It’s no surprise that the WWE has a substance problem especially as the locker-room mainly
consists of a lot of jacked up guys. Their whole drug problem was a lot worse before
Chris Benoit’s death. Nowadays you still have the occasional wrestler who suspends
the wellness policy but in general, the WWE have introduced a lot stricter rules and regulations
when it comes to drug abuse. But if you didn’t know, back in the 80’s and 90’s, wrestlers
frequently used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Chris Benoit is a prime example
of how drug abuse in the WWE was out of control as it led to the unfortunate murder of his
family as well as himself. We may have been a bit harsh with our wording of Chris Benoit
in our “5 Images Vince McMahon Does Not Want You To See” video, which we do apologise
if you got offended but the fact of the matter still remains, regardless of whether his brain
resembled an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient, he still murdered his family.
What happens when a group of individuals yield so much power in the locker-room? They become
untouchable and unaccountable. That’s exactly what happened in the ‘90s with the creation
of the group called, “The Kliq.” The Kliq was a backstage group created in the mid-1990s,
composed of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Sean Waltman. The group
wielded an immense amount of power within the company at the time, which they used to
positively influence one another's careers. This amount of power came at a cost as Shawn
Michaels, who was dubbed as the golden boy of the 90s, was a known drug user and abuser
both in the ring and backstage. And Vince McMahon turned a blind eye to it on many occasions.
Other erratic behaviour includes: Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton being accused of leaving excrement
in female wrestler’s luggage bags and Kevin Nash bullying lower-card guys. He was also
rumoured to have beaten up guys who were planned to go over him at live events.
In 2008, the WWE reportedly had an unknown sexual predator in their midst. It was creative
team head writer, David Lagana. With years of experience in the company, Lagana was at
the top in terms of the power he had and it was a real shame that he chose to abuse it.
In a behind the scenes scandal, Lagana was rumoured to be persistently offering sexual
endeavours to wrestlers across the company, both females and males. His final curtain
call came when it was rumoured that he tried to approach The Undertaker in a sexual manner.
This led him to be fired for this appalling ordeal. The company covered up his release
by claiming he had leaked confidential information to online dirt sheet, which was the only way
to protect the brand from a PR perspective.
As we know with the WWE, when you are given a gimmick there is no turning back, like we
found out with Stardust. The WWE have a tendency to force wrestlers into gimmicks regardless
of whether the wrestler is happy to do it or not. A good example is Owen Hart back in
1998. Owen Hart was given a gimmick that was based on sexual immorality. However, due to
his Christian background and being happily married, he refused to carry out the gimmick
he was given. As a result, the WWE reportedly embarrassed him by forcing him to perform
in the humiliating blue blazer character.
One of the biggest WWE superstars in history to step foot in a WWE ring is Stone Cold Steve
Austin. But did you know that his character was based upon a criminally convicted serial
killer? When Austin was watching a crime documentary, he took particular interest in a serial killer
by the name of Richard Kuklinski, who was known by the nickname “The Iceman” as
he would often keep his victims locked up in a freezer after killing them. Austin was
so inspired by what he saw that he wanted to completely adopt the “ice-cold” & remorseless
nature of the serial killer into his own WWE gimmick. In the following days, Austin made
a request to creative to help him think of character names to do with freezing cold temperatures.
And then the infamous nickname arose, “Stone Cold” which became one of the biggest names
in WWE history, Stone Cold Steve Austin.