Spin-control was the order of the day for WWE CEO Vince McMahon, who faced accusations that he’d turned a blind eye to years of rampant steroid abuse on the part of his employees, the implication being that “roid rage” drove Benoit to commit murder and suicide. While the accusations of steroid abuse were not without merit (have you seen a professional wrestler lately? Or Vince McMahon himself, for that matter?), the consensus, 17 months later, is that the blame for Benoit’s heinous act more likely lies on his stubborn policy of refusing to protect his own body when performing his admittedly preplanned and choreographed but nonetheless destructive professional wrestling maneuvers every night.
Neurological tests performed on Benoit’s corpse revealed that years of taking steel chair blows to the head had rendered Benoit’s brain indistinguishable from that of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient. Still, many want to blame steroids, while others prefer to believe that Benoit was simply a sick man; how many 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patients commit murder or suicide?
Keith suggests that unprotected chair shots to the head are to blame for Benoit’s madness.
Anti-steroid propaganda on television is seemingly effective in shaping viewers opinions on anabolic steroids. The NBC television series “Life” featured an imaginative and fanciful portrayal of roid rage on the most recent episode “Everything… All the Time.” While most readers of this blog laugh at the ridiculous, uniformed and fictitious depiction of roid rage in primetime television, ignorant consumers of popular culture consume such anti-steroid propaganda as the factual basis for their beliefs about steroids. This has the effect of demonizing steroids and particularly the steroid user.
The pathetic and absurd portrayal of roid rage makes us wonder how much research the producers invest in the subject matter portrayed in their television series. Yet, many viewers of this show see nothing other than “brilliant” television drama. This is why such insidious anti-steroid propaganda is dangerous.
“You’re hitting your body with a biochemical sledge hammer and you’re pushing things way beyond where they were designed to be,” Runbeck said.
Dr. Runbeck should consider directing an anti-steroid public service announcement. Perhaps use a raw egg to represent the brain. And the the sledge hammer could represent steroids. And maybe hire Rachel Leigh Cook to star in the commercial. She could go into “roid rage” and proceed to use the sledge hammer to destroy the egg and everything around her as she lists the evil side effects of anabolic steroids. That would be hot. … Read the rest of this entry »
The anti-steroid abuse movement may have found it’s “reefer madness” education film to warn individuals about the dangers of anabolic steroids. The Wickid Pissa Films production apparently does not focus on the usual negative health side effects like heart disease and cancer (sic); instead, the movie focuses on the adverse psychological side effects of anabolic steroids, namely roid rage caused by a designer steroid created in an underground lab by a rogue chemist (”A deadly dose of Roid Rage,” July 3).
[Roid Rage: The First Dose is Deadly] follows a steroid dealer who, after receiving a designer drug from the UK, uses it to morph bodybuilders into superhuman killing machines. “ROID RAGE is not your classic slasher or gore-driven horror film—it’s more of an action/horror piece,” … Read the rest of this entry »
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