Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to David Heck's Feb. 25 column "The tragically ignored." As a wrestling fan, I knew about the death of Umaga this past year (although I'm 22, not 13 as the article suggests). Although tragic and more than likely linked to steroids, what Heck did not mention was that Umaga had failed tests for the World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Wellness Policy on two separate occasions, and refused to enter rehab on his second failure in June 2009, which led to his release from the company.
Heck later states that "‘The Wrestler' (2008) was dead-on in its portrayal of most professionals — at least the ones not named ‘The Rock' or ‘Stone Cold' — and how their lives tend to deteriorate." Such a gross generalization is unfair to the majority of wrestlers who live good lives after they retire from the ring, like Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who went on to become the Governor of Minnesota, or Ted "The Million Dollar Man" DiBiase, who became a Christian minister and runs his own wrestling promotion. Mickey Rourke's character in the movie is by no means the rule when it comes to retired wrestlers.
Concerning Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit, the scenario surrounding his and his family's deaths is certainly tragic. However, simply labeling this as an instance of "roid rage" is unfair and inaccurate. Police and toxicologists could not make a link between steroids and Benoit's behavior. Perhaps more telling were the tests conducted on Benoit's brain at the University of West Virginia, which concluded that it was so severely damaged that it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Benoit was also reported to have an advanced form of dementia, closely resembling the brains of four NFL players who had sunk into depression and harmed themselves or others. Before his death, Benoit had several surgeries on his neck, and was repeatedly told by doctors that he needed to stop using his signature top-rope headbutt move, or else he could risk permanently damaging his neck or head. He obviously did not comply.
It would be foolhardy for me to say that steroids were not a huge problem in professional wrestling in years past. They undoubtedly led to the deaths of several wrestlers, be it from heart attacks, suicide or otherwise. With that being said, Chairman Vince McMahon and the WWE have clearly seen the error of their ways, as they've instituted a new Wellness Policy in order to make sure the wrestlers are healthy and free from drugs or performance enhancers. There are always two sides to every story, and Heck's one-sided telling of the already-beaten-to-death saga was unfair to the WWE and professional wrestling as a whole.
Sincerely,
Corey Pontes
Class of 2010
