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WWE News: Sports Illustrated names 14 wrestlers, including drugs they ordered and when
Aug 30, 2007 - 8:16:00 PM |
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Sports Illustrated reports tonight the names of 14 WWE once or currently contracted performers who received steroids and HGH from Signature Pharmacy. Included among the names is Ken Anderson, a/k/a Ken Kennedy, who stated recently he had stopped taking steroids when the Wellness Policy was instituted.
KEY EXCERPTS:
--As the WWE is embattled by charges that its wrestlers die early and unexpectedly with alarming frequency, it must now counter evidence that the culture is awash in illicit drug use. That cause wasn't helped on Thursday, when, based on information provided to the WWE by the Albany District Attorney's office, the organization suspended 10 wrestlers for violating the company's drug policy.
--Two weeks prior to Eddie Guerrero's death on Nov. 13, 2005, he was sent nandrolone, testosterone, and anastrozole. Guerrero died in a Minneapolis hotel room due to what a coroner later ruled as heart disease, complicated by an enlarged heart resulting from a history of anabolic steroid use.
--Chavo Guerrero, who found his uncle Eddie dead in the Minneapolis hotel room, received, among other drugs, somatropin (HGH), nandrolone and anastrozole between April 2005 and May 2006.
--Starting in September 2004 through February 2007, Randy Orton received somatropin, nandrolone, stanozolol.
--John Hennigan, a/k/a Johnny Nitro, a.k.a. Johnny Morrison, is the current WWE Extreme Championship Wrestling's heavyweight champion. Between June 2006 and February 2007 he was prescribed somatropin, anastrozole, testosterone, stanozolol and chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone produced naturally during pregnancy. (HCG is taken by anabolic steroid users to stimulate the production of testosterone, which is suppressed as a result of steroid use.)
--Ken Anderson, a/k/a Mr. Kennedy, lost to Eddie Guerrero in Guerrero's final match on Nov. 11, 2005. Kennedy received shipments of anastrozole, somatropin and testosterone between October 2006 and February 2007.
--Brian Adams, a/k/a Crush, who retired from the pro circuit in 2001, was found dead of unknown causes on Aug. 13. He received nandrolone, testosterone and Somatropin or HGH in December 2006.
Umaga was also listed by SI, a name not reported by the New York Daily News or ESPN.com in its initial reports.
Full Story - Including More Details of What Each Wrestler Received and When.
KELLER'S ANALYSIS: The potential ramifications and reverberations from this story, and the collective impact it can have on these wrestlers' futures and WWE's future with scheduled Congressional Hearings, is massive For instance, Ken Kennedy - who just said he stopped taking steroids when the Wellness Policy began - received shipments of testosterone, somatropin (a type of Human Growth Hormone), and anastrozole (a drug intended to be used to treat breast cancer, also used to fend off gynocomastia, indelicately known in wrestling and bodybuilding as "bitch tits," a common side effect of steroid usage). This raises major issues of hypocrisy as he volunteered to put himself on television and proclaim himself free of steroids the past 18 months and talk about how cleaned up WWE is today compared to Marc Mero's years in pro wrestling. Presumably, due to the reported timeline of Kennedy receiving these drugs, he would be among those ten suspended today. Whether or not the drugs were "medically justifiable" is not an issue when it comes to WWE's Wellness Policy, which specifically prohibits getting drugs via mail order. This, for the second time in the past three months, could completely derail a major WWE storyline regarding Vince McMahon's so-called "bastard son." Kennedy was at one point at least the planned son of McMahon.
As we've reported many times here at PWTorch.com, based on pro wrestling sources who are familiar with today's most popular drug cocktails wrestler use, the most common mixture of choice right now is a "medically justifiable level" of testosterone, HGH, and isulin. It's a combination which could lead a wrestler to declare he's "not on steroids," while actually beating the system because HGH cannot be tested for, insulin is not tested for and is legal, and the testosterone level being used is more easily obtained because it's not considered a full-fledged bodybuilding-intended anabolic steroid. It's something in all of the stories I've seen has rarely been brought up, but as I've repeatedly said - it's likely the no. 1 rationalization wrestlers are using to say they're "steroid-free" and it's also a way to use outside muscle-enhancing drugs while beating WWE's Wellness Policy (as last publicized; they don't have a readily available current version for public consumption that I'm aware of).
Meanwhile, if WWE has suspended most of the above wrestlers (WWE says they suspended ten, but 14 are listed above, so those who received drugs via the Internet pharmacy before the Wellness Policy was instituted may be left off the suspension list), they are without major names, potentially Mr. Kennedy, Randy Orton, and Umaga - three of Raw's top heels.
Batista was listed by ESPN as a client, although the dates of his drug shipments have not been reported. If he were suspended, that would be a major blow to the depth of Smackdown's roster.
The ECW brand may be without its champion, John Morrison, as his shipments ended a year after the Wellness Policy began.
This story would likely be receiving a lot more play in mainstream media if not for the Idaho senator's bathroom sex scandal.
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