Black Widow
11-08-2007, 05:10 PM
On the whole, last night's special on CNN was fair and balanced concerning the issue of drug use in the wrestling business. There wasn't anything ridiculous stated and they didn't sensationalize the topic. The time allotted only allowed for so much depth, unfortunately, but they did a fair job of covering the topic. Here are some thoughts I had while watching the program.
* Mike Benoit reading his son's diary entry from after Eddie Guerrero died was eerie and creepy. Chris was obviously in a really bad place. It's a shame that no one could have read the journal back then. It may have tipped someone off to the problems that were to come.
* CNN called Smackdown a cable show? How hard is it to check what network the show airs on? I hate little errors like that because they make me question the big issues a show like this talks about. If you miss the little, easy things, what else are you missing.
* Once again, they used the "wrestlers under 40" dying bogus stats. Some of the names that they ran on the trailer I never heard of. I wish that these shows would just stick with the facts of actual, working wrestlers that died and leave out the guys who have been out of the business for years and the people that work indies once a month. The real stats are scary and effective enough.
* Vince had to say that there is no way he or WWE had anything to do with Chris Benoit's death and I don't think they are completely culpable, but he did work with the guy every week and he did administer tests that he said Benoit passed, so he does have to take some responsibility for what happened.
* I wish that the "former long-time WWF employee" would have had the guts to show his face. I don't take anything he said seriously. What does he have to hide at this point if he is a former employee? It's not like he's looking to go back to work there. Or is he? He came across as someone with an axe to grind to me. Let's be honest, it's not like CNN would have known if that was the guy's mission.
* Vince walking out for a match in his late fifties, all jacked up, was damning evidence. It just didn't look right for a guy his age to look like that.
* Vince dodging the question about whether he likes big guys as his top stars was comical and downright ridiculous. Of course, answering honestly would have worked against him.
* Irv Muchnick says the same exact thing every time he gets face time on TV.
* Chris Jericho is right that small guys can make it. But let's be honest, big guys have always had a better chance of making it in WWF/WWE than smaller guys have. Would Bret Hart have ever gotten the top push had it not been for Vince's steroid trial? Or Shawn Michaels? Or Jericho himself even?
* Chris Benoit loved the business and paid some serious dues to get where he did in it.
* Dynamite Kid's wife was really scary. You thought of killing your kids and yourself? Jeez, that is unfathomable. Her life with him sounds like pure hell. The entire story of The British Bulldogs is just ridiculously sad. Davey Boy Smith is dead. Dynamite Kid is an utter mess. He thinks because he didn't have shells in a shotgun he put under his wife's chin that he isn't violent? Even if she had known the gun was unloaded (which she didn't), that is just insane.
* Like Chris Nowinski, the first thing I thought of after Benoit murdered his family was that there very well could have been brain damage. His actions seemed to indicate it and he had taken so many shots to his head over the years it would have actually shocked me if he hadn't had brain damage. I don't think he was an 85 year old man, but I think he was a brain damaged, demented forty year old man.
* It didn't shock me at all that Vince and Linda don't want to accept the finding of brain damage. To admit that Benoit had it would be to indict their company. Vince saying that now they are stopping chairshots to the head made me laugh since I have been calling for them to stop for years now. The damage that they cause is obvious. Plus, haven't we seen Triple H paste Umaga in the head since the Benoit findings were released? Vince saying accidents occur is true, but these are planned spots, not accidents. It was clear that Vince was distancing himself from the finding because it made him at least partially responsible.
* Vince saying that he suspended the first drug program because of costs just didn't ring true to me. I always felt it was suspended because no one from the outside was watching any more. I know that the WWF did have some money losing years, but I find it hard to believe that was do to drug testing and not bad acts like TL Hopper and The Goon.
* The program made a great point about the WWE's drug testing program. If you are going to do it, use the best program available. And, take out the "you can use it if you have a prescription" loophole, at least for some drugs. And also have your company doctor make sure that the prescriptions that wrestlers have are needed, not just a scrip that they can take because they want to.
* Dr. Black feels Vince is behind the drug program because he looked him in the eye and said he wants it addressed? Now, I am not saying that Vince wasn't serious but the guy is an actor and a worker. I sure wouldn't take him looking me in the eye as something that seals the deal.
* More than 30 suspensions since the program started? More than twice that number failing and getting a warning? Two guys get suspended when the company makes it clear that the next failure will be announced publicly? How, EXACTLY, is that cleaning up the company?
* Jeez, even Dr. Black can't say we will see smaller wrestlers, only healthier ones? What the hell does that mean?
* CM Punk was right that he isn't just getting pushed because he is clean. That company was short of talent and was a guy who could help them out. His being totally clean is a great perk though.
* John Cena came off really, really bad. The way he danced around the steroid question was downright embarrassing. "I can't tell you that I haven't but you'll never be able to prove that I have." If that is your only answer, don't do the damn interview. That is saying you did them so SAY it. "I did steroids before but now, after seeing the effects they have had on my friends, I have long since stopped". At least people can respect that answer and not think he's an utter dope. That is the first time I can ever remember Cena coming off really badly.
* Vince never just answers a question straight on. He was asked if WWE is drug free. So he says no one is instead of just saying no and then explaining that there will always be people who do drugs that you don't know about. And boy did he look angry, and bad, when he was asked why the Signature scandal caught people using drugs when his tests didn't. That is a damn good question Mr. McMahon.
* I agree with Vince that people are responsible for their own actions but that doesn't mean that as a company you can't watch people and try and protect them from themselves when they need it. Plus, the fact is that Vince does do that. There have been a number of guys with drug problems that they told to get clean or get out, so this statement was pure damage control. Then again, that is pretty much what Vince and Linda's entire appearance here was, and you can't really blame them for that. They have a company to protect.
PWInsider.com
* Mike Benoit reading his son's diary entry from after Eddie Guerrero died was eerie and creepy. Chris was obviously in a really bad place. It's a shame that no one could have read the journal back then. It may have tipped someone off to the problems that were to come.
* CNN called Smackdown a cable show? How hard is it to check what network the show airs on? I hate little errors like that because they make me question the big issues a show like this talks about. If you miss the little, easy things, what else are you missing.
* Once again, they used the "wrestlers under 40" dying bogus stats. Some of the names that they ran on the trailer I never heard of. I wish that these shows would just stick with the facts of actual, working wrestlers that died and leave out the guys who have been out of the business for years and the people that work indies once a month. The real stats are scary and effective enough.
* Vince had to say that there is no way he or WWE had anything to do with Chris Benoit's death and I don't think they are completely culpable, but he did work with the guy every week and he did administer tests that he said Benoit passed, so he does have to take some responsibility for what happened.
* I wish that the "former long-time WWF employee" would have had the guts to show his face. I don't take anything he said seriously. What does he have to hide at this point if he is a former employee? It's not like he's looking to go back to work there. Or is he? He came across as someone with an axe to grind to me. Let's be honest, it's not like CNN would have known if that was the guy's mission.
* Vince walking out for a match in his late fifties, all jacked up, was damning evidence. It just didn't look right for a guy his age to look like that.
* Vince dodging the question about whether he likes big guys as his top stars was comical and downright ridiculous. Of course, answering honestly would have worked against him.
* Irv Muchnick says the same exact thing every time he gets face time on TV.
* Chris Jericho is right that small guys can make it. But let's be honest, big guys have always had a better chance of making it in WWF/WWE than smaller guys have. Would Bret Hart have ever gotten the top push had it not been for Vince's steroid trial? Or Shawn Michaels? Or Jericho himself even?
* Chris Benoit loved the business and paid some serious dues to get where he did in it.
* Dynamite Kid's wife was really scary. You thought of killing your kids and yourself? Jeez, that is unfathomable. Her life with him sounds like pure hell. The entire story of The British Bulldogs is just ridiculously sad. Davey Boy Smith is dead. Dynamite Kid is an utter mess. He thinks because he didn't have shells in a shotgun he put under his wife's chin that he isn't violent? Even if she had known the gun was unloaded (which she didn't), that is just insane.
* Like Chris Nowinski, the first thing I thought of after Benoit murdered his family was that there very well could have been brain damage. His actions seemed to indicate it and he had taken so many shots to his head over the years it would have actually shocked me if he hadn't had brain damage. I don't think he was an 85 year old man, but I think he was a brain damaged, demented forty year old man.
* It didn't shock me at all that Vince and Linda don't want to accept the finding of brain damage. To admit that Benoit had it would be to indict their company. Vince saying that now they are stopping chairshots to the head made me laugh since I have been calling for them to stop for years now. The damage that they cause is obvious. Plus, haven't we seen Triple H paste Umaga in the head since the Benoit findings were released? Vince saying accidents occur is true, but these are planned spots, not accidents. It was clear that Vince was distancing himself from the finding because it made him at least partially responsible.
* Vince saying that he suspended the first drug program because of costs just didn't ring true to me. I always felt it was suspended because no one from the outside was watching any more. I know that the WWF did have some money losing years, but I find it hard to believe that was do to drug testing and not bad acts like TL Hopper and The Goon.
* The program made a great point about the WWE's drug testing program. If you are going to do it, use the best program available. And, take out the "you can use it if you have a prescription" loophole, at least for some drugs. And also have your company doctor make sure that the prescriptions that wrestlers have are needed, not just a scrip that they can take because they want to.
* Dr. Black feels Vince is behind the drug program because he looked him in the eye and said he wants it addressed? Now, I am not saying that Vince wasn't serious but the guy is an actor and a worker. I sure wouldn't take him looking me in the eye as something that seals the deal.
* More than 30 suspensions since the program started? More than twice that number failing and getting a warning? Two guys get suspended when the company makes it clear that the next failure will be announced publicly? How, EXACTLY, is that cleaning up the company?
* Jeez, even Dr. Black can't say we will see smaller wrestlers, only healthier ones? What the hell does that mean?
* CM Punk was right that he isn't just getting pushed because he is clean. That company was short of talent and was a guy who could help them out. His being totally clean is a great perk though.
* John Cena came off really, really bad. The way he danced around the steroid question was downright embarrassing. "I can't tell you that I haven't but you'll never be able to prove that I have." If that is your only answer, don't do the damn interview. That is saying you did them so SAY it. "I did steroids before but now, after seeing the effects they have had on my friends, I have long since stopped". At least people can respect that answer and not think he's an utter dope. That is the first time I can ever remember Cena coming off really badly.
* Vince never just answers a question straight on. He was asked if WWE is drug free. So he says no one is instead of just saying no and then explaining that there will always be people who do drugs that you don't know about. And boy did he look angry, and bad, when he was asked why the Signature scandal caught people using drugs when his tests didn't. That is a damn good question Mr. McMahon.
* I agree with Vince that people are responsible for their own actions but that doesn't mean that as a company you can't watch people and try and protect them from themselves when they need it. Plus, the fact is that Vince does do that. There have been a number of guys with drug problems that they told to get clean or get out, so this statement was pure damage control. Then again, that is pretty much what Vince and Linda's entire appearance here was, and you can't really blame them for that. They have a company to protect.
PWInsider.com