Linda McMahon on WWE Wellness Policy

Prior to the question-and-answer session of Thursday's quarterly conference call, WWE Chief Executive Officer Linda McMahon read a statement concerning WWE's commitment to the wellness of its wrestlers:

To be clear, our talent is a critical part of our success. Their health and well being is important to us, both personally and professionally. We are committed to doing anything we can to help our performers lead healthy lives. This includes continuing our strong stance against the abuse of all drugs, including steroids. To serve this objective and to benefit the health of our talent, we implemented a Wellness Program in February 2006 which includes testing for steroids.

We will work to maintain it as a state of the art program. We are grateful for our fans and business partners who understand that Chris Benoit's actions are not representative of the men and women who perform for the WWE. The continuing support of our fans and business partners is evident in our live event attendance and the sales of our consumer products, which have remained strong even in the face of this tragedy.

Going forward, we remain steadfastly committed to insuring the health of our talent, as we pursue our mission of creating compelling characters and storylines.