WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam recently shared insights into his experiences with WWE’s marijuana testing policy during his returns to the company in 2013 and 2014. Speaking on his “1 Of A Kind With RVD” podcast, RVD detailed his differing approaches to the $1,000 fine then in place for testing positive for marijuana.
“When I went to WWE for my return in 2013, it was a $1,000 fine at that time if you got busted for smoking marijuana. I signed a three month contract, 66 matches in a course of 90 days. I decided on my own I would take a break from smoking because I hadn’t taken a break in a long time. It seemed like a good idea, so I stopped a month before starting with WWE. When I gave my first piss test, I did fail it, still, a month later because that’s how dirty my system was. Then I did the 90 days without smoking.”
For his subsequent five-month, 88-match deal in 2014, RVD adopted a different strategy. “I left and came back the next year. I did a 5 month deal, 88 matches in 5 months. This time I was like, I could quit again, and I was just like, no. I’ll just smoke my way through it and pay the fines, and so I chose to do that. I got fined two or three times.”
RVD recounted telling then-WWE talent relations executive Mark Carrano, “In 2013, Mark Carrano said, ‘Dude, you failed the piss test. You were supposed to come in clean.’ I said, ‘That’s because I smoked a month before and it takes 35 days to get out of your system. I haven’t been smoking since I’ve been here.’ It takes 35 days to get out of your system if you’re a heavy smoker. If you just smoke a little bit here and there, you’re not looking at that many days at all, if it even shows up in your system. It all depends on how saturated you are.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit 1 of a Kind with Rob Van Dam with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
