WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit (pictured) - Chris murdered his wife and 7-year-old son and then committed suicide back in June. The double homicide/suicide has been linked to Chris’ steroid intake. That’s now called “Pulling a Benoit”.
From Muchnick.net:

Lobbying: How SmackDown Does SuckUp

Hearings on drugs and death in pro wrestling loom from either of two committees of the House of Representatives.

Let’s take a look at one area in which World Wrestling Entertainment, a billion-dollar corporation, is certain to be investing resources: lobbying.

This is democracy in action, 21st century America style, and it’s nothing new for Vince McMahon either.

In a chapter of WRESTLING BABYLON (originally published as a 1988 article in The Washington Monthly), I describe how Titan Sports, parent company of then-World Wrestling Federation, sent lobbyists after state legislators to help nudge the nascent deregulation of pro wrestling over the top rope.

One of those lobbyists was Rick Santorum, a young lawyer at WWF/WWE’s long-time Pittsburgh-based main outside law firm, which now has the name Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. Santorum went on to two terms as Pennsylvania’s junior (and right-wing) United States senator.

Much as I’d like to represent that the information below comes from painstaking enterprise reporting, the truth is that an excellent public-interest group, the Center for Responsive Politics (http://crp.org or http://opensecrets.org), maintains a cross-referenced database of the Congressional filings mandated by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. The interface there is so friendly that even I can figure it out. (I also thank CRP’s communications director, Massie Ritsch, for helping me interpret the data.)

I have not yet investigated whether WWE’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings include more specific data in this area. I suspect not, but if so I will discuss in a future blog post.

Here’s what we find:

  • Last month, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis registered as a lobbyist for WWE. The firm’s listed “government relations specialists” are Scott Aliferis, George Koch, Roger Morse, and Dennis Potter. According to the firm’s website, Aliferis is an experienced lobbyist and a former “principalpolicy advisor” to Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan. Koch’s resume includes a stint as CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a trade association. Morse was a legislative director for disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom Delay. I don’t have any further info on Potter.
  • Lobbyist filings are semi-annual. We therefore won’t know the range of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart’s spending on Capitol Hill on behalf of WWE until next February. Under “LOBBYING ISSUES” the entry reads, “Representation relative to Congressional investigation of use of performance enhancing substances in professional wrestling.”
  • In three different years WWE has been represented by APCO Worldwide, a spinoff of Arnold & Porter, the powerful Washington law firm that was co-founded by Abe Fortas, a member of President Lyndon Johnson’s circle who went on to become a Supreme Court justice. APCO spent at least $120,000 on WWE’s behalf in 2001, and between $0 and $120,000 both last year and in the first half of this year. In 2002 another big lobbyist, Blank Rome, reported spending at least $120,000 on WWE interests. In 1999 (at least $20,000) and 2000 (at least $400,000) the old WWF got services from the Carmen Group, the firm of David Carmen, former advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been in the news for the past 4 months lately, regarding steroids leading to wrestler’s deaths as well as illegal HGH deals going down with some of their current and former showcased wrestlers.
    Being involved in pro-wrestling, promoting shows in the Southland at the independent level, for a little while in the earlier parts of this decade - I saw and heard about tons of drug use. Guys talking about how the “juice” is working for them, guys talking about where to get stuff, promoters illegally selling prescription drugs and painkillers during shows, even guys doing lines of cocaine in the bathroom.

    The thing that makes me the most upset is whenever someone (especially someone like me, who never made it to WWE) speaks out against this who is in the business, they’re immediately either blackballed or have attempts at discredit made toward them like “Well, he’s just jealous because he didn’t make it” or “He’s not a reliable source because he’s not a wrestler himself.”

    I love how people say Vince McMahon isn’t at fault either. Sure, there’s no evidence he’s ever gone up to guy and said “Hey, you need to take some steroids” but during wrestling’s first Golden Age in the 80’s, all of the people he made into stars were on steroids. Look at Hulk Hogan in the 80’s, Ultimate Warrior, guys like that. So, he indirectly was telling people “If you wanna be a star, you’ve got to be big”.

    He still does this today, in a sense. The smaller guys, the guys who aren’t on HGH or steroids, aren’t pushed as superstars. Even Rey Misterio Jr. got suspiciously beefier during his World Championship run.

    It’s a double-edged sword in the wrestling community. The Internet wrestling fans blame McMahon and the WWE while still complaining that guys on the indy scene - guys who also use illegal drugs - aren’t getting their break. And when someone from the “outside” criticizes the wrestling scene, especially someone who was once on the “inside”, they’re “discredited” as a has-been or a never-was.

    And this whole thing hurts the entire wrestling industry. It’s hard for independent promoters to get shows booked in venues because of all of the negative press - while WWE fills stadiums to near capacity week after week. WWE has the resources to pay off their buddies in Congress - while indy promoters strive to let little Elks Lodges and Community Centers know their guys aren’t on drugs. And then after doing so - after working hard to save face - you find the guys are actually doing drugs, not all of them, a very small minority that still ruins it for everyone.

    I really think State Athletic Commissions need to get back into the game of governing wrestling, even though it’s a scripted sport. Some states’ Athletic Commissions do oversee this - but not California - and after what I saw in the smoky locker rooms back in 2002-2004, the state of California definitely should - at very least - look closer at the wrestling industry.

    If an independent wrestling show ever tried to run in Pasadena, I’d be very hard-pressed not to support it without having some type of government official or undercover police officer in the locker room.

    NC-BIMBY. No Chris Benoits In My Backyard.

    Stand & Deliver.

    - AP