Steroid Delerium

Now, seriously, how many people have been able to look at professional wrestling over the past 20 to 25 years and say with a straight face "Those guys aren't on steroids, they are just really active in the gym." It has been laughable for at least a couple of decades when you see the gentlemen that own the pro wrestling organizations get up and try to convince everyone that they have nothing to do with the use of steriods EVEN IF (since their lawyers state it hasn't been proven) there are even steroids in pro wrestling. Come on, any kid with a 7th grade education (which by the way is pro wrestlings main audience) can look at the spectacle and while the word steroid may not be on the tip of his tongue, somewhere the thought of "Somethin' jus' ain't right" is going to be there.

We had the big blow-up over steroids in baseball because someone finally figured out that the number of home runs hit during a season doesn't jump 20 percent over a five year period without pharmacutical help. That went all the way to Congress, though the story was pretty much the same as it has always been in pro wrestling. Owners claiming they didn't know and didn't condone, players saying they didn't know the risks or that it was illegal, everyone getting patted on the wrist while banking the extra proceeds.

Now, we find out that the professional wrestler Chris Benoit not only killed himself, but also his wife and young son. Pro wrestling's history is littered by early and untimely deaths. Some of the biggest names in the business have died, and the two leading causes are overdose and heart attacks before the age of 50. And all the while, the men who run the show (such as Vince McMahon of WWE) always find a way to squirm away from the idea of steroids having any part in it. Sadly, since there is no real oversight of pro wrestling since they are privately held enterprises, this is probably not going to change much in the future. Or maybe it will.

You see, until this past weekend, it was just the wrestler who died. It was easy for the organization employing them, and the public at large, to say "Well, even if he was using steroids, he knew the risk and took his chances. No harm, no foul. We are sorry, but on to the next match." Now, a 7 year old little boy is dead, and I will guarantee that not only did he not know the fucking risks, he didn't have a damn choice. Maybe now, after years of turning away, someone will actually start looking at the problem and figure out what can be done about it.

Now, I'm not going to say that pro wrestling isn't entertaining. It is scripted to be so, and they pull it off just as well for the guys as the writers of General Hospital pull it off for the daytime soap crowd. However, no one actually dies on General Hospital other than from old age because they have been on the show for a hundred years. What the people in charge of pro wrestling are unwilling to take a chance on is the fact that their shows would be just as entertaining without the steroid ripped bodies. However, I only see one way of getting pro wrestling to change, and that is through public pressure, and I don't mean some blog post.

Pro wrestling is a business, and as such is there to make money. Well, guess what, if we the public stop buying tickets to the events, stop shilling out the dough for the pay-per-view, and find something else on TV during their free broadcasts, pro wrestling will either have to change or go away. Like I said, it is entertaining, but not since the time of the Roman Empire have we considered watching someone die for "sport" entertainment. This is the 21st century, not the 3rd. And somehow, just because the gladiators of pro wrestling are dying behind the curtains rather than in the ring (which has been known to happen), just doesn't seem to make it alright.