Readers sound off on Congressional hearings, offensive angles

It does not matter who has met with whom in private. There needs to be a televised Congressional hearing on the subject of performance enhancing drugs in professional wrestling. I do not think this should occur for my own entertainment, but because I do not see any other way for the WWE specifically to take this seriously. As soon as the light was no longer being shined upon them they went back to business as usual. Have you seen anyone getting smaller? No, in fact quite a few wrestlers are getting bigger for the run up to WrestleMania. 

Why am I hellbent on getting a televised Congressional hearing? The answer is quite simply this—baseball has had several televised hearings and, while that is fine, the situation is nowhere near as dire as it is in the ranks of professional wrestling. Where the use is corrupting the game in baseball, in professional wrestling it appears to be killing people and it needs to be addressed. 

I am not one of those people who will take the list of wrestlers dead under the age of forty or whatever it is and become a reactionary because I know that a tremendous amount of people on that list have died because of other reasons. However, the number of wrestlers that have died specifically due to the use of performance enhancing drugs are quite large. Large enough to warrant an investigation without the lumping in of deaths due to other causes.

I am not even sure why I am telling you all of this. I guess it’s because I feel that somewhere deep in my soul that it will be due to the actions of the fans that this will all change. There is link on the Congressional subcomittee website that allows people to contact Henry Waxman the chairman who has been overseeing the Congressional hearings. I have been sending messages just in the hope that they do not forget about wrestling, because something anything has to be done to stop these people from dying.

Zachary Heath

Powell's POV: I believe this is the link Zachary is referring to: Congressional Oversight Committee.


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I do have one question that has not been answered in these Congressional hearings. What is Congress doing to protect us from all these steroids and prescription drugs?  Anyone can get them. Where are they all coming from? I find it disturbing that the Doctors that are supposed to heal us have been giving out these drugs like its candy.  Its also scary that most of these drugs are coming from China and Mexico. If we can't protect our borders from drugs, what else is getting through?

Rather than have these "hearings" where the Congressmen can cut promos and give
half-truths, maybe they should be spending time on getting these drugs off the streets.  This may have been a sports problem ten years ago, but is now a national epidemic and holding hearings with celebrities won't stop it.

Chris F.

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Listen. I’m 21 years old. I've been a wrestling fan since I was about five. For the 16 years I've been watching wrestling. I have never been offended by any angle or story line in wrestling. Why? Because this is all "entertainment.”

Wrestling is a soap opera with story lines and characters that we are supposed to either love or hate. It is no different from any other television show. This is purely for entertainment purposes. Sure, there have been angles and story lines that have insulted my intelligence, but I have never found them offensive because wrestling is all about entertainment.

I haven't been offended by the post-death Eddie Guerrero storylines, the Katie Vick angle, the incest angles, or Shawn Michaels using the crossface a few months after the Benoit tragedies.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is wrestling. It's a show made for entertainment. If you are offended by anything on a wrestling show, then hell, just turn off the televison or change the channel. Stop making a big deal out of nothing.

I encourage you to chime in with any comments or questions you have on the Congressional hearings, offensive angles, or any other pro wrestling related topic by sending a few paragraphs to dotnetjason@gmail.com.