The Schalter

Written by: Martin Di Paola

On the 11 June 2007, Vince McMahon, owner and chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, was killed when his limousine exploded. Except he wasn’t. This was yet another dramatic storyline in the soap opera world of this billion dollar company. A ruse designed to attract viewers, generate pay-per-view buyrates and (quite simply) make money. Just nine days later, however, this storyline was suddenly cut short. McMahon appeared on WWE’s flagship television show RAW to announce that his own death was a mere ruse, a scripted event, and one that had been dramatically overshadowed by the actual death of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. McMahon then dedicated the event to Benoit’s memory, a dedication he had to retract the next week when it emerged the Canadian wrestler had killed himself after murdering his wife and seven year old son. This was no “work”. There would be no pay-off match at a later event. It was simply yet another tragedy in an increasing, and disturbingly long, list involving people in the business.

Vince McMahon

This murder-suicide was not just a huge story in the world of professional wrestling but gained widespread mainstream media coverage in addition. Rumours abounded about the cause of death. People started to talk about increased aggression brought on by steroid use. Later medical investigations ruled out so-called ‘roid rage but the allegation did not disappear easily. WWE had had problems with the drug in the past. In 1994 McMahon was put on trial, accused of distributing steroids to his wrestlers. Though acquitted of all charges, McMahon did admit to taking the drug himself and the organisation’s reputation was damaged leading them to lose their position as the premier wrestling promotion for some years. The reason for Benoit’s suicide and the murder of his wife Nancy (a wrestling performer herself) and son Daniel remains unclear but Julian Baines, professor of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University said that test results showed “Benoit’s brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient.” It was suggested that repeated concussions suffered whilst performing could have led to dementia and in turn to Benoit’s actions.

Chris Benoit

Benoit’s death was the second major tragedy suffered by WWE in under three years. On the 15 November 2005, Eddie Guerrero was found unconscious in his hotel room and was pronounced dead upon the arrival of paramedics. Guerrero had battled alcohol and drug addiction throughout his life but had been clean for over four years. No illicit substances were found in his body at his time of death. However, it is thought that his past excesses coupled with his heavy training schedule had weakened his heart resulting in a heart attack. The usual tributes followed throughout the wrestling world for this former champion and then (except for some rather distasteful storylines that mawkishly exploited his death) everything moved on. Guerrero’s death is perhaps the archetypal wrestler death. Browsing a list of deceased wrestlers reveals a disturbing number of performers in their 30s and 40s dying from heart attacks and often with the added complication of drug abuse. Ray Traylor, Scott Bigelow, Brian Pillman and Michael Hegstrand all died in this way and they are just a tiny selection of the far greater number lost to drug-related heart failure.

Eddie Guerrero

A very different but no less tragic death was that of Owen Hart. Unlike the vast majority of other premature wrestling deaths, Hart had no reported history of substance abuse and he died not at home or in an hotel room but in front of a live arena audience during an event. On the 23 May 1999 at the Kemper Arena, Kansas City Missouri Hart was killed when he fell eighty feet onto the ring ropes while performing a stunt ring entrance as part of his Blue Blazer persona. The Blue Blazer was a superhero gimmick and the entrance required Hart to be lowered from the ceiling on a harness before activating a quick-release mechanism and dropping to the ring. It’s thought that either the harness failed or that Hart accidentally released the mechanism early resulting in his fatal fall. Television audiences were informed by announcer Jim Ross that an accident had taken place and that it was not part of the evening’s entertainment. Later it was announced that Hart had been killed. Controversially, the live audience were not informed of the full extent of what had transpired and despite the visible distress of many of the other performers the show continued.

Owen Hart

Of course these are just a fraction of the deaths in this business in recent years. Since 1985 at least eighty men and women (Sherri Martel and Elizabeth Hulette being notable female performers who have died), both wrestlers and related performers, have died before the age of sixty-five. Many of these deaths can be directly attributed to the lifestyle wrestlers are compelled to lead. Many will perform upwards of three hundred shows each year, travelling widely across the USA, Europe and Asia. Pay is often based on the wrestler’s place on the card (main event, mid-card, opening match) and therefore wrestlers are unwilling to lose their spot once they have gained it. As a result, injuries will be ignored or masked with painkillers. Wrestlers will take drugs to sleep and to wake up or simply to dull the pain of the latest muscle strain or concussion. Time is spent away from home leading to depression and more drugs and in some cases self-harm and suicide. Mike Alfonso and Kerry, Mike and Chris Von Erich are just a few of the names to have taken their own lives while involved in the business.

If these men were athletes in any other sport, or perhaps more appropriately actors in action films, it seems clear that the public outcry would be stronger. Wrestling hasn’t shaken its reputation as a camp, rather silly form of entertainment. As a result many of these deaths have had little attention, or no attention at all, from mainstream media. Benoit is a recent and perhaps solitary exception. WWE has introduced a Wellness Policy to monitor drug use and heart conditions but this has been criticised by testing bodies in the NFL and NHL as being hopelessly inadequate and the punishment for transgression too lenient. Certainly moves are being made within the business to address these issues but it as yet remains unclear if they will be sufficient to halt a worrying trend towards premature death in apparently fit and healthy young men and women.

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This post is tagged Deaths, Wrestling