Drug Abuse in Pro Wrestling

[sanjuro_ronin]

WWE drug crackdown
Steroid raid nabs 10 wrestlers




Is this the end of the WWE?

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — World Wrestling Entertainment has suspended 10 of its wrestlers for violations of a policy that tests for steroids and other drugs, the company said Thursday.

Stamford-based WWE says it issued suspension notices based on independent information from the prosecutor’s office in Albany County, N.Y., which has been investigating illegal steroid sales.

Neither the WWE nor the Albany County district attorney’s office would comment on the suspended wrestlers’ identities Thursday. No criminal charges were filed, they said.

Under a WWE wellness policy instituted last year that requires tests for steroids and other drugs, a wrestler faces a 30-day suspension without pay for a first violation, a 60-day suspension for a second violation and firing for a third violation. Performers are tested at least four times per year.

The current WWE drug testing policy was instituted after the November 2005 death of Eddie Guerrero.


“We are very actively working to eradicate the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in the WWE,” WWE spokesman Gary Davis said. “Today’s action is part of that effort.”

WWE officials met this month with New York prosecutors investigating illegal steroid sales. Albany County prosecutor P. David Soares’ office has said that pro wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed his family before hanging himself in June, and other WWE wrestlers had been clients of Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Fla. Investigators say Benoit had a steroid and other drugs in his system at the time.

When Soares’ office began investigating the illegal sale and distribution of controlled substances, he said, his office sought the help of WWE after a number of its wrestlers appeared on customer lists of clinics connected with Signature Pharmacy.

Nine people, including three current or former physicians, have pleaded guilty, most affiliated with Internet and phone-order companies that filled orders for anabolic steroids and growth hormones through Signature and sent drugs to customers around the country, including Albany County.

Signature’s owners have pleaded not guilty.

The Benoit case prompted the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to ask WWE to turn over any information it has on steroid and drug abuse in pro wrestling. The committee has not yet scheduled a hearing on the case.

The WWE declined to reveal who had been suspended, but did say that policy would be changing. "It has been WWE's practice not to release the names of those who have been suspended, but notice has been sent to all WWE performers that names of anyone who is suspended under the Wellness Policy as of November 1 will be made public," read the press release.

At the centre of the suspensions is the release of a client list from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, which was raided by Albany County and Florida law enforcement agencies in February. Authorities allege that Signature Pharmacy illegally distributed steroids and other prescription drugs to clients who had not by examined by doctors.

In an article on ESPN.com, Shaun Assael reported the following current WWE wrestlers were named as clients of Signature:

* Dave Bautista
* Adam "Edge" Copeland (currently on injury leave)
* Chris "Masters" Mordetsky
* John "John Morrison" Hennigan
* Shoichi Funaki
* Shane Helms

Other current WWE wrestlers on the client list, as reported by the New York Daily News on its website are:

* Randy Orton
* Charles Haas, Jr.
* Robert "Booker T" Huffman
* Mike Bucci, aka Simon Dean
* Darren "William Regal" Matthews
* Chavo Guerrero Jr.
* Ken "Mr. Kennedy" Anderson
* Anthony Carelli

Also named in the ESPN article as Signature clients were Eddie Guerrero, Brian Adams (a.k.a. Crush) and Benoit.

In today's edition of the New York Daily News, the newspaper reported the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing in late September into performance-enhancing drugs in professional wrestling.

The chairman of the committee, Illinois Democrat Rep. Bobby Rush, told the Daily News that witness lists have not been compiled. Letters requesting information were sent to WWE, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance.

Through their website, Sports Illustrated released further information on the WWE wrestlers that, as noted in the article, "have received steroids and/or human growth hormone through the drug network."

In the article which was published and updated before 8:00pm Thursday evening, current wrestlers Copeland, Matthews, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Helms, Hennigan, Anderson, Funaki, Haas and Edward Fatu (Umaga), along with Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Adams and recent WWE releasee Sylvain Grenier were named as having received prescriptions.

As reported by SI, prescriptions included a variety of drugs such as anastrozole, somatropin, nandrolone, stanozolol and others in a time period that ran as early as November 2003 and as recently as February 2007. The types of drugs and dates of the prescriptions varied by wrestler.

WWE has about 160 wrestlers. WWE shares closed Thursday at $14.80, down 21 cents.

-- with files from SLAM! Wrestling

[Ben Gash]

Why should it be the end? It's not a sport so it's not like the "titles" will be undermined by widespread steroid use.

[5Animals1Path]

I'm still surprised this is "news worthy".


Wrestlers take steroids, pain killers, and narcotics. You would too if you had to work 350 days a year, and your job is half a step down from superhero. The guys who're gettin all moral over this make me laugh.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I'm still surprised this is "news worthy".


Wrestlers take steroids, pain killers, and narcotics. You would too if you had to work 350 days a year, and your job is half a step down from superhero. The guys who're gettin all moral over this make me laugh.

It's newsworthy because steroid use for the purpose that wrestlers and professional sports figures take them is ILLEGAL.

When the kids in this country see what physical gains their "heroes" make taking steroids, they have the mistaken idea that what happens to someone else isn't going to happen to them. The same way someone tries crack or any other drug believes "It won't happen to me, I can handle it and stop when I want".

[5Animals1Path]

It's newsworthy because steroid use for the purpose that wrestlers and professional sports figures take them is ILLEGAL.

When the kids in this country see what physical gains their "heroes" make taking steroids, they have the mistaken idea that what happens to someone else isn't going to happen to them. The same way someone tries crack or any other drug believes "It won't happen to me, I can handle it and stop when I want".

It's illegal? Really? Wow, so I guess that does make it newsworthy.

They're illegal because people are afraid of them, not because they're so dangerous. Yes, there are steroids that are, but there's plenty of illegal 'roids that when used properly, with the proper anti-estrogens afterwards, that're pretty well and safe if you don't have any pre-existing conditions. It's not a use issue. It's a control issue. I've seen the write ups for the cycles/stacks of gear those guys were using. They're lucky they're not dead already.


And I refered to them as superheros as more of a ridiculous idea, not as actual heros. Anyone who can't tell it's fake and is above the age of 10 deserves their stupidity.

[doug maverick]

i have quite few friends who wrestle professionally. and although outcomes of the matches are decided and sometimes they have things called "spots" when wrtestlers may do there finishing moves or just throws meneuvars. everything else is fair game and thou the ring does have srpings in it it doesn;t do anything when you get thrown on it. its pretty much fair game and they don't let up and sometimes take to far i've seen my friends limping home sometimes because of it.

[Jimbo]

Several years ago, I think it was either Ken Shamrock (or Dan Severn) who returned to UFC after doing pro wrestling for a while, claiming that he suffered far fewer injuries in actual fights in the octagon than he did in pro wrestling. So even though the matches are "works", the punishment/abuse their bodies take are very real.

[GeneChing]

haul trees, lay sod and paint?

Nov 21, 7:37 PM EST
Ex-Wrestler Convicted of Sex Trafficking

ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal jury on Wednesday convicted a former pro wrestler known as "Hardbody Harrison" of charges that he kept eight women as sex slaves in his two north Georgia homes.

Harrison Norris Jr. was convicted of charges including aggravated sexual abuse, forced labor, sex trafficking, conspiracy and witness tampering. He was acquitted of all charges involving a ninth woman, but still could get life in prison at sentencing, set for Feb. 28.

Norris, 41, wrestled for the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling organization in the 1990s.

Serving as his own lawyer, he contended that the women willingly lived at his Cartersville homes because they wanted to train as pro wrestlers. He says many of them arrived on drugs and left in the best shape of their lives.

During a two-week trial, prosecutors portrayed Norris as a predator who used his wrestling business to lure poor and vulnerable women into prostitution and forced labor.

"I think the jury's verdict vindicates the rights of the victims who were brave enough to come forward and confront this man who abused them," prosecutor Susan Coppedge said.

Witnesses testified that Norris, a former Army sergeant and veteran of the Persian Gulf War, imposed a strict military structure, with each of the women assigned to a squad overseen by an "enforcer."

One witness testified that Norris beat or threatened them to keep control and that he threatened to throw one through a hotel window when she would not engage in sex with two customers.

In addition to forcing the victims to work as prostitutes, Norris made them work in and around his houses, requiring them to haul trees, lay sod and paint, according to testimony.

[GeneChing]

It's the only one I could find on a cursory search.

My Japanese is way too rusty to understand what is going on here, but it's awesome.