In the early 1990s, the WWF (now WWE) made a concerted effort to combat a public perception that its stars were using steroids, with wrestlers like Hulk Hogan appearing in videos like this to praise the organization's drug testing policies:
But by the mid-90s, the professional wrestling landscape had changed significantly, with Ted Turner offering huge sums of money to lure wrestlers to his promotion, the WCW.
And as recently released Congressional testimony from WWE officials makes clear, the WWE thinks that Turner attracted pro wrestlers in part because they knew they could get away with using steroids in his organization.
Linda McMahon, the CEO of the WWE and the wife of Vince McMahon, answered questions for Congressional investigators on December 13, 2007, and a transcript of that question-and-answer session has just been released (PDF). And while Linda's interview didn't have anything close to the fireworks of her husband's, it did contain one choice nugget about Turner.
"(W)e had put into place a pretty significant drug policy which he refused to put into place," Linda McMahon told the investigators, "so (Turner) had a lot of opportunity with some of our top stars, Hulk Hogan being one of them who went with him at that time."
Later, an investigator asked, "Do you think their lack of drug policy had anything to do with talent moving to WCW?
McMahon answered, "I think it could have, yes."
Basically, McMahon is saying Ted Turner -- one of America's most prominent businessmen -- benefited from looking the other way while the wrestlers who worked for him used steroids. And yet the Congressional inquiry into steroids in pro wrestling never bothered to call on Turner to testify. Strange.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
