ARCHIVE 4/7/08: Author Muchnick to Discuss Benoit Developments in Radio Interview

Last week Muchnick revealed that World Wrestling Entertainment produced a tribute show to Benoit on the USA cable network on June 25, 2007, even though WWE executives were fully aware that law enforcement authorities in Fayette County, Georgia, already believed that Benoit had murdered his wife and their 7-year-old son, and killed himself. The story can be viewed at http://muchnick.net/babylon/2008/04/03/exclusive-wwe-knew-chris-benoit-was-the-perpetrator-before-staging-%e2%80%98monday-night-raw%e2%80%99-tribute/.

Atlanta’s Fox5 News last night reported that steroids, human growth hormone, and syringes were found in the attic of a Locust Grove, Georgia, home formerly owned by an as-yet-unnamed WWE performer.

Dr. Phil Astin, a Carollton, Georgia, physician who treated Benoit and other pro wrestlers, is currently under federal indictment following an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The indictment states that Astin prescribed Benoit a ten-month supply of steroids every three to four weeks. Benoit passed an April 2007 test under WWE’s Wellness Program, which allows wrestlers to have steroids and growth hormone with doctors’ prescriptions. Benoit’s autopsy later showed that under California State Athletic Commission drug-testing procedures, the wrestler would have been found to have the commission’s third highest ever recorded level of testosterone.

Muchnick is author of Wrestling Babylon, co-author of Benoit: Wrestling With the Horror That Destroyed a Family and Crippled a Sport, and at work on the forthcoming Chris and Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide and Pro Wrestling’s Cocktail of Death. Website: http://wrestlingbabylon.com. Blog: http://muchnick.net/babylon.