WWE. Here’s Meltzer’s quote from his Web site:

Based on records obtained through sources by the Observer months back, Copeland’s last reported prescription came several years ago, when he was recuperating from neck surgery. So many of these incidents here may have predated the Wellness policy implemented in February 2006. It is known Orton and Helms’ had transactions that predated the policy, and that the timing of both Copeland and Helms’ transactions at the time came during periods of injury rehabilitation. So it may not yet be the time to make Ken Anderson look like a fool, depending on the date, because he has admitted use prior to February of 2006. It is by no means confired that these men are among the ten who were suspended earlier today.

The Daily News article also noted that Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were Signature clients. As we previously reported, Brian “Crush” Adams (and according to Meltzer, several other former WWE wrestlers) have been linked to Signature.

Matthew Michaels is editor emeritus of Pulse Wrestling, and has been since the site launched.