Scripted work

This just in: Anyone who watches professional wrestling is an idiot. Anyone who takes steroids is worse.

Offensive statement? Absolutely, but after this story surfaced, I could care less.

In case you don't feel like reading, pro wrestler Chris Benoit allegedly killed his wife on Friday, his 7-year-old son on Saturday, and himself on Sunday.

Now, it is not my intention to make light of this story. This story is sick and twisted. Anyone who commits this kind of crime is mentally ill, but I really feel as if this story may have an impact on the sports world.

I do not consider pro wrestling a sport, nor have I ever. Anything with a script is theater, not an athletic event. However, in an era where steroids have become prevalent in the sporting world, Benoit's antics, combined with the deaths of Guerrerro, Hennig, and Smith, should lead to harsher steroid penalties and a rise is common sense in the world of athletics. All four of these men dabbled in steroids, to say the absolute least, and it is widely believed that they paid the ultimate price for it. Steroids aren't safe. Everyone knows it, including the athletes that use them. But if a fit of 'roid rage can play a part in a double murder-suicide, maybe players will look at taking steroids with more skepticism, fearing the worst.

Benoit obviously didn't think there was anything wrong with taking them. Hell, he even gave them to his son. Look where he ended up.

Do I think that this story will reverse the trend of steroid use? Absolutely. Do I think this story may cause a few people to rethink taking them? Sure, and well, that's a start as far as I'm concerned.

Now to back up my original statement of pro wrestling fans being morons, you need to read nothing more than the kicker of the posted ESPN article. It read as follows:

Monday's show was supposed to be a memorial service for WWE owner Vince McMahon. In a storyline concocted by the WWE, McMahon was supposedly "assassinated" in a limousine explosion two weeks earlier. McMahon appeared at the beginning of Monday's telecast and acknowledged the bombing was made up.

The McMahon storyline has been dropped.

After reading a story on a double murder-suicide, you would think that you would have built up a tolerance and it would take something extraordinary to put you at a loss of words. Well, thanks to the WWE and Vince McMahon, they did. I honestly don't know what to say, or if I even have to say anything for that matter. You faked the death of your owner for a storyline? Really? Reeaaalllyyyy? If the WWE is so desperate for media attention and ratings that it has to fake a death of one of it's only known figures, it should be canceled immediately. Quit while you are far, far behind. Despicable.

Furthermore, the WWE aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit before knowing the facts of the case. Classy move guys. Any twelve-year-old could have told you that it would have been wise to wait for more details, especially when it was being investigated as a homicide from the start.

In closing, my heart goes out to the family of the wife and child. Truly a tragic event.