The answer to that question appears to be “yes.”
Last month, a day after baseball’s Barry Bonds was indicted, Congressman Bobby Rush told the Baltimore Sun that he expected the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, which he chairs, to hold hearings in early 2008 on the drug-testing procedures of both baseball and pro wrestling. The exact quote was: ““Given recent developments — the impending Mitchell report [on Major League Baseball] and reports of widespread abuse in professional wrestling — I believe it’s time we get a formal update on what progress is being made to eradicate steroids from all sports and sports entertainment.”
But the reaction to the release of the Mitchell Report has made wrestling even less than an afterthought. Last week’s announcement of hearings on baseball by the Rush Subcommittee made no mention of wrestling. Neither the legislative director nor the press secretary for Rush responded to our query about wrestling.
Congressman Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also will be holding hearings on baseball and had been making parallel preparations for possible wrestling hearings. A staffer had no comment on the latter.
In an upcoming post we’ll analyze what happened on the Congressional investigative front in the months since the June murder-suicide of Chris Benoit.