WWE Wellness Policy - 6 Wrestlers Badly Derailed (And 4 That Prevailed)
1. Derailed - Mr Kennedy
The rise and fall of Ken Kennedy was something quite remarkable if you were watching it happen week-to-week.
Bursting through a moribund pack of midcarders on Smackdown in 2005, it wasn't long before Kennedy's bigmouth persona and pre-match self-intro shtick had resonated hugely with fans, and a sustained Main Event push looked an absolute certainty.
However, in the post-Benoit media pile-on WWE experienced, company man Kennedy made some ill-advised comments about reduced drug use in modern day WWE, with some ludicrous sweeping generalisations about "those big guys in the 80s" that should have been nowhere near live television.
The slippery slope steepened when he failed a Wellness Test mere weeks after his latest press junket. You could almost hear the sounds of millions of palms hitting faces the world over when that news broke.
His credibility was shattered. A series of injuries then destroyed the momentum he'd carefully built up on his ascent to the top. His cool factor disintegrated. And as somebody who had made a few enemies in the dressing room, it seemed less shocking than it should have been when he was abruptly released in 2009.
Unlike Kurt Angle, he failed to cement a legacy in TNA, with fans barely shouting his name once now, let alone twice. A WWE return looks almost impossible. If only he'd kept that big mouth closed.