Post by hutter on Sept 7, 2007 17:32:19 GMT -5
Source - www.comics101.com/?page=KFR
One Saturday night in the cramped, smelly dressing room of the Nashville Sports Arena in 1994, Tommy Rich looked around the room with amusement as fellow heels Sid Vicious and the Spellbinder greased up their massive, chemically enhanced bodies with body oil prior to their match. No doubt giddy from the pre-match beers he had downed, the former NWA World champion nudged me and said, "Heh, heh, used to be, all you had to do was be fat to get into the business."
A recent look at a few 1977 Memphis programs illustrate Rich's theory, with wrestlers like Jerry Lawler, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey, Plowboy Frazier and Rich himself all in the money positions on the cards. Even the exception to the rule, a stud athlete like Paul Orndorff (receiving the first push of his career in '77 as a rival to Lawler), appeared to be a regular guy who had worked his way into great shape and nothing more.
Of course, that changed in the '80s, with the explosion of such stars as the Road Warriors -- two green rookies straight out of Eddie Sharkey's training school, handpicked by desperate Georgia booker Ole Anderson, who needed two bodies to put the National tag straps on. Passing over the chiseled but lean Rick Rood (Rude), Anderson selected two behemoths named Joe Laurinaitis and Michael Hegstrand, eventually renaming them Road Warrior Animal and Hawk, respectively.
To hide the fact that the two greenhorns couldn't work a lick, Anderson booked the Warriors to pound their foes into submission without selling a bit of their opponents' offense. This plan wasn't limited to WTBS jobbers. Ole knew the only way these two rookies would get over would be if they steamrolled all the area's current and past stars like the legendary Mr. Wrestling I and II, Jack and Jerry Brisco, and Rich and Pez Whatley. The matches had to be brief and decisive to hide the Warriors' weaknesses and inexperience.
When Ole's plan worked, making the Warriors two of the biggest stars in years in the process, dozens of copycat acts emerged. Suddenly, it seemed like every idiot pumped up on 'roids wanted into the business ... and nearly every promoter wanted to hire them.
Although admitted steroid abuser Superstar Graham influenced many performers with his formula over the years -- Austin Idol, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura to name a few -- the Warriors perhaps had the greatest influence on the influx of 'roided bodies entering the profession in the '80s.
Of course, the true fate of the business was sealed when Vince McMahon Jr.'s ever-expanding WWF circus and top act the Hulkster -- who was in the prime, pumped-up condition of his life -- began expanding across the country. Hogan was wrestling's Superman, a larger-than-life muscled hero blessed with the gift of gab.
With such a large babyface champion, huge heels were needed to be Hogan's opponents, with the logic being that fans wouldn't otherwise believe that Hulk was truly in peril and that the title was in jeopardy of changing hands.
Granted, New York fans had already been educated to believe the champion should be in fantastic shape after seeing Vince Sr.'s WWWF/WWF titlists like Bruno Sammartino, Superstar and Bob Backlund. Still, performers of all shapes and sizes made the grade in Sr.'s promotion -- provided you could work a bit, cut a decent promo and exhibit charisma, you didn't have to worry about your roster spot.
Although he may have never come out and said it, wrestlers on Vince Jr.'s roster in the '80s had to shape up or ship out.
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper, whose mouth had made him one of the biggest stars in the NWA, was deemed too small on arrival in the WWF in 1984, regulated to a manager's role, "advising" the likes of Paul Orndorff and "Dr. D" David Shultz. By this time, Orndorff was jacked up like pro bodybuilder -- about 50 pounds heavier than his Memphis days -- a sign of the changing, expanding times. Later, after Piper quickly packed on about 25 pounds of muscle, he was thrust into the spotlight as an actual wrestler the Fed.
Even longtime NWA kingpin Harley Race, one of the most naturally strongest men in the business -- but without the cosmetic look to back it up -- suddenly started redefining his body under his new identity as the Federation's "King" in '86. In his bio, Race admitted that he turned to Dynamite Kid to supply him with steroids, realizing that this might be his last real chance to make some money in the business. Imagine how Race must have felt looking around the dressing room to see guys like Billy Jack Haynes, Davey Boy Smith, Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat and especially Hogan as the World champion. Race said after six weeks he noticed significant muscle enhancement to his body, but balked at taking another cycle when he discovered Dynamite had given him steroids intended for horses.
Even longtime Federation mainstays like Don Muraco, who never showed signs of steroid abuse, suddenly started packing on tremendous amounts of muscle and sporting cut physiques. Steroids were surely the only way an aging wrestler like Muraco -- a guy known for being more concerned with surfing than conditioning -- could suddenly put on that kind of size.
In other promotions, second-generation stars like Eddie Gilbert and Curt Hennig, whose fathers likely never took a performance-enhancing drug of any kind, suddenly looked cut.
As a young mark, I bought into the '80s muscle craze. I even wrote the Apter mags to submit my own lists of Top-10 Best Conditioned Wrestlers and my Top-10 Worst Conditioned Wrestlers. Published in THE WRESTLER and PRO WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED in 1986, my Best list included Road Warrior Hawk (No.1), Kerry Von Erich and Rick Rude. Who would have thought back then that Dusty Rhodes, Abdullah the Butcher, One Man Gang and Kamala -- all featured on my Worst List -- would outlive Hawk, Kerry and Rude?
I think even Dusty perhaps appears better physically -- and definitely mentally -- than another guy on my Best list, Billy Jack Haynes, who today looks a mess after years of steroid abuse.
Those who resisted the urge to get on the juice were seemingly punished or held back by both major wrestling organizations in the late '80s and '90s. Inept WCW boss Jim Herd began jobbing out the Midnight Express in part because he didn't feel Bobby Eaton looked physically credible to get over with the fans. According to the WRESTLING OBSERVER's Dave Meltzer, Eaton responded by getting on steroids to save his job.
Rick Rude admitted that when he got off the gas in the '80s because he and his wife were trying to have kids, McMahon warned him that he was getting smaller, implying that his push might be the next thing to shrink. Those doubting the validity of Rude's story need only review the incident a few years ago, when on a live episode of RAW, McMahon ridiculed a skinny Randy Orton, who was temporarily off the juice while recovering from an injury.
Meltzer and I had a discussion in this forum about four years ago, with me initially arguing that perhaps it was each wrestler's personal responsibility as to whether they cave to the pressure. Meltzer stressed that McMahon created an environment in which the best bodies many times receive the best pushes, leaving the boys little choice at all if they wanted to be WWE Superstars -- a point that was impossible to debate.
That twisted environment has become more of a pressure cooker today than in the late '80s, when there were still a few options to make decent money elsewhere than WCW or WWF. (Even Memphis in '87 was still occasionally popping big houses with Rich on top in a hot feud with Lawler.)
The competition for the few big money-making spots left in the business is incredibly fierce in WWE, especially following the demise of WCW. No wonder the steroid problem in wrestling is as bad it's ever been.
Current WWE performers like Ken Kennedy finger the blame for the deaths of Eddie Guerrero, Hennig, Rude and Brian Pillman on wrestling's past, claiming that it's not the case in today's WWE locker room. Of course, last week Kennedy was exposed by SPORTS ILLUSTRATED as one of many high-profile stars who ordered and received various anabolic steroids and HGH through the Internet as recently as early this year. Others on the list include Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, John Hennigan (Nitro), Shoichi Funaki, the recently deceased Brian Adams (Crush), Charles Haas, Edward Fatu (Umaga), Mike Bucci (Simon Dean), Darren Matthews (Steven Regal), Adam Copeland (Edge), and the recently released Sylvain Grenier. Apparently, Booker T's name also popped up.
Unlike in the past, when a top guy wouldn't be punished severely in violation of the WWE's Wellness Policy, Vince and company acted swiftly, suspending the entire lot. The punishment was evident on this past week's TV, with Regal being left for dead and replaced with Coachman in the commissioner role; Umaga dropping the IC title to Jeff Hardy and receiving a beating at the hands of Triple H; Kennedy being denied the role of Vince's illegitimate son (according to Meltzer, the role was his until last week); and Morrison dropping the ECW strap to CM Punk. Bucci (Dean), who was working in talent relations, was fired.
There's reason for optimism that in the wake of the Benoit tragedy -- and the Congressional investigation into the industry -- that the changes we hoped would follow in the wake of Eddie Guerrero's death are finally coming to fruition. WWE appears to be taking a swift, stern stance for once regarding not only steroids but also prescription drug use in the company. For example, Nick Dinsmore (Eugene), who'd had drug problems in the past, was fired this past week after failing to produce proper authorization for some of his "prescribed" medication.
Of course, Vince McMahon is kicking and screaming all the way as the company cracks down and begins enforcing its own policy, which makes me doubt he really gets it. Maybe he does -- after all, Vince himself has lost some serious size in the last month or so.
Hell, does anybody in the company really get it? Surely it has to cross the minds of some of the talent that they might be the next to die if steroid/painkiller abuse isn't eradicated from the company. The way stars like Kennedy were in denial in the weeks after the Benoit deaths hasn't left me especially positive about the future of the industry.
With the recent suspensions/firings -- not to mention the injuries to stars such as Shawn Michaels -- WWE desperately needs talent to plug the holes. John Laurinaitis (the brother of Road Warrior Animal and head of talent relations for the company) recently scouted Sid Vicious and discussed employment with the abnormally muscled former WWF champion.
Yeah, clearly Laurinaitis gets it.
