Major News Piece on WWE Airs on CNN Tonight
Written by Lex on November 7th, 2007 in Uncategorized.
CNN reporter Drew Griffin was nice enough to send this along today:
It’s been an open secret that anabolic steroids and painkillers are a part of professional wrestling, but the murder-suicide of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit’s family focused a new spotlight on the consequences of the excesses. In an in-depth look into the world of the WWE, CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reveals that over the last decade, wrestlers have died from heart attacks, drug overdoses, suicides and cerebral hemorrhages – at rates much higher than for the general population. Including an interview with Vince McMahon, the chairman of the WWE, Griffin reports on what the life of professional wrestlers is like inside and outside of the ring – and how some wrestlers gamble with their health to win a chance at stardom in the profession.
The show will premiere, Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 8 and 11 pm and will re-air on Saturday, Nov. 10 and Sunday, Nov. 11 at 8 and 11 pm (ET).
Another big media story on the WWE. I’ll be sure to DVR this tonight and give you guys my thoughts on it later–we’ll see if this piece is a bit more balanced than some of the previous things we’ve seen on channels like HBO and Fox News.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:08 am
I’ll going to watch it at 11. this should be a good piece, unlike that crap that’s on Fox News
November 8th, 2007 at 12:13 am
ima dvr it as well, but i have a feelling wwe comes out looking bad. i dont see CNN correcting their misguided accusations of benoit, and this will just be another way of bashing the buisness and the WWE in paticular. i’d bet my bottom dollar that we get an ultimate warrior, mark mero, or konnan shoot on wwe the way they did a few months ago.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:15 am
We shall see. Vince is always interesting when he’s interviewed.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:47 am
I could watch that Bob Costas interview every hour of every day and not get board with it.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:06 am
well that was really good and really depressing. We got to see the Dynamite Kid as he is today, and boy, it is as far from glamorous as you can get. As normal he pulls no punches and is as honest as can be.
The biggest thing on the whole show for me was to hear John Cena basically admit to using steroids. “I can’t tell you that I’ve never used steroids, but you’ll never be able to prove it” or something like that. Wow.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:07 am
this does not make WWE look good. most of the show trashed the WWE. I feel really bad for Beniots father. the most shocking part i heard him say was “that was the biggest mistake, buying him a weightset”. he beats himself up over this. Chris Beniot would have done anything to get to the top.whether or not his father got him a weightset.
i hope this doesnt bring more heat to the Wrestling world
November 8th, 2007 at 2:24 am
You know, as hard as it is for we as wrestling fans to watch this sort of thing, it may end up being a good thing in the end if it causes some change. There’s no denying that there’s a steroid problem in wrestling, and negative media attention puts pressure on Vince to make the steroid testing stricter.
Also, let’s not forget that the WWE is a publicly traded company. At some point, you’d think the stockholders would get pissed off about the steroid problem.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:45 am
why didnt they interview the Great KHALI!?!
November 8th, 2007 at 5:10 am
CNN basically tried to put the entire steroids thing at the feet of Vince witch is stupid they made no attempt to look at the Indie seen or even TNA. And I have no fucking clue what Cena was talking about yes or no cock sucker god damn you made yourself look bad.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:34 am
i thought that CNN were really trying to make WWE look bad. the thing about the interviews, is that mcmahon’s probably lasted between half an hour and an hour, and cena’s probably lasted 15 - 30 minutes, and they chopped them down to 2 or three minutes of vince and linda talking, and less than 30 seconds of cena talking. i think cena probably explained the answer he gave to them in more detail before and after what they aired.
all in all, there were some good points made. it was nice to see the drug testing dr talking sceptically about the polocy. i didnt know they gave out warnings to the wrestlers on their first offence, that is something they must get rid of. i want to see WWE clean up, and although i think it’s wrong to have your mind made up before you start on something like this (the way CNN always does with ALL their special investigations) i have to agree with lex, hopefully this pushes WWE a little bit to get legitimatly clean.
ps. the guy in the dark with the hat and hood has no say in what is going on and should not be able to take up tv time with that crap; for all we know it could have been mr.happy talking under a robe.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
sideshow–steroids have been an issue in the WWE for 20 years, and Vince is an obvious abuser himself. They are the industry leader by such a large margin it’s almost a monopoly. Of course they are going to focus on the WWE.
That’s like complaining that an article on steroids in football concentrates too much on the NFL and not enough on the World League or semi-pro ball.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
i believe that vince, hhh, and cena are off the juice. they get a lot of heat from the IWC, andi dont think it’s justified.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
But I think that CNN missed the mark on a far more interesting story than the steroid one. Steroids have been done to death, and everybody can see that steroid abuse is rampant in wrestling. A more interesting take would have been why the WWE doesn’t do more to help its ex wrestlers. Vince is a billionaire. With one stroke of his pen he could fund an insurance plan, do whatever it takes to ensure that the guys who made his company aren’t struggling.
The perfect example of this fell into their laps, but they were too bust quizzing dynamite about steroids that they didn’t even ask him about health insurance, pension payments etc.
Of course, a lot of wrestlers don’t even get to middle age, let alone old age. . .
November 8th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
-DynamiteKid
Its ok to focus on the WWE but that special didn’t even mention any other organization. When they did the segment on the Dynamite Kid how come they didn’t blame Stampede Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling or New Japan Pro Wrestling for his steroid use? They interview Eric Bishoff how come they didn’t ask him what WCW was doing about steroids in the 90’s? It obvious they really made no attempt to take a even handed look at the entire business they where telling a story and Vince was the villain you can tell from how the how thing was edited every time they mentioned Vince they showed him in slow motion with all the stupid dramatic music behind him.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
simple, because he didn’t become a heavy steroid user until he went to the WWF. It’s in his book. Stampede didn’t care about big muscle guys. Looks at some of his matches from there. he’s half the size he would later be. In order to get taken seriously by the WWF he (and the rest of them) went on the juice. Davey Boy was the same way.
I know you admire Vince, but the evidence is too vast to ignore. The influx of steroids into pro wrestling can be attributed to Vince and his love of the spectacle of 2 musclebound guys battling.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
-DynamiteKid
I’m not saying Vince doesn’t like big guy and I’m not even saying that Vince didn’t at one point look in the other direction when this stuff was going on. But it can not be all be attributed to Vince alone WCW Nitro topped WWF Raw in the ratings for what 83 weeks straight weeks at one point how come we’re all not pointing the finger at Eric Bishoff and Ted Turner, they looked the other way when they knew drug abuse was going on just like Vince did and I don’t remember a whole lot of 150 pound guys holding the WCW world title.
November 8th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
what was surpeising was the there wasnt 1 picture of Scott Steiner WTF