The Benoit tragedy, steroids, and professional wrestling
Obviously, I had a lot to say on this whole situation with Chris Benoit and his family from the beginning. However, in order to due this post justice, I decided to take some time to really ponder the tragedy and get my thoughts in order before I wrote it.
Overall, my feelings are this: Chris Benoit's actions are his own, and hence there is no one else to blame for what happened. Not WWE, not steroids, only Chris. That being said, I also believe that decision makers in the pro wrestling industry (read: WWE management) have made it all but impossible to succeed as a performer without abusing controlled substances. There are several reasons why I make this claim.
Impossibly high standards for physical appearance
The first, and most obvious reason for the rampant steroid abuse in wrestling is that promoters have set the standards for wrestlers' physical appearance so impossibly high that a wrestler can barely find work unless you're juicing. Need an example? Take a look at the two guys whom the WWE is promoting most heavily right now:
I think it goes without saying - even if someone had the worlds best genes, spent 5 hours a day in the gym, ate right and drank GNC's most expensive whey protein suppliment shakes, they could never hope to look anything like this without also using anabolic steroids.
Yet this is what WWE is telling its fans that a professional wrestler should look like. If you want to be a professional wrestler and make an above subsistence-level wage doing it, no matter how talented an athlete and entertainer you are, you still have to compete with these guys' physiques.
Rapid injury recovery
This second reason for steroid use in professional athletics is overlooked, but it's arguably the most important one. Wrestlers risk injury every single time they step into the ring. Also, most wrestlers are forced to keep wrestling with nagging injuries such as torn muscles, bruised ribs or worse (known as "working hurt" in the business). If you or I had such an injury, we would most likely have the option of working from home. We might even get some time off for disability. For professional wrestlers, that is simply not an option. Besides the fact that they only receive minimal pay when they're sidelined, their continued success is also strongly linked to staying fresh in fans' minds. In the wrestling business, being out on injury for an extended amount of time can be a career death sentence.
So, wrestlers often use steroids to trigger muscle growth and re-generation specifically in the injured area. Believe it or not, increased muscle tissue density can compensate for damaged ligements and tendons or even fractured bones! This is certainly not a healthy way to rehabilitate, and it can even lead to making a temporary injury into a permanent disfigurement, but it becomes necessary in order to stay competitive. To continue putting food on their families' tables.
Constant strain on body
On a related note, it goes without saying that professional wrestlers have very physically demanding jobs. As I eluded to earlier, the threat of injury is not really a 'threat', it's a promise. We all know that the 'sport' of professional wrestling is fake, and that the results are predetermined, but believe me when I tell you there's nothing fake about what you see them do to each others' bodies on TV.
Add to this the fact that, unlike other professional athletics, in wrestling, there is no "off season". These guys are pretty much always on the road; they wrestle upwards of 300 nights a year. Also consider the fact that much of their time is spent traveling from town to town in rental cars or airplanes. hell, my body aches after the 2-hour drive to my parents' house. Try spending hundreds of hours a month sitting in those uncomfortable airline seats with a nagging back injury. It's nuts!
Abuse of other drugs and alcohol
Taking all the above into account, and also considering the fact that these guys spend more than 3/4 of their time away from their loved ones, it really is no wonder that so many of them end up getting hooked on pain killers or with severe drinking problems. The demands that the industry, as it is now, puts on them is simply far, far too much.
I'd like to believe, with all the negative publicity that WWE is getting right now (and lets face it, WWE represents pretty much all pro wrestling outside of Japan & Mexico) that things might finally change. I'm definitely not keeping my hopes up, though. McMahon was under scruitiny back in the early '90s for steroid abuse in his organization, and he got away with it scott free save for being forced to set up a half-heartidly followed drug testing program that quietly went away after 5 years. As the media finds new things to focus on, I'm expecting the same thing to happen again.
And hence, we'll continue to see these entertainers that we know and love die long before their time.
Overall, my feelings are this: Chris Benoit's actions are his own, and hence there is no one else to blame for what happened. Not WWE, not steroids, only Chris. That being said, I also believe that decision makers in the pro wrestling industry (read: WWE management) have made it all but impossible to succeed as a performer without abusing controlled substances. There are several reasons why I make this claim.
Impossibly high standards for physical appearance
The first, and most obvious reason for the rampant steroid abuse in wrestling is that promoters have set the standards for wrestlers' physical appearance so impossibly high that a wrestler can barely find work unless you're juicing. Need an example? Take a look at the two guys whom the WWE is promoting most heavily right now:
I think it goes without saying - even if someone had the worlds best genes, spent 5 hours a day in the gym, ate right and drank GNC's most expensive whey protein suppliment shakes, they could never hope to look anything like this without also using anabolic steroids.
Yet this is what WWE is telling its fans that a professional wrestler should look like. If you want to be a professional wrestler and make an above subsistence-level wage doing it, no matter how talented an athlete and entertainer you are, you still have to compete with these guys' physiques.
Rapid injury recovery
This second reason for steroid use in professional athletics is overlooked, but it's arguably the most important one. Wrestlers risk injury every single time they step into the ring. Also, most wrestlers are forced to keep wrestling with nagging injuries such as torn muscles, bruised ribs or worse (known as "working hurt" in the business). If you or I had such an injury, we would most likely have the option of working from home. We might even get some time off for disability. For professional wrestlers, that is simply not an option. Besides the fact that they only receive minimal pay when they're sidelined, their continued success is also strongly linked to staying fresh in fans' minds. In the wrestling business, being out on injury for an extended amount of time can be a career death sentence.
So, wrestlers often use steroids to trigger muscle growth and re-generation specifically in the injured area. Believe it or not, increased muscle tissue density can compensate for damaged ligements and tendons or even fractured bones! This is certainly not a healthy way to rehabilitate, and it can even lead to making a temporary injury into a permanent disfigurement, but it becomes necessary in order to stay competitive. To continue putting food on their families' tables.
Constant strain on body
On a related note, it goes without saying that professional wrestlers have very physically demanding jobs. As I eluded to earlier, the threat of injury is not really a 'threat', it's a promise. We all know that the 'sport' of professional wrestling is fake, and that the results are predetermined, but believe me when I tell you there's nothing fake about what you see them do to each others' bodies on TV.
Add to this the fact that, unlike other professional athletics, in wrestling, there is no "off season". These guys are pretty much always on the road; they wrestle upwards of 300 nights a year. Also consider the fact that much of their time is spent traveling from town to town in rental cars or airplanes. hell, my body aches after the 2-hour drive to my parents' house. Try spending hundreds of hours a month sitting in those uncomfortable airline seats with a nagging back injury. It's nuts!
Abuse of other drugs and alcohol
Taking all the above into account, and also considering the fact that these guys spend more than 3/4 of their time away from their loved ones, it really is no wonder that so many of them end up getting hooked on pain killers or with severe drinking problems. The demands that the industry, as it is now, puts on them is simply far, far too much.
I'd like to believe, with all the negative publicity that WWE is getting right now (and lets face it, WWE represents pretty much all pro wrestling outside of Japan & Mexico) that things might finally change. I'm definitely not keeping my hopes up, though. McMahon was under scruitiny back in the early '90s for steroid abuse in his organization, and he got away with it scott free save for being forced to set up a half-heartidly followed drug testing program that quietly went away after 5 years. As the media finds new things to focus on, I'm expecting the same thing to happen again.
And hence, we'll continue to see these entertainers that we know and love die long before their time.