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Carlito Colon, son of legendary Puerto Rican wrestling promoter Carlos Colon, was released from WWE last week, and Carlos has stepped forward with details on his son’s WWE release.

Officially, WWE stated that Carlito had a first-offense violation of the company’s wellness policy and that he was released when he refused to submit to WWE’s rehab program. In order to fend off rumors of his son possibly using illegal narcotic drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, Carlos revealed to the Primera Hora newspaper that his son had developed an addiction to painkillers in the course of dealing with back pain related to an injury.

Painkillers and other prescription drugs, when abused, can lead to untimely deaths just as easily as illicit narcotics. Painkillers may seem as harmless as the best natural acne treatment compared to cocaine, but the untimely deaths of wrestlers like Eddit “Umaga” Fatu and Andrew “Test” Martin are the most recent reminders that the WWE Wellness Policy includes painkiller abuse in their guidelines for good reason.

According to Carlos’ account, Carlito did not recognize his own addiction when confronted by WWE with the violation, and refused rehab because of that. Carlos also claims that WWE is willing to accept Carlito back into their employ if he agrees to submit to rehab.

That claim has not been verified by WWE, which simply has released its brief PR statement on Carlito’s release and has made no further on-record comment on the matter, per WWE policy.

The Harris County medical examiner’s office in Houston, TX, has released the official cause of death for Umaga, whose real name was Eddie Fatu. The official COD is listed as “acute toxicity,” which means a toxic mix of over-the-counter drugs in a short amount of time.

Specifically, it was a lethal combination of painkillers (hydrocodone), muscle relaxers (carisoprodol), and anti-anxiety medication (diazepam), according to the coroner’s report.

It should be noted that Umaga had been released by WWE for months prior to his death. Most reports were that WWE released Umaga for violating the company’s wellness policy. Kind of hard to secure insurance quotes under those conditions.

While release is a legitimate punishment for such a violation, it’s a shame that in the end, it makes WWE simply look like they are distancing themselves from a wrestler on a destructive path before it blows up. WWE does offer even released wrestlers access to rehab services, but once a wrestler is out of a company’s employment, follow-up and accountability tend to suffer.

While there are no easy answers in the death of Umaga, it is tragic that his was another in a long list of preventable, premature deaths among professional wrestling performers.

Pro wrestling lost another performer at far too young an age last week as we learned of the death of Umaga, otherwise known in real life as Eddie Fatu. The so-called “Samoan Bulldozer” came from a wrestling family and only a couple years ago was featured in one of the top matches at WrestleMania, in the Vince McMahon-Donald Trump “hair” match between Umaga and Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 23.

Fatu was only 36 and had been released by WWE last June for having violated the company’s Wellness Program and refusing to enter rehab. Since then, he’d toned down his wrestling schedule and had just completed a tour of Australia in a group headed up by Hulk Hogan. His final opponent on that tour was Ken Anderson, known in his WWE days as Mr. Kennedy.

In an ironic but unrelated note, Mr. Kennedy was also the last person Eddie Guerrero wrestled prior to his own premature death by heart attack, back in 2005.

Fatu’s family includes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, The Wild Samoans of 1980s fame, The Tonga Kid and Rikishi.

Umaga will be missed by fans who cheered and fans who boo’d him. He nearly always played a monster heel, even though off-stage he was a gentle, likable family man who made sure to look after his kids and take care of the at-home details like garage flooring.

Jeff Hardy is known for blazing many trails; his style of high-energy, high-acrobatic wrestling, combined with his penchant for taking risks in the ring, cemented his star in the pro wrestling universe early on. His daring jump – as a hot WWE superstar rather than one past his prime – to TNA blazed a trail for other bankable names defecting. And his surprising return to WWE after such a stunning betrayal of the McMahon family was the icing on the cake.

Now, Jeff Hardy is fighting for his freedom and wouldn’t be able to get a decent insurance quote on anything, thanks to a September drug bust that may or may not be the result of a sting operation. Either way, not only is his eventual return to the ring in serious doubt, but so is his long-term freedom.

If Hardy pleads out or is found guilty on charges like these, it will mark an ignominious end to the career of one of pro wrestlings great risk takers, as well as an excellent in-ring storyteller.

Former ECW champion Bobby Lashley, who featured prominently in WWE storylines just over a year ago, prior to a career-interrupting injury, has returned to the pro ring, but not for WWE. Instead, Lashley made an appearance recently at Booker T’s PWA promotion out of Houston; word is, he only made an appearance and did not wrestle in the show.

Beyond that, babydolls, word on the street has it that Lashley is considering following in the footsteps of Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar and turning to ultimate fighting/MMA, rather than going back to pro wrestling. If so, down the road, it would be a nice card to see Lesnar and Lashley hook up in the MMA ring.

After working out and hitting the ellipticals, RVD… Rob Van Dam… is finally headed back to the pro wrestling ring, though not for WWE and, surprisingly, not for TNA, either.

Instead, RVD will be appearing in a taping for Nu-Wrestling Evolution. The show will be taped in the Canary Islands. NWE is a minor pro circuit that mostly works Spanish-language territories. Other one-time WWE talent currently featured on NWE cards include Rikiski (wrestling now as Kishi), Jackie Gayda, and Juvi Guerrerra. Ultimate Warrior will also soon be added to their roster.

It’s certainly not the big-time, but only time will tell if RVD can build on the appearance and work his way back to either WWE or TNA.

In the wake of Monday’s Raw, the WWE has announced that William Regal, who plays the role of Raw general manager and who won the King of the Ring tournament about a month ago, has been suspended for 60 days by WWE for violating the Fed’s Wellness Policy.

The WWE must have known the decision it was about to make when Raw went on the air Monday, because they booked Regal to lose a “loser leaves Raw” match against Mr. Kennedy. The match provides a storyline reason for Regal’s absence.

Exact details of Regal’s violation are not known.

In the past, Regal did battle substance abuse problems and had apparently cleaned his act up for the past several years. Whether this suspension is a result of a relapse or an unrelated violation is not known at this time.

Meanwhile, on Raw, McMahon teased the return of “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase to WWE, as possibly the next GM of Raw. Of course, a few years ago, after “firing” Eric Bischoff, McMahon teased Dusty Rhodes as a possible next Raw GM, but that tease never paid off, so it’s entirely possible the DiBiase cameo is a head-fake by McMahon to buy time while he ponders his options for replacing Regal as GM, either in the short or long term.

A short run by DiBiase as Raw GM would be quite a bit of run, though perhaps not quite as much fun as shower chairs. However, I expect that the ultimate choice will either be an uninspiring temporary measure, like Coach or Shane McMahon, or perhaps a test-run for a long-term replacement by, perhaps, Ric Flair in a pure GM role.

It should be noted that DiBiase does have a son learning the trade in one of WWE’s developmental territories.

Well, sounds like you can put a tablecloth over the WWE as we know it. With so many wrestlers falling by the wayside, it’s inevitable that there will be a lot of new talents brought in.

Here’s a decent recipe for better success: stop hiring superhuman-sized body-builders and start focusing on things like talent, personality, charisma, and the ability to entertain in the wring.

Folks like Mick Foley weren’t fan favorites because he was the largest, most cut body builder around; he was was a fan favorite for his humor, his personality, his passion and his talent. The wrestling skills were passable in the ring, but it was his sense of entertainment that made a Mick Foley match a “wow” match.

One of the best moments in Raw history had nothing to do with big biceps and Hogan-style 26-inch pythons. It was Foley interacting with The Rock in the “This is your life” segment.

Or when Chris Jericho debuted on Raw by out-talking The Rock with his mic skills.

Let’s forget about who as the sharpest, most defined abs and get back to putting the entertainment in sports entertainment.

The WWE is attempting to crack down on wrestlers violating the company’s wellness policy, but the attrition rate is getting a bit startling.

Since 11 wrestlers were suspended in one fell swoop recently, more names have been added to the list of wrestlers being confirmed as cut by WWE, some of whom have shown up, allegedly, as customers of the shady online pharmacy that started this whole scandal.

Here’s a rundown:

* Although not confirmed to have done anything illegal, wrestler Paul Wight, better known as The Big Show, was named as an online pharmacy customer. Wight left the WWE in late 2006/early 2007 after losing the ECW title at the ECW December to Dismember PPV event and has not been on the company’s active roster since.

* Although not confirmed to have done anything illegal, wrestler Ric Flair was announced to have been on this pharmacy’s list of customers as well. In possibly-related news, Flair has tentatively filed papers to step down from the WWE, allegedly because he’s upset over the lack of useful storylines the company is placing him in; however, Flair and WWE are said to be working on terms of a possible return. However, all of this could be a smokescreen to cover for alleged online pharmacy connections for Flair.

* Wrestler Nick Dinsmore, known in WWE as Eugene, has been released from the WWE. He was allegedly suspended by the company for a time on the basis of substance abuse, about a year ago.

* Sylvan Grenier, a former WWE tag-team champion, came out and admitted he was one of the wrestlers suspended by WWE for allegedly being a customer of the online pharmacy at the heart of the company’s HGH/steriods scandal, but of course insisted it was false, he was a customer, but had done nothing wrong.

Of course, it’s interesting to note that none of the WWE divas have been part of the HGH/steroid scandal. Now, if there’s ever a WWE scandal over boob jobs and wearing expensive jewelry, then watch out, diva fans! Heads and other body parts will be sure to roll… or at least bounce!

It’s never fun to report hard news on the WWE, because hard news is rarely ever good news. Yet when a story like this breaks, that could affect current storylines in such a major way, it’s unavoidable.

The New York Daily News and Sports Illustrated are reporting that as many as 14 WWE superstars have been listed as acquiring steriods and human growth hormone through an illicit drug network, Signature Pharmacy. The WWE is said to have quietly suspended as many as 10 WWE superstars for violating the company’s anti-drug policy, and on Fox News Channel’s On The Record with Greta Van Sustren, WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt confirmed 10 suspensions so far, with possible two more to come tomorrow.

While the WWE has said it will keep the names of this group of wrestlers private, their conspicuous absences going forward will soon make it clear who is and who is not suspended.

The New York Daily News and SI.com have separate lists that don’t completely agree, so it’s clear there’s some speculation going on at this point, but several huge names are on both lists. Looks like another PR nightmare for WWE; hopefully once this shakes out, the table can be cleared and the company can get back to putting on some great sports entertainment programs. No one I know enjoys hearing this kind of stuff.

Here’s a Christmas gift idea for anyone who cares about the WWE: a 2008 all-company photo that contains no one who’s involved in making bad personal decisions. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case this year.