The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Everyone had a feeling that the WWE would experience a serious shakeup after the death of Chris Benoit. No one was buying anymore that the company could regulate itself and take care of its employees.

Batista went out of his way to report he has never been a customer of Signature Pharmacy. Interestingly enough, he never outright denied being a customer for another steroid provider.

Ken Kennedy blasted the media on his website a few weeks ago, admitting he used steroids on the independent scene but quit once he joined the WWE. He also defended the fact WWE has no medical insurance for the wrestlers because they would only get a lower salary, “so it’s a wash”. All of the names provided indicated they purchased steroids in 2006 and 2007.

I’m not sure what will happen to the business (if anything), but once the Congressional Hearings gets underway in the Fall to review the state of wrestling, it could very well be the beginning of the end of WWE. Despite the deaths and tragedies, despite the fact guys who worked for WWE in their 20s and 30s are dying in their 40s (sometimes earlier) at an alarming rate, no one wants to fix the problem and wrestlers past and present, management and the like say the fault lies strictly with the performers themselves and not the industry as a whole.

Two of my favourite performers were Jake Roberts and Mick Foley. Roberts was lean & slender and had almost no muscle definition. Mick Foley was (is) overweight and wrote extensively about his love of food and all you can eat buffets in his autobiographies. And I’m not the only one: the fans loved these performers. I wish the WWE would give the fans more credit on this point. You don’t need to risk your health and look like a steroid monkey to get over with the fans. Run on the treadmill, lift a weight, you do have to be in tremendous shape to do what these guys do. But don't juice up.

However, Benoit's death may not have been due to steroids.

A brain examination was conducted by doctors affiliated with an organization called the Sports Legacy Institute on the deceased Chris Benoit. What they found was dead brain cells, an alarming number of them. They were caused by repeated concussions over his career. X-rays have also shown this trend with football players and others who play high-impact sports. It can cause depression and lead to suicide; the brain tissue sample of Benoit had many similarities to three young football players who also experienced depression and killed themselves. The doctors would not outright say these concussions caused Benoit to kill his family and himself, but speculate it may have played a role.

In any case, the level of "bumps" the wrestlers take has increased tremendously since the heyday of the 1980s. People are taking multiple chair shots, going through tables, falling off ladders, and while it's all scripted, the pain and physical punishment is real.

Changes are coming. I'm feeling guilty for even watching an old DVD now. I've put up my Benoit DVD on Ebay and I'm not sure what I'll do with the rest of them.