While there’s the perception that professional wrestling and the entire sport is “fake,” one indy wrestler recently came forward with some real talk: Half of the WWE smokes weed.
During a podcast interview on Talk Is Jericho, Enzo Amore, now known as nZo on the independent circuit, revealed that during his time with the WWE from 2012 to 2018, he witnessed a lot of pot smoking behind the scenes.
“That’s the thing a lot of people don’t know,” nZo told Talk Is Jericho. “Probably half the locker room smokes pot. And why do we do that? You can’t do pills. You can’t do drugs.”
The WWE will fine a wrestler $2,500 if they’re caught with THC in their system, but that’s all. Described as a “weed tax” by Ringside News, WWE pros aren’t ejected from the circuit if cannabis is the only substance they’re consuming. That’s probably because the guy who owns and manages the WWE, Vince McMahon, is an avid pot smoker himself.
Jericho, the podcast’s host, said last month that he knew McMahon toked because McMahon once recalled a story where he blazed in front of the guy who’d become the 45th President of the United States: Donald J. Trump.
“I remember one time Vince told me that they were watching some concert or something at Trump New Jersey, whatever it was called,” Jericho said. “And Vince was sitting there with Linda, Donald, and all the heads of state, and Vince lit up a joint and Trump was like, ‘You can’t smoke that joint in here!’ And Vince goes, ‘I just did!’”
As for nZo’s note on WWE wrestlers not being able to “do pills” or “do drugs,” that’s a real thing, too. While the WWE may not be a stickler for weed (or booze), the company has a near-zero-tolerance policy for pharmaceutical abuse and other harder, illicit street drugs. In fact, most WWE wrestlers are immediately suspended or outright ejected from the circuit if they’re caught abusing legal pharmaceuticals such as steroids, opioid painkillers, or tranquilizers.
You can even peep the WWE’s drug use policy to see how lenient the company is toward weed. Notice that marijuana and alcohol are exempted from the penalties for second and third offenses, which require reprimands, suspensions, and even contract termination for pretty much all other substances — including prescription drugs taken without a prescription.
Ironically, the WWE’s policy of pot over pills is something professional sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, or NHL ought to consider. However, we’d take it one step further and urge them all to simply treat cannabis as medicine and let off-field or out-of-the-ring weed use slide by.
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