WWE Suspend Randy Orton For 60 Days After Drug Failure

WWE.com has announced that "The Viper" Randy Orton has been suspended for 60 days following his second violation of the WWE Talent Wellness policy. The suspension was effective as of Wednesday and he will now miss the next two months of WWE touring, which includes June's WWE No Way Out pay-per-view and July's WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view. The official WWE website didn't go into much detail and mentioned his suspension with the following;

STAMFORD, Conn. €“ In accordance with its Talent Wellness Program, WWE has suspended Randy Orton for 60 days effective today for his second violation of the company's policy.

Failing the WWE Talent Wellness policy basically means he was taking a substance he shouldn't have been, similarly the reason why Rey Mysterio is also currently suspended. WWE superstars are suspended 30 days for their first violation, 60 days for their second and usually the third suspension means they are fired. This is actually Orton's third indiscretion with the WWE, but presumably doesn't count as three strikes of the Talent Wellness Program as his first suspension on April 3rd, 2006 was for "unprofessional conduct" and was not related to the policy. Orton had smoked marijuana backstage at the March 28th, 2006 SmackDown tapings which was discovered by backstage employee Bruce Pritchard and he was reported to management. As we've seen from the suspensions of Evan Bourne and R-Truth last year that would now be a substance classed as a wellness policy violation. His second incident however was for a wellness policy violation when on August 30th, 2007 he was disciplined along with eleven other superstars (Booker T, Charlie Haas, Chavo Guerrero, Chris Masters, Edge, Funaki, Gregory Helms, John Morrison, Mr. Kennedy, Umaga and William Regal) based on information provided by Albany, New York District Attorney's Office concerning WWE talent using online pharmaceutical outlet Signature Pharmacy to obtain performance-enhancing drugs and prescription drugs not examined by doctors. It was reported in both Sports Illustrated and Daily News of New York that Orton had received somatropin, nandrolone, stanozolol between September 2004 and February 2007. In a strange decision WWE decided not to take any action against Orton because they classed his August 2006 suspension to be "double jeopardy" and that he should not be punished twice. This ruling led the Government to actually investigate WWE and its practices and Dr. David L. Black, who administers the program, was asked about the matter on September 25, 2007 during an U.S. Congressional investigation! Many critics of the WWE's Talent Wellness policy program believe it is one rule for the top talent and another rule entirely for the lower card guys. In any event, Orton is now suspended for two months and ironically joins his planned WWE No Way Out opponent Chris Jericho on the sidelines. Y2J was suspended for thirty days earlier this month following an incident involving the desecrating of a Brazilian national flag during the company's first ever live event in that country.