Dawn Marie, far from the only WWE Diva to have ever used steroids. (Wikimedia Commons)

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For an article that has been put over by Dave Meltzer as a "hell of a story", there was quite a bit left unsaid or unchallenged in investigative reporter Brian Lockhart's article on Vince McMahon for the Connecticut Post; although it must be said that Lockhart did a pretty good job of cutting through most of Vince's spin for someone who isn't a wrestling afficionado.  So what leapt out as being missing?

1.  Given that Vince alluded to his rough, turbulent childhood, Lockhart should have mentioned Vince's infamous interview with Playboy magazine in February 2001 where he claimed that his stepfather used to beat him with a pipe wrench and insinuated that his mother sexually abused him in some way.

2.  Only a cursory discussion of Vince's 1994 steroid distribution trial, despite this sentence by Lockhart: 

But in the business world and in the courtroom, as well as in the stage-managed spectacle of the ring, he has always bounced up, stronger than ever.

It should be noted that the federal investigation into the WWF caused Vince to resign as President of Titan Sports in May 1993 and transfer that position and company control to his wife Linda, a salient point Lockhart fails to bring up in the article.  Lots more after the jump.

3.  This quote by Mike Mooneyham wasn't challenged: 

Pre-Vince it had always been this shadowy world, the secret society that everyone took these oaths to protect . . . He took the business Hollywood.

I mean I know that Vince was the first promoter to publicly break kayfabe, but that doesn't mean that professional wrestling still isn't a shadowy world and doesn't still behave like a secret society that everyone takes oaths to protect.  If Vince took the business Hollywood, then he took it to seedy Sunset Boulevard.

4.  No mention of Vince's notorious, presumably past (even though he won't submit himself to company drug testing), cocaine habit, despite this sentence teasing it:

McMahon said he long ago admitted that nothing he does is in moderation.

5.  Doesn't challenge Vince's double, treble and quadruple counting viewers in this comment here: 

(But) when you've got 16 million people in the United States alone that watch WWE programming -- roughly four times the entire population of the state of Connecticut -- somebody likes this and they watch it every single week.

6.  Lockhart didn't challenge Vince's assertion that there have been relatively few questionable programming decisions in WWE's past:  

"You can pick apart every little thing we've ever done, sure," McMahon said when asked if he regrets any programming choices, such as when his son-in-law, wrestler Triple H, in 2002 climbed into a coffin and simulated sex with a corpse.

"When you look at the totality of the number of minutes we've produced and look at the number of those that may be incendiary or what have you, it's a fraction. So for me to go back and relate to one particular incident . . . are there moments of which I might have some degree of regret? Yeah, there are. But like any good producer, any good television writer or film writer, you write the best film you can."

You wouldn't realise from Lockhart's piece that WWE's product was so tawdry in 1999 that despite their immense popularity they had a major sponsors backlash caused by activism from the Parents Television Council.  But who cares about that, that was so eleven years ago!

7.  Dave Meltzer failing to point out that the move to PG to change the image of the company had to be at least partly motivated by all the bad publicity that the company got in the aftermath of the Chris Benoit double murder suicide: 

Meltzer said, "There's this big axiom that because of (Linda's) campaign they've gone PG. They went before she ran. That was a marketing gimmick to increase sponsorship."

8.  Lockhart didn't expose Vince's lie that the move to PG had increased their audience: 

McMahon said everything his company does, including the move to PG, is "for the right business reasons."

"If you're reaching a larger audience, why would we go back to trying to reach a smaller audience? Business-wise it doesn't make any sense."

In fact all business indicators are significantly down from when they were at their most tawdry (1998-2001).  In particular, the company was tons more popular with young children and teenagers during that period when they weren't providing responsible kid friendly programming than they are today.

9.  Lockhart doesn't probe Vince's assertion that all WWE performers are rich enough to provide health insurance for themselves and their families, as well as cover all their road expenses: 

"Anyone who makes the kind of money that they make can easily afford their own healthcare," McMahon said. "Most independent contractors have their own healthcare."

A company spokesman said that on average, wrestlers today earn about $550,000 per year, a number considerably higher than in years past.

That mean is way skewed by the few top guys who make $2,000,000+ per year and excluding all WWE's developmental talent under contract.  Clearly their company spokesman is familiar with this classic academic text!

10.  Lockhart didn't emphasize that Henry Waxman's main criticism of WWE's steroid testing program was that it suffered "from a lack of independence and transparency", despite this quote from Vince that was worth challenging more aggressively: 

As for recent testing, McMahon said, "Without telling you too much about it because we have some confidentiality . . . I think we're ranking pretty good. We just don't have any problems at all. None."

11.  Lockhart didn't challenge Vince's assertion, regarding Chris Benoit's double murder suicide that:

nothing ever happened like this since the advent of this business, and it goes back to Abraham Lincoln.

despite Irv Muchnick's Superfly Snuka And The Groupie story, a spate of wrestlers comitting suicide and several high profile cases of wrestlers being guilty of domestic abuse.  Lockhart also didn't ask any direct questions to Vince about Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy and the dangers of concussions in professional wrestling.

12.  Lockhart didn't adequately follow up on Dawn Marie Damatta's admission of steroid use while working for WWE:

Dawn Marie Damatta, who performed with WWE from 2002 to 2005 and whose profile is still on the company website, said she has used steroids during the course of her wrestling career, which began in the late-1990s.

"I chose to take that shortcut," Damatta said. "Did Vince tell me to take that shortcut? No. Did WWE? No. Why did I do it? Because I thought that's what I needed to do in order to keep up . . . There was no testing policy."

There was no acknowledgement that it was well known within the wrestling media that the majority of women within WWE during that time period used steroids and growth hormone, because the typical "Diva" body is impossible to attain and maintain year round on the road without artificial help unless you have awesome genetics.  Those that don't conform to that strict body image, like Nidia, Molly Holly and Mickie James, usually end up with demeaning storylines where they are made fun of for being "fat".  There was also no acknowledgement that other women have admitted to using steroids in the past like Madusa (in a Torch Talk interview in 1993 before she went to the WWF) and Tammy Lynn Sytch.

13.  In the most glaring omission Lockhart failed to mention the Signature Pharmacy scandal.  In particular, Dave Meltzer wasn't quoted in the article about it either.  However, Meltzer made sure to let everyone know on his July 26th Wrestling Observer Radio show that "everything that Dawn Marie has just said, I already knew" and how it all tied in with the Signature Pharmacy scandal, which he presumably neglected to tell Lockhart about:

Dave Meltzer:  I mean it's nothing that, you know, they're not the only two (women to have used steroids during their wrestling career) obviously.

Bryan Alvarez:  That's for sure!

Dave Meltzer:  Yeah.

Bryan Alvarez:  I was always surprised when all the names came out for Signature Pharmacy and GH and all that, that a girl's name never came up in WWE.

Dave Meltzer:  I was, you know what stunned me, I KNEW at that time of several women in the company, just because someone who I know who also was not on that list when that thing came out called me up all frantic and just goes "Oh my God, oh my God", you know because they were getting stuff from there.  That's why that list is weird because all those guys got it, but there's guys I know that didn't, OK and he said that in fact it was one of the women who was the one who turned him on like we all go to this doctor at Signature Pharmacy, the guy who wrote all the scripts, and this is how we do it and all that, but he was all frantic to me about when his name was going to pop up and it never came out.

Bryan and Dave went on to speculate that the reason some performers weren't caught was that the investigators didn't recognise their real names or they got their packages sent to somebody else and picked them up later.  The latter "is what everyone for sure does now because no-one would be dumb enough now to put their real name and real address".  Glad you've cleared that up Dave for all your subscribers, but what about the Connecticut voters?