[WWW] 7.11.08 How to Reform Pro Wrestling
Evad Seltzer
How to Reform Pro Wrestling
Ring of Hell
by: Matthew Randazzo V
In media appearances for my investigative expose of the pro wrestling
industry, Ring of Hell, the questions I'm asked more than any others
are: Why are so many pro wrestlers dying young? And what can be done
to save them? This article is my answer.
To paraphrase The Usual Suspects paraphrasing Baudelaire, the greatest
trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that pro
wrestling was fake. Vincent Kennedy McMahon transformed pro
wrestling's fatal weakness - its patently staged in-ring action - into
the marketing angle that made the WWF a mainstream pop cultural brand.
By exaggerating the slapstick phoniness of pro wrestling, McMahon made
WWF/WWE harmless child-friendly entertainment; any parent who let his
kid watch Popeye squash Bluto while roid raging on spinach was not
going to be scandalized by McMahon's 1980s product. McMahon made his
billions by making a travesty of "traditional" pro wrestling,
inaugurating a marketing bonanza by promoting cartoonish superheroes
like Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior instead of dry mat
technicians like Dory Funk or hairy-chested Good Ol' Boys like Jerry
Lawler.
In addition to lifting him into the same tax bracket as fellow Irish-
American tycoon Scrooge McDuck, McMahon's decision to accentuate the
over-the-top phoniness of pro wrestling has helped him skirt
accountability for the incredible collateral damage caused by his
business practices. If any legitimate, reputable mainstream sports or
entertainment brand racked up the body count and scandals that
wrestling has over the past decade, it would be prosecuted by the
Department of Labor and relegated to a late-night cable TV timeslot
where its primary competition would be Cinemax soft porn and reruns of
dog-grooming reality show Groomer Has It.
Instead, today's World Wrestling Entertainment exists in a pop
cultural bubble and is seen as both too disreputable to be taken
seriously and too fundamentally silly to be responsible for such a
gruesome death toll. It is this Dog the Bounty Hunter low-culture
immunity from outrage that allows Vince McMahon to regularly run his
employees into the ground, while still enjoying great Wall Street buzz
and a weekly timeslot on network TV. As the deaths of Owen Hart, Eddie
Guerrero, and Chris Benoit have shown, Vince McMahon can essentially
get away with anything, as long as WWE draws healthy ratings.
But let's pretend that Vince McMahon suddenly faced serious scrutiny
from the press, WWE stockholders, and the federal government over his
exploitative, lethal business model and the dozens of WWE wrestlers,
past and present, who have died prematurely over the past decade. If
McMahon were forced to meaningfully reform the pro wrestling business
in order to protect the health and long-term wellbeing of his
employees, these would be the five problems that he would have to
resolve and how he could resolve them.
It's hardly a secret that the professional wrestling business has been
overrun with steroids since the 1977 WWWF championship reign of
trailblazer freakshow Superstar Billy Graham and his mountainous
biceps. And it is also no secret that steroid abuse has contributed to
the deaths of countless wrestlers who died from cardiac ailments in
their thirties and forties, including Eddie Guerrero, Brian Pillman,
Road Warrior Hawk, and many others.
The problem is not mere steroid use, but steroid abuse. Steroids are
not a deadly, Class A drug. Far from being "gym rat heroin," the
scientific evidence seems to support that moderate anabolic steroid
use according to medical guidelines is likely to cause shrunken balls,
more frequent male hissy fits, and volcanic acne, but widespread early
fatalities are an unlikely side effect.
The catch is that Vince McMahon's fetish for beefcakes and the WWF/
WWE's 52-weeks-a-year-with-no-vacation schedule makes it impossible
for any wrestler to "cycle" on and off steroids as advised by doctors.
For the vast majority of the past twenty years, any wrestler who
wanted a job in the WWF or WWE needed to maintain a stunning,
superhuman physique and perfect attendance record all year long,
despite regular injuries and a harried travel schedule that left
little time for workouts. This, of course, meant that wrestlers were
constantly on steroids during their entire career, both to maintain
their bodies and to recuperate more quickly from injuries.
Naturally, these conditions lead to some dependency issues. In 80's
and early 90's, Hulk Hogan's ass was allegedly so scarred up that it
could bend a needle; Dynamite Kid was injecting huge dosages of horse
steroids; Road Warrior Hawk was taking huge dosages of rhesus monkey
hormones, which gave him the overwhelming desire to kill someone first
thing every morning; and Bret Hart reports seeing Vince McMahon
himself carrying giant grocery bags of drugs from the Boys' favorite
"mark" doctor.
The wanton abuse of steroids necessitated by McMahon's business
practices led to incredible collateral damage. Long-term steroid abuse
leads to the inflammation, clogging and weakening of the heart, which
contributed to the sudden and premature deaths of countless wrestlers,
most famously Eddie Guerrero in November 2005. After Guerrero's death,
the WWE instituted a notoriously shoddy drug-testing policy that
officially prohibited steroids but somehow did not catch Chris
Benoit's rampant steroid usage - he died with a TE Ratio, the
preferred steroid testing metric, 59 times higher than the average
adult male- or the eleven wrestlers caught in the Signature Pharmacy
online drug-dealing bust of August 2007.
As Vince McMahon and wrestlers never tire of reminding fans, WWE is a
52-weeks-a-year job. Of course, that can be looked at in a way besides
"I admire how deeply my favorite WWE Superstars make sacrifices for
the fans!" One suggested response would be, "Wow, Vince McMahon runs
his employees into the ground without ever giving them vacation time
or a chance to heal their injuries; no wonder they die so often!"
This never-ending, multi-year grind of three-to-four dangerous matches
every week naturally leads to severe wear-and-tear on the body.
Consequently, there is incredible emotional strain on wrestlers'
families, since many wrestlers, beaten up and worn out, just want to
sleep, heal up, and be left alone on their time off. The absentee
husband/dad lifestyle is a major reason for the high rate of divorces
and broken families in the wrestling industry, not to mention one of
the major causes of psychological crises and compensating drug abuse.
Since the majority of travel costs are the responsibility of wrestlers
to pay (Randy Orton once estimated that he incurred $100,000 worth of
travel expenses per year to make his WWE bookings), the average WWE
wrestler is prevented from building up a retirement nest egg. Some
wrestlers complain that they will never be able to retire because they
spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during their prime earning
years subsidizing the travel costs of WWE tours.
As I mentioned in the previous section, a career in WWE is a ceaseless
multi-year world tour with thousands of matches in a row without
vacation or regular downtime. Ever since wresting moved away from mat-
wrestling clinics to the acrobatic "bump"-intensive stunt shows, such
a punishing schedule is guaranteed to take an extremely heavy toll on
the human body. In WWE, it is seen as a sign of weakness for anyone
besides an Undertaker-level legend to seek medical attention and
treatment for an injury; in 2005, upcoming prospect Aaron Aguilera was
allegedly fired specifically because he sought medical attention for
his injuries and inspired Vince McMahon to call him a "p*ssy" and
dismiss him from TV. Even established stars are reluctant to take time
off since their WWE salaries largely derive from appearance bonuses at
major shows, which means they will take a massive pay cut while
convalescing. Needless to say, no other professional athletes lose the
bulk of their salary when they are injured on the job.
Ruined hips and knees are almost an automatic byproduct of a career in
wrestling. Most of today's wrestling stars will undergo multiple
operations on their knees and hips before they are sixty. Some, like
the great manager Mr. Fuji, will spend their retirement in a
wheelchair. Equally common and far more dangerous are degenerative
spinal injuries, an inevitable result of tens of thousands of flat-
back and neck "bumps" over a period of decades. The destruction caused
by a wrestling career on the human spine can be seen by the incredible
number of big name wrestlers who have suffered potentially fatal
broken necks: Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Sabu, Gregory
Helms, Bruno Sammartino, Masahiro Chono, and many others. Japanese
high-flyer Hayabusa and former British Bulldog Tom "The Dynamite Kid"
Billington are both wheelchair-bound and paralyzed from their spinal
injuries.
Perhaps the most dangerous and least understood type of wear-and-tear
is the harm done to the human brain by a career in wrestling. The
Chris Benoit tragedy proved that, unlike other wrestling injuries, a
brain injury can be potentially fatal for wrestler's family. An
autopsy performed after Benoit's death revealed that his wrestling
career caused considerable damage to all four lobes of Benoit's brain
and brainstem. One doctor, interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting
Company, examined Benoit's brain and concluded that the brain damage
was so severe as to call into question whether Benoit could be held
responsible for his homicidal rampage of June 2007.
Benoit is not alone in suffering catastrophic brain damage during his
wresting career: Japanese wrestling stars Giant Ochai, Plum Mariko,
Emiko Kado, and Masakazu Fukuda all died from brain injuries suffered
in the ring. North American stars Bret Hart and Chris Nowinski both
retired with permanent cognitive disabilities due to repeated
concussions.
Whether it's the Iron Sheik demanding crack in lieu of payment before
an indy show, Raven rolling on ecstasy for fourteen consecutive days
without a break, a blitzed Jake Roberts sexually molesting his
unfortunate snake and equally unfortunate-looking women at 1999's
Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view, or Scott Hall lovingly fondling an
elderly stranger against her will at an airport, stories of drug-
fueled insanity abound in wrestling lore. Of course, now that WWE has
tightened its drug-testing Wellness Policy, that should be a thing of
the past, at least in the Big Leagues, right?
Nope. WWE stars are far less likely to use cocaine or opiates now that
they are being tested for them, but drug-testing won't stop them from
abusing alcohol and other chemicals that do not show up on a basic
drug-test. For example, in the early '90s, when the federal
government's prosecution of Vince McMahon for distributing steroids
forced the WWF to institute an ironclad anti-drug policy in the
company, most wrestlers turn to alcohol and pills instead. Scott Hall
even claims to have witnessed Vince McMahon encouraging one of the
Nasty Boys to abuse booze and pills to cope with his injuries instead
of marijuana, which is prohibited.
As long as WWE stars are callously worked until their bodies fall
apart, drug abuse will be a major problem in professional wrestling.
To cope with the body's ever degenerating state and the blinding pain
that comes with it, wrestling veterans self-medicate with all manner
of drugs. At the time of his psychotic meltdown in June 2007, my
research for Ring of Hell showed that Chris Benoit was dealing with
the constant blinding pain caused by his wrestling career. He abused
speed, alcohol, mind-bending psychiatric drugs, painkillers, and, of
course, steroids. All at once, and all in huge dosages. His chemical
diet was hardly unique for a wrestler on the downside of his career.
Even the biggest World Wresting Entertainment stars work without
insurance, benefits, job security, liability standing in court, or
even the right to book a first class plane seat without lockerroom
permission. It should come as no surprise that they receive no
retirement benefits or pension. This creates a dilemma when the
eccentric personalities who devote their lives to wrestling reach
middle age and attempt to find a job. These crippled, often drug-
addicted and semi-famous ex-wrestlers with no civilian work history
and no experience leading a regular 9-to-5 lifestyle do not have an
easy time finding a well-paying job to pay their massive medical
bills.
This is one of the major reasons why over-the-hill, broken down
wrestlers appearing on tiny indy shows seem "addicted" to the
business. They are in desperate need of cash and know of no other way
to make a living. Many of the ex-WWE wrestlers who die in the forties
and fifties while dragging their exhausted, broken bodies from one low-
paying indy gig to another are doing so out of desperate necessity. As
with any other section of society, living in dire paycheck-to-paycheck
conditions contributes to the prevalence of alcoholism, drug abuse,
broken families, and suicide.
So how do you stop all the deaths in pro wrestling? The solution is
deceptively simple: bring WWE's 19th century working conditions up to
the modern standard set by all of the professional sports leagues.
Since Vince McMahon is a billionaire and the WWE is wildly profitable,
these life-saving reforms can be accomplished with a negligible impact
on the WWE bottom line or McMahon's ability to purchase competitors,
politicians, or black market Soviet nuclear submarines.
Let's start with the WWE schedule. Every sport in the world has a
regular off-season, and every major scripted TV show takes the summer
off, in addition to numerous scheduled breaks during the regular
season. With WWE's otherwise unnecessary tripartite brand split,
there's no reason why one brand can't go into hibernation for three
months every year, leaving the other two to pick up the slack. The
three months where all three brands are working at the same time can
be used to build up the Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania peak season. In
addition, the McMahon family fortune can afford a few less house shows
every year, increasing the quality of the on-air product by giving
fans less exhausted, less worn down performers. Wrestlers will suffer
less wear-and-tear on their bodies, have more time to heal from the
injuries they do suffer and form healthier relationships with their
family. Drug abuse will fall, steroid users will be given a chance to
cycle, and the average career and lifespan will be lengthened.
Though the reformed schedule will lessen the frequency and severity of
wrestling injuries, it will not address the WWE's comical disavowal of
any responsibility for in-ring injuries. To prevent WWE employees from
causing permanent damage by wrestling while injured, McMahon would
have to provide his employees with full medical insurance, underwrite
major surgery costs, and encourage his stars to recuperate fully by
paying them their full wage and holding their spot for them. Without
the need to recuperate overnight or risk losing their jobs/salaries,
many WWE wrestlers will recuperate naturally instead of abusing
steroids in a mad dash to return as quickly as possible. To prevent
brain and spinal injuries, WWE matches should rely, as far as is
practical, on mat wrestling and storylines instead of frequent back
bumps and dangerous stunts.
The championship reign of Straight Edge guru C.M. Punk is an
encouraging sign that suggests the WWE intends to promote drug-free
wrestlers, even if the other world champion, Triple H, is about as
credible an anti-doping spokesman as his father-in-law, Vince McMahon
himself. As long as the WWE continues to promote wrestlers with
reasonably attainable physiques, all that will be needed to eliminate
the scourge of steroid abuse from wrestling is a tightening of the
Wellness Policy's drug-testing standards. If WWE's loophole-ridden
program were made as harsh and transparent as the International
Olympic Committee's drug-testing regimen, then steroid abuse would
immediately disappear as a major problem in pro wrestling. Drug and
painkiller abuse would never completely disappear, but it would be
made far less common by the WWE's lighter schedule, new medical
policies, and stringent drug-testing program.
After Vince McMahon does everything he can to minimize the damage done
to his employees during their in-ring career, he should invest in
their continued health by providing full retirement benefits and a
pension. After all, these employees willingly risk their lives and
sacrifice their bodies for Vince's company. If McMahon wants the world
to see him as something other than a blood-baron, he cannot promote
daredevil stunt artists who he callously abandons upon the first
instance of self-destructive behavior that renders them unmarketable.
The cost of these reforms would be in the millions of dollars
annually, but World Wrestling Entertainment would still be profitable.
To a billionaire like Vince McMahon, spending 5 million dollars each
year to prevent the rash of scandals, meltdowns, and deaths that have
plagued wrestling over the past decade would likely be a good
investment in his brand's image and reputation. There's no way to
calculate the potential increase in stock value or in TV ad rates if
the mainstream media were to publicize a comprehensive reform program
in the notoriously sleazy WWE. Perhaps more importantly, for a man as
concerned with rewriting history as Vince McMahon, how he steers WWE
in his elderly billionaire years will be the last opportunity he'll
have to challenge his reputation from the early days of the WWF. Being
known as the greatest wrestlering[sic] promoter of all time is a great
legacy, but it's not quite as prestigious as being known as a decent
human being.
CHUCK_key
what, but I've seen this same stupid argument worded a thousand
different ways and I think it's all bullshit and feel like I should
speak up. Vince McMahon is always branded the scapegoat for the
wrestling industry and I wouldn't waste the time to print out your
article and wipe my ass with it in my personal opinion. I'm not saying
you aren't making valid points, but you're beating a dead horse that
has been whipped to death by every so-called "critic" of professional
wrestling that came out of the woodwork after the Benoit murders. I
think all you people who write about this crap are either looking for
the easy target to draw attention to your otherwise lackluster
"investigative" reporting or you're one of the many washed up pro-
wrestlers that crank out "tell-all" books to compensate for the money
& success you missed out on because you couldn't perform in the ring.
WWE is doing more to help wrestlers with their own personal problems
(injury, addiction, etc.) today than the music industry or the movie
production companies have ever done to help their drug addicted,
alcoholic and/or mentally ill "celebrities". Before the World
Wrestling Federation became the pinnacle of "sports entertainment",
pro-wrestling maintained it's unspoken "carnie" ethics and
questionable business practices across the board--WITHOUT the
leadership of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. In fact, the early mindset of
Vince McMahon would have been the byproduct of the dishonesty and
greed of the "old-school" wrestling promoters like the peers of his
father. It did take a while for WWF to improve upon their business
practices as they were in the company's infancy, but ever since the
scandalous early years of the World Wrestling Federation they have
gradually improved upon the years before and become a global leader in
"corporate" America as a "respectable" business. From what has been
confirmed by not only WWE corporate but by numerous wrestlers, WWE
strives for a "drug-free" work atmosphere and has done their best to
eliminate the sexual harassment and "racist" comments that have
traditionally plagued the entire sport of professional wrestling since
the beginning. Eery corporation has an addict on the payroll; Don't
tell me there's not a cocaine addict working around Wall Street. Do
you blame Wall Street or the addict for their personal choice to abuse
cocaine?
I feel like most of the arguments for "wrestling reform" have come
from people who want professional wrestlers to "unionize", which I can
understand, but we can see how unions have destroyed the American
automobile industry and the public education system across the United
States as well. The revelation from WWE that pro-wrestlers are
"entertainers" and the opportunities that wrestlers are getting to
appear in film have helped many of them to become members of the
Screen Actors Guild which qualifies them for union benefits. Many pro-
wrestlers like Jesse Ventura moved into acting for that very reason.
The careers of many pro-wrestlers have taken tragic turns for the
worse (sometimes resulting in death) because the people made personal
choices that were not always the right decision; It has very little to
do with Vince McMahon or World Wrestling Entertainment. Every person
on any professional wrestling roster (not just WWE) has the option to
keep moving forward in their career and deal with pain however they
deem appropriate until it catches up with them either through a failed
drug test, addiction, arrest or death. Those decisions are ultimately
motivated by the inability to let go of fame, which is motivated by
"greed", and quite honestly falls under the umbrella of "personal
choice". Those same people who have fallen prey to crippling drug
addiction and physical handicaps that they blame on a career in pro-
wrestling also had the choice to get out while they were still
healthy, choose a different career path and step away from the
spotlights. It may not be quite as glamorous to sell insurance or real-
estate when you're not physically able to wrestle like the young guys
and you might feel embarrassed to clock in at a "9 to 5" office job
each day after you've had a crowd of thousands cheer for you, but when
you can't physically do it anymore sometimes you have to make the less
desirable choice for your own longevity and just be honest with
yourself. You can't blame that type of decision on Vince McMahon or
any pro-wrestling promotion; It's their own personal choices based on
their own "greed" (for lack of a better word) that lead them to their
problems. If I were in that position, I can't tell you I'd always make
the best choices under that type of pressure either but I doubt I'd
blame it all on Vince McMahon and WWE when all my bad decisions caught
up with me.
I'm stepping down from my soapbox now;
Thanks for your time if you made it that far in reading this!