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Post by CrazySting on Jan 2, 2009 20:27:41 GMT -5
U.S. government senator Henry Waxman issued a letter to the Officer of the National Drug Control Policy dated today with a recommendation that pro wrestling organizations, namely WWE and TNA, have not effectively dealt with pro wrestling's steroids issue.
After conducting interviews with WWE's Vince and Stephanie McMahon and TNA's Dixie Carter, Waxman concluded: "the information provided during interviews indicate that steroid use is pervasive in professional wrestling and that the organizations involved have not taken adequate steps to address this problem."
The letter reveals that during WWE's first year of steroid testing under the new Wellness Policy, 40 percent of wrestlers tested positive for steroid use "even after being warned in advance that they were going to be tested."
Subsequently, regular exemptions were made to lax the policy. Dr. David Black, the independent third party hired to administer the drug testing policy, became fed up with the program and WWE's handling of it.
Waxman quoted Dr. Black that "it was becoming difficult to deal with talent who were being suspended" and he was "unaccustomed to programs that suspend and you're not suspended," referring to WWE amending the policy that a violation of the policy would lead to certain suspensions, but not from PPV and live TV.
Related to TNA, the letter from Mr. Waxman states that when TNA installed its drug testing policy 12 months ago, 15 out of 60 wrestlers tested positive for steroid use and an additional 11 wrestlers tested positive for other drugs.
Waxman concludes: "The evidence obtained by the Oversight Committee indicates that illegal use of steroids and other drugs in professional wrestling is a serious problem that the wrestling organizations are not effectively addressing."
He recommends the National Drug Control division "examine steroid use in professional wrestling and take appropriate steps to address this problem."
-pwtorch.com
I don't know what this means. Probably not good though. TNA figures were interesting.
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Steveweiser
Dalek
Mickie Mickie You're So Fine... Hey Mickie!
THE GRAPS
Posts: 50,249
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Post by Steveweiser on Jan 2, 2009 20:31:08 GMT -5
If this is what I think it is, you'll see quite a lot of guys getting smaller as 2009 rolls on.
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Post by destrucity on Jan 2, 2009 20:33:29 GMT -5
Why the hell is Congress looking into this while the entire economy is collapsing right now?
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Post by parder on Jan 2, 2009 20:47:31 GMT -5
If you're interested in reading about this further, the key documents from the investigation can be found here: oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2298I had a very quick skim though some of the Vince interview. Some of the exchanges are quite revealing in terms of their approach to this issue. The Wellness tests statistics are also worth a look too. From 1st July 2007 to 31st March 2008 73% of positive results were for Marijuana, which gives some perspective on the pot problem that has seen a recent crackdown. |
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KLRA
El Dandy
Halt. I am Reptar.
Posts: 7,591
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Post by KLRA on Jan 2, 2009 20:50:12 GMT -5
Why the hell is Congress looking into this while the entire economy is collapsing right now? Because not everyone in congress 100% of the time is sitting there mulling over how to fix the economy. Congress does more things than sit there and think "What do we need to do to fix this ONE problem in the face of the THOUSANDS of other things we have to do on a daily basis?" |
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mattperiolat
King Koopa
Thank you, Brodie... for everything.
Posts: 11,445
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Post by mattperiolat on Jan 2, 2009 21:02:29 GMT -5
Think wrestlers like Batista and Aytch are in deep trouble. If the government really wants to pursue this, we could be right back to where we were in the early 90s with Vince purging the big guys if he can.
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greeby
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 7,088
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Post by greeby on Jan 2, 2009 21:05:53 GMT -5
Nothing will come of this. Without getting overtly political, just ask yourself two questions: Who makes these steroids? and Who makes major contributions to congressional re-election campaigns I'm just sayin  |
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Post by blef on Jan 2, 2009 21:08:26 GMT -5
Why the hell is Congress looking into this while the entire economy is collapsing right now? The whole Congress will get involved if a bill comes out of these investigations; until then, it's one committee's business, and nothing more. And it's not like this guy's spending all his days and nights investigating pro wrestling. This is probably 1 of 100's of issues on his committee's docket. Apologies for the politicishness of this post. |
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Post by CrazySting on Jan 2, 2009 21:09:52 GMT -5
The Wellness tests statistics are also worth a look too. From 1st July 2007 to 31st March 2008 73% of positive results were for Marijuana, which gives some perspective on the pot problem that has seen a recent crackdown. Isn't that sort of a good thing though? The main drug being used is pot? And I'm not getting into a 'pot is good/bad' arguement, it is considered a lightweight drug by almost everyone. |
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CM Dazz
King Koopa
Chuck
Posts: 10,475 
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Post by CM Dazz on Jan 2, 2009 21:10:09 GMT -5
Not really surprising or earth shattering.
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Post by CrazySting on Jan 2, 2009 21:12:20 GMT -5
can't open the vince/stephanie interviews, does anyone mind summing up the interesting parts?
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Post by parder on Jan 2, 2009 21:16:11 GMT -5
The Wellness tests statistics are also worth a look too. From 1st July 2007 to 31st March 2008 73% of positive results were for Marijuana, which gives some perspective on the pot problem that has seen a recent crackdown. Isn't that sort of a good thing though? The main drug being used is pot? And I'm not getting into a 'pot is good/bad' arguement, it is considered a lightweight drug by almost everyone. Wasn't saying it was good or bad, it was just helpful in giving some hard numbers to what has been reported recently. There have also been some positive tests for much harder illegal drugs that are summarised in Waxman's letter. |
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
Surviving
Posts: 29,005
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Post by Sephiroth on Jan 2, 2009 21:17:42 GMT -5
Why the hell is Congress looking into this while the entire economy is collapsing right now? If you had not noticed, it is when things are bad that the politicians pay attention to the stupidest shit. Makes it look like they are actually doing something. |
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Post by parder on Jan 2, 2009 21:24:41 GMT -5
can't open the vince/stephanie interviews, does anyone mind summing up the interesting parts? From what I've looked at, the significant bits (that are also cited in Waxman's summary) are that Vince has never considered the potential health consequences from performers using steroids and doesn't really believe there is evidence of any harmful effects - short term or long term. He's also not subject to the wellness policy himself, despite having wrestled in 2006 (when the policy was re-instated), and refused to discuss his own steroid use (which he's admitted to in the past). Naturally there were a lot of interventions from his 3 lawyers present, especially Jerry McDevitt. I haven't read the Stephanie one. |
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Post by 01010010 01101001 01100011 on Jan 2, 2009 21:29:28 GMT -5
I am 44 pages into Vince's interview which is 122 pages long. Right now, it all seems to be focusing on Vince's actions in terms of asking people to gain/lose weight, muscle or size in general, as well as stopping drug testing in 1996.
EDIT: Don't screw with McDevitt, he's a friggin' pitbull.
EDIT 2: If I am understanding this right, if WWE is forced to do away with Independent Contractor status of the wrestlers, Wellness testing would be gone as well because of Connecticut state law. (Pgs. 46-50)
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Post by romafan87 on Jan 2, 2009 21:31:36 GMT -5
Nothing will come of this. Without getting overtly political, just ask yourself two questions: Who makes these steroids? and Who makes major contributions to congressional re-election campaigns I'm just sayin I see what you tried to do there, but that's a flawed assumption, in most part because big pharma doesn't make the HGH/steroids that these guys are taking. It's the small research labs, like BALCO that are producing the stuff that those who test positive likely take. |
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Post by richter on Jan 2, 2009 21:40:16 GMT -5
I don't feel like reading through everything. What can come of this?
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Post by Snitsky on Jan 2, 2009 22:02:59 GMT -5
Glad its being brought to light but to be honest i doubt anything will be done about it- as long as someone has a legit prescription for steroids they will not be violated
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Post by The Genesis of KoOS on Jan 2, 2009 22:33:01 GMT -5
Think wrestlers like Batista and Aytch are in deep trouble. If the government really wants to pursue this, we could be right back to where we were in the early 90s with Vince purging the big guys if he can. Looks like C.M. Punk is going to unify the World titles and hold it for 5 years straight.  |
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Post by Snitsky on Jan 2, 2009 22:43:40 GMT -5
im on page 20 of the steph interview she really sells the wwe brand very well-i like how she talks about shawn michaels and his religious reasons for not wanting to move to smackdown...she sure does talk about about orton and cena
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