Take up thy wrestling boots and walk - Lest we forget
Submitted by Pt2 on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 12:29 AM EST





I was reading a well known wrestlers epitaph today.

I don’t know if you I’ve ever tried reading the epitaph of a wrestler who has died long enough ago for it to stop being a novelty, but I hope if you are reading my column that you don’t forget about wrestlers 20 minutes after they are buried. I certainly don’t stop thinking about them at that rate, and I find some of these reminisces as comforting as they are disturbing, and yes I’m not afraid to admit they can be disturbing – I often think that for some people in the wrestling business (or even for some like myself, who have managed to leave it behind as a profession through injury and adaptation to other causes) forget or choose to ignore the warnings of the past.

I mean, after all, what can the intoxication of Curt Henning mean to the wrestlers of today, right? OK, I’ll agree that he was certainly one of the best wrestlers of his generation, and he certainly influenced pretty much anyone that watched WWF wrestling between 1989 and 1991 (Hennig’s WWF peak years), as well as influencing many of his contemporaries. But lets’ be frank, his cocaine problem was a symbol of the period in which he wrestled, right? It was the eighties, everyone was taking coke, right?

Well… apparently one of my favourite wrestlers and a man I’m prepared to admit I grieve didn’t stop taking coke the way everyone else did. As harsh as that last sentence may sound to Curt Henning diehards, it’s a truth – I loved Curt Henning’s in ring work, and his promo performances, and like the man as much as it is possible without meeting him in person. But he died.

Talent is not something that will stop you dieing. In fact it may even work the opposite way. Lots of people have been addicted to pain killers. Kurt Angle is allegedly addicted to them as we speak, and so was a far more talented wrestler by the name of Brian Pillman. Brian Pillman is truly one of the best wreslters I have ever seen, and he was truly in the same category as the Dynamite Kid and Tully Blanchard – Kurt Angle isn’t in that category, but the important thing he has to learn is that even though he is a cross sport champion, if he remains addicted to pain killers, much like Brian Pillman and more recently, Eddie Guerrero (Who had actually recovered and whose body suffered the effects, lets remember), HE WILL DIE. There is no wiggle room in this, no room for manoeuvre.

Unfortunately, this much is fact. If you take drugs, you risk death, and as much as I’ve taken the plaudits of fans in small arena’s, it isn’t worth death… and although I can’t say from experience the way I speak of performing in front of smaller areas, I doubt any realist would actually consider death to be worth performing in front of another wrestlemania crowd, or cementing your status as a legend.

This column may actually prove to be rather short, and a lot of you out there may think that it is something of a repetitive topic, but I’d like to remind you:

Just because there has been no truly high profile deaths recently doesn’t mean that the problem disappears.

I mean, lets look at this logically, shall we? Brian Pillman, in 1997, died from a painkiller addiction. Prior to his addiction, he was one of the greatest talents in the wrestling world. Kurt Angle has recently been fired from the WWE, and most of the reports are suggesting (and this column is in no way claiming for certain) that Kurt Angle’s problems are due to pain killers that he takes to keep wrestling. I hate to say it, but can anyone see a fucking pattern here? Kurt, for fucks sake, listen to your doctors – You ARE a legend, maybe you’re not the all time legend, but if you really keep chasing it the way you are, you could end up as a ten bell salute, and I’m not saying that just to scare any Kurt Angle fans that are reading – I am saying that on the 1,000,000 to 1 chance that Kurt may actually read, because I’m fucking fed up of seeing people like Kurt, who should be seeing themselves inducted into halls of fame, and retirement shows and all the rest of the bullshit – gah, I really don’t want to lose Kurt the way we’re lost so many other great performers. They may be something selfish in it, but if my being selfish means I don’t want someone else to die then I’ll fucking take it, thanks very much.

Lets not think that the problem ends with pain killers, shall we? I mean, there tends to be a belief amongst a lot of fans these days that both recreational drugs and performance enhancing drugs have been almost eliminated through awareness programs, and that the WWE should be relatively free of the bugs that are causing their classic era stars to, proverbially, drop like flies.

But we forget certain things in taking these things into account. Hulk Hogan’s career was almost ruined by the revelation that he took steroids in the early nineties. Chris Masters career has suffered major, major damage since he was dropped from the road for testing positive for steroids – in fact, I think he has dropped so much that he will have to work both his and Rob Conway’s ass off to get back to the privileged position he was in before. Remember, steroid education has started since the eighties, but don’t be naïve enough to think that lots of wrestlers, even one’s in as privileged a position as Chris Masters pre bust, don’t take steroids – the problem is there, and the company must remain ever vigilant until the incentive for wrestlers just isn’t there anymore.

And lets not forget the classic – the reason drugs were invented for. Pleasure. Mind enhancing, uppers, downers, etc. all sorts of people take drugs to enhance of forget, and I’m sure wrestlers are no different. Jake Roberts used to take all sorts of shit, and I really hope for his sake, and for the sake of all the kids who idolised him, as well as his family, that he’s past that stage now, and hopefully for good, but there seems to be a tendency to blame Jake for most of wrestling’s ills – but lets not forget, performance enhancing drugs were rife in Jake’s era – I already highlighted Curt Henning, but lets not forget Miss Elizabeth or Davey Boy Smith as casualties of recreational drugs, as well as many more stars from my childhood.

And before anyone starts thinking that unlike steroids or painkillers that recreational drugs won’t rear their ugly head, lets look at the past 6-7 months shall we? A period in which RVD, Randy Orton and Sabu have all been caught (and as far as I’m aware, publicly acknowledged) as having contravened the WWE drug policy – now, I’ll be honest, I don’t think Marijuana is the end of the world, and as Mick Foley said in his book, if a wrestler wants to have a joint in his room to relax, that is up to him – but the dangers are still there, because wrestlers are failing drug tests. It is no secret that RVD could find heroin within an hour if he wanted to, and Orton could be taking crack for breakfast if the fancy took him.

I know I can’t convince them not to – if they don’t have the sense by now, they won’t have the sense to, regardless of what I were to say, even if I were to scream it in their faces. I just felt compelled, on reading the epitaph of a man that I not only looked up to, but idolised, to share with you all the dangers that still exist in pro wrestling – we do have a tendency to put these things to the back of our minds until they are pushed dramatically to the fore – and unfortunately, that is usually fatal for somebody. I never want to see that again, and it truly breaks my heart that I will.


Feedback to this column can be sent to Takeupthywrestlingboots@gmail.com
There will be a YBTB title match coming next, if you’d like to apply for a spot on the YBTB roster, mail the above address – Random guy returns to face the champion in the next column!

Until next time, good luck

Pt2








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