Dave Zirin & Damian Smith: Linda McMahon's Body Count

[marmar]

Imagine if someone ran for senate on the strength of their experience as CEO of a billion dollar company. Now imagine if as an aside, their employees kept ending up dead. They would routinely die of heart attacks, drug overdoses, suicides, and strokes before the age of 50. Imagine if their company had a “death clause” in their contracts that prevented employees and their families from suing the company. Imagine if they had gag orders to prevent family members from speaking out against what could be fairly called the most dangerous working conditions in the United States. Imagine if this candidate was so sociopathic, that they would look at this billion dollar business built on broken bodies and death as a source of pride and even as a motivator for why they deserve the power of public office. And lastly, imagine the media happily joining in with the socio-pathology and giving them a free pass. Welcome to the race for Senator of Connecticut where Republican Linda McMahon is self-funding her campaign on the bodies of the dead wrestlers that have built the billion-dollar empire that is World Wrestling Entertainment.

Just this fall alone during her campaign we have seen the deaths of wrestlers Eddie Fatu aka Umaga at 36, Lance Cade at 29, Luna Vachon at 48, and Jorge Gonzales at 44. In recent years we have seen the death by heart attack of wrestling legend Eddie Guerrero in 2005 and the suicide of Chris Benoit, which took place after he murdered his wife and child in 2007. To call the response to these tragedies cold-blooded would be an insult to reptiles. Here is WWE spokesperson Rob Zimmerman: "Ultimately….stars in any form of entertainment should be held personally responsible for their own actions. Prescription drug overdose is a problem not only with former WWE talent, but society as a whole according to the Centers for Disease Control, as it is the second leading cause of unintentional death (particularly among younger people) in the U.S." This is like a tobacco company executive saying, "Well, LOTS of people get cancer."

As for Linda McMahon, the wife of WWE founder and impresario Vince McMahon, she was blasted by Lance Cade’s father after brushing off a reporter’s questions about his death saying, she "might have met (Cade) once." McMahon has also brushed off suggestions that the WWE is a serious business with a body count by repeatedly saying that the whole thing is a "soap opera" that "isn't real." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.edgeofsports.com/2010-09-29-575/index.html