Wrestlers tombstone WWE with $5 mn lawsuit. And there's cause for worry

A tight spot & a dark past for the WWE

"There is nothing ridiculous about this case," said Brenden Leydon to StamfordAdvocate. "WWE's misclassification of its wrestlers as independent contractors is an outrageous scheme to shift to the taxpayers its legal obligation to the catastrophically wounded talent who literally gave their blood sweat and tears for it. It needs to stop immediately," he said.

However, the WWE has often been in the news for being sly and plain shady with its practices vis-a-vis performers' health.

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Back in 2007, Canadian pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and seven-year-old son before hanging himself in his Georgia home. Steroid abuse was strongly suspected to be the trigger for the rage killing. Officials had confirmed then, that anabolic steroids were indeed found in his home, as was several prescription medications. The WWE's response to the episode? CBC News quoted the company saying that, "The physical findings announced by authorities indicate deliberation, not rage." They claimed that Benoit had tested negative for steroids the last time he was tested according to company norms. Benoit wasn't an isolated case. Eddie Guerrero, close friend of Benoit's, died in 2005 from heart failure - linked to steroid abuse. Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, died in 2002, after suffering a cardiac arrest as well, again due to 'possible' steroid abuse.

Possible steroid abuse that resulted in wrestlers' deaths can now prove to be a very sinister backdrop for chairman McMahon as his organisation fights the lawsuit. Way back in 1993, McMahon was charged by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York with consistently getting anabolic steroids for his coterie of wrestlers. He also allegedly employed a Pennsylvania doctor with an equally suspicious track record. The doctor is supposed to have also supplied regular shipments of dubious drug cocktails to then-WWF headquarters at "Titan Tower" in Stamford, Connecticut.

The doctor, Dr Zahorian, had first come into contact with the WWF as a state-appointed ringside physician. Between 1984 & 1989, Dr Zahorian allegedly supplied wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Piper, Moondog Rex, Ultimate Warrior, and Vince McMahon with a range of painkillers and other concoctions.

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In a book around the murky business deals of wrestling outside the ring, Chokehold: Pro Wrestling's Real Mayhem Outside the Ring, the journalist Weldon T Johnson writes about how investigators would go on to uncover that Zahorian "sold steroids and drugs to 43 pro wrestlers, 37 of whom were employed by McMahon's WWF when deliveries were made."

There's substantial evidence and material to build an even bigger case against the WWE, much beyond the scope of the present lawsuit perhaps. But more wrestlers need to get vocal about the existence of the problem. That's also where the situation gets dicey, at least for the wrestlers. The lawsuit quotes one of the wrestlers: "WWE is a big dance. If you don't do it, someone else will, and 99 percent of the time you perform under duress. Injured, you suck it up and perform, keep your mouth shut." But here's hoping they really don't.