WWE Faces Steroid Scandal
WWE Performers Among 11 Pro Wrestlers Named in Probe
The ever-widening tentacles of the federal investigation into a network of doctors and mail-order pharmacies that supply pro athletes with steroids grabs 11 pro wrestlers
There is emerging news of eleven pro wrestlers, many of whom work for, or have worked previously with WWE ( World Wrestling Entertainment) who are involved in the rapidly widening steroid probe that has emerged from the 2006 raid on Applied, the Mobile, AL compounding pharmacy, one that has resulted in 20 criminal charges being filed. Some of the previous customers of this pharmacy alleged to have received steroids from them include boxer Evander Holyfield and baseball star Gary Matthews Jr.
Sports Illustrated has just placed a story on their web site written by journalists that accompanied federal agents on a raid of a Jupiter, FL clinic that ostensibly treats disorders of aging. But law enforcement agents believe that the clinic is at the nexus of a group of physicians and pharmacies that are providing steroids and human growth hormone to athletes.
In this story, there is a claim that a medical doctor from Arizona, David Wilbirt (whose right to practice is currently suspended in that state) prescribed steroids and human growth hormone (HgH) for the following current WWE performers: Edge ( real name: Adam Copeland), The Hurricane (Shane Helms), Rey Mysterio (Oscar Gutierrez ), and Randy Orton, who was alleged to have received six different types of steroidal substances.
Former WWE wrestler Kurt Angle, who now works for TNA Wrestling, and most troubling of all, the deceased Eddie Guerrero, whose death two years ago was attributed by a coroner's report to have been the product of heart disease cause by steroid use, were other patients of Wilbert that received prescriptions for steroids.
The issue of steroids is nothing new in professional wrestling. One of the most famous stars of the modern era of this form of entertainment, Hulk Hogan admitted to a grand jury in 1994 that he had used the drugs for many years. Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) was careful not to accuse his former boss, current WWE CEO Vince McMahon, of distributing steroids - a claim that had been made by others. It is a loosely-guarded secret though that this form of entertainment is rife with those trying to increase their muscular bulk and strength.
Since that time with federal laws tightening on the illegal use, or even the inappropriately prescribed use of the muscle-building agents, WWE has instituted a wellness policy that involves testing for steroids, but the results of that are kept confidential, and as a result no one can say for sure if any action is taken. To compound that dilemma, there is no testing available for HgH so of course there could be no punitive action for its use.
This story will continue to develop. Investigators claim that the athletes are not the main targets of the probe, that the intent is to disrupt the underground network of prescribers and pharmacies that fill those orders, such as Applied. But the public relations blow to the WWE as they prepare to put on their shiniest exhibition of the year, Wrestlemania 23 on April 1st, 2007, has to be a considerable one, and there will no doubt be further fallout from this.
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