‘Will Ritalin Become the Human Growth Hormone of Sports Concussion Testing?’ (full text from Beyond Chron)
April 21, 2011What Chris Benoit Wrote After the Funeral of Ray ‘Big Boss Man’ Traylor
April 22, 2011
TNA is the No. 2 wrestling promotion. I don’t dwell on it because unlike World Wrestling Entertainment — or, excuse me, The New WWE — few people have even heard of TNA unless they’re wrestling fans.
But I am reminded by fans, time and again, that TNA’s occupational health and safety standards are worse, far worse, than WWE’s. The website Cageside Seats is way ahead of everyone else in documenting this. The latest at Cageside, by writer S. Bruce, must be read to be believed:
“The Sad Story of Shannon ‘Daffney’ Spruill in TNA,” http://www.cagesideseats.com/2011/4/21/2125160/the-sad-story-of-shannon-daffney-spruill.
It’s all there: concussions … a litany of other grotesque and avoidable injuries imposed by the booking and demands of management … reneging on coverage of talent hospital bills … culminating in legal action by this “Knockout” against this promotion. (At TNA, women wrestlers are in every way, including medically, treated worse than male wrestlers.)
And that is one more important set of exhibits of why pro wrestling needs to be reformed. Such reform will have to come down from the top: a single company, WWE, the only mainstream player on the scene, generates well over 90 percent of the industry’s revenue. There is hope in WWE’s home state, Connecticut, that government will take action to end its independent contractor classification for its wrestlers, which is a scam. Thid would be a huge step toward making all wrestling promoters accountable for the gratuitous damage they inflict on their workers.
Irv Muchnick
5 Comments
I’m surprised you didn’t jump on the event from a month or so ago where Jeff Hardy came to the ring in no condition to perform to wrestle Sting. Which would have been bad enough, except it was the main event of a pay per view.
As dumb as WWE is with their workers’ drug issues, they wouldn’t have even attempted something this bad in front of several million people.
For the record, Sting legitimately held him down for a three count a scant 90 seconds into the “match.” Which was a wise move by a seasoned veteran. Jeff could have seriously hurt himself or Sting, no need to risk injury, regardless of fan reaction.
It also wasn’t mentioned that last Sunday, Kurt Angle was nearly killed in the ring taking a botched top rope powerbomb off the top rope. Angle proceeded to get up from that and do a moonsault off the top of a steel cage, which was also botched.
Only over a million people watch TNA every week. That’s not many at all.
Instead of complaining that I’ve disenfranchised the million loyal followers of TNA wrestling — which I have not — would you considered recommending that they find something better to do?
I wasn’t implying that at all. I was stating that there are times when TNA has done things that are bad for the business on a scale that WWE wouldn’t dream of doing. The Kurt Angle thing above is one. Jeff Hardy’s high times before a Main Event match is a second.
For a third, it’s more of a matter of who knew what when, but Desmond Wolfe has tested positive for Hep C. When he got it, who knows? And who knows how long he was working with it, putting co-workers at risk.
They should try to urge people that only go after WWE to turn their attention to TNA as well.