About Linda McMahon

[Prophet 451]

As I write this, it seems likely that Linda McMahon will be the Republican nomination for Senator from Connecticut. As most might well know, she was previously the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. That sounds more impressive than it is. Her husband, Vince McMahon, runs the creative side of the business and it's well-known that he is the ultimate man in charge. Linda's job was to manage the likeness licenses, DVD rights, endorsement dals and so on. And, credit where it's due, she's done that very well. Since Linda only handled the business side, it's probably not fair to blame her for the numerous distasteful storylines WWE has run (although special mention must go to the Katie Vick necrophilia storyline we suffered through years ago) but Linda's "executive experiance" in the WWE is shaping up to be a major pitch point in her campaign. I've been a wrestling fan all my life and I was a semi-pro worker (essentially, a hobby you get paid a few bucks to do) for a few years. I say that so it's understood that my concerns with Linda's candidacy don't come from any hatred of the wrestling business generally. But I have concerns.

First off, since everyone asks about it, let's talk about steroids. Steroids aren't universal in wrestling but they are fairly widespread in the major promotions (the smaller promotions don't pay enough for steroids). WWE has always been a big man's promotion, right back to the territory days, and there's nothing wrong with that in itself but when Vince brought the promotion, then called WWWF, from his father (also called Vince) in 1984, he shifted the focus from big men who were still athletic like Bobo Brazil, Ernie Ladd and Bruno Samartino to big men with superhero physiques. It's been observed before that Vince likes bodybuilding, he tried starting a bodybuilding promotion in the eighties (the swiftly doomed WBF) so it probably shouldn't be a surprise that he insisted his performers have Superman style bodies, his favourite performer during the eighties was Hulk Hogan, who had a superhuman body and charisma but no actual talent to speak of. The problem is that very few people can build those kind of physiques naturally and even fewer can wrestle with them without injury (hyper-inflated muscles make muscle injuries far more likely). From the beginning, the WWE turned a blind eye (at best) to the dangerous level of steroids most performers had to take to build those kind of bodies. And that's the best case scenario but there's every reason to believe their involvement was deeper than that. In 1992, Vince was charged with steroid distribution. The details of the case are rather complicated but the basics are that WWE had employed a crooked doctor called Zahorian for the specific purpose of supplying it's workers with dangerous amounts of steroids and narcotic painkillers (painkiller abuse is even more widespread in wrestling than steroid use). The doctor sent several packages by Fed Ex to Titan Tower (WWE's corporate headquarters) where Vince would extract some for himself and send the rest on to a performer (usually Hogan although sometimes others). Vince admitted that he had abused steroids himself. He never denied, under oath, the basic allegations I have just outlined, which were backed up by statements from various wrestlers. What he did dispute, and what eventually resulted in his acquital, was his receiving and sending on of the two specific packages which the prosecutor used to establish jurisdiction. The very high probability that the allegations were correct didn't matter because without those two packages, the prosecutor could not stablish jurisdiction and so, Vince walked. The details of the case make it clear that Linda McMahon was heavily involved with the decision to keep Zahorian on the payroll. It's clear that Linda, through intermediary Pat Patterson, gave the order to rehire Zahorian after he was released (he was released because the state athletic commission no longer required a doctor to be present at wrestling matches) and that he was rehired specifically because of his willingness to supply dangerous quantities of steroids and narcotic painkillers. During Vince's trial, WWE established a stringent drug testing program for PR reasons and, for a while, virtually eliminated steroids from their locker room. Smaller, more athletic workers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were "pushed" (heavily promoted). The matches were entertaining and athletic and the wrestlers were healthier. But in 1994, with the steroid trial safely over, the drug testing program was abandoned and the rock-like muscles returned. Profits were down but one could easily argue that was due to the negative PR of the steroid trial so why was the drug testing program abandoned?

WWE would have no drug testing program at all for the next eleven years. During that time, numerous wrestlers died. Not all were because of steroids but in many cases, steroid abuse played at least a part. WWE policy was to acknowledge the deaths if the performer had recently worked for WWE or made a big name there but never to comment on how and why they died. Then, in 2005, Eddy Guerrero died and that was one WWE couldn't ignore. Eddy was a main event star and scheduled to win the WWE title the day he died. His death ripped a hole in WWE's plans and they had to acknowledge his death. Eddy's death may or may not have been steroid related. Certainly, Eddy took steroids throughout his career but it's also possible that the years of abusing painkillers and recreational drugs played a part. Ironically, Eddy had gotten clean some time before his death but the damage to his body had already been done. WWE, feeling that they had to do something to counter the negative PR, instituted a drug testing program shortly after Eddy's death. However, unlike the 1992 program, this one had holes you could drive a truck through. Most egregiously, it allowed performers to use steroids and painkillers if they had a prescription. Now, that might sound OK to the layman but that's because they don't understand how wrestling works. Virtually all wrestlers have joint problems virtually all the time. I only wrestled for a few years and the joint damage to my knees and back still cause me agony some days. Most wrestlers are also on the road most of the time. That means that, in several towns around the country, a wrestler can go to a doctor and complain of joint problems and those doctors, perfectly professionally, can prescribe them steroids to strengthen and lubricate the joints and narcotic painkillers to handle the pain. I was never a performer for the WWE. I was a bottom-rung indie worker for less than half-a-dozen years and if I can pick out that loophole just from reading WWE's drug policy, you can be certain that the WWE know full well that loophole is there. If they know that loophole makes the drug policy worthless (and they have to know that), then the only possible explanation is that the drug policy is intended to be worthless, a friendly PR blanket that doesn't actually affect anything.

And that's discounting those who get steroids through more dubious means. In 2007, the online drugstore Signature Pharmacy was busted for supplying all kinds of controlled substances. What emerged was a list of no less than fourteen WWE performers who had purchased steroids or steroid-related medications from the pharmacy (for the record and using stage names: Randy Orton, Edge, Booker T, Shane Helms, Simon Dean, Tony Carelli, Johnny Nitro, William Regal, Charlie Haas, Ken Kennedy, Umaga, Sho Funaki, Chavo Guerrro and Rey Mysterio). All of them had taken and passed WWE drug tests during the time they were receiving steroids from Signature. Doesn't that suggest something damning about the tests? Incidently, all of these performers were suspended from WWE but none were prosecuted by authorities. There's also always the possibility of finding a shady doctor. Zahorian has already been mentioned but he was neither the first nor the last. After him came Joel Hackett who became so known for supplying steroids that a running locker-room joke became "I have to see the doc, I just can't Hack-ett anymore". Dr Astin, who supplied steroids to Chris Benoit (more on him in a second), is currently serving ten years for 175 counts of illegally prescribing controlled drugs. I have never personally taken steroids but I've known several steroid users. Based on visual evidence and what I know of WWE's drug policy, I'd estimate that about two-thirds of the WWE roster are still abusing steroids.

The Benoit tragedy reminded the public how widespread steroids were in wrestling but most of the media took the wrong lesson from it. When Benoit killed his wife and son before hanging himself, most of the press jumped straight to the conclusion of "roid rage". The specific details of the crimes make that extremely unlikely. Roid rage is sudden onset, brief duration and rage driven. The Benoit murders took place over three days and showed evidence of pre-meditation. They weren't roid rage. However, it is entirely possible that Benoit's phonomenal steroid intake (Astin was prescribing him a six-month supply every three to four weeks) exacerbated his depression and brain damage and thereby contributed to the crimes. Yet, Benoit had been regularly drug tested during this period and never came up as violating the policy. Benoit had been suffering from severe depression ever since Eddy Guerrero's death. He had told friends that he "wanted to go be with Eddy". When he made a mistake during a match, he would punish himself by performing hundreds of Hindu squats. Benoit's friends had been worried about him for months yet, despite his increasingly erratic behaviour and a physique that was obviously not natural, he was still booked to perform. The weekend he murdered his family, Benoit was scheduled to win the ECW title (WWE brought the ECW name and assets in bankruptcy court in 1991 and has since used them in it's shows). While no-one could have predicted the murders, Benoit's behaviour would have been ringing gigantic alarm bells in any other business or any other promotion.

That's enough about steroids. Let's talk about WWE's practices with it's talent. How about union busting? Wrestlers are the only athletes without a union to represent their interests (if gymnasts are athletes, so are wrestlers) and the primary reason for that is WWE's aggressive anti-union policies. Bob "Sgt. Slaughter" Remas and Jesse Ventura were both fired directly because they tried to start a union. According to rumour, Roddy Piper has been fired before for the same reason (that said, Roddy has been fired from pretty much every promotion on the planet for his inability to keep his mouth shut). How about the fact that WWE habitually books it's performers at over two hundred shows a year and the talent has no holidays (although top-level stars can request and receive time off). WWE doesn't pay medical benefits and numerous performers have been fired while injured (most glaringly, Andrew "Test" Martin was fired while recovering from a broken neck). One performer (Dawn Marie) was fired because she fell pregnant. Performers habitually come back from injuries too early or refuse to take time off because they're worried they will be demoted or fired during their absence which, naturally enough, leads to painkiller abuse. How about the fact that WWE continues to falsely and illegally classify it's workers as "independent contractors" to avoid paying benefits? Perhaps in the early days of the WWF, when talent worked for several promoters, that was excusable but you're still doing it now, when talent is locked into exclusivity contracts months or years in advance and WWE controls their performance and appearence right down to the level of controlling their haircuts. How about the fact that WWE's pay structure is so complicated and so vague that you get paid more-or-less whatever WWE feels like paying you? How about your repeated refusal to pay due royalties to performers after they've left the company? Jesse Ventura sued you over this and won but you were still doing it as recently as 2003 when you stopped paying Jeff Hardy royalties on the autobiography about Jeff and his brother.

How about your highly dubious business tactics in building the WWF? Back when the WWF debuted on pay-per-view, you were competing with Jim Crockett Promotions. You booked your first Survivor Series PPV opposite one of Crockett's events and then told all the PPV companies that if they carried Crockett's event, they wouldn't be allowed to carry future WWF events. Today, that's called "block-booking" and it's highly illegal. While I know we shouldn't hold one spouse responsible for the misdeeds of the other, do you have any comment on Vince's collosal cocaine intake during the eighties? Do you have any comment on why the WWF machine was used to hunder the investigation into the very suspicious death of Jimmy Snuka's girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, in 1983? While Snuka was never charged in her death, Argentino's parents won a civil lawsuit about it in 1985 so why is Snuka in the WWE Hall of Fame while fellow never-charged-but-virtually-certain murderer Chris Benoit isn't? Would you like to comment on why at least ringboy was fired after complaining that WWE office worker Terry Garvin had molested him? That same ringboy claims that you, Linda, personally blocked his application for unemployment benefits, that you personally attended his final hearing where his benefits were finally awarded, care to comment? While you haven't personally run on a "family values" ticket, your party habitually does. Do you think that's compatible with Vince's numerous affairs and the four seperate occasions that he's tried to put an incest storyline on screen, including the proposed storyline where he would have committed incest with his daughter?

I love wrestling and I make no apologies for that. If you don't like wrestling, no problem. Not every show is to everyone's taste and that's fine. But Linda McMahon isn't campaigning to run a wrestling promotion, she's campaigning to be one of the people who runs the country. In a business full of shady characters, the McMahon's are among the worst. So if you know anybody considering voting for her, please share some of the information above. All of this is public record and can be easily verified. All of it should rule out any of the McMahon's from ever holding public office but just in case, one more story:

Owen Hart was the youngest son of the Hart wrestling clan. Stu and Helen Hart had twelve children, all of whom either became wrestlers or married wrestlers. Owen was the youngest and probably the most talented. Some commentators consider him the best wrestler to never win a world title. He was small for a wrestler (five foot ten, 220lb) but he was a superb talent and dedicated family man who adored his wife and children. In May of 1999, Owen was performing as a hokey superhero called the "Blue Blazer". It was a comedy character and he was funny in the role. At the Over The Edge event, Owen was booked in the third match on the card (wrestling cards usually have eight to ten matches building to a main event so this was an early match). His entrance was originally supposed to be that he would descend to the ring on a zipline with a midget wrestler held between his legs. The midget wrestler part was removed just hours before the show but the rest of the stunt remained. Later that night, as TV viewers watched an intro package, Owen stepped off the catwalk eighty feet above the ring and the release mechanism of the rope snapped. He plumetted eighty feet, landing with his chest across the top rope, catapulting him into the ring. He managed, on sheer instinct, to sit up before he lost consciousness. Owen Hart died in the middle of the ring, choking to death on his own blood.

Perhaps one could argue that Owen's death was a tragic accident. Perhaps one could argue that the decision to continue the show even as Owen's blood was soaking into the canvas was a flawed decision made under pressure and, with more consideration, the show would have been stopped. Perhaps. But Owen's widow, Martha Hart, filed a lawsuit over Owen's death and what came out in the course of that suit moved the incident from "tragic accident" to "negligent homicide". The release mechanism that snapped was originally designed for use on pleasureboats, not for supporting a 220lb man eighty feet in the air. Owen had no backup or safety harness. The safety latches that are supposed to prevent this kind of incident weren't used because it would have held up his entrace for a few seconds. Martha spoke openly about how uncomfortable her husband had become with the increasing amount of stunts and non-wrestling content. He was a wrestler, a very good one but not a stuntman and even a stuntman would have had a safety net. The WWE eventually settled the case for $18 million but, the night following Owen's death, WWE aired a special tribute episode of their show. Where they showed footage of his funeral. After Owen's widow had expressely asked them not to.

Lovely people, the McMahon's. Just the kind you want in the Senate.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Very interesting post.

The McMahon's certainly are some shady people. Hopefully the people of Connecticut will not elect her a Senator. They already have Lieberman and he has brought havoc on the U.S.

[Prophet 451]

2. The business is full of dodgy people

The McMahons are almost monsters.