10 Steps WWE Took To Become The Most Toxic Wrestling Company Ever
2. Sloth
As WWE lurched from the Ruthless Aggression to the PG eras, the company luxuriated in its castle.
Talents who failed to get over immediately, and or under the shackles to which they were chained, were left to rot, stigmatised by the failure of a creative regime. The drug culture, slowly reinstated following the dissipation of the early 1990s steroid scandal, claimed the lives of both the complicit and the tragically innocent. The Wellness Policy implemented following Guerrero's death was a band-aid; it took the harrowing death of a 7-year-old child for WWE to finally confront itself. In the interim, WWE became an anti-meritocracy shaped by nostalgia and the one-seat star vehicle that was John Cena - a man all too happy to use his immense backstage influence to sabotage many a career in the name of self-preservation.
Even under the guise of PG and post-Wellness Policy reform, WWE exposed itself. Play-by-play commentator Michael Cole turned heel and echoed the all-encompassing spite within Vince McMahon across every minute of the flagship broadcast, exacerbating the anti-JR narrative. Mickie James was bullied, on-air, for not conforming to WWE's rail-thin expectations of female aesthetics. Kaitlyn received the same treatment. The ghosts of Paul Bearer and Reid Flair were desecrated to drive viewership. Alberto Del Rio lashed out physically after suffering racist treatment. He was fired.
Bill DeMott's tenure as NXT head trainer was a crusade of dangerous physical bullying and mental torment. This was known, accepted and enabled; to indict WWE, his stint was only ended when the facts became public.
And therein lies the problem - the complete lack of genuine character within WWE is only subject to external regulation.