Reading through 'Sex Lies and Headlocks' over break basically clarified all the scandals that I had heard about in passing about the WWE. I had a general idea about what happened regarding the steroid trail, but that was about it. Overall I thought Vince McMahon had built the WWE up over the years with relatively little 'badness', I guess their family-oriented marketing at the time had worked well on me.
I had no idea it was so bad. The sex scandals. The drugs. The rampant steroid abuse, including Vinnie himself. It was the Eighties, and I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. The fact that nearly everybody was doing coke, and Vince was quoted as saying approximately "I can snort more of this stuff than anybody and never get hooked" pretty much shocked me. I knew the boys liked to party, but man. The WWE in that era basically was a coked up sex den, rolling in money. It makes you wonder how these wrestlers functioned in the ring, if so many of them were actually doing that much coke and pills, I mean they were still athletes.
Now, I knew Vince's reputation as a womanizer, but I don't think I really paid it any heed. Then there are the accusations of rape. Rape?! I dont' really know what to make of that. For that matter, I don't really know what to make of Linda, between this stuff and from what we saw in the 'McMahon' video. I wish someone would do a 'Linda' video. She is CEO afterall.
Then there are the steroids. I knew about the steroids, but I didn't know Vince really was on them too. The bit about Hogan's butt being too scarred to inject anymore really drove home the point of how rampant and destructive it had become, as well as the stories of 'roid rage and the toll they had on several wrestlers' health. Sometimes I wonder if some of the guys today are on steroids, because they look so unbelieveably pumped. I'm afraid of becoming even more disillusioned.
At least the Monday Night Wars were detailed in a mostly unbiased perspective, allowing us to have a very fleshed-out overall picture, one side from Vince/WWE, one side from Bischoff, and one side from the Observer. It was refreshing indeed. But man, I really won't ever look at the WWE the same again.
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Since Eddie's death, WWE has cracked down on steroids and painkillers and has a new policy in use, in which guys will end up suspended or fired from time-to-time. You can see that some wrestlers have slimmed down since the policy went into affect, but it's a strange paradox. Wrestling favors big bodies, and WWE always has, but they don't actively push steroids or growth hormone, etc., on their wrestlers, so it's a weird balance.
WWE has been more serious than ever about trying to be above board, and recently they did another round of testing. Joey Mercury is now fired because of painkiller issues I believe, and WWE let Kurt Angle go for some of the same issues, even though it meant he would go straight to TNA, just because they didn't want anything bad to happen to him, especially not on their watch.
The "steroids paradox" and general debauchery also plays out in other sports. While baseball has tried to crack down on steroids as well, there is the undeniable fact that home run hitters draw crowds, win games, and get on Sports Center. Just as Chris Masters doesn't work as well as a heel without his muscles on muscles. Stories of NBA and NFL players having a wild night at the club pop up too often to mention. The travel schedules and physical exertion of the WWF team led to the same "work hard play harder" as pro sports. Only the WWF didn't have the same media scrutiny - as sections of national newspapers aren't devoted to their results, which may be why they even thought they could try to be modern day Caligulas.
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