Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Chris Benoit...Roid Rage?
Earlier this year in June a pro wrestler named Chris "The Crippler" Benoit was found dead in his home with his wife and son also dead. The authorities said they think its a double homicide in which Benoit is suspected of killing his wife and son. According to CTV, Benoit placed a bible next to his wife and sons body after killing each of them. It is assumed that he strangled his wife and smothered his son. My question to all of you is this "Is steriod use getting out of control in the WWE?" Over the past twenty years ninety-five wrestlers have died. http://prowrestling.about.com/od/whatsrealwhatsfake/a/wrestlersdeaths.htm Now given they are not all from steriods and drug uses but something is very odd about all of these deaths. Something is very wrong here in my opinion. How can you have so many top shape athletes die before the age of sixty-five. You can just look at them and see how that is possible. They are all "jacked." I mean let's be honest most average people do not look like these guys. Now granted they are in the business to perform in front of thousands of people and they are paid to be the best but some one has to draw the line somewhere. In a series on HBO they interview Vince McMahon and ask him "Do you think you are responsible for the deaths of wrestlers?" And of course he replied "No way." There is no way that the President of WWE isn't held accountable for some of these deaths. Now there is a testing program for steriods in wrestling but it seems to be a little shaky seeing as how Chris Benoit passed and two days later he was found dead in his house with traces of steriods in his system. So I just think something has to happen before wrestling is dead for good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I don't watch a whole lot of wrestling, to be honest I don't watch it at all. One thing I do know is though is that they are huge and I think that is for one reason, steriods. Don't get me wrong though, I'm sure they spend hours upon hours in the weight room everyday, I mean they have to because that is basically their job. Nobody is going to pay for tickets to watch to skinny guys fight, they want to see giant men in the ring pounding on each other. Now about the question did steriods make him kill his family, that could go both ways. I am sure it was a huge factor of it but i don't know if that was the whole reason. Who knows what kind of family issues they had that nobody else knew about. I guess what I think is that because of the nature of the sport it should really be their option to take steriods, personally though I wouldn't do it but nobody is paying me millions to do it either.
I knew steroids was a huge issue in professional wrestling, but I had no idea the magnitude it had on the sport. When ninety-five wrestlers have died over the past twenty years something is obviously wrong. Steroids has to be a huge factor of why this is shappening. You made a great point that these athletes are in incredible shape so this rapid death rate should not be occuring before the age of sixty-five. To answer your question I would have to say that yes, steroids are getting out of control in WWE. These wrestlers are ridiculously ripped and this is an indication that steroids are being used. I do agree with John that these athletes do work and train hard to get their physical size to a certain extent, but then the abuse of steroids comes into play to get that extra body mass or extra edge wrestlers feel they need. When terrifying events are happening such as the Chris Benoit case, then McMahon needs to enforce the drug testing policy more harshly and look at the drug testing results more carefully.Reason being is because if these type of encounters continue to happen you've got to say that McMahon has to be somewhat responsible and accountable because he is the president of these athletes.
Nick, I agree with your statement about steroids in wrestling. It is a serious problem that needs to be addressed not only from a wrestling standpoint, but for society as well. Obviously, wrestling is a popular sport and many people enjoy watching it, but what kind of message are they sending young kids about the sport. When kids see wrestlers taking steroids they might think that this is okay and it is a way to become a professional. I also liked the fact that you talked about McMahon and his role in this incident. He is basically the voice of wrestling and should revaluate the message he is portraying. However, in the Benoit case I think he had more issues than just "roid rage". In my opinion, his mind wasn't right and he could have had family problems as mainplayer mentioned. Steroids are a major hinderance to sports today and I hope that new policies can be made to prevent these things from happening.
Wait, whoa, hey, hold on here. Yes steroids is a problem in all of sports, wrestling included, but you can't blame steroids for every death or everything that goes wrong in wreslting. Tons of football players have died in the past years too but thats not all because of steroids. You know what the problem is? Concusions. In the autopsy they did of Chris Benoit, they found he had multiple concusions and that could have been the cause for all of the changes he went through. Wrestling, just like sports, is physically tolling on the body. They do get torn pectorals, broken bones, and, yes, concusions. It is said that many football players die due to multiple concusions over their career, why not pro wrestlers?
Nick you did a real good job describing the situation. I too watched that HBO episode with WWE President Vince McMann in it. While I was watching he seemed extremely defensive, and a bit like he was on steroids. He seamed to be insulted by everything Harmon Kateyin (the interviewer) said to him. I think he his responsible because his company creates the lifestyle in which wrestlers live. He should be providing wrestlers with psychologists and other amenities so that they may live a safe lifestyle. On the steroid front, in the early 1990s Vince McMann went to see Congress about the then WWF and steroids. The two top people questioned were Vince McMann and the most popular wrestler of all time Hulk Hogan. Its funny how Vince said he wasn't providing his wrestlers with steroids but Hulk said he did. Due to the fact Congress could not make a final decision cause there was a lack of evidence the trial was left unsolved. Buts its funny how right after that trial Hulk Hogan moved to the WCW. Very Interesting. I think Congress needs to personally investigate WWE and get to the bottom of this before hundreds more die.
Post a Comment