Enough. It’s Time for a Wrestling Health Commission.
Send your condolences.
Then actually do something.
Benjamin “PAC” Satterley died at 40 the day after wrestling at AEW All Out. Cause still unknown.
Three weeks earlier, Andy “The Butcher” Williams, 48, collapsed after an indie match in Pennsylvania and never got up.
This year the independent scene has already lost Jordan Saint (23), José “Jacobs” Trujillo (30), Braxx (31), Tempo, and José Calzada Salazar — “The Suicide Pilot” — who died in the ring after a dive onto concrete.
These are just the names that made the news.
The wrestling world will do what it always does. Ten-bell salutes. “He was a great guy.” “Rest in power.” “Thoughts with the family.”
Then the timeline moves on and the next show gets booked.
We’ve known the data for more than a decade. A 2014 study found pro wrestlers had cardiovascular death rates 15 times higher than the general male population and drug-overdose rates more than 100 times higher.
Sixteen percent died before 50.
A later study of over a thousand WWE performers put the average life-years lost at nearly three, with heart disease leading the way, followed by overdoses, suicide, and elevated neurodegenerative risk.
High match volume and obesity made everything worse.
The drivers are not mysterious: no real off-season, chronic pain managed by whatever keeps you working, constant travel, historical PED use, independent-contractor status that leaves most performers without real long-term health or disability coverage, and a culture that still treats “toughing it out” as a badge of honor.
Some progress has been made — wellness policies, concussion protocols, chair-shot bans.
It is not enough. On the independent circuit, where most wrestlers actually earn their living, the safety net is thinner still.
The SAME Natalia who trained Izzy Moreno, the protégé of both pedophile Chasyn Rance and the “role model” Pamela Martinez/Bayley….before those female WWE animals ditched the teenager forever.
Actual leaders of humans like Mick Foley are now a necessity. #FuckLodestone
That was Wrestling Atomic, where Izzy worked with a bunch of pedophiles. WrestleVoice removed it from existence, with our community against US! #FoleyTest #YoureWelcome #ByeByeRancid
Crowdfunding medical bills and funerals remains normal, even when you are friends with people like Bayley!
Mick Foley has spent years supporting the Cauliflower Alley Club and speaking honestly about the human cost of this business.
He is one of the few people both respected enough and trusted enough to put lives ahead of the next rating.
A dedicated, independent health and safety commission — led by someone like Foley, staffed by doctors, epidemiologists, and former talent — is long overdue.
Its job is straightforward: collect the real data, set minimum medical standards that apply from the biggest arenas to the smallest VFW halls, expand mental-health and substance-use resources, and push for structural changes around contractor status and long-term care.
Condolences are easy. They cost nothing and change nothing.
The next time a 40-year-old drops dead the day after a pay-per-view, or a 23-year-old dies on the highway between shows, the same posts will appear.
I’m done with that cycle.
If you actually care about the people who put their bodies on the line, send the condolences — then demand the commission.
Support the groups already trying to help. Push the major companies. Make the structural change the real tribute.
Lives over money.
Health over kayfabe.
Action over another round of empty RIP posts.
That’s the only one that counts.
