Breaking The Walls Down - Let's Talk About It
Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 6:46 PM EST







Breaking The Walls Down







Hello and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. To begin, all my best wishes and prayers go out to Shannon Moore who was involved in a serious head-on car accident. He was hit by a drunk driver. Get well Shannon! Now, onto something more uplifting. Baseball season is about to begin and I should be excited. But, injuries are ALREADY adding up. I love the sport of baseball, but it’s becoming hard to watch The Phillies outside of Jim Thome and a few other players. To give you all a hint of where I stand right now with the sports world, according to a poster on The Eagles Message Board, 174 days to go until The Philadelphia Eagles open up the season on Monday Night Football in a match up against The Atlanta Falcons. I’M PUMPED! Anyway, the news is trickling in, so onto the main topic of the column.








Let’s Talk About It








Let’s talk about it, because it seems to be accepted now. Why is it accepted now, but a few years ago. Sure, it was talked about and sure there were trials, but nothing to this magnitude. Nothing that brought a Congressional hearing. Nothing that has become the popular word in our current culture. Steroids, it’s the popular word and, oh my, people are actually using it? No, come on. Steroids, often referred to as “the juice” or “juice” has come to the forefront in professional sports, namely baseball and football. But, how does this affect professional wrestling?






Steroids are designed to hasten the healing and regenerative properties of the muscle tissue in the human body. Oh, and yeah, it helps build strength in the human body, as well. Now, how do you, the reader and viewer of professional wrestling, think steroids impacts professional wrestling? I’m not going to name names, because I do not have ANY proof or ANY inside knowledge that you, the reader of this column, has of professional wrestling. However, I will point out several reasons why steroids may be used in professional wrestling today and I will take a look at the WWE promotion (because they have the most extreme schedule). Now, I do want to make this perfectly clear. I am not saying that professional wrestlers are on steroids, what I am attempting to do is point out reasons why professional wrestlers may want to use steroids. So, let’s begin.







Professional wrestlers have one of the, if not the, most grueling schedules of any sports or non-sports business. WWE wrestlers travel a majority of the year (well over 250 days) and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to work out in the gym. Between driving, flying, arriving at the arena, wrestling, eating, and sleeping that doesn’t leave much time to work out. There’s simply not enough time in the day. So, how can a wrestler keep his/her physique naturally? With so little time in the day, what is a wrestler to do? A wrestler has to keep their cardio up, so that must be taken care of naturally, no drug can help you there. Ahh, but there is a solution to the muscle/bulk issue, one syringe later and the issue is solved. Follow the injection with a light to moderate quick workout and bam, problem solved. Is it really that simple? Maybe.







Now, let’s say that a wrestler can get their workouts in, but they are noticing either an inability to put more bulk on their frame or they have received a push and they want to make themselves more over. Can the wrestler attend the gym more? No, in fact, if the wrestler is receiving a push, they are going to get more face time and more travel time than they normally would (i.e. television appearances). And, let’s face it, big-muscled wrestlers are what the average wrestling fans want. Then, to meet the demand from the fans, the company pushes big-muscled wrestlers. But, to switch that around, what about the wrestlers at the bottom of the pecking order? These guys may not have the rock-solid build that some, if not all, of the main-eventers have. Logically, these lower-level wrestlers realize they have the skills, but not the size, bulk-wize. So, what can they do to get noticed? Well, there’s that little syringe solution that floats around some people’s heads. Problem solved, right? Maybe.








Another, often forgotten, benefit to steroids is the inherent ability of the substance to help heal muscle tissue at a much faster rate than normal. What happens to either a top-level wrestler or a lower to mid-card wrestler who is just getting noticed, sustained an injury? Sure, now said wrestler has plenty of time in the gym due to rehab. Time away from the ring can be a good thing to give a wrestler’s body time to heal, but time away from the ring for a main-eventer or a lower to mid-card wrestler who is just getting noticed, is a bad, bad thing. Suddenly all the time in the gym simply isn’t enough to get back in the ring. The allure of the fans and the rabid attention that said wrester receives from those fans may make that wrestler look towards other means for a faster rehabilitation. Suddenly, the needle solution becomes viable. Problem solved, right? Maybe.








What about when a big event is on the horizon, say, oh I don’t know, Wrestlemania? What if the travel and the nagging injuries begin to pile up? How is a wrestler supposed to look his/her best for the biggest event of the year when said wrestler is wrestling house shows, TV shows (RAW or Smackdown!), and promoting the company’s big event via TV appearances? Wrestlers are held to a standard by fans and maybe by ownership, so the pressure is on. How is a wrestler supposed to look their best for the big event of the year, or more importantly, how can a wrestler look bigger and better than normal for the big event. As can only be expected, the needle solution must cross their minds. Problem solved, right? Maybe.







In the end, it comes down to a very real pressure that exists in this business. The pressure to constantly look his/her best and be in peek physical condition has to be overwhelming at times. Perhaps it’s time for Congress to broaden its steadfast stare and look towards professional wrestling. A strict testing regime not unlike that which faces the Olympic competitors today, could be what is needed. I’m not trying to force a witch hunt or anything of the sort, but what I am attempting to point out is that there is plenty of reason for professional wrestlers to use steroids and other “performance enhancing drugs.” And, if the temptation/reason exists, rest assured someone has at least thought about it. That, in and of itself, should be reason enough for testing.





Well, that will do it for this week. I’m looking forward to read your thoughts on the steroid testing issue. I personally believe it’s not as big a problem as it once was, but looking at professional wrestling as a whole, I believe it is at least worth investigating the subject. While I admit professional wrestling has a fixed outcome, the use of an illegal substance must not be ignored. Anyway, I hope all of you have a safe and happy week and join me as I try to “educate people on the realness of the fakeness of professional wrestling.”;©





Later,
Chris Dailey









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