Forgive me for this rant. But I’m angry. This is not focused on a specific wrestler. This is just me railing on the upper echelon of the business and the prices it takes to get there. Forgive me, but I am angry.
I’m angry that there are still wrestlers out there using PED’s. I understand I am not a wrestler, and I don’t have the same perspective on the business as somebody inside would. But I am a fan. The people in front of that camera matter to me. I’m tired of caring about a wrestler and then hearing about them violating the wellness policy again and again. And it’s not the same idiots like Chris Masters or Mr. Kennedy (dramatic pause… Kennedy). It’s guys I’ve cared about: Chavo, Regal, Sin Cara (though it looks like they might find a better one because of the first one’s violation). I’m angry at watching wrestlers cut corners.
I’m angry at the unreal expectations the WWE, TNA, AAA (Yeah, I’m going after my sacred cow, too.) have set before their wrestlers. Why is Andy Leavine on juice? Why is Sin Cara? What about Hector Garza? Why did they take 5’3” Rey Misterio Jr. and make him put on weight? He is way ridiculously over his ideal weight for his size. And we wonder why he’s about to get ANOTHER knee surgery? What about Chris Benoit’s and Eddie Guerrero’s abnormal thickness for their heights? Remember when Randy Orton was coming back from surgery and Vince McMahon told him he needed to work out (on national tv)?
I’m angry that nobody seems to be trying to look into the “why.” Nobody seems to care about finding the root cause of “why” wrestlers are using their PED’s. Maybe it’s Body Dismorphic Disorder. Maybe it’s addiction to the adoration of the crowd. Maybe it’s cause they’re young and stupid and think they won’t get caught.
It’s time to change the culture. You can’t just give press lip service and then do what you’ve always done. Be different.
To follow me on Twitter, click here. For Facebook, click here.
I hear you JR, and feel pretty similarly. It's a byproduct of the boom years, mixed with media forcing unrealistic body types upon us. Even more so, it's ingrained into the what McMahon perceives that the wrestling fans want to see with his unhealthy big man body builder fetish. Mix in 30 years of him pushing this at us, there probably is a truth to it that many fans expect a certain "look."
I don't agree personally with what I wrote here. I'm just calling it as I see it. There is a reality that size matters with certain gimmicks, those being giant types. But as you noted, with guys like Rey, Eddie, Chris, Sin Cara (v.1 or v.2), hell even maybe CM Punk for all we know, these pressures have taken a toll. It sucks, actually. Being a bigger fan of high flying acrobatic action, it bothers me that it's the guys who bore the crap out of (i.e. Muscle heads) that influence the guys I actually want to watch.
Its ironic that Vince demands amazing physical attributes out of his wrestlers while also testing them for drug abuse.