The current state of professional wrestling makes me think of a line from a song by Santa Monica band, Everclear: "I want the things that I had before / Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door / I wish I could count to ten / Make everything be wonderful again."
As with many fans of professional wrestling, I was introduced to it as a kid and it holds a lot of fond, happy memories of my childhood. With premature deaths of wrestlers becoming de rigueur, it's like letting go a part of that childhood. Even more so, with the age of the internet, there is no longer the blissful ignorance of the personal lives and politics of the real men and women behind our favorite sports entertainment personas. Often, this informational overload colors our perception of those who portray a favorite in-ring character.
Within the past few weeks, the world of professional wrestling has taken its place in the harsh, glaring spotlight of the media's eye. And it hasn't been for all the right reasons.
Even before the Benoit family tragedy, for whatever reason, the media has had a rather personal vendetta against professional wrestling. Viewed as low-brow entertainment and commonly depicted as populated with a bunch of dumb, muscle-headed wrestlers and their mouth-breathing fans, professional wrestling -- since even its very beginnings -- has almost always been portrayed in a negative light.
In the wake of recent events, the media has used tragedy to warp the story to suit its anti-wrestling agenda, pointing the finger of blame at steroids, Vince McMahon, WWE and any wrestler currently a part of the organization.
It would be remiss and completely naïve and ignorant to deny that steroids are part of professional wrestling. At the same time, it would also be naïve to say that steroids are not a part of any athletic activity at a professional level. Going a step further, I would wager that steroids even have a foothold in Hollywood, responsible for assisting in the rapid transformation of the physiques of some actors to prepare for roles that require a more imposing presence achieved in a short period of time in accordance with shooting schedules.
While steroids have been an issue in the WWF/WWE, testing for steroids and making sure that athletes aren't using them for an unfair, performance-enhancing advantage, "'roid rage" is being turned into the de facto culprit in the Benoit case instead of questioning whether or not the man had some other sort of mental or emotional problem that didn't necessarily involve steroids. The lack of conclusive, medical evidence by expert coroners and toxicologists hasn't stopped the flow of yellow journalism so swift and steady that it would make even William Randolph Hearst say "DAMN!"
So-called "journalists" are trying to spin things as a matter of opinion, on pure speculation rather than fact. With the flurry of televised news coverage pertaining to wrestling and the Benoit case, I noticed that on almost every single one of these shows, the person conducting the interview would cut off the wrestler mid-sentence if what they were saying didn't support their "journalistic" theory or act in the manner they perceive professional wrestlers to act in. The majority of the wrestlers interviewed on many of these shows -- even the Ultimate Warrior who usually rambles and raves like a madman -- came across as articulate, intelligent, and made some very valid points.
For instance, Kevin Nash was unable to get a word in edgewise on Hannity & Colmes. In a rather frank interview, Nash had admitted to using steroids in the past. However, once Nash mentioned some of the other, less-cosmetic and more medicinal properties of steroids and mentioned that he had never seen or experienced 'Roid Rage, that's when Karen Hannity cut him off. As one of the performers who actually worked with both Chris and Nancy Benoit and knew them on a professional and semi-personal basis, Nash was told by Hannity that she doubted his credibility. In turn, Kevin Nash asked her if she had ever used steroids, to which she answered with an irritated "no," prompting Nash to throw her claim back at her. A woman who probably has never logged a single hour of sports entertainment in her life now claims to be an expert witness, refuting the testimony of probably one of the most blunt guys in the world of professional wrestling.
These news personalities (not to be confused with real journalists), until now, have had zero use for the wrestling industry and, for some reason, have decided to make it their personal mission to denigrate every single wrestler and wrestling fan with their own little "agenda." You have these supposed "journalists" shooting their mouth off, uneducated as to the business end of professional wrestling (especially the athletic end of it). What's worse is that their own profession calls for them to investigate and check the facts on their own before reporting to their audience. This lackadaisical approach to reporting cheats the audience who looks to these news personalities for information. This results in news stories that are based purely on one person's opinion and are just as fabricated as the scripted outcomes of professional wrestling that these media figures so despise.
In the various interviews conducted on numerous news programs, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, and the Ultimate Warrior all admitted to steroid use in the past when they were active wrestlers. While the media is keen to focus on this common testimony, news personalities have been eager to refute a claim that all three men also made regarding a recuperative property of steroids, that the substance had been prescribed by legitimate doctors to help aid in recovery from injuries.
The more traditional, cosmetic use, not-withstanding, I have known of instances where steroids were prescribed even to ballet dancers to aid in recovery from a muscle injury. Steroids are even used in certain asthma medications for more severe ballerinas and asthmatics and asking them if they've experienced 'roid rage. There are several different types of steroids, however, mention the word itself and there is usually only one connotation that springs to mind.
The only one of these television journalists who treated the wrestlers with respect and really gave them a forum to speak was Larry King. Larry King LIVE! had quite a roundtable on the show with John Cena, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, and Steve Blackman all giving their thoughts on the Benoit case, steroids, and the state of wrestling as it exists. You had guys who were past and present members of the WWE roster at various rungs of the ladder of success, some on good terms with the company, others on not-so-good terms, but all giving some informative testimonial and intelligent thoughts on the situation.
It has yet to be determined if steroids were a definite factor in the Benoit family deaths.
Even with a conclusive toxicology report and autopsy to determine what substances were involved -- if any -- in the Benoit family case, no one besides Chris, Nancy, and Daniel Benoit will know the real truth as it happened during the course of that weekend. Even worse, maybe even Chris Benoit himself wasn't in a right enough mind to have been able to say why it happened. No one will ever know what was the cause of this monstrous act. All we can hope for is that Nancy and Daniel Benoit are at peace in a better place and that a Higher Power has forgiven Chris Benoit for what he has done. From top to bottom, the entire situation is an unbelievably sad tragedy for all involved and their families.
While nothing can be done to change what has happened, undoubtedly, the events that have transpired have affected the professional wrestling industry in a major way. Under the media's microscope, many superstars -- past and present -- have come forward to give their testimonials as to how strenuous the life of a professional wrestler can be. Steroids have been a convenient crutch for the media to prey upon as a mitigating factor in the case. I don't believe that it was just as simple as one thing being a blanket cause. I'm sure there were many factors involved, but sadly, we'll never really know.
Sports entertainment, while purely entertainment, is still nonetheless the same as a sport in that it is just as grueling and causes as much strain as any other professional athletics wreck on its participants. Nevertheless, even with training camps included, athletes in the realms of football, hockey, basketball, and baseball are all given a lengthy period of time to rest, recover, and spend time with their families.
In the world of professional wrestling, these men and women are on the road roughly 300 days out of the year. The only other sport whose schedule even comes close is major league baseball with 162 games played per season, per team. Consider that not only does even the best MLB baseball player participate in slightly over half the amount of games that a top-level professional wrestler does matches, baseball is not a full-contact sport. Although professional wrestling is not considered a sport, per se, there is a high degree of physicality involved on a nightly basis. With the top guys in the company taking some pretty brutal bumps non-stop for 300 nights out of the year, some of them working through pre-existing injuries, it's safe to say that these guys deserve a little bit of time off figured into their schedules.
Not only would a nice chunk of time to spend with their families and on their own personal pursuits do these wrestlers some good, but time away from the gym and not having to maintain a chiseled physique for sometimes years on end would help to keep injuries at bay. The abundance of injuries so many wrestlers suffer and often work through can only be a result of the combined rigors of intensive training and non-stop performing. Although professional body-building is full of men who are even more remarkably and freakishly muscled than professional wrestlers, even body builders have an off-season. It is only until the final few months before a major competitive event that body builders must diet and train to a high level. Professional wrestling doesn't afford its performers that amount of periodic rest. It's non-stop every week of the year. While it's great for the fans to consistently see something new in terms of programming each week, even fans have to respect that wrestlers need a break, too.
WWE currently has the benefit of having three different brands: RAW, Smackdown, and ECW. With that in mind, perhaps only two shows could run at a time, putting the programs on a rotating schedule akin to either a regular television season (beginning in September and ending in May) or set up along the lines of professional sports with a specific "season" per brand and going back to the old school concept of rankings done through "statistics" to determine challengers for shots and any of a given show's titles. It would shake things up, allow for greater development of talent on-air and give them a shot in the spotlight while also giving a rest to those performers who need it.
Perhaps the one time where all three brands could be on at the same time would be during a two-month span prior to Wrestlemania, WWE's equivalent of the Super Bowl. Those two months would be ample time to set up storylines for all three brands that would underscore the importance of Wrestlemania, making it something more than just another PPV. WWE and its various brands would still continue to entertain the fans and it would probably make for better-rested wrestlers and give some of the underutilized talent an opportunity to prove their worth.
Regardless of what happens in professional wrestling or if it does end up restructuring its current model, any impetus behind this may be due to the final say that the coroners and toxicologists have regarding the tragic Benoit case. While steroids in any sport or sports entertainment should be discouraged as an unfair advantage, personally, I don't believe that they were responsible for what happened in the final days of the Benoit family. It's a shame that news outlets are not viewing this for the tragedy that it really is. Instead, they are using mere opinions rather than concrete fact to crucify a certain form of entertainment just for the benefit of a "news" story.
Maybe it's not just professional wrestling that needs to be re-evaluated but the concept of television "journalism" that needs an overhaul as well.
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