Sports Column

Wrestling woes go beyond steroids

On Sports

By dwight jaynes

The Portland Tribune, Jul 6, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

The longer I’m in this business, the more I realize there are no easy answers to life’s problems. And this from someone who has tried most of his career to solve most of sports’ pressing issues in a 16-inch slice of newsprint.

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit did something unconscionable a couple of weeks ago. You’ve probably heard the story by now –he killed his wife and special-needs child and then hanged himself in the weight room of his mansion outside Atlanta.

The mainstream media has been all over the story. Benoit was acknowledged by his peers as one of the very best technical wrestlers in the business. He wasn’t much of an interview, so his inability to hype his matches kept him from gaining complete superstar status.

But he could thrill you with powerful, acrobatic, believable performances in the ring.

Benoit was an obvious steroid user for many years. He was 5-9 and weighed, at times, near 250 pounds with less than 10 percent body fat. Bodies like that come in a syringe, folks.

Pro wrestlers live in a weird sort of world where perception is reality. They don’t have to be mean, nasty, strong, tough or powerful – they just have to look that way.

Many promoters, especially Vince McMahon, who runs World Wrestling Entertainment, believe that bigger is better.

For years, McMahon has wanted his champions and stars to be muscle-bound monsters. Giants. And he gets what he wants. This is scripted entertainment, and McMahon calls the shots in a business his company monopolizes.

But keep in mind, even though it’s all choreographed, it’s a very violent, physically demanding workplace. Wrestlers find themselves in almost constant pain from throwing one another around.

Over the last several years, in fact, it’s become something of a badge of honor within the business to work “stiff” – to not pull the punches so much. To actually punish one another in the ring.

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