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"Former UFC Champion Brock Lesnar has likened the two years he spent wrestling for the WWE to slavery. The 33-year-old South Dakota native joined the WWE in 2002, but left the wrestling company abruptly in March 2004 because he found the travel schedule too demanding. He later pursued a stint in the NFL, but eventually signed with mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship and won the group&amp;#039;s Heavyweight Championship. Lesnar has now voiced his opposition to the WWE, charging to PopEater that pro wrestlers do not receive adequate health benefits from the organization&amp;#039;s head Vince McMahon. &amp;quot;I guess I was a runaway slave,&amp;quot; Lesnar joked. &amp;quot;Look, [McMahon&amp;#039;s] not forcing anybody to sign the contracts but I guess at the end of the day if you want to be a professional wrestler you gotta play by his rules. I was done playing the rules I guess\u00E2\u20AC\u00A6 No, there&amp;#039;s not a union there, there&amp;#039;s really nothing in place to protect the wrestlers. Until the guys stand up for it, it&amp;#039;s his company, it&amp;#039;s his business and he can run it as he sees fit.&amp;quot; The former three-time WWE Champion also claimed that he became dependent on vicodin in order to help him cope with the heavy travel schedule while wrestling full-time. &amp;quot;I acquired a number of different injuries, broken ribs and torn out knees and elbows, that suffered a lot of damage and so I was one of them. I was on the pain train just so I could tolerate the pain and go out and perform. I used vicodin and vodka,&amp;quot; he explained. &amp;quot;That was where I saw my life going, you look around the locker room and you see all these other performers that have been doing it for 20 years and I didn&amp;#039;t want to be one of those guys\u00E2\u20AC\u00A6 [I was taking] more than I should have been taking, that&amp;#039;s for sure. You come home when you get a day off and you try to be a family guy but you&amp;#039;re either just a zombie walking around or sleeping the whole day off. I wanted a change in lifestyle.&amp;quot; Lesnar&amp;#039;s final match for the WWE was a battle against fellow former champion Goldberg at WrestleMania XX. Death Clutch, his new book, is available for purchase now in the US and is released on June 10 in the UK. &amp;gt; &amp;#039;Macho Man&amp;#039; Randy Savage killed in car accident &amp;gt; WWE star Edge signs up for &amp;#039;Haven&amp;#039; role &amp;gt; Read our latest WWE coverage Watch Brock Lesnar feature in the WWE&amp;#039;s 2002 Smackdown below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/wwe/news/a322354/ufc-star-brock-lesnar-wwe-is-like-slavery/>