• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

- News about the congressional report in to steroids and wrestling has been picked up by several outlets including the associated press. The main arguments are that WWE and TNA’s drugs policies are flawed and that widespread use of drugs sends a bad impression to the children watching.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key congressman says the “apparently widespread use” of steroids in pro wrestling is sending a bad message to youngsters, and he wants the government to do something about it.

In a letter released Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., requested that John Walters, director of the president’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, “examine the systemic deficiencies in the testing policies and practices of professional wrestling.”

Waxman, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has led a congressional investigation into steroid use in professional wrestling for more than a year, spurred in part by the murder-suicide deaths of wrestler Chris Benoit and his family in Georgia in June 2007.

Waxman is leaving the oversight committee to become chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and his letter offered a final look at the findings that focused on top pro wresting bodies World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action.

“Since the committee began its investigation last year, both the WWE and the TNA have made efforts to improve their steroid testing programs,” Waxman wrote. “But these efforts suffer from a lack of independence and transparency. As a result of these weaknesses, the organizations appear unable to effectively prevent the use of steroids and other illegal drugs by professional wrestlers.”

Waxman wrote that one former wrestler who agreed to talk to the committee on condition of anonymity said that, in the wrestling business, “steroids are like white socks and tape, they’re just part of your gear.”

“Over three million children and teenagers watch professional wrestling each week,” Waxman’s letter said. “The apparently widespread use of steroids in professional wrestling sends the wrong message to youth.”

- Vickie Guerrero’s nude photos have actually been posted on the WWE website. They are censored, but what happened to the kids initiative? Now if some clever so and so could reverse the censoring that’d be great! (I think).

According to a mobile alert it was The Great Khali that won the auction for the photos.

- Tribune and WWE have locked into a deal for a new first-run series, WWE Superstars, which is set for an April launch on the Tribune cable channel, airing on Thursdays at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET. There will also be a Saturday midday run. Tribune and WWE have worked out a two-year deal for the program.

Ed Wilson, Tribune’s chief revenue officer/broadcasting president, says the media giant was eager to enter the ring with WWE ever since the rights to Smackdown went to MyNetworkTV from its former home on The CW last February. It airs on Fridays on MNT. “It’s one of those franchises that, when you have the opportunity to do something with it, you do it,” Wilson says.