R.I.P Chris Benoit/WWE Chris Benoit dead at 40

[thrillme]

I read about the posting on Winkapedia. Kinda weird how that came up. Sounds a bit suspicious.

[Advnt05]

I understand that baseball has a no steroids policy. I don't accept the argument that some people have made that if the particular league did not have a policy, than it's ok. If it's against the law in the US than it shouldn't be up to the league to say it's against our policy as well. Steroid use is probalby the number one abused drug in pro wrestling. If you are not going to test for other drugs, at least test for these when it's obviously being abused. Consider it profiling.

[Red Randal]

I realize it's entertainment but how many more will die before the clean it up? Would people still watch if the guys were not so big?

This is the thing that really upsets me about this story (okay, actually there are tons of things that really upset me about this story, among them the dead mother and child, but this is the thing that's most annoying me at this second) is that people absolutely WOULD still watch if they weren't so big. Just look at Ring of Honor, a little promotion out of Philadelphia that's generally regarded by well informed pro wrestling fans to be the #1 promotion in the country. (If you've never heard of them and are interested, they debut on pay per view this month.) Hardly any of their guys are especially big but every one of them is incredibly talented. WWE's CM Punk, Paul London, and Jimmy Wang Yang all are former ROH champions, if that gives you an idea of the style of wrestler the promotion pushes. TNA's Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Homicide of LAX are also former ROH champs.

The point I'm trying to make here is that it's VINCE MCMAHON who does not think a "small" guy could be a champion. The small guys who he has given runs with the gold include Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio, who are still considered "too small" despite being roided beyond belief (two of them are dead, probably because of this.)

So please don't demonize all professional wrestling because Vince McMahon made a ton of money pushing Hulk Hogan and his "24 inch pythons" in the 80's and, as a result, thinks that all professional wrestlers need to be 6'4 steroid junkies to be "believable." I know that Chris Benoit, the man, committed these terrible crimes and is to blame...but if steroids played a part then it absolutely disgusts me that Vince McMahon's image of a wrestler played a role in one of the most gifted technical wrestlers ever had to start shooting steroids in order to be given a run with the world title, rather than being allowed to earn it on pure merit alone. And that's one of the things that really bothers me about this whole thing.