Stephanie McMahon & WWE Medical Staff Speak Out

Stephanie McMahon, WWE Medical Director Joseph Maroon and ImPACT testing president Mark Lovell recently spoke with Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate about the company’s medical testing and more. Check out the highlights:

Maroon on the in-ring talent: “They have to have a personality. They have to have charisma. They have to have to have style. But, they also have to work 52 weeks a year. And these guys are really great athletes and great people.”

Maroon on being approached by WWE in 2006: “They came to me and said look, ‘We are interested in doing everything we can to protect our talent. It’s the lifeblood of our industry. We want to do the very best that we can and the best medicine that we can to protect them.'”

McMahon on the medical program: “We do cardiovascular screening. We do ImPACT testing. We do blood work. There is a drug testing component…It’s really with the idea of having our athletes and our superstars have the best health possible.”

Lovell on their concussion work: “I have worked with the NFL, the NHL, auto racing, the Olympic team, the ski team. The care level for the WWE is as good, if not better, as any of those.”

Maroon on the medeical team largely living in Pittsburgh: “It’s not a ripple effect. It’s a tsunami effect. We have recruited individuals here in cardiology, in sports medicine, in orthopedics, in ImPACT testing so we literally have put the whole program together here at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Maroon on the concussion risks in wrestling: “They do exciting moves. They do moves where they jump, do a lot of jumping and you know if you miscalculate, you can get hurt…We have eliminated chairs to the head. We have added protective padding to the rings. We have added helmets in practice to reduce head impacts.”

Maroon on ImPACT testing changing the way athletes are being treated: “Used to be people would give a test or just ask the athletes ‘how they felt’ and that was it. We have gone way beyond that in terms of our management.”

McMahon on the importance of concussion testing: “That monitoring is incredibly important, because again without our superstars, we don’t have a product.”

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