Tag: steroids

March 10, 2008 Observer Newsletter: Floyd Mayweather payday, Vince McMahon skips congressional hearing

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The $20 million figure for Floyd Mayweather has pretty well been debunked at this point, even from inside the company, but not before wrestlers both past and present were very upset at the idea.

It’s understandable, because Ric Flair, who is finishing a 35 plus year career in just a few weeks (and boy is that a weird thought) likely made in the range of $13-16 million (and spent most of it) over the course of his career. He not only was one of the all-time greatest performers, with three decades plus as one of the game’s biggest stars, its record setting world champion, but during the course of his career, only one pro wrestler in history, Hulk Hogan, ever headlined more live events that drew in excess of 10,000 fans. Wrestling isn’t about being fair and Flair would have earned a lot more than that if he was born 25 years later, but that really put the $20 million figure into perspective.

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September 26, 2007 Observer Newsletter: More fallout from the WWE Signature Pharmacy investigation

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

ESPN.com had a lengthy story interviewing Lex Luger, in specific talking about his drug usage, and blaming himself for the death of Elizabeth, saying her body couldn’t hold up to his level of partying. Now born again, Luger has said he is confessing all his drug usage, saying he came close to dying many times from overdoses. He is currently in line for hip replacement surgery.

He said he started doing steroids to gain weight quickly for Canadian Football, and was taught in sports that you do whatever it takes to win. “And that leads to guys wanting to take shortcuts, and then, cheat until you get caught, and then lie.” He said he started using Dianabol in 1979, when he was 20 years old. He said he never did steroids 52 weeks a year in pro wrestling, and would be on for 12 weeks, then off for 12 weeks, using testosterone and decadurabolin, saying they weren’t illegal (usage wasn’t illegal until 1991). Luger said while in WWE, wrestlers had little trouble getting around the WWE drug testing (1992-96).

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July 30, 2007 Observer Newsletter: Steroids in MMA, WWE Great American Bash review

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

A war of words, where personalities may obfuscate the very serious underlying issue, has taken center stage in MMA this past week. And it has eerie similarities to what is also going on at the same time in pro wrestling.

The steroid test failures of Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca, and subsequent one-year suspensions, from tests taken on 7/7, the day of their lightweight title fight in Sacramento, have put the microscope on the hot button issue of steroids in MMA and what can be done about them. This comes just a month after Royce Gracie and former NFL star Johnnie Morton tested positive and a few weeks after Phil Baroni tested positive. In all, there have been 11 steroid test positives over the past 14-week period in California alone, the state with the most vigilant testing in the country.

The steroid issues in pro wrestling and MMA is very different, even though the tragedies in pro wrestling caused by pain killers and steroids may very well be a harbinger of the future of MMA if not left unchecked.

Subscribers can read this issue here.

DragonKing Dark: The Mitchell Report

Posted on by Karl Stern

100 darkest moments in pop culture history continues with another black eye for Major League Baseball – the Mitchell Report. This 2007 report was officially titled The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball. It’s pretty self-evident from the title that some baseball players are going to come out of this not looking so good.

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Classic Audio: September 24, 2008 Wrestling Observer Radio

Posted on by F4W Staff

This week’s classic audio takes a look at declining ratings in 2008 and addresses the problem of adults losing interest in wrestling. With WWE setting record low ratings recently, it’s interesting to look back to 2008 and what has been a growing problem for years.

The second part of the show is an hour long interview with the director of “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”, a documentary discussing steroid use. Chris Bell talks with Dave and Bryan about his film, what can be done about steroids in wrestling and MMA, performance enhancers, and tons more.

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