The seedy world behind roid rage

It is an entertainment industry enjoyed by millions, whose larger-than-life superstars are heroes to children everywhere.

But behind the glamour of US wrestling is a murky world of drug use that has been linked to the deaths of SCORES of grapplers before their 50th birthdays in the last decade alone.

And now the allegedly common practice of downing massive amounts of the performance-boosting steroids may be claiming innocent lives too.

It is feared that ring superstar Chris Benoit, 40 — known as the Canadian Crippler — was in the grip of a crazed, chemical-fuelled fury known as “Roid Rage” when he killed his wife and seven-year-old son before hanging himself last month.

Wife Nancy, 43, was strangled. Little Daniel was killed with Benoit’s trademark wrestling hold, the Crippler Crossface.

Police found huge numbers of steroid pills at the scene. Benoit’s doctor has been accused by Drug Enforcement Agency officials of prescribing the former WWE Heavyweight Champion with three months’ worth of the drugs EVERY WEEK.

Packed with sky-high levels of a man-made chemical that mimics the male hormone testosterone, steroids are used by many wrestlers to bulk up their muscle.

But using too many causes increased aggressiveness, violence, paranoia and depression.

Although investigators do not yet know whether the killings were linked to Roid Rage, it is clear that steroids — as well as the abuse of painkillers and anti-depressants — has already taken a terrible toll in the wrestling world.

And while wrestling may be fake — or “predetermined” as those in the business like to say — for children left growing up without fathers, its apparent side-effects are very real.

Now in the most comprehensive study of its kind, The Sun has produced a list of every grappler since 1997 who has died before the age of 50 — all 104 of them.

For more details of those deaths click HERE.

They include Benoit’s former best pal Eddie Guerrero.

Eddie died in November 2005 of acute heart failure brought on by years of alcohol, drug and steroid abuse. He was 38.

Another friend, Warrington-born British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith — the most successful UK wrestler ever in North America — died from a heart attack aged 39 in May 2002. Again steroids were linked.

Brian Pillman — another pal of Benoit — was 35 when he died of heart failure in 1997. He was renowned for his heavy steroid use and ferocious, violent rages.

Suicide is not uncommon in wrestling either. Mike Awesome, 42, hanged himself earlier this year and three of the famous Von Erich family — Chris, 21, Kerry, 33, and Mike, 23 — all took their own lives.

Other popular wrestlers to have died young include Art Barr (28), Crash Holly (32), Chris Candido (33), Terry Gordy (40), Ravishing Rick Rude (41), Big Boss Man (42), Curt Hennig (44), Bam Bam Bigelow (45), Junkyard Dog (45), Road Warrior Hawk (46) and Sensational Sherri (49).

Of course, some deaths were accidents or from natural causes, but studies have shown that wrestlers are six times more likely to die young than other people — and it is 12 times as likely for heart failure, which is often linked to steroid use, to be the cause.

After the death of Eddie Guerrero, the WWE — one of the largest wrestling federations — brought in drug testing to stamp this out.

But Benoit PASSED a test, right at the very moment police say he was receiving huge amounts of steroids from his doctor.

Critics say the problem with the WWE’s drug testing procedure is that it allows for steroids and painkillers if they have a valid prescription from a physician.

Other wrestling federations do not test for drugs at all.

Now some former grapplers are speaking up and demanding their industry is regulated.

Konnan — real name Charles Ashenoff and often described as “the Mexican Hulk Hogan” — says he is sickened that potentially life-threatening drug issues have not been taken seriously by the industry.

He says: “All these guys are dying and nobody gives a s***.”

And the self- confessed former steroid user says that drug use is rife among wrestlers. He claims: “Everybody — from top to bottom — everybody's either on steroids, painkillers, they drink or they take recreational drugs, and in the case of half the guys, all four.”

Former WWE champion Lance Storm says: “I think one thing is clear, regardless of the role drugs played in Chris Benoit’s state of mind, the wrestling industry has some serious drug issues that are going to have to be dealt with very soon.

“We have seen deaths in this industry due to drug overdoses, drug-related heart attacks, suicides due to possible drug-related depression and now perhaps even drug-related murder.

“Something needs to be done and it needs to be done now.”

The Sun’s list of the 104 wrestlers who have died before the age of 50 in the last decade was compiled by wrestling historian John Lister, who has studied the sport’s drug culture.

He says: “Many leading wrestlers are affected by a deadly cocktail of problems, addictions and stresses.

“There are no simple answers. But unless promoters make major changes to the schedule, ring style and physical requirements for wrestlers — as well as introducing much stricter drug testing — the death toll will continue to rise.”

credit: thesun.co.uk



i agree that something needs to be done about drugs in wrestling as i feel there is no place in wrestling for drugs but what i don't like is the fact that people still think that roid rage was the cause for what happened on the fatal weekend a couple of weeks ago as that has not been proven