What Do The Recent Steroid Reports Mean For Pro Wrestling?
So over the past few days a letter from congressman Henry Waxman along with several year old interviews with Pro Wrestling’s biggest decision makers have made their way around the internet and look to have re-sparked the steroids in wrestling controversy. But what does this mean fro Pro Wrestling? The answer is absolutely nothing.
Waxman who was part of the division that looks in to this type of case, recently left for another sector and was simply passing along his information to somebody else. The letter will be simply thrown in to a pile and congress will go back to looking at more serious things like the world falling in to a pit of debt.
The media doesn’t care, because the only outlet to pick up on it was the Associated Press, and they pick up on everything. Its up to other outlets to get the information from AP and do their own stories, but nobody has. Why? Firstly because its wrestling and nobody cares, secondly because another star hasn’t died and thirdly because despite there being thousands of pages in these documents, there is no new ground covered and nothing meaty for the mainstream media to sink their teeth in to. This isn’t a double murder suicide but a series of long and boring pages full of pointless interviews with people mainstream media outlets have no interest in. For wrestling fans however, these interviews are fascinating!
When was the last time Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s doctor and the president of TNA, Dixie Carter were interviewed? And about something so controversial and close to their respective businesses? Character profilers will have a field day with this stuff. The contrast between paranoid Vince McMahon and his bulldog attorney Jerry McDevitt who find a fault with nearly every question and refuse to answer most of them without some legal spin, and that of an over friendly, almost over innocent Dixie Carter, who is either playing dumb or is just a puppet leader in her company is quite humorous to say the least.
Vince’s main argument was that he is not a doctor and cannot comment knowledgeably on the effects of steroids and therefore shouldn’t be asked of his opinions. He completely denied anything linking him to knowingly allowing wrestlers to take illegal drugs and often answered flippantly as if he couldn’t remember or had no idea what they were saying. A man that is clearly in to bodybuilding (he’s huge himself) and has worked in a business his whole life that surrounds having a good physique to play dumb, just made him look dumb. As if Vince has never discussed steroids at some point in his company.
One thing that did become plainly obvious is that Vince is trying. Granted its probably more for public relations reasons that actually caring for his employees, but he’s right. WWE has the best policy in all of wrestling and has suspended people in high positions. Could he do more? Sure, but WWE really isn’t the crack den it is sometimes portrayed to be.
TNA is the company that was really exposed in these interviews. The way it was explained to me last year, Dixie Carter was going to see congress off her own back to try and set up a drugs policy. What was actually happening was this interview, which is an investigation not a tea party.
It was revealed that TNA does not have a formal policy in place, but has done a couple of baseline tests. However before each test, performers were fully aware that it was coming and in each case the tests were postponed, in theory giving stars plenty of time to clean out their systems. Despite this 25% of the roster were still caught with some form of illegal substance (maybe they were given the impression that the tests didn’t matter) and nobody has been suspended. Granted Andrew “Test” Martin was shown the door early, but they need a consistent policy if they are to look like a legitimate caring company. I also take exception to Dixie Carter claiming her target audience are 40 year old virgins and not children and teens.
At the end of the day we can discuss steroids in wrestling until we’re blue in the face. The real question is what can congress actually do? The answer is nothing. Do you really think they are going to spend tax payers dollars on setting up their own Wellness Policies for WWE and TNA? Do you really think they can pressure state athletic commissions in to governing wrestling again and then make them test the wrestlers themselves? And even if they did pursue these routes, do you really think they are going to waste their time on something the masses don’t really care about? We have wars, economic crisis, global warming and god knows what else. Wrestling is at the bottom of the food chain in sports, in entertainment and in the government’s eyes. Its up to Vince to set the standard and at least he’s done something. TNA are now making a profit, touring the world and running regular house shows, its time they followed suit.
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Why do you lie about what Dixie Carter said? She never said TNA’s target audience is 40 yr old virgins she said that TNA currently sell action figure and when she was asked who buys them she said they are bought mainly by older collectors who wont open them but display them in the original boxes like one of the characters in the movie 40 year old virgin.
Here is the quoto from the transcript:
Congress) Can I just go back to the demographics? One of your sources of revenue are toys?
Carter) Uh-huh.
Congress) Can you describe what kind of?
Carter) It is mostly collectibles, action figures. And I don’t know if any of the men around this table admit to having any. But it is really — it is more in the collectible side where guys keep the toys and they keep them in their boxes and then they increase in value and things such as that. They’re not as much, you know, play toys as more collectible items.
Congress) And who is the target audience for those items?
Carter) Well, collectibles are a much older demographic. I mean, they are probably — I mean, they are more grown men. I mean, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s even. Have you seen the 40-Year-Old Virgin with that man that has all the toys? I 16 mean, that is kind of — that’s our audience.
As You see she states it is the case for TOYS not overall as YOUR article states.
If your going to report on something as long and as hard to read as the transcripts to the interview at least make sure your writing the truth i mean did you not realise your website is called…o what was it…..WrestlingTruth…Geez.
“Have you seen the 40-Year-Old Virgin with that man that has all the toys? I mean, that is kind of — that’s our audience.”
And if that’s all you’re going to add to the discussion, get out of the discussion. Talk about nit picking; are you seriously going to condemn all of what I write because this one quote is ever so slightly out of context?
The main point of Waxman’s letter was surrounding how a lot of wrestling’s main demo is kids and teens, so Dixie is arguing back that some older guys are also involved. I know what’s she’s trying to say, but please! More kids buy those figures than “the 40-Year-Old Virgin with that man that has all the toys.”
This is my reaction. Links to the full transcript have already been posted, so don’t claim I’m not being accurate either! This is my opinion.
My fellow on Facebook shared this link and I’m not dissapointed at all that I came to your blog.