Phil Mushnick is at it, again

[JN News 0]

I just got this off of another board. Apparently, Mushmouth just doesn't know when to quit. Here's the article.

 

 

 

November 20, 2005 -- WE'VE been writing it for more than 15 years, but we're going to try it one more time. And then we're going to try to do what the rest of the media does: we're going to ignore it.

 

After all, what's a dead pro wrestler, or two. Or 20. Or 80. They're only pro wrestlers; it's not as if they're real people.

 

While Bud Selig and Donald Fehr resisted Congress's efforts to expose and eliminate steroid use, they should be grateful that Congress, and, by extension America, gives a damn whether ballplayers live or die.

 

On the other hand, it's hard to keep a body count on pro wrestlers, under the age of 40, who have died sudden, steroid-aided deaths in the last 20-25 years.

 

Vince McMahon does not contract the Elias Sports Bureau to keep track. But that industry-wide number must be closing in on 100.

 

Not a single active MLB player is known to have died a steroid-related death. But imagine if there had been one. Or two. Imagine if a massively muscled outfielder with the Tigers or Cubs was found dead in his hotel room today.

 

That's page one, the lead story of every newscast.

 

But as pro wrestlers drop dead - four, five, six a year - they hardly make a sound.

 

Pro wrestlers, a fraction of the number of MLB's talent pool, regularly drop dead; few seem to notice and fewer seem to care. And that's just the way that McMahon & Co. want it.

 

Last week, as MLB and the MLBPA finalized the Congressionally exacted steroid policy, Eddie Guerrero, one of McMahon's top WWE stars, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota. He was 38.

 

Pro wrestlers are commonly found dead in their hotel rooms. In fact, steroid-fortified WWF (now the WWE) star Brian Pillman, 33, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota in 1997.

 

It works like this: The wrestlers know that their bosses want over-the-top muscle.

 

They know that there's an implied, industry-wide directive to be on or to get on the juice.

 

They know that they have to be on the road many weeks at a time, without any medical coverage or sick days.

 

Miss a show due to illness or injury and you miss a payday. Often, one or two misses and you're fired.

 

So the cycle begins. Steroids to get and keep the job, barbiturates to kill the pain and get some sleep, stimulants to get through the next gig.

 

That's why pro wrestlers are found dead in their hotel rooms.

 

Guerrero was only 5-8, but with muscles that pushed the limits of natural physiology. And he was a pro drug abuser every bit as much as he was a pro wrestler - the two, in the Vince McMahon Era, rarely stand alone.

 

While Selig, the king of baseball, is hauled before Congress, McMahon, the king of pro wrestling - himself once massed on steroids - skips through the cemetery. He surely must think it wonderful that so few people care, that the media view his business only as a trendsetter for lowbrow pop culture.

 

McMahon is so smug in his knowledge that the news media ignore the deaths of pro wrestlers that he actually exploits the fatalities to pump TV ratings. Shortly after Pillman's death, the WWF promoted a "stay-tuned-for" interview with Pillman's widow, who was too naive to understand that her late husband died both a drug- and pro wrestling business- related death.

 

Last week McMahon exploited Guerrero's death to make ratings hay with his NBC-TV partners, first on McMahon's hideously desensitizing USA Network show (USA is now owned by NBC) and then through a speak-no-evil memorial on MSNBC. And let's not forget McMahon's long friendship and partnerships with NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol, who convinced NBC to turn Saturday nights over to McMahon's XFL.

 

There are other big shots who take big dives for McMahon. A former U.S. governor, for example, other than Jesse (The steroid Body) Ventura. Lowell Weicker, from McMahon's home state of Connecticut, is a former governor and senator.

 

Weicker has long served as a member of the WWE's Board of Directors. We don't know what Weicker is paid for his presence, but given that he has to look past the perversity of McMahon's TV product and that he has to look around the scores of dead young men produced by the industry, he works cheap.

 

Anyway, under threat of Congress, MLB last week introduced a stronger drug policy. That made big news - while another pro wrestler dropped dead. And they continue to drop dead, ever so softly, so as to scarcely make a sound.

 

Just the way McMahon likes it.

 

[email protected]

 

 

Sickening, just sickening.

Edited November 21, 2005 by JN News

[Guest Samantha]

I kind of agree with him though. It is an unwritten rule in pro-wrestling that to go far you (especially in Vince's company) you have to be a big man.

 

If they did have regular checks then Eddie, Pillman, Davey Boy etc might still be alive.

[Enigma 0]

Phil Mushnick is still out there? Wow.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Pro wrestlers are commonly found dead in their hotel rooms. In fact, steroid-fortified WWF (now the WWE) star Brian Pillman, 33, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota in 1997.

 

If it's so common, why did he have to use a death from 8 years ago as his example?

[JN News 0]

Pro wrestlers are commonly found dead in their hotel rooms. In fact, steroid-fortified WWF (now the WWE) star Brian Pillman, 33, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota in 1997.

 

If it's so common, why did he have to use a death from 8 years ago as his example?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Ok, first off, Brian Pillman died at age 35, not 33. Mushmouth needs to go back to journalism class.

[Guest Coffey]

I've never heard of Phil Mushnick before. A quick Google search showed I'm not missing anything.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

That fucking bastard.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Quick, someone start a petition!

[JN News 0]

Well, we can do that, and we can also write to Mushmouth's sorry ass by writting to this address.

 

 

 

Write him an email, HERE!

[Guest Brian]

So you guys are mad...because he pointed out something that was true, and a problem that was endemic to pro-wrestling?

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I don't disagree with everything in that article. But he overplays his hand by exaggerating the number of deaths and that crack about the ratings of the tribute show wasn't called for.

 

In fact, the majority of the article is very close to the mark.

 

This part in particular bothers me because of how true it is:

 

It works like this: The wrestlers know that their bosses want over-the-top muscle.

 

They know that there's an implied, industry-wide directive to be on or to get on the juice.

 

They know that they have to be on the road many weeks at a time, without any medical coverage or sick days.

 

Miss a show due to illness or injury and you miss a payday. Often, one or two misses and you're fired.

 

So the cycle begins. Steroids to get and keep the job, barbiturates to kill the pain and get some sleep, stimulants to get through the next gig.

 

WWE's awful policies (or lack thereof) do deserve severe bashing until Vince implements road physicians, mandatory drug and steroid testing for everybody under threat of firing, and a system that allows workers to take 2 months or so off per year without ceding their "spot". Frankly those are far more serious issues than Mushnik's article. His articles don't get people severely hurt or killed. I hope those sending complaints for the artciel are also planning a complaint to WWE for the way their "system" is set up.

 

Until some changes are made, and some of the things mentioned are implemented, its hard to build any outrage of people bashing WWE's treatment of wrestlers and matters such as these.

 

edit: I just saw on the main page there's apparently a new drug policy. That's good, hopefully its serious enough and not for show. More changes still need to be made though.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Damn right we are!

 

Old Man Mushnick needs to get off his dead horse and stop beating the high horse and ... RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!

[Team Angle Pusher 0]

Okay hold on a damn minute...

 

Who the hell is Phil Mushnick?

[bob_barron 0]

Pro wrestlers are commonly found dead in their hotel rooms. In fact, steroid-fortified WWF (now the WWE) star Brian Pillman, 33, was found dead in his hotel room in Minnesota in 1997.

 

If it's so common, why did he have to use a death from 8 years ago as his example?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Ok, first off, Brian Pillman died at age 35, not 33. Mushmouth needs to go back to journalism class.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

He should kill himself.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

For those of you who haven't heard of Phil Mushnick...

 

Late 1997, Raw would cut to a couple-minute long "shoots" by Jim Cornette, giving his opinion on hot topics, on the air.

 

Oct 6th

 

"blah blah, the nWo is a bunch of assholes. Nash promised us he'd stay and then walked out on us. Sean Waltman goes to WCW, he's only there because Hall & Nash like to see him puke on himself when he's drunk, and he carries their bags."

 

Oct 13th

 

He brought up Mushnick, who apparently wrote a column about Pillman's death. Internet and WWE opinion were that is was biased and slanderous. I think it was. It was VERY controversial, unlike this article.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

Sickening? The article is (mostly) true, and he's trying to do pro wrestlers a favour by trying to swerve media coverage to keep them alive.

 

...

 

I fail to see where there's anything wrong with what he wrote.

[The C Man 0]

To me it seems like he can't make up his mind who he's trying to attack with the article. One minute he's balming McMahon & co. and has sympathy for the wrestlers, the next the sympathy is gone and the wrestlers are just as evil. If it was solely an attack on the 'system' I would agree with him. As it is I'm left somewhere in the middle.

[Dangerous A 0]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

 

Phil Mushnick has had it out for Vince McMahon for awhile now. He actually writes scathing articles about him, usually once a year or so and they usually revolve around some controversy or death. This is nothing new or relevatory. Nothing is going to change about the industry. Vince can come up with a fluff drug policy which covers his ass more than protects his wrestlers, and I'll bet we won't hear peep one about this drug policy in 6 months because it's just a smoke screen and nothing will change. For fans like myself who have followed wrestling a long time (not just beginning with the Attitude or NWO era) we are shocked by a famous death, but not surprised. What do you expect from an industry that has you traveling over half the year, parties with drugs like rock stars, workouts with steroids, and in the evenings, you put your body through the equivalent of several mini car crashes?

 

The only thing that changes is when I turn on WWE television programming, Eddie Guerrero will never wrestle again.

[Failed Bridge 0]

So you guys are mad...because he pointed out something that was true, and a problem that was endemic to pro-wrestling?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well I see Brian has this covered. I'd like to see the wrestlers form some sort of union to be honest.

[areacode212 0]

I hated Mushnick back in the day when I thought Vince and the WWF were wonderful and could do no wrong, but really...he's the one guy in the media who would keep pointing out over and over how wrestlers were dying in droves and nobody was doing anything about it. Yeah, he tends to exaggerate sometimes and get a few things wrong, but the main thrust of his argument is something that I basically agree with.

[Guest Brian]

Well, Muchnick has a vendetta and all, but sometimes he right.

[Caliban 0]

I actually agree with him until he first mentions Eddie by name. From there on, it's BS central.

[fisticuffs 0]

A former U.S. governor, for example, other than Jesse (The steroid Body) Ventura.

 

That's not a complete sentence.

[RedJed 0]

THe problem with Muschnick's commentaries on wrestling is he comes off somewhat jaded (there was some heat between Muschnick, who was a pro wrestling fan, and the McMahons, around the same time as the steroid trial, IIRC) and also he easily conveys very cut and dry conclusions to his points which arent always accurate. From a first perspective, he actually makes alot of sense with some things but then goes on so many absurd tangents, its hard to take him seriously with his broad and general statements that are supposed to all tie in together to portray the WWE as the devil. I wish someone had some audio archives from Meltzer's audio show - he was on there a few times and was so hyperactive and closed minded on his opinions (including a refusal to even hear out caller's viewpoints and hardly Dave himself could retort) on those shows that it really exposed him.

 

Most of this piece was somewhat spot on, but he's been saying the same things for years now, and nothing has come across that further gives himself some credibility against the system that is WWE, he still comes across jaded and over-reactive without any unbiased viewpoint.

 

One thing I feel he was completely wrong on is this shit about using the Guerrero death to generate ratings. If that was the case, WWE would have sent out press releases like crazy beforehand, loaded up the card beforehand to the public, spent $$$ on commericals for the shows, etc. Its like a company can't do a tribute show without be accused of using the death to generate ratings. Pillman's wife and the Owen/Eddy tribute shows are two different things and for Muschnick to compare them as one of the same is absurdity at its finest.

 

I'd love to see Phil Muschnick do a piece on the testing news from today, but I doubt it will happen, and if it does, it will be portayed as a negative somehow, someway.

[Scroby 0]

Pro wrestlers, a fraction of the number of MLB's talent pool

 

Ok that made me laugh.

 

 

After reading the article it just seems Phil doesn't know what he's really talking about. Saying Eddie died from steriods is just bull. He wasn't taking them, we all knew he was abusing drugs 4 years ago, but there's no proof of recent steriod use, unless something popped up I haven't seen yet, Eddie did not die from steriods. Sounds like he just wanted to take shots at Vince and he used Eddie's death as a excuse to do it.

[Dangerous A 0]

After reading the article it just seems Phil doesn't know what he's really talking about. Saying Eddie died from steriods is just bull. He wasn't taking them, we all knew he was abusing drugs 4 years ago, but there's no proof of recent steriod use, unless something popped up I haven't seen yet, Eddie did not die from steriods. Sounds like he just wanted to take shots at Vince and he used Eddie's death as a excuse to do it.

 

 

To an extent you are correct in that steroids were not the only factor in Eddie's death. However, to say he wasn't on them is a little naive. Eddie is not that big naturally and to maintain that physique on the road and not having good genetics to have a big, killer body, you can tell he had been using them. How recent is anyone's guess. I'm not saying he was a total roid freak, but you simply can't maintain that look. He also had the tell tale signs like very bad Backne. I don't have a toxicology report and I have no chemical proof, but I know Eddie has been on the gas, even before he went to WWF/E.

 

Also, his abuse of drugs was his abuse of painkillers. The steroid use didn't help. You don't get enlarged hearts by working out really hard.

[Special K 0]

The evidence that Eddie was taking steroids was that he was fucking huge.

 

Benoit and Eddie wrestled for years and years, putting on the best matched of their lives. They go to the WWE, they get huge. Angle is a legit athlete, in aboslutely peak physical shape. He roids.

 

Many talented wrestlers are fired, usually the small guys, or guys like the Dudleys, and generic, roided musclemen replace them.

 

Many Japanese wrestlers have been killing their body every single match for 15+ years. Their may have chronic knee and neck problems, but they're still alive. Hash is the only one whose body just broke down. I don't hear of Lucha stars just dropping dead either.

 

Yeah, wrestlers party like rock stars, but I don't hear of many rock stars dying that young unless they OD. Their bodies usually don't just give out on them really early in life. And it would be tough to implement drug-testing policy on all rock stars. Not so with WWE stars.

 

Yeah, he had to go all the way back to Brian Pillman. Weird choice considering

Hawk

Bossman

Rude

Perfect

Bulldog

and many more. That's a lot of guys dying young, like it or not. That's not counting guys that just get fired for being a public spectacle.

 

Tons of NFL players are out of control, but at least the NFL tests.

 

Sure, Mushnick has a big-time vendetta. Doesn't mean he's wrong here. Not by a long shot. And I don't see anywhere at all where he's implying that the wrestlers themselves are evil.

[Scroby 0]

I ment currently or recently. I didn't mean he never took them. I should have been more specific.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Well, Muchnick has a vendetta and all, but sometimes he right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He's right here as well. But it seems like some people are having a hard time accepting it.

 

Meltzer posted this about an article Bob Ryder did that quoted what Mushnick said:

 

--I think Bob Ryder owes Phil Mushnick an enormous apology for both the misleading headline and misleading usage of his quote from his Sunday article. You know, it's bad when you take a guy who has been writing on this subject since before it was a subject, and try and make it out like he thought Guerrero's death wasn't important because he was a wrestler. In fact, his big complaint was that the rest of the media has ignored this subject because they were wrestlers and look at what the end result of turning this blind eye and being apologetic to wrestling without thinking has led to. Like him or not, he was the first major reporter to write on this subject and if there were more key people covering this story, the fact is, several of these deaths would have been averted because the pressure would have been on McMahon even more years ago. If you want to get mad at him, get mad at him for what he wrote and not twist his comments around to mislead your readers into "Isn't Phil Mushnick a horrible wrestling hating person" when there are subjects this week that he wrote about, and he's on the right side of, far more important.

 

Does anybody here know what Ryder said?

[strummer 0]

As someone who pays somewhat close attention to the NY media scene (albeit from a far) I have to say that Mushnick doesn't exactly have a perfect record

 

Last month he was criticizing the airing of all the Poker shows on TV saying that it will lead to a generation of gamblers. Well that's great but what he didn't say was that on the next page of the NY Post was an ad for a new Poker game created by the Newspaper itself. His response was a rather lame "well I criticize the Fox network and they own the Post, ... so uhh yeah"

 

 

He also has personal vendettas against sports broadcasters he doesn't like and when confronted he usually fumbles his way to a response

 

I'm not saying he isn't right about wrestling deaths because he is but the thing you have to remember about Phil is that he loves to attack but when people fire back, he usually caves in or gives a stuttering, blundering response.