I just realized how bad the 1992 WWF steroid scandal was
May 12, 2021 17:11:53 GMT -5
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on May 12, 2021 17:11:53 GMT -5
So I started watching wrestling (WWF in particular) during the early nineties, and all of the crap they were getting in the larger media landscape for the George Zaharian stuff and the sexual harassment allegations didn't really register with me at the time. I was around eight, so all I saw was Bret Hart having great matches, Ric Flair and Randy Savage going ham on each other, and Undertaker being spooky and cool. My fandom was blossoming and I couldn't tell how badly the industry's rep was bleeding out.
My grandma loved wrestling but she also would tune into Donahue, and when I caught Vince arguing with Meltzer about the accusations (that was my introduction to Big Dave- I only read WWF Magazine and PWI, I had no idea what the Observer was yet) and defending the company, I just thought "well, he's Vince McMahon the good guy announcer. Of course he's gonna defend the WWF!" (Then I learned Vince owned the company in a PWI blurb maybe a month later.)
But Dave was talking with Alvarez on F4W about recent AEW ratings, and in retrospect, he's right in that we haven't seen the business in that bad a shape for a long time now. I looked back at some of the coverage then, and CBS is just BRUTAL towards wrestling overall, calling the workers "bums" and outwardly describing it as "hideous". Phil Donahue is acting like he's talking about the worst freak show ever, Superstar Graham's on Current Affair dishing out the tea on Hogan and there's a shot of a big "HULK ON DRUGS" paper headline.
Now granted, WWF/WWE's seen rough patches since, like the Benoit incident and the Saudi show controversies. And wrestling is always gonna be clowned on, there were people in the media ridiculing it during Attitude (sometimes I think we forget that). But wow, some of that stuff in 1991/92 is jarring to see today, and you can tell it had aftershocks (after Mania 8, it's like nine years until the next big-stadium Wrestlemania, the peak of Attitude). I know New Generation was meant to be a response to that, and they were really swimming upstream. Compare that to how WWE at least today can get attention from ESPN, and can still manage to fill up stadiums and convince A&E to do wrestler bios.
Dave's got a good point- the business isn't as popular as it was in 1998-2001, and there's a bunch of crappy and boring WWE programming now but some fans are fooled by falling TV ratings and don't get how much healthier financially across the board wrestling is than it once was. Like man, during those scandals people are describing wrestling like it's the vilest, revolting form of entertainment ever.
My grandma loved wrestling but she also would tune into Donahue, and when I caught Vince arguing with Meltzer about the accusations (that was my introduction to Big Dave- I only read WWF Magazine and PWI, I had no idea what the Observer was yet) and defending the company, I just thought "well, he's Vince McMahon the good guy announcer. Of course he's gonna defend the WWF!" (Then I learned Vince owned the company in a PWI blurb maybe a month later.)
But Dave was talking with Alvarez on F4W about recent AEW ratings, and in retrospect, he's right in that we haven't seen the business in that bad a shape for a long time now. I looked back at some of the coverage then, and CBS is just BRUTAL towards wrestling overall, calling the workers "bums" and outwardly describing it as "hideous". Phil Donahue is acting like he's talking about the worst freak show ever, Superstar Graham's on Current Affair dishing out the tea on Hogan and there's a shot of a big "HULK ON DRUGS" paper headline.
Now granted, WWF/WWE's seen rough patches since, like the Benoit incident and the Saudi show controversies. And wrestling is always gonna be clowned on, there were people in the media ridiculing it during Attitude (sometimes I think we forget that). But wow, some of that stuff in 1991/92 is jarring to see today, and you can tell it had aftershocks (after Mania 8, it's like nine years until the next big-stadium Wrestlemania, the peak of Attitude). I know New Generation was meant to be a response to that, and they were really swimming upstream. Compare that to how WWE at least today can get attention from ESPN, and can still manage to fill up stadiums and convince A&E to do wrestler bios.
Dave's got a good point- the business isn't as popular as it was in 1998-2001, and there's a bunch of crappy and boring WWE programming now but some fans are fooled by falling TV ratings and don't get how much healthier financially across the board wrestling is than it once was. Like man, during those scandals people are describing wrestling like it's the vilest, revolting form of entertainment ever.
