Off the bench: drug debates leave steroids, wrestling in left-field, By: DAVID ALLEN

July 10, 2007

As yet another professional wrestler gets lowered six-feet under, the steroid and drug debate rages on everywhere except where it should: the legendary squared-circle.

A few weeks ago, anabolic steroids were found in the home of the late wrestling champion Chris Benoit, 40, who murdered his family and later took his own life by hanging himself from a weight machine.  Media and medical outlets have since hypothesized about the possibility of Benoit suffering from “roid rage”, a condition linked to anger after the use of certain steroids. 

The same week, Paris Hilton was the cover story for People magazine with the Benoit fiasco noted in a small blurb on the side. The San Antonio Spurs took the honor of the Sports Illustrated cover without as much as a mention of the murder/suicide.  Would a baseball player have received the same treatment?  

Benoit was illegally prescribed heavy doses of anabolic-androgen steroids, or AAS.  Doctors universally report that AAS users, in hopes of marginally increasing muscle size, may eventually face life-threatening situations including high blood pressure, liver damage and serious heart conditions.
Pro-wrestlers seem to confront these life-threatening situations a lot.

“Our college and high-school wrestlers have had no deaths connected to steroids in my 36-year coaching career that I know about,” Paul Mance, the ASU wrestling head-coach said.  “You have to understand that steroids are not a common thing for real wrestling.”

Since 1997, at least six steroid-linked deaths have occurred in the world of pro-wrestling.  But, the AAS debate still leaves professional wrestling out in left field and focuses more on the steroid prevalence in baseball, a sport that has not seen a single steroid-related death other than the passing of Steve
Bechler in early 2003.

Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and countless other baseball record-breakers have been under the medical microscope for years.  While the media scurries to get any snippet of steroid-related gossip, the body count only gets higher elsewhere in the sports-entertainment world.  

“The deaths contributed to professional baseball and professional wrestling are linked in my opinion strictly to financial situations,” Mance said. “The steroids [wrestlers] are using are not to enhance performance as is done in professional baseball.  It is done to make their bodies look unique and appealing to the class of people that find these events appealing.”

During the early ‘90s, steroids were rampant enough in the wrestling world to warrant a trial by the U.S. Government.  

In 1991, Dr. George Zahorian claimed he sold steroids to several wrestlers and even the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, Vince McMahon.  However, the events were quickly forgotten by the public after McMahon instituted a drug policy within the WWF to squelch the media firestorm.    

Then in November of 1993, McMahon was indicted on charges of possession and distribution of anabolic steroids to wrestlers, but the case was later withdrawn by the Food and Drug Administration due to lack of evidence.  

Based on the Benoit incident, the controversy surrounding McMahon and so many other tragic endings over the years, why is the media not clamoring to expose the potentially-dark underbelly of professional wrestling and steroids?

According to a recent poll of one hundred Appalachian students, many people feel that the big salaries and big names within baseball deserve more attention.

However, weekly Nielsen Ratings report that “WWE Raw”, a Monday night prime-time television broadcast of pro-wrestling, often tops out the list of highest-watched programs on cable networks.  Big names and salaries or not, pro-wrestling is one of the most popular events on television.  But somehow, the controversy surrounding it does not raise enough eyebrows to warrant the same scrutiny as given to Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire during their record-breaking homerun seasons.  

Tiffany E. Mease, a junior elementary education major, feels that wrestling should receive in-depth investigations to prevent any future violent or tragic incidents.

“If they can spend months and millions of dollars to expose drugs in baseball, why shouldn’t they focus on a sport that continues to have its main attractions slowly put out by a supposedly-controlled substance,” Mease asked.  “I would love to see the drug policy for the pro-wrestling business.”

The staple of most professional sports is generally the same:  to be the best, you must be bigger, better, faster and stronger.  When that process starts involving life and death, it needs attention.  Wrestling just isn’t getting the amount it needs to survive.