Office of the Independent Blogger

John Kronus died on July eighteenth. He was a professional wrestler who wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association, as well as a variety of independent federations, but he never made it to WWE. I bring up John Kronus because he died of an enlarged heart (possibly from steroids or drugs, but not for sure), and his death was brought up in the media as another example of a WWE employee dying young.

In an equally disturbing story, CW Network runs WWE’s Smackdown! wrestling program and their President was asked whether or not Benoit’s murder-suicide would affect their ratings. He said, “No,” because Benoit has never been on Smackdown! which is obviously false as Benoit had only recently been moved from Smackdown! to ECW. How shameless is that? Either he doesn’t have a clue what’s on his show or he’s lying about it. Either way, you’ve got to shake your head. There have been so many glaring examples of incompetence and dishonesty in the media that knowing about all of them will make you doubt the non-print press for the rest of your life.

Let’s take Glen Beck’s recent take on the matter. He starts by calling The Great American Bash, which is a WWE Pay-Per-View event every summer, the “All American Bash.” He continues with a rant about how wrestling “glorifies” the worst violence of our society, the TVs on his background read, “WWF” despite the fact that the company’s been under a different name for a long time now. He trashes the wrestlers as little more than “B-Movie actors” in “Spandex” (wonder what he’d call Reagan), completely discounting the obvious athleticism involved. Says that there’s more athleticism in a “Jackass movie” than in wrestling (I say there are more facts in a Jackass movie than on his show) and then he adds that because of that, you can’t call your event “The All American Bash” (fortunately they don’t call it “All American Bash”). Then he pretends that he gives a damn about Nancy or Daniel Benoit by ranting about how terrible Chris’s actions were, which they were, but the truth is that he doesn’t care because if he did, he would be talking about doctors and the schedule they worked, not trashing the industry for ratings and kicks.

Beck, adding to his disgraceful rant, cited the misleading “62 wrestlers have died young statistics” and then started to babble about the industry. “Many of these sports entertainers come from troubled backgrounds,” he said, talking about how wrestlers are generally bad people with bad histories. I say, first: Isn’t that a lot of athletes? and then I say, How do you know what their histories are and why should we believe you? You don’t even know the name of their PPV, let alone the histories of ‘many’ wrestlers, and probably not ‘any,’ either. He then said, “There are far more tragic endings than happy ones [in wrestling]” (how would he know?) and referred to the wrestlers as “trash-talking thugs,” all of which conflicts (is he bashing wrestling? wrestlers?). You’ve got to believe a guy when he talks like that, though, because he’s obviously done all of his homework. At least, that’s what someone would believe until he started to speak with Mark Mero. First he called Mark “Jack,” then he paused and said, “Mark” and then finally called him “Mike,” which he repeated over and over.

He interviews him about the industry, along with a doctor (and, as I’ve said, there good points all around, but Mero is an opportunist and he’s dishonest as well, as Lance Storm points out). The rest of the show isn’t worth talking about.

There are other examples of media coverage being off in this whole ordeal, but you know the script by now, and so allow me to explain why I haven’t been writing about this situation lately: I’ve been busy with work, and the news hasn’t been particularly newsish with regard to this matter, so there you go. There are a few things that are going on with this situation, though, that I’d like to talk about.

First: Benoit was likely on steroids and the fact that he didn’t test positive for them means nothing, just like his testing clean for Human Growth Hormone means nothing. It could simply mean that he was on the off-portion of a steroid user’s cycle, or that the tests couldn’t catch them after death, but it’s fairly certain he was juiced up. Not that it has much, if anything, to do with the murder, but that’s the consensus.

Second: there have been two interesting ideas floating around, and I’ll express them as Two A and Two B.

Two A: Former Wrestler and Harvard alum Christopher Nowinski has speculated that Benoit’s actions may have been influenced by concussions he suffered and knew about (or didn’t). It’s entirely possible. Concussions happen all the time in wrestling and Benoit was especially prone to them as he used to do a move called the Kamikaze Headbutt off the turnbuckles. It is a move that should be banned as it is unsafe for anyone to do, much like WWE has banned select moves that affect the cranium. I’m not sure I believe the concussions are a leading or even minimal cause, but it’s definitely interesting and it certainly doesn’t do him, or anyone, any good to live your life concussed.

Two B: The theory that Benoit killed himself to expose the wrestling business has been floated around by Bryan Alvarez and while it sounds ridiculous on the surface, it has some merit, I think. The theory is that Benoit was so disgusted by his best friend Eddie Guerrerro’s death and the deaths of several other professional wrestlers that he decided it would be a good idea to kill his family and leave his steroids out in the open for everyone to see. Benoit, as has come out, destroyed a variety of family photos and documents on that fateful weekend but he did nothing to hide his drugs.

Isn’t that interesting?

Not sure how true it is, as Benoit loved wrestling, but perhaps he loved it so much that he suffered through the deaths of so many friends and thought, “Someone has to blow the whistle and shake it up.” What makes that theory less plausible to me, though, is that Benoit loved his wife and kid, despite whatever problems he had with Nancy. I still believe that Benoit killed her somewhat on accident and then lost his mind, but that theory, like all the others, has some issues (though I think it has the least amount).

Rumors are running that Benoit’s diary has yet to be found but will be and if that’s true, we might gain more insight into his thoughts.

Chris Benoit’s toxicology report is out, and with it comes either silence in the media or a renewed wave of nonsense, depending on whether or not the press decides to continue shouting half-truths and lies. Here’s the news, before the commentary, as it should be.

Professional wrestler Chris Benoit had an elevated level of testosterone in his system but no other steroids in his body, and his 7-year-old son was sedated at the time of his death, a Georgia medical examiner said Thursday.

“This level of testosterone indicates that he had been using testosterone at least within some reasonably short period of time prior to the time that he died,” said Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for the state with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, as he released the results of the toxicology report for the wrestler; his wife, Nancy; and son, Daniel. “Although testosterone was found in Christopher Benoit’s urine, there is no evidence of any other of the illegal types of steroids, or the whole laundry list of anabolic steroids that are out there to be used,” Sperry said, adding, “the presence of the testosterone alone even could be an indicator that he was being treated for testicular insufficiency.”

Besides steroids, Benoit’s body contained the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the painkiller hydrocodone, according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The GBI said Benoit tested negative for blood alcohol. But Sperry said that they found a drug in the child’s system that surprised them: Xanax. “It is our opinion that Daniel Benoit was sedated by Xanax at the time that he was murdered, so that (means) he was sedated prior to the time that he died,” he said. The GBI said it could not perform tests for steroids or human growth hormones on the son because of a lack of urine.

Benoit’s wife, Nancy, tested positive for Xanax, hydrocodone and the painkiller hydromorphone, but the decomposition process hindered the ability to determine the precise levels of the drugs at the time of her death. An elevated alcohol level found in her system could also be due to the decomposition process, Sperry said. “The decomposition will affect the ability to interpret these drug levels reliably,” Sperry said. “Before she died, they may have been higher. They could have been lower. We just don’t know and we’ll never know.” The test results were expected to shed more light on Benoit’s last moments. Authorities said Benoit killed his wife and son in their suburban Atlanta home, placed Bibles next to their bodies and then hanged himself on the cable of a weight machine.

Anabolic steroids were found in the home, leading officials to wonder if the drugs played a role in the killings. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.” “There is no reliable scientific data that conclusively says that elevated levels of administered testosterone lead to excessive rage or behavioral disorders,” Sperry said. “All the testing that’s been done regarding that has been completely inconclusive.” Federal authorities have charged Benoit’s personal physician, Dr. Phil Astin, with improperly prescribing painkillers and other drugs to two patients other than Benoit. He has pleaded not guilty.

Investigators have also raided Astin’s office several times since the deaths, seizing prescription records and other documents. Before he was charged, Astin told the AP he prescribed testosterone for Benoit, a longtime friend, in the past. He would not say what, if any, medications he prescribed when Benoit visited his office June 22, the day authorities believe Benoit killed his wife. “It’s a little unclear to know exactly where this leads us, but you take this piece and you compare it with what a witness said or what was found at the scene and suddenly the picture begins to become more in focus,” said Scott Ballard, district attorney for Fayette County. “And that’s what we’re certainly hoping to do.”

This is somewhat redeeming for WWE: he was on testosterone, which is in its own way a type of steroid, but he wasn’t on any other steroids, and it’s entirely possible that he was taking it for other reasons, so much so that Ballard won’t out-and-out say, “This is steroids,” because it isn’t.

There are two points raised by the toxicology reports that I have comment on: if Nancy was drinking, and Benoit was on drugs, doesn’t that make the likelihood of a big domestic blowup blowing up worse than expected (or wanted) likelier? And if Benoit sedated his son before killing him, does that mean this isn’t what it seems? Like I’ve said for a long time, I believe that there was a domestic dispute, Benoit killed her without meaning to, panicked, and then decided to take his son’s life and his own for reasons I don’t know. (There are a variety of things that could’ve happened. Is it possible that Benoit decided he didn’t want his son to live without his family, or with his father in prison, or in group homes, and decided that he’d take his life as well? It certainly wasn’t a contemptuous murder, if he spared him the pain of asphixiation.)

There’s still more to be wondered about, of course. The Bibles are a very disturbing part of the story that nobody talks about and there’s been no explanation for, particularly since Benoit had contempt for organized religion. But now we know, conclusively, that “roid rage” isn’t responsible, and the rest is up in the air. I’d like to think we now know that prescription medicine needs to be reformed. That the media needs to be reformed. That a wrestler’s schedule needs to be reformed. I think those are things we should now know, but I know better than to think we all know that now.

Nancy Grace showed footage of Nancy Benoit and Miss Elizabeth from their WCW days. You’re familiar with Nancy Benoit, but Miss Elizabeth was married to “The Macho Man” Randy Savage in real life (as well as on the air) until they divorced and she wound up in a relationship with another wrestler named Lex Luger. She died of a drug overdose a couple of years ago and some have blamed Luger for it, and that’s a brief look at her personal public history. Her public public history was as one of the great female managers in wrestling history. One thing she wasn’t in public or private, though, was Johnny Grunge’s wife.

Grace seems to think so, though, as she referred to her as such.

All of these incidents? The media allowing the Ultimate Warrior to testify, the misleading “Young Death” numbers, the other interview deaths, the steroid commentary, Shrill O’Lielly’s attack on an edited Linda McMahon video, Nancy Grace’s inability to identify the people she’s talking about? Remember them next time Dick Morris is telling you that Condi Rice is going to run for President on Fox and CNN is reporting whatever it is they’re reporting.

Vince McMahon told the wrestling locker room, according to news reports, that they need to clean up their act, say no to drugs and speak to the WWE’s Grief Counselor about the Benoit situation or anything else going on in their lives. It’s a start, but McMahon will have to do far more than that to convince some of us that he wants to change the culture in wrestling, let alone that he wants to. The “Just Say No!” approach is just a band-aid. Wrestlers aren’t abusing drugs because they can’t say no — they’re abusing drugs because they have no off-season, work with injuries that would put a man on paid-leave in most businesses, and travel hundreds of miles every other night to put even more of a beating on their body.

Before I get to Nancy Grace, allow me to present background information on dead wrestler Johnny Grunge, good friend and neighbor of Chris Benoit. He was in ECW’s “Public Enemy,” and he was a fine wrestler with many friends in the business. He died of a sleep apnea, but Nancy Grace has been covering his story — if you recall, he died, after Eddie Guerrerro did, which left Benoit feeling friendless and miserable: it’s one of the things his friends point to as a cause of his madness — and saying that Grunge didn’t die of an apnea because you can’t die of an apnea.

I ask you, then, Dear Reader, to Google the term, “Sleep Apnea Deadly” and see what you get. Then tell me that you’re comfortable with the reporting that goes on in this country. If you can sleep well tonight, I salute you, and I salute you if you can sleep well, trusting the media, knowing that of their list of wrestlers who have died before they were fifty, they’ve got men like Owen Hart who fell off a scaffold; Bruiser Brody who was stabbed in Puerto Rico and poisoned by the bile in his own kidneys; Yokozuna, who died because he was Yokozuna, amongst other examples. (Google his image.)

On a Benoit note, Benoit’s Doctor — Doctor Astin — had Benoit’s chart with him when the first raid by the police started. The police think he was trying to tamper with it, presumably to cover up the ungodly amount, and mix, of drugs he was prescribing.

Fox News advertised Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon, as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor tonight. The problem with that was, Linda is in China, and there’s no way she could make it (not that she had agreed to — she hadn’t, as far as I can tell, and it wouldn’t make sense for her to agree to when she’s in China and knew she would be for months now). Now, what do you think Fox News did (and, as far as I can tell, intend to do right from the beginning)? If you answered, “They aired an interview of her from 2002 and mixed it with clips of ‘Backyard Wrestling,’ (which is not representative of professional wrestling and has absolutely nothing to do with Benoit’s murder-suicide unless we’re going down the “Wrestling Creates Monsters!” route) you’d be right!

I guess Shrill O’Lielly didn’t get the memo from Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes and Douglas Feith: It’s Steroids, Stupid! which is still the wrong message, but at least it’s their message, consistent and true (for them) even if it should be: It’s Journalism, Stupid! Treat It As Such. Worship It. Treasure It. Before Someone Takes It Away.

On case-related news,

WAGA-TV in Atlanta has just reported that federal investigators have seized all medical records of Dr. Phil Astin and patients Larry Pfolhl (Lex Luger), Marcus Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, Bob Howard (Bob Holly), Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, Mike Durham (Johnny Grunge) and Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio). The station also reported that M.J. and O.G., the two wrestlers involved in the indictment of overprescribing pain killers were, as speculated, Mark Jindrak and Gutierrez.

That Doctor is a bad man.

Benoit’s doctor has been connected to the death of Michael Durham who is known as Johnny Grunge of the old ECW tag-team, The Public Enemy. And yes, Dear Reader, that doctor and others like him are facilitating the destruction of human lives and families because they’re willing to give prescriptions by the barrel to professional athletes for extra dollars and in hopes of brushing up with fame for five minutes. There’s more important news out, though, and that’s that some tests have been completed” on Benoit’s toxicology report.

A spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, John Bankhead, told The Associated Press that his agency was waiting for all the tests to be complete before sharing the results with investigators in Fayette County. “We’re going to discuss what we find with local investigators and they can determine what they want to release,” Bankhead said. District Attorney Scott Ballard did not immediately return a page to his cell phone seeking comment. Police have said Benoit strangled his wife and son, placing Bibles next to the bodies, and then hung himself on a piece of exercise equipment in his suburban Atlanta home the weekend of June 22.

Authorities found anabolic steroids in Benoit’s home, leading officials to wonder whether the drugs played a role in the killings. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as “roid rage.” Since the deaths, toxicology tests have been conducted on Benoit’s body to determine if steroids or other drugs were present. Blood-alcohol tests also were conducted on his body, and chemical tests were conducted on the bodies of the wife and son, Bankhead said. The wife’s body was decomposed, preventing some tests on her body from being done, though Bankhead declined to be specific. The GBI has been handling the testing for general drugs and alcohol, while an outside lab was hired to do the testing for steroids, Bankhead said. He declined to name the lab or say which of the tests have been completed.

“There is going to be some interpretation of what was found,” Bankhead said, without elaborating.

The last quote baffles, of course, but I take it to mean: “yes, we found steroids in his system, but a lot of other different, more-consistent-with-rage-and-tempers-and-depression drugs.” We’ll see what happens when the full reports are out, though, but there’s still more news coming out of this story: Doctor Astin’s office has been raided a third time for information on his dead patients, and Johnny Grunge’s wife has gone out on record to criticize Doctor Astin, as he should be.

There is another bit of news I’d like to touch upon before we head into the media. Famed wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer is saying that a handful (at most) of people at the top of WWE knew about the murder-suicide on the night WWE aired its Tribute Show to Benoit and is criticizing them for claiming not to have known when, he says, he knew by six o clock. I’m not sure what to make of the news — wrestlers had all sorts of things to say, and Triple H, who is married to the boss’ daughter and holds all the politics clout…well, he had nothing negative to say about Benoit, nothing tentative, and so I wonder if it simply isn’t true, or if it was all speculation.

Like I’ve said before, WWE had a short amount of time to make a decision: air a tribute? Tribute show? Let the show go on? Ignore it for a day? Whatever they came to would be criticized heavily, and so I cut them slack in airing an emotional tribute when all the confirmed news they’d known was, “He and his family are dead.”

Briefly, I’d like to direct you to the Larry King transcript, where he interviewed John Cena of WWE, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Ted DiBiase and Steve Blackman, even. He asked fair questions and got fair, straight up answers. It’s how an interview should be done — without an agenda, without pointed questions. He asked about steroids and made other points, but he didn’t scream at his guests — “DON’T YOU KNOW HE WAS TAKING ENOUGH STEROIDS TO GROW A HIPPO? ISN’T THAT CONVINCING AND SHOCKING?!”

And since we’re on the subject, we should touch upon Fox’ continuing coverage of Chris Benoit’s death, as it’s just as important as the Larry King show.

On Friday Night’s “Hannity and Colmes,” wrestlers “Leaping” Lanny Poffo, “Superstar” Billy Graham, and Jacques Rougeau were interviewed on the program. Here are the highlights:

- Alan Colmes mentioned the survey from the U.K. that states that 104 wrestlers, under the age of 50, have died in the last decade. Colmes read a WWE response, “We are in the process of reviewing this list and the many others that are circulating around the internet. We intend to comment on these lists in the near future.”

- Colmes butchered Lanny Poffo’s name, but he corrected him. Poffo said he met Chris Benoit on three different occasions, and spoke to friends Rick Martel and Nora Greenwald about Benoit, and they said he was the last person they’d expect to do something like this. Lanny said he was torn up that a seven year old boy is gone in this tragedy.

- Rougeau said he knew Benoit in WCW, and puts the blame, “100% on steroids.” He said he was in the WWF for 10 years, and says it’s a rough life when you are away from your family 25 days out of each month. He said lots of guys go to the bars after the matches, and mix alcohol with other drugs they are using.

- Poffo said there is an epidemic out there, called “it’s not my fault syndrome.” He said to make it in life you must be yourself and be unique. Poffo said he was proud of his 21 year career, and traveled all around the world.

- Rougeau said he never used steroids, but for ten years was around guys that used them. For an example, Rougeau brought up the Road Warriors. He said Hawk pushed him up against the wall after a match, but apologized five minutes later. Jacques said if a wrestler weights 250 in June, and then weights 265 in July, you know what’s going on.

- Graham joined the program and defended Road Warrior Hawk by saying he was using a large amount of cocaine, in addition to his steroid use and use of other drugs.

- Graham mentioned Dean Malenko’s comments on Raw, how Chris Benoit had a knack of disappearing from conversations. He said Benoit was devastated by the death of his friend Eddy Guerrero, and literally cried on his shoulder about what is wrong with this world. He said that was insight into his mental issues.

- Poffo was asked about steroids in wrestling and if they are necessary, and Poffo said it is important to be unique, because that’s what people will pay to see.

- Jacques said when he started in wrestling 30 years ago, he had 19 ½” arms, and today, he has 19” arms. He said the Rougeau family has done well without using steroids. He talked about his successes in the ring including defeating Hulk Hogan, and said he never needed steroids.

- Jacques said it’s the night life that has killed a lot of guys.

- Graham said it’s a matter of choice. He said he choose to use steroids, starting in 1966. He said he enjoyed taking steroids.

- Colmes asked Graham about Daniel, and wondered if he had Fragile X Syndrome. He said he isn’t a doctor, but knew he was shy. Graham said he could have been undersized. He said undersized kids have been prescribed human growth hormone to help them grow.

- Graham said the Bibles at the scene showed anguish by Benoit. He felt Benoit was taking himself and his son to another place.

- Poffo said he almost declined the offer to do the show because he thought he’d get too emotional. He said Benoit didn’t leave a suicide note, so we can only speculate what was going through his mind. He gave a message to the kids, “if you play, you must pay.” He said you must know the Consequences for everything you do.

- Jacques ended the segment by saying “stay away from steroids.”

It was a much better show than the rest of what’s been on Fox, but I take exception with Rougeau’s comments. I’ll accept them as having less an agenda than the media’s, though, as he was a wrestler, but I think he’s as wrong as can be. “100%” blame on steroids? No way.

According to the latest People magazine, Nancy Sullivan-Benoit, too, had a history of violence. “Years before” marrying Chris, the magazine reports, she pulled a knife on her now ex-husband Kevin Sullivan, who was also a wrestler and a promoter (in fact, he booked Nancy and Chris into a storyline relationship that turned into a real-life storyline that led the Boys to say that Kevin Sullivan “booked his own divorce”). This, of course, leads me to believe that the violence between the couple might well have been a mutual truth. That is certainly the case in many relationships where couples will fight one another. It is of course true that there are relationships where there is only one abuser but in others, it is a two-way street. You might ask, “Why didn’t they leave one another?” and I don’t know the answer any more than you do. Probably a mixture of love and a sense of responsibility to each other would be my guess, but it’s just a guess. That isn’t to gloss over Benoit’s hideous crime or justify it — not at all, not at all — but the story begins to make more sense if it’s looked at as a domestic dispute gone terribly wrong. At this point, I’m absolutely unwilling to believe that Benoit planned any of it, which I base on the nature of domestic violence, the time between each killing, and the alcohol he was found laying next to.

If you’re interested in reading the story in People, go, in order: here, here, here, here, here and here. It’s an excellent piece, although the photos in it left me feeling cold and hollow.

A few days ago, I believe I mentioned the news that Nancy Benoit left a note in a security deposit box saying that if something happens to her, Chris is the man. Fox News is reporting that that is false as told them by the investigators. So Nancy left no note saying that Benoit was the one, if she were found dead.

There is nothing else to report today. I must tell you now, though, Dear Reader, that I will be gone tomorrow to the University for Orientation. If I have Internet access, I’ll post. If not, expect my return on Tuesday, and I’ll have an update on John Cena’s appearance on Larry King along with whatever further news breaks. This weekend’s been a slow one for news as the talk shows are, for the most part, off.

Former professional wrestler Kevin Nash was on Hannity & Colmes last night. The interview began with Colmes asking Nash if ‘roid rage is a big problem in the wrestling industry; Nash said no. They asked him if he has done steroids; he said, No. They asked him if he had rages on the steroids; he said, no. After, they asked him if he thought that steroids could’ve caused it and he said, “You can’t discount anything” but he clearly was, and then he pointed out that Benoit had been drinking and if you check our prisons there have probably been more alcohol-related crimes than steroid-related crimes.

At which point will the media start asking about doctors and stop asking these ridiculous questions night after night about ‘roid rage? It’s becoming absurd — they ask the same questions, get the same answers, and spout off with the same nonsense each and every night. It was good of Kevin Nash to point out that they didn’t care about the truth or facts or alcohol (I’d have pointed out renegade doctors) because it isn’t “sexy.” Someone had to say it.

A few days ago I wrote about Marc Mero as an unfair source and a couple of days later I wrote about regretting it because he appeared on MSNBC with Steve Blackman and was a fair, impartial source. He appeared on Grace’s show with Blackman but this time, they had a huge argument when Mero told him to “be honest” so that they can make a difference and save families that have been abused by wrestling drugs. Blackman took offense and said, “You can’t say I haven’t been honest.” Mero said, “You keep saying you haven’t taken steroids” and they argued over it but then Marc Mero threw a fit about how Blackman should try to “make a difference” (essentially arguing that Blackman is killing people by not “speaking out,” whatever that means). Blackman then spoke of personal responsibility in an attempt to defend the industry and WWE. Mero then spoke about how wrestling needs to be regulated, something I agree with in principal but not entirely due to logistical issues I’ve discussed before. Then Nancy Grace tried to paint professional wrestling as an industry that encourages wife-beating and violence. Steve Blackman said, “I don’t see the correlation.”

I was troubled by Mero’s…enthusiasm, I suppose. It’s nice that he cares, but he’s screaming at Blackman for no reason and he’s all too willing to make the industry out to be a devil’s. I’m in favor of what he’s saying — since day one, I’ve been discussing their schedule and how it all needs to change — but he needs to calm down and speak with eloquence, not in huge decibels.

There are two other stories coming out today that merit notice.

Fox News Channel reports this afternoon on Chris Benoit’s mother wishing investigators acted more quickly on information that her late son was buying massive quantities of steroids. The anchor asked a criminal defense attorney, Geoffrey Nathan, about the mother’s statement. He said federal law enforcement may have looked the other way because they are hesitant to ruffle the feathers of big-time athletes. Arthur Aidala, a former prosecutor, said there will be more investigation into Benoit’s doctor, Dr. Astin. “He’s a drug dealer who had permission to sign his name to a prescription,” he said. The anchor noted that the doctor is at risk of charges of manslaughter. The prosecutor said it could be tough to go that far, but definitely he’s on the hook for potential drug distribution charges.

There we have something else that should be investigated: prosecutors, and their unwillingness to ruffle the feathers of doctors and athletes. Doctors, too, as I’ve been harping on for several days, but these two issues — which are far more important and complicated than what the media’s been discussing — will continue to be ignored, alas. I just can’t believe the government knew that he was abusing steroids and they did nothing to him or his doctor.

I’ll bet that happens a lot.

Here, finally, is the obituary of Nancy and Daniel Benoit. It’s very sobering.

Most people are interested in Benoit’s toxicology report because they want blood proof that he was using and abusing steroids. I’m interested in his toxicology report so that I can know just what he was using when he killed his wife and then snapped on the rest of his family. I want to know what transformed a man who loved his child and was kind to everyone into a man who committed a despicable double-murder suicide.

This testimony by generally-unknown wrestler John Walters is baffling and disturbing, and it shows us — along with all the other universally kind words said of Chris Benoit — that the monster who murders his children, robs a bank or destroys a life doesn’t live in a dark apartment near an alley in an inner city far away from us: he lives right next door, inside your house, and sometimes inside of you.

The past few days have been crazy in the wrestling world. I can only imagine what Chris Benoit’s really close friends and co-workers are feeling. I have been waiting and waiting for the this whole tragedy to turn into something different, but it looks as if it is as real and gruesome as it sounds. Over a 3 year period, I did a lot of work for WWE. I was involved in about 20 dark matches, skits, heat and velocity matches, etc. I remember one night in particular, after a sunday night heat match, I was pulled aside by Chris Benoit. He told me how much he was impressed with my work and that he really liked my intensity. I was thrilled to have the endorsement of one of the finest wrestlers on the planet. From that day forward, Chris Benoit went out of his way to help me in any way I asked. He sent me instant messages encouraging me that I did a great job in my matches, he asked me to send him a tape to watch, and he was one of the first people to congratulate me on my first tour to Japan. He became a close friend over emails and phone conversations. Even about a month ago he was asking me when I would be back at WWE tv. From what I understand, he showed the same compassion to a lot of the rising stars in WWE. He made it clear that he wanted to help the next generation of stars to progress. Another thing I noticed about Chris Benoit was that he always spoke of his family. He told me about Nancy’s neck surgery and how he loved playing with his son around the house. Now, all of a sudden, this tragedy has made everyone wonder, was that the real Chris Benoit, or was it just a front. I am so confused and saddened by what happened, that is is so overwhelming to even think about. You run all of these different scenarios in your head, that it begins to drive you crazy. The fact of the matter is, 3 people are dead. Could it have been stopped? Were there warning signs? Was it planned for a long time? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions.

A friend asked me today what I thought had happened with the Benoit situation. That is, “What do you think caused him to do it?” I told her that I have no answer and don’t know more than anyone else, but if I had to guess, I’d say that Nancy told Chris she was leaving him because of their marital problems, he had a fit, they fought and then he killed her. He spent several hours soul-searching and for some reason or other decided to kill his son and himself, which would explain the timeframe, the alcohol by his body and the rambling, confused text messages he sent the WWE. I don’t know what happened, though, and I have no excuses to make for him, but I’m having trouble believing that Benoit planned to murder his wife and kids for a significant amount of time and the act doesn’t necessarily point to that, either.

To me, it seems like 1/4th tragic, terrible accident, 2/4s drug and alcohol induced stupor, 1/4th anger/sadness. Like I said, I don’t think there are any excuses, but that’s what I’ve been thinking, based on what I know.

The following is more insight into Chris Benoit’s mental state (source PWmania):

Reports are suggesting that people noticed Chris Benoit become a different person after Eddie Guerrero passed away. His wife Nancy was telling her friends that Chris Benoit’s drug usage escalated badly after Eddie Guerrero died. After the death of neighbour Mike Durham (Johnny Grudge) and Victor “Black Cat” Mar, Chris Benoit became worse. Benoit was considered to be Victor Mar’s best friend during his time in Japan and Benoit refused to attend Durham’s funeral, saying he never wanted to return to church and hated religion.

A WWE source said Nancy was a described as a basket case on Thursday, which was a day before reports suggest Benoit killed her. Nancy was upset over the recent passing of her friend, Sherri Martel. Shane Helms also said that Chris Benoit called him on Thursday to check up on how he is keeping as Helms is recovering from a neck surgery.

If you look at the whole situation, a picture begins to form of a man who had problems with his wife and drugs, but loved wrestling, wrestlers and his child. When you add in the strains of being a professional wrestler, the damage done to a human’s psyche by drug abuse, the fact that he seemed off and paranoid for awhile but continued to show support for younger wrestlers — I think we’ve got a more complicated picture than “Maniac Plans Murders.” We’ve got a tragedy, and the reason it’s a tragedy (besides the fact that two innocent people are dead, including a child) is that a man who isn’t easily depicted as a monster, who didn’t live a poor life, who wasn’t known for trouble, lost his grip on reality.

In related news, the rumor on the Internet is that the two wrestlers named in the indictment of Benoit’s doctor were Mark Jindrak, who doesn’t wrestle with WWE anymore (and didn’t amount to much while there), and Rey Mysterio Jr., who is a “Cruiserweight” (read: lightweight) and a fan favorite. If that’s true, it should be interesting to see what consequence Rey Mysterio suffers.

Benoit’s doctor has been linked to other wrestlers and even athletes, but there are no names at this time.

Is this news big enough to spark a frenzy into doctors who abuse their prescription privileges and destroy lives? It is for me, but I doubt the media cares and would bet that it turns into a firestorm for the WWE if any other wrestlers from the company have seen that doctor. Personally, I believe that WWE should have somewhere from three to five doctors that it’ll allow the wrestlers to see. I know that it’s a strict rule and some will complain about their privacy but it would allow the WWE to prevent steroid use in the organization and would bring credibility to their Wellness Program if they are mandating that the doctors be respectable, known doctors to avoid steroid and pill abuse.

That is, if the WWE is truly interested in curbing steroid and pill abuse in the company. Are they? I don’t know. We’ll see by their actions in the coming weeks. Like I’ve said before, I’m not defending WWE from charges that their Wellness Program should be stricter or that they should do more to oversee their wrestlers’ mental and physical health. I’m defending them from charges that wrestling itself “creates monsters” and drives people to murder like I would defend matrimony from charges that marriage creates monsters and drives people to murder; I’m arguing that steroids and wrestling didn’t cause this, but drugs, doctors, and a rapidly unhinged man with marital problems tag-teamed to cause this.

To more media-centered news: the Ultimate Warrior appeared on Fox, and while I know that some will ridicule him, I must say I’m impressed by the fact that he kept a level-head, didn’t attempt to destroy the WWE and raised some solid points. First he argued that steroid use is good and “abuse” is bad; Hannity countered that any use is abuse if it isn’t medical; Warrior said, “Roid rage for me is a pie in the sky theory that’s thought of by people who have no business discussing the frame of mind of an elite physical athlete.” Fair enough, I figure, and I appreciate that he isn’t backing away from his prior use and defense of steroids. I also think his next point about how prescription drugs are more to blame than “roid rage” is fairer still.

Most important in his speech was his declaration that “[t]he [WWE] drug test is a ruse. It’s an artiface specifically designed for the sensationalized, high-profile tragedies when people come forward and they make reasonable allegations that the talent is using drugs. It’s this simple for me. For me to believe that the drug tests on the live bodies are legit, I have to believe all the autopsies on the dead bodies are lies.” He also declared that “Wrestlers take steroids so they can look healthy on the outside, but they do everything else that makes them rotten on the inside. The autopsies that reveal they have enlarged hearts and enlarged organs other organs that have been affected by the steroids, that’s the reason why - because they don’t live healthy lives overall.”

I’m not sure about what he says about steroids — but Bryan Gumbel agrees with him. All I know is he made the points about prescription drugs that should be made and he didn’t make a complete fool of himself, the wrestling industry or attempt to set fire to wrestling. For that he deserves some praise, as he cut to the chase and didn’t sensationalize. Now if only he’d change his name back to Jim Hedwig, he’d be all right.

This MSNBC interview of Marc Mero and Steve Blackman is much better than anything that’s been on Fox or CNN. I criticized Johnny B. Badd Marc Mero recently — or, more accurately, I criticized his inclusion on talk shows, but after watching this video, he was very fair and, I think, accurate than many other wrestlers and definitely than the reporters themselves. He and Steve Blackman (who was also nice to see) provided great insight into the seedy world of reckless doctors (that doctor they had on replied to the question “This is not such a good thing for the medical community is it?” “Uh, certainly not. The question is were thes e prescriptions given with good reason and, uh, to what patients.” If I were interviewing him, I’d have said, “What kind of sleazy dodge is that? It’s clear that Benoit’s doctor was corrupt and a mark on the profession, and you won’t criticize him?”) including doctors that come to the shows and give out steroids to all the boys.

I didn’t like it when the wrestling writer said that Benoit didn’t “get over” as a wrestler because of his size, and he might’ve been “transferring” a “size” complex, but the reason he didn’t “get over” in the industry was because of bad promoting by WWE and his generally poor mic skills. Benoit’s murder-suicide had nothing to do with wrestling, and I wish someone had pointed that out a bit more forcefully, but I enjoyed the interview all the same. Blackman and Mero brought a great amount of information, and Dan Adams was a fair interview.

I believe that the police officers in Georgia should be disappointed in themselves for releasing this irresponsible and demonstrably improbable bit of speculation.

WWE wrestler Chris Benoit is said to have murdered his seven-year-old son with his WWE finishing move according to police in Georgia. Police are speculating that Benoit, 40, used a version of the Crippler Crossface hold on his son the morning after strangling his wife Nancy, 43, to death. Later that day Benoit committed suicide, reports The Sun. The Crippler Crossface was a move Benoit performed in almost all his wrestling matches.

It was the bruising on the young boy that threw police initially, according to the Sun’s report. The Sun claims an officer reviewed tapes of Benoit and put the moves together with the marks on the child. The Sun reports that “the marks on Daniel’s body matched the application of a version the Crossface.” The Sun reports that District Attorney Scott Ballard said: “A choke hold was used to strangle the boy, rather than hands, because there’s no bruising consistent with strangulation by hands.”

According to the Sun, wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer claimed: “There was bruising consistent with the Crippler Crossface on one arm and Daniel’s face. There were no bruises on his neck. The police don’t believe, because of the size difference, that the hold was applied exactly as it would be in a pro wrestling match. “Benoit would have been in more of a kneeling position, sort of straddling Daniel while using one leg to pull back on his arm.”

First of all, the article points out what I would: the move would be impossible to do on a child by a grown man, but the second point I’d hammer upon is that the boy was asphixiated and the Crippler Crossface can’t possibly asphixiate you. If it’s true that Benoit used a chokehold of any sort on his son, it’s misleading to call it a variation of the Crossface. You just can’t do it, and if he simply choked him and pinned him down with a knee, that’s not a wrestling move, and it’s misleading to talk about it as a wrestling move. Theoretically, I could sneak up on someone on the street, twist their arm and choke them with my bicep from behind and someone could say, “He’s using a wrestling hold.” But I wouldn’t be, and neither did Benoit. The policemen should be ashamed of themselves for speculating that he used the Crippler Crossface, although I will say that I’m not sure policemen have made such claims as it’s only been reported in print by the Sun of England and then parroted through the blogosphere. It is, at least, bad reporting, and the bloggers who have spread the claim should be ashamed.

It’s a horrible killing as it is. Let’s not pretend that Benoit put him into the Crippler Crossface, too.

If you want to have an investigation, investigate his doctor and the pharmaceutical industry, instead of interrogating wrestlers over whether or not wrestling makes a man into a monster. I’ve always believed America to be overmedicated and medication in excess to be dangerous. I don’t think I’d ever take a Prozak or a Benedryl or a Viagra pill. Further, doctors who overprescribe their patients violate their oath and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — which should reach further, in my view.

The personal doctor of a pro wrestler who killed his wife and son before committing suicide was charged Monday with improperly dispensing painkillers and other drugs to other patients. The seven-count indictment said Dr. Phil Astin, physician to wrestler Chris Benoit, dispensed drugs including Percocet, Xanax, Lorcet and Vicoprofen between April 2004 and September 2005. The recipients were identified in the indictment by the initials O.G. and M.J.; Benoit’s initials were not listed.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Walker ordered Astin held in lieu of $125,000 bond and said that regardless of whether he came up with the money, he would be in jail overnight. Astin will be under house arrest once he posts bond, she said. A criminal complaint filed before the indictment and made public Monday said Astin had written prescriptions for about 1 million doses of controlled substances over the past two years, including “significant quantities” of injectable testosterone cypionate, an anabolic steroid. The complaint by Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Anissa Jones said the amount of prescriptions was “excessive” for a medical office with a sole practitioner in a rural area like Carrollton, about 40 miles west of Atlanta.

Doctors like him alarm me far more than any professional wrestler and pills like those he, and they, prescribe cause far more monsters than Vince McMahon does. I don’t understand why Fox and CNN and the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and the Asheville Review don’t all go after the pharmaceutical industry instead of wrestling — or, at least, alongside it. It’s just as seedy, twice as dangerous and reaches more people. Not only that, it’d create waves as big as “Wrestler Kills Family: Ultimate Warrior Agrees It’s a Bad Thing, Hates McMahon.” But I guess they don’t want anybody to know about their drug problem, which is America’s drug problem, which is the reliance on “harmless” stimulants and relaxants.

(And before I’m accused of hypocrisy, I’d like to say that I don’t believe in painkillers or relaxants or stimulants. If I want stimulation, I turn on my music, call a friend or drink a Coke. If I want to go to sleep, I insomniac around until I go to bed. The last time I took a painkiller it was a one-time deal when I tore my left knee apart and the doctor’s insisted on it before the X-Rays. In hindsight, I’m glad they did because the pain was brutal even with the pill, but I never used the ones they gave me to take home. None of this is to say that I look down on wrestlers and stuntmen and football players and circus clowns who have to take pills for their pain. It’s the doctors who over-prescribe and the parents who over-medicate their children and the system that encourages it and ignores it that bothers me.)

I have a couple more notes.

Scott Ballard, District Attorney of Fayette County in Georgia issued the following statement this afternoon to gossip website TMZ.com:

“There are additional reports that contradict the earlier information that suggested that Daniel Benoit may have suffered from Dwarf Syndrome or Fragile X Syndrome. Daniel’s family denies that he suffered from either condition. As a result of the family’s concerns, the Fayette County Sheriff’s investigators and the District Attorney’s Office have inquired into this matter. A source having access to certain of Daniel’s medical reports reviewed those reports, and they do not mention any pre-existing mental or physical impairment. Reports from Daniel’s educators likewise contradict the claims that Daniel was physically undersized. The educators report that Daniel graduated kindergarten and was prepared to enter the first grade on par with the other students.”

I’m not sure how I feel about this. It seems odd that a seven year old would just be passing Kindergarten but I have nothing else to add. It’s sad and tragic whether or not he was suffering from Fragile X Syndrome or in full health, but we’ll see what else is said about it in coming days and weeks. Chris Jericho discussed it in detail as well and said that Chris Benoit was very private about his family and so he didn’t know but that he always suspected that the boy was Autistic.

This article about Benoit’s neighbor who was friends with his wife and discovered their bodies and has run off to Boston where she used to work as a publicist because she’s in pain over the loss of her friend Nancy and her boy Daniel and is uncomfortable with all the media jackals around says that Daniel Benoit suffered from Fragile X. Who knows?

In more media news, Hulk Hogan has publicly called out Nancy Benoit as a “Satan worshiper.”

Chris Benoit was a peaceful man, according to wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan, but his wife Nancy Benoit may have worshipped the Devil. According to Hulk Hogan, Nancy Benoit’s wrestling character was into devil-worship, but Hulk thinks she may have made that character her reality. Hogan tells USWeekly: “He was peaceful and kept to himself.” As for what Hogan thinks of the double murder/suicide? “I think it had to be something personal, a domestic problem between him and his wife.”

Hogan then talked about Nancy Benoit: “She was into devil-worship stuff. It was part of her [wrestling] character, but [she was] somebody who gets so close to their character, someone who gets into their character too much. Sometimes these people believe their own publicity.”

Hogan is the last man in the world who should be talking about wrestlers believing their own publicity, for one thing. He also sounds like an idiot saying that Benoit is a peaceful man and Nancy was a Satan worshiper. I will concede that I agree wholeheartedly that it was all a domestic dispute gone terribly, terribly wrong, but I can’t say I’m happy with what Hogan said or the frenzy it’s caused.

Lastly, these are Lance Storm’s thoughts on Benoit. I’m glad he took his time in writing them to learn all the facts, and I’m sad that he, like we, had to go through this, especially since he was close to Benoit. I’m also happy that someone else in wrestling — someone far more influential than me or Keller — is calling for something to be done about the problems faced by wrestlers.

John Meehan of 411mania has posted a comprehensive timeline of all the things that have happened in this story and what they mean to the wrestling community, coupled with rebuttals and support of every claim made by critics of wrestling and reporters in the wake of Chris Benoit’s actions last weekend. It’s very much worth a read (that means “read it,” Dear Reader), and I’d like to say thank you to Meehan for posting it.

After that, I’d like to direct your attention to this article about Benoit and drugs, specifically “GHB,” which is often used as a date-rape drug. There’s evidence to suggest that that was a drug he was using and that it caused him, as it’s caused others, to go insane. I’ve long believed that prescription drugs, mental illness and a lack of harmony with his wife were the causes of Benoit’s actions. It’s a much more sensible reaction than “Oh, it’s the steroids!” and “Oh, it’s wrestling! because if it were the steroids, all of Major League Baseball and professional football would be filled with wife-killers and if it were “wrestling, more wrestlers would be murdering.

Now, before I go on and discuss the mainstream media’s handling of Chris Benoit further I’d like to take a moment to challenge the charges made by Scott Williams of the Wrestling Observer.

We also know that for every outraged parent who first read or heard Benoit’s name when this news broke, there’s a wrestling fan trying to rationalize. Don’t take my word for it – use any search engine to find an online wrestling message board or blog. You will find someone trying either to explain circumstances to mitigate the double murder, offer bizarre alternate theories, or argue that we should focus more on Benoit’s tremendous in-ring ability than the crimes that punctuated his life. It’s this mentality that has kept fans from getting outraged at the dozens of drug tragedies in wrestling’s recent history. It’s this mentality that led fans last year to care more about Kurt Angle’s next in-ring opponent than the real circumstances of his departure from World Wrestling Entertainment, where Benoit also worked.

This is the mentality of wrestling fans — not all of them, but a disturbingly large percentage who speak out. It allows them to weep and wail about wrestling’s latest tragedy (which they inevitably never saw coming), while they plunk down money for entertainment they know is bought with dangerously heavy drug use and simultaneously say, “It’s not my fault that (dead wrestler’s name here) chose to put bad things in his body.” Is WWE owner Vince McMahon to blame for Chris Benoit killing his family and himself? Are wrestling fans? No, Benoit has deservedly traded in adulation for revulsion, ultimately accountable for his hideous acts.

But the wrestling business fosters an environment that’s anything but healthy, and both it and its fans spring to the unhealthy system’s defense whenever tragedy hits and outsiders question it. We’ve seen plenty of that this week, as well. In the weeks to come, we’ll get an answer to at least one question: will this tragedy torpedo the wrestling business? Those who knew him best say Chris Benoit loved the wrestling business. Ironically, it’s possible that his end could precipitate its end. However, we already have an answer — one that’s been evident for a long time, to anyone willing to look hard and honestly — to another question: Does wrestling deserve to be sunk?

That answer is a sad, sorry “Yes.”

This wrestling fan, for one, is criticizing and defending which is what I believe to be the proper and necessary response. When the mainstream media uses the testimony of the Ultimate Warrior and Chyna on the air it deserves to be criticized for presenting a misleading and incredibly tainted version of speculation, let alone events, and when the press does a number on what actually happened by hypothesizing nonsense about Nancy Benoit’s ex-husband murdering the them all, well, it deserves to be criticized. It deserves to be criticized for running amok with Steroids! as the headline when the truth is far from it, as many believe, myself and the wrestlers who knew him and the police department investigating included. Similarly, anyone that would claim that wrestling “creates the monster,” as Nancy Grace did and Williams is doing, deserve to be criticized and vehemently so. I simply can not accept any claim of “Wrestling creates the monster!” or “The wrestling business encourages this behavior!” as that’s demonstrably untrue (how many other wrestlers have gone off on double homicides?). Anyone who would argue that wrestling creates more monsters than the post office or working at Dairy Queen or writing on a political website for a living has an agenda, and anybody who would argue that wrestlers themselves are inherently more dangerous than most just because of the work they do is dishonest as well.

I’m just disappointed that someone who covered wrestling for a living would fall for such gobbledygook, because I’m only defending wrestling from those who would claim that it creates double murderers and child killers and monsters as a matter of routine and use the Ultimate Warrior and Chyna to paint a picture of steroids as if every professional wrestler is a homicide waiting to happen. I am defending the business from nonsense. I am not defending it from the claims that it should be forced to change the way wrestlers schedule, especially in the WWE. I am not giving the drug policy (”The Wellness Program”) a ringing endorsement, as I definitely believe it should be tightened. That said, let’s not lose our mind and start calling for an end to professional wrestling or perpetuate the partyline about wrestling creating monsters.

Bruce Hart, who was Bret Hart’s father and Benoit’s trainer in the famed Hart Dungeon, made some interesting comments on Friday that I missed until now. First, let’s look at the introduction to the article,

Chris Benoit was a “delusional juice freak” who chased the dark side and had trouble distinguishing between his fictional character and reality, says the man who started him out in professional wrestling. “The last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape mentally,” said Bruce Hart, son of the legendary Stu Hart. “I didn’t know all the details but I knew it wasn’t good. I was not at all shocked (by what happened).

and now let me say, “Nowhere in the article does Hart call Benoit a ‘delusional juice freak.’” He goes on to talk about Benoit’s mental health, and he says that Benoit appeared troubled every time he saw him in recent years, then he criticizes the WWE for not being able to see that something was wrong with Chris. All of these points are interesting, and I think the last one is valid (an employer must be able to tell when its employee is ill; to WWE’s credit, they’ve said numerous times that Benoit’s been a different man lately: to their detriment, they didn’t ask him to see a counselor or do enough to help him, but it is also important to know that two of his best friends in the business had died within the last two years). But beyond all that, I think the author of the article deserves to be fired for the introduction, as do the editors who allowed (and, I’m sure, encouraged) it, as it’s completely dishonest but drags in the reader.

Let me ask you something, Dear Reader. Do you think editors and producers all over called a conference and said, “The man and his family are dead, right? So nothing matters now besides ratings, right? And bringing down the wrestling industry?” because it sure seems like that’s what happened to me.

I’d like to briefly discuss the mainstream media’s coverage of the Benoit murder now and focus a little on cable, since I’ve spent a few hundred words talking about print sources already. Here is a YouTube page that has video of many of the wrestling segments on cable news. First, I’ll say that I’m disturbed by the inclusion of Johnny B. Badd Mark Mero to the list of wrestlers who’ve been interviewed as Mero didn’t know Benoit particularly well, hasn’t held a steady, serious job in the wrestling industry in ages — but other than that, he’s a great source!

Actually, I think he might be a little better than the Ultimate Warrior, and he’s a lot better than Geraldo Rivera, but that doesn’t excuse him or the media from turning this tragedy into a circus, and in so doing creating a second tragedy. I only wish Johnny P. could B. Fair and Accurate, but that’s far too much to ask when there’s money to be made, right?

At night, the freaks come out on Fox, galvinizing the galvinized and the tame, as evidenced by normally respectable Greta Van Sustren’s asking former wrestler Chyna to speak about steroids and Chris Benoit on her show. Chyna took the opportunity to, first, make accusations about flagrant steroid use then deny ever using them herself. Now tell me, when you look at this woman, and take into consideration her confession in her autobiographies and interviews that she’s had plastic surgery — can you tell me with a straight face that you believe her when she says she’s never taken steroids? Then look into her history and see why she might be a little bitter with Vince McMahon: her boyfriend was fired for drug use and generally being a mutt, while her longtime boyfriend Triple H wound up marrying Vince McMahon’s daughter after dumping her. But hey: I guess she’s speaking out in the best interest of the wrestlers and their families.

Yesterday, Debra Marshall appeared on a talk show where she declared that Stone Cold Steve Austin (the Hulk Hogan of the 1990s, as well as her former husband) used to beat her (that’s why she left him, which is common knowledge) and take steroids. The second revelation is not a surprise, and while I generally admire Debra’s courage in speaking out about spousal abuse in wrestling, I question the way such information will be used in the media. “Wrestling creates wife-beating monsters!” will definitely be a charge when the truth is that it doesn’t. You’ll find spousal abusers in every field, but especially in athletics of all sorts. Let’s not blame World Wrestling Entertainment, however, as I don’t believe the federation encourages its workers to beat their wives. If evidence arises to the surface, I will personally slap Vince McMahon in the mouth.

I’d like to express my appreciation of semi-retired professional wrestler Chris Jericho for his comments on the talk show circuit, including his interview with Nancy Grace, whose ridiculousness I’ve already discussed in detail. While she’s still asking absurd questions and posting empty hypothesis’ (“there is evidence that Chris Benoit himself was murdered”), it’s nice of her to have featured Jericho, who has known Benoit for years and is closer to him than most. He’s also more articulate than Bret Hart (with no disrespect intended toward the Hitman) and so I’m glad he was given the opportunity to point out that mental illness and drug use seem more likely culprits than steroids.

Just a little bit more before we talk about the government and the Associated Press. Warrior’s appearance on Hannity and Colmes was pushed back to Monday because of the attempted-but-foiled-by-incompetent-terrorists-themselves terror plot in London. I wonder what nonsense he’ll find to say now that he has a few more days to prepare or more accurately, seethe.

This article is from the Associated Press and it declares that too many pro wrestlers are dying young, which is true. It’s definitely true, and it goes back to what was suggested by Keller that I linked to here. It’s probably true that the WWE’s Wellness Program needs to be stricter, like with most professional drug testing programs. It’s a fine piece to read because it’s about the tragedy that’s become of so many young wrestlers as opposed to being, say, a smearjob on the WWE. The one thing about the article that I have critical comment about is here,

Over the years, there are been numerous proposals to put wrestling under some sort of oversight, be it at the state or federal level. Those ideas usually have fallen on deaf ears, largely because the powers-that-be, be it the old-time regional promoters or WWE owner Vince McMahon, the guy who largely controls the sport today, don’t want the government telling them how to run their business. Jim Wilson, who parlayed pro football into a ring career, says he was blackballed when he began pushing for a wrestler’s union. Since then, he has written a book about his experiences and kept up the push to rein in those who govern the sport. Although Wilson’s battle often has been a lonely one, he says Benoit’s death might reinvigorate the cause.

A union could be a useful tool for cleaning up the sport. It might lead to a pension plan, improved benefits, more stringent health and safety guidelines and a revamped pay structure that would allow wrestlers to spend more time at home without risking a pay cut. Now, most top wrestlers get a guaranteed salary, but the bulk of their income is based on how often they compete. That leads some to feel they must get in the ring while injured, often with the aid of painkillers and other numbing chemicals. And much like rock stars, plenty of wrestlers have fallen victim to excessive partying, alcohol and drug dependency, and marital problems during grueling stints on the road.

“My longest run was 79 days in a row without a day off,” said Joe Laurinaitis, the wrestler known as Road Warrior Animal and father of Ohio State football star James Laurinaitis. “It’s not as bad now. They’ve got good guys running the WWE. Still, we need to take a look at it when things like this (the Benoit murder-suicide) are happening. Guys are still overworked.”

That’s why Wilson’s calling for Congress to hold hearings on the wrestling industry, much like it investigated doping in professional sports and just this past week heard from ex-NFL players who believe they’re being shortchanged on their pensions. “In those other sports, they aren’t dropping like flies like they are in the wrestling business,” Wilson said. “Now is the time to push for legislation nationally.” He’s already spoken with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who instructed his staff to begin gathering information on the issue to determine if a hearing before the Health Committee might be warranted.

Isakson said his main concern is steroid abuse. “I’m not going to start speculating on federal regulation of wrestling,” he said. “The issue is anabolic steroids, which are a significant problem and are known to cause significant difficulties. It’s a health issue that’s appropriate for us to discuss, regardless of the profession.

First of all: I don’t believe a Wrestling Union would work because there are so many different independent promotions unless it were something like the Screen Actors Guild but I doubt that happens and question if it should. What I believe is that the Federal Government should mandate that full-time wrestling promotions like WWE and TNA set the limits that Keller has called for. That leaves a loophole that indie wrestlers will have to deal with but it’s impossible to solve all problems because wrestling is so layered and has a a million different legs. The Indies are hard to help, but they are just as at-risk as anyone else, and something needs to be done about their schedule and everyone else’s.

Unfortunately, I know that if Congress gets involved it will become a mess. Grandstanding morons will take the hearings over and everyone will be so busy harping on steroids that they’ll miss prescription drugs, injuries and the cost of health insurance, especially for independent wrestlers, focusing instead on the gruesome details of the Benoit murder-suicide and pictures of pecks instead of the fact that people are dying because of the workload.

If I were a Senator, I’d call Vince McMahon, tell him to get something legitimate done about wrestling schedules (even if it is a brave new step, as Keller’s is, and they’re frightened to do it: they must get it done) or else the federal government will step in with hearings and legislation. McMahon has a reputation as a ruthless businessman, which he is, but he is no monster. He is known to help long-departed wrestlers and their families to pay for their rehab, surgeries, bills and rent. He is known to give jobs to people who can’t wrestle anymore or simply have no business in the ring at such a stage in their life just so that they can find work. He’s given hundreds of men second and third chances and helped them fix their lives. He’s no angel, but I imagine that if the government took a good-faith approach, coupled with a tug of the arm here and there, he’d be willing to concede that the schedules need to be fixed.

Of course, the government doesn’t care about the wrestlers: they want the publicity, and to look good, so anything that could be called discreet is unacceptable, and so this tragedy will become a scandal will become a joke because the American government and the global media haven’t the slightest idea how to handle something that is serious without an agenda. Sometime ago, the “mainstream media” decided that professional wrestling was a world of idiots and trailer trash and said, “We should stomp them with every opportunity we get.” Now everyone will suffer, from the fans who have to watch their product trashed by the Ultimate Warrior and Nancy Grace to the wrestlers who will have to deal with the uncertainties of their profession in the coming months to the taxpayers who will watch as the government pays the world’s respect to matters it should handle on the down low to the to those of us who hope that something can be done to ease the pressure on these athletes and provide them with something of an offseason.

There are a lot of walls to be broken down before that can occur, and I’m not sure they’ll ever fall.

The Ultimate Warrior will be featured on FOX News’ Hannity and Colmes tonight. I’ll tell you right now: Warrior is a maniac and everybody knows it. He might have something valuable to say about himself and steroids (he is, I’m sure, a former if not present steroid user) but whatever he says about the WWE or the wrestling industry should be taken with a grain of salt as he was exiled from the business for his cockamamie beliefs and erratic behavior.

You might take that with a grain of thought and say, “Greg Pratt has a problem with the Warrior and is just trying to smear him before he tells the truth!” but if you say that, you’re fooling yourself. He is a man who changed his legal name to Warrior (just Warrior) because he wanted to own, and be, his character; he’s been involved in numerous pay disputes with the WWE and has been dismissed several times from the organization; he’s written a comic book about himself; he recently said, about an autobiographical book he’s writing, “I’m not interested in detailing the seedy underbelly of an industry I have no desire to be associated with.” So why is he speaking about an industry that he’s been out of for so long?

Because he wants to smear the wrestling world. Why is FOX giving him air-time? Two reasons: they want to smear the wrestling world (obviously) and Warrior is a Conservative commentator in the same realm as Ann Coulter. He famously declared, “Queering doesn’t make the world work!” and that’s about the extent of his intellectual thought. If you go to his website, you’ll find endless, meaningless babble.

There’s nothing wrong with reporters speaking to wrestlers about steroids, but don’t mislead the world by presenting clowns like the Ultimate Warrior as credible sources.

There’s news on the Benoit-crime front: he was drinking, as several empty cans were found next to his dead body. That tells me that Benoit wasn’t right, as do all his drugs, and I eagerly await his toxicology report. Geraldo Rivera, upon hearing that Benoit had been drinking when he killed himself (if not when he killed his family), decided to kick a few back himself. How else can you explain the following, which is from his latest appearance on the O’Reilly Factor and is the most shameless, opportunistic bit of poor reporting that I’ve ever read. O’Reilly, Rivera and their producers should all lose their jobs for not doing any amount of fact-checking before letting him go on the air with this dribble.

Gerlado Rivera was a guest analyst on The O’Reilly Factor tonight and made a huge mistake in trying to create a conspiracy because he mistakenly believed that Sherri Martel and Nancy Benoit died on the same day, then loosely tied Sherri with Nancy’s ex-husband, Kevin Sullivan (whom he didn’t mention by name) and said she was his “booker,” whatever that means. He then managed to get wrong the dates of the text messages, saying they took place on Sunday night during the PPV.

Mid-discussion, Geraldo moved to the Wikipedia posting at midnight on Sunday. He said it could have been by chance, a hoax by someone making it up. [It was. If you haven’t heard, someone posted over the weekend before the cops knew that Benoit was dead. Turns out it was an unfortunate hoax.] He said another coincidence is that Chris kills his wife on Friday, June 15 or Saturday, June 16 and that Sherri Martel also died of unnatural causes related to drug use. He said she is another woman connected to these pro wrestlers. He said Sherri knew Nancy’s ex-husband.

He asked if the posting was made by a WWE official, “they were obviously in communication with Chris Benoit.” He said it was alleged that Benoit was text messaging his friends as he was watching a wrestling event he was supposed to be at in Texas. “The Feds have to subpoena every single electronic communication,” he said. “I think this is going to be gigantic.” He wondered if it was bigger than a murder-murder-suicide. O’Reilly said (completely off-topic), “If they can prove steroid abuse was ordered by the top guys in the wrestling federation, they’ll arrest them.” Geraldo asked, “What if you can prove everybody in town knows whatever everybody is doing and do nothing. Now it’s a little less clear as to their criminal liability, but I think you’ve definitely got a story here that will affect professional wrestling in a profound way.”

Earlier in the discussion, Geraldo said: “I think there is going to be increased scrutiny of WWE… in the steroid abuse of the people who are their actors in this entertainment venture. There is obviously great athleticism. They know about their heavy steroid use.” He brought up the raids on Chris Benoit’s doctor and internet pharmacy. He said WWE tried to downplay the steroid involvment and place the blame on Chris or Nancy arguing over the care of their child. “What a bunch of bunk that was,” he said. “They were trying intentionally to deflect the public’s attention from this steroid use.”

The last sentence is right and wrong. Of course the wrestling world doesn’t want to pour gasoline on the steroids did this! fire but the idea that there was a huge domestic dispute is not far-fetched in the least. Other than that, Rivera made an idiot out of himself and the people who watch Fox News now believe that the WWE is covering up its knowledge of the murder-suicides (and, perhaps, involvement) along with a bunch of crazy ideas that Geraldo made up about Benoit’s wife and ex-husband.

Journalism is as journalism has been for the last ten years.

Bret “The Hitman” Hart was a close friend of Chris Benoit, as many of the Canadian wrestlers were, but their friendship was deeper than country. Hart’s father, Stu, trained Chris Benoit to be a professional in the prestigious Dungeon and they remained close over the years, with Hart serving as a mentor in World Championship Wrestling where they worked together and they were quite familiar with one another’s family, which is why Bret Hart has hit the talk show circuit following the death of three close friends. Hart is, like Benoit was, a World Champion.

Yesterday, Bret Hart was on CNN for an interview with Nancy Grace. It was a fairly uneventful interview as Grace asked him the usual (grating) questions (”You’ve known him for decades: did you ever know that he could do something like this!?”) until she asked him a question that perfectly illustrated the media’s lack of knowledge, research and understanding of the situation that has rocked the wrestling world and overtaken Paris Hilton as the media’s taste de jour.

“Do you think Benoit became depressed after going from the elite Four Horseman to Raw?” (It is a slight paraphrase: specifically, she mentioned that he’d gone from “the Four Horsemen to Raw” and that that’s “a little bit of a demotion” so “how bad do you think he took it?”)

First, I’ll explain: the Four Horsemen were a wrestling “stable” (group) in old wrestling promotions and the now-defunct but formerly powerful World Championship Wrestling organization. Benoit was a member of WCW in the nineteen nineties until he decided to leave the federation along with three of his dearest friends for the World Wrestling Federation which was at the time the leading company in wrestling having just reclaimed that title from WCW after a long, exhausting ratings war that spanned much of the nineties. “Raw” is the name of WWE’s Monday night wrestling program, and so you see the question’s history and, I hope, flaw. The Four Horsemen were at that time a declining stable in a company that was crashing and burning and he was moving to an organization that he wanted to wrestle for, that pushed him to the top immediately and that eventually gave him a reign as World Heavyweight Champion that began at Wrestlemania XX (arguably the biggest event in wrestling history), so there was no “demotion.”

Bret Hart should’ve answered:

“Yes, Nancy. Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child then hung himself because he left the Four Horsemen by choice in 1999 and wound up at a better federation with better pay and an eventual run at the World Championship along with an immediate ‘push’ up the organization’s depth chart. He was also upset because the WWF was forced to change its initials to ‘WWE’ a few years ago because it meant that there’d be a little blur in all the DVDs of his old matches under the WWF banner.”

Instead he politely said, “I couldn’t say,” and went off to explain how much both of them loved wrestling, pure and simple, drawing a parellel between them because of the fact that they both used their real names on stage.

The interview was hard for me to listen to not just because Grace asked such graceless questions as that but because of some painful details that it brought to light. Grace mentioned the love and adoration that Benoit seemingly had for his child and the fact that it appeared mutual (next to his son’s bed was a statue of Benoit), but then said, “It leads me to believe that he was under the influence of steroids.” That may very well be true, but there were a ton of different prescription drugs in the home and I’d imagine them to have just as bad an affect as steroids, if not more. I don’t think that steroids would’ve created such a situation as “roid rages” are rages and they don’t last for days, as Vince McMahon and others have said, and the point raised by Bret Hart that it’s likelier to have been the result of a domestic dispute seems to carry more water.

One interesting thing that’s come out in the last few days, though, is that Benoit’s son suffered from a disease called Fragile X Syndrome which is similar to autism and the child took steroids for that, so at least we know that Benoit wasn’t a sick freak injecting his child with steroids for kicks, and it’s possible that he wasn’t on steroids, although I do doubt that. Who knows? We’ll see what happened but I firmly believe that steroids had little to do with this.

It isn’t just Bret Hart being interviewed and interviewed poorly, though. World Wrestling Entertainment chief Vince McMahon appeared on the Today Show today and was asked a variety of questions about his wrestlers and steroids. There were two things that really bothered me about it:

1. The continuing lack of knowledge: Guerrerro didn’t die of steroids, at least not per se. Guerrerro died because he was a heavy drug user and alcoholic years along who used to use steroids. As a result of that, his heart enlarged and he died, young, and as a result of that, WWE instituted a drug testing program that Bret Hart, among others, applauds. So let’s not try to turn Eddie Guerrerro’s ghost against Vince McMahon.

2. The continuing lack of shame. The host who interviewed McMahon asked him, “In any way does pro wrestling contribute to the creation of monsters?”

The correct answer, given by McMahon, is No. These are men who decided when they were children that they wanted to entertain the masses like the wrestlers who had entertained them, men who were dazzled as children by the graceful acrobatics and charismatic promos, by the bright lights and theme songs, fireworks and commentary, passion and sacrifice of professional wrestling and decided that that line of work would fulfill the evenings of children and their families, along with themselves. Wrestlers inspire millions every day, and I know many of them set out to do that at the beginning of their careers.

On the other hand, I don’t see how anybody can watch this media “firestorm” and listen to these interviews with half a handle on the situation and say, “I’d like to be a reporter one day!” In fact, I would point out that wrestling has never had a tragedy quite like this and yet the wrestlers are coming together and people are asking questions hoping to make sure that this never happens again, wondering how it happened and why. This shameful display by the media occurs every few days with all sorts of different topics, from political ones, to ridiculous ones to tragic ones, and yet the media allows itself to degenerate into a smorgasborg of stupidity with every disaster that comes its way.

I guess I’ve never truly realized how bad the media can be until I listened to Nancy Grace ask Bret Hart if Chris Benoit killed his family because he was “demoted” from the Four Horsemen.