Who in the hell decided that temps over 100 are out of the norm out West in the summer time? It's always this hot out here! 5 degrees over the record from last year doesn't mean shit. When its over 100, it all feels the same - god awful. But its nothing new. Seriously, we had a week of 113 like two years ago. Half this place is desert Deserts? Hot? Nu-uh.

Guh.

So I have a question regarding steroids and wrestling....

Obviously there is a lot of "speculation" regarding benoit and his situation, but what I find interesting is how all of these wrestlers are coming on news shows and saying how they have taken steroids in the past and that it is still rampant in the business today. Some are calling for a Congressional investigation.

What I'm curious about is how much of a role does steroids play in the destruction of wrestlers? Do some people see wrestling and steroids the same way as pot is to RVD? I don't know the guy, so I can't say for sure, but it seems like a common idea that he did or does smoke pot and yet, it's OK as long as he flies through the air? Or howabout harder drugs and the music industry? VERY accepted as part of music.

I've also been wondering if the many deaths tied to wrestling has a strange spotlight. Aren't there tragic deaths in competitive sports? Is it because wrestling tries to be over the top as often as possible? Random food for thought, I'll be interested to hear what people say.

The thing to remember with steroids in wrestling is that they aren't just about building muscle mass and looking 'cut' - rather, they're seen as a method of maintaining a particular body shape and, more importantly, healing up. Because of the way the industry is (i.e. still grounded in a 'travelling circus' mentality), a wrestler can expect to have to work a match pretty much every night. Even a basic wrestling match inflicts a lot of wear and tear on the body and, with no unions (which means any wrestler could be fired or blackballed for missing a show if they're too injured to work) the steroids (and painkillers) are pretty much essential to enable them to wrestle when they really shouldn't.

This has the effect of a) damaging the body through use of these substances and b) causing wrestlers to push themselves too hard and cripple themselves through nagging injuries (see: Austin, Stone Cold Steve). The use of other drugs - specifically weed due to its calming and pain-reducing effects - is also part of this effect of needing to feel healthy enough to work.

Unless things change, steroids and the like will always be a part of the industry. My understandng is that TNA record a few shows one night each week and then their workers have the week off - which is a better way of doing business, but amounts to nothing if their guys still take independent bookings the rest of the week. The problem, really, is that wrestling just doesn't pay that well unless you're at the top of the ladder, and, without unions, there's zero job security. Guys feel that they have to work every night or they won't be able to feed their kids.

Steroids, painkillers and other drugs are, IMO, endemic of the way the industry is run, which is to say with the mentality that the workers are little better than sideshow attractions.

Gracious I hope you aren't saying socialism, I mean Unions are a way to go in these modern times. I really couldn't bring myself to watch a program where Mark Henry and Val Venis are the program's champions because they've been here longer than the other guys, so that makes them more deserving of a promotion than the newer guys. I don't think that was your point Thommy, but that was something I had to comment on.


on a lighter note, http://www.simpsonsmovie.com is allowing people to make a simpsons based avatar. I'll post a Lucas up soon.

Well, I think if someone was fired in any other industry while they were recovering from an injury they sustained at their job that prevented them from working, that would be pretty appaling. If it was a dock worker, or someone who worked in a factory or something, we'd all naturally be disgusted, wouldn't we?

If I tore a muscle from a bad bump and had to take three months off, during which time I was earning very little (because wrestlers are still paid based on the gates of the shows they perform at) and then got a letter saying, "sorry, you're fired - after all, you aren't earnig us any money", I'd be pretty pissed off. And rightly so.

That's what I'm talking about. I don't think unionised labour for wrestlers would result in people getting pushed and winning matches since, as we all know, in a worked sport, "success" is not really determined by such means. Rather, unions would ensure guys got job security and were paid fairly, and that the sort of idiotic boys' club mentality that's prevelant in the wrestling world and leads to stuff like Hardcore Holly being dropped on his head with no repurcussions for Brock Lesnar would cease to exist.

Obviously, I'm not blaming the industry for what happened with Benoit, but I think it's a contributing factor in his case. I mean, if The Rock or Goldberg or Nash went psycho and killed their families I wouldn't say the same thing, because they've all done other stuff and almost always wrestled for the money. Benoit was the sort of guy who was obssessed with improving his craft and caught up in the 'respect' inherent to the business (something I consider to be a complete joke) - so it's not a huge jump to see why the rigours of the road and the general fucked-upness of wrestling would be a contributing factor to a tragedy like this.