FanPost

On Nancy Grace and steroids in pro wrestling

Vidiot via Wikimedia Commons

Hello cSs. I've lurked here for a long time, it being my go-to source for wrestling news. I only just registered after seeing the piece on Nancy Grace, though, because I wanted to comment on it. I had a lot to say. I had so much to say that eventually I decided a FanPost would be better than a comment. So this is gonna be my first contribution to the discussion on this site. Hopefully I'll make a good first impression rather than a bad one.

Here's what I want to say and what I'm worried might make a bad first impression: Nancy Grace is probably not 100% wrong. Much as we would like her to be.

Oh, she was wrong to include such names as Owen Hart on the list of wrestlers who died young, or relatively young, while talking about steroids and how many people they killed.

And she was wrong to mention how "accusations of steroids are swirling" seemingly every other sentence. For one thing, it's grating. For another, either name the people making the accusations or stop saying it.

And she was wrong to refer to Warrior as "Ultimate" more than once. It shows that she didn't bother to really research the subject.

All of that being said, though, the odds are that use of steroids did indeed contribute to Warrior's death, if they weren't the direct cause of it.

Don't take my word for it. Take Jim Cornette's. While it's true that Cornette is not on the best of terms with Vince McMahon, his words rang true in 2009, and they still ring true today.

And don't take my word for that either. Take the word of WrestleCrap's Justin Henry.

I also remember reading, years ago, a quote from Warrior. I wish I could find a link to it now. I'm afraid I can't, so this is something you actually will have to take my word for. I recall Warrior saying something along the lines of "Steroid use has taken years off my life."

Warrior was not an Andrew Martin or an Eddie Fatu or an Eddie Guerrero or a Brian Pillman or a Davey Boy Smith, all of whom died in their thirties, but he was still relatively young.

It's not unreasonable to assume that he would have lived a lot longer if he had never touched any performance enhancing drugs.

But then, if he had never touched any performance enhancing drugs, he likely would have had a much harder time getting a job with the WWF, let alone becoming a main event level wrestler.

Now, some fans might believe that the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and the Chris Benoit murder/suicide were wake-up calls that WWE heeded, which changed the way the company did things. They might take everything that WWE tells us about the Wellness Policy at face value, and believe the company is really serious about making sure none of its talent use steroids, HGH, painkillers, etc. That if there was a problem with steroids back in the day, then surely there isn't one now.

Well, here's the thing. Cornette touched on this in the piece linked to above, but it bears repeating: WWE still puts great pressure on its talent to be big and muscular. As Vectron44 wrote in this recent FanPost, Bobby Lashley got pushed over CM Punk because Lashley was a lot more muscular. If you want a more recent example, consider that Kassius Ohno is now known as Chris Hero once again and didn't get to join his tag team partner on the main roster because the powers that be decided he wasn't jacked enough and released him.

But trying to look good enough to get pushed isn't always the reason wrestlers take this stuff. You also need to consider that the schedule for WWE workers is still very unforgiving. Wrestlers don't have sufficient time to rest up and heal from bumps between shows. They're in pain, so they take painkillers. Some of them end up hooked and overdosing later on.

They want to heal fast instead of trying to work through injuries if that's an option for them, so they take stuff to help them heal quicker. In 2009 when Jeff Hardy was arrested (shortly, it should be noted, after he left WWE and before he joined TNA), one of the substances discovered in his house was anabolic steroids. At the time, I was surprised, because Jeff Hardy sure doesn't look like a guy on steroids. Hardy spent years putting his body through hell and taking insane bumps to entertain us and get over, however. My guess is that he had those steroids more to help himself heal faster than to bulk up.

Even if you give WWE the benefit of the doubt and believe that the company is very serious about enforcing its Wellness Policy and never look the other way when a top star is caught using, you still can't deny that WWE places expectations on its talent that, at the very least, make it tempting for them to use drugs.

If Warrior's death was indeed steroid-related, it definitely won't be the last. More wrestlers are going to die far too early.

And that raises the question of what can be done about it.

First, I think they should lighten the schedule. If they reduced the number of house shows they ran, they could stay in the black and the toll on the talent would be far less severe.

Second, make guys like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk the rule rather than the exception. Don't push guys because they have muscles, and don't tell anybody in NXT they need to bulk up before they get called up.

I don't know if any or all of this comes across as stating the obvious or patronizing. I hope not, because that's not what I'm going for, at all. I wanted to say that steroids and other substances were a problem in Warrior's heyday, and I believe they're still a problem today. There are plenty of good reasons to dislike Nancy Grace, but the fact that she made a similar statement is not one of them.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.