ARCHIVE 1/6/09: Paining by Numbers: How WWE Compartmentalizes Death
May 20, 2009ARCHIVE 1/10/09: Reprint of SLAM! Wrestling Column ‘See Ya Later, Congress …’
May 20, 2009
WWE’s Dr. Ray Doesn’t Get It
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Another opening into the argument in my previous post is this statement by Dr. Tracy Ray, the WWE Wellness Program’s medical review officer, to the Congressional investigators:
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} “Testosterone has not really been shown to be performance enhancing. It is anabolic. It can make you bigger, it can make you stronger. But does that help you hit more home runs? Does that help you block the defensive end? You can’t measure that. So I think performance enhancing is a poor term. It is an anabolic steroid. In sports I think it should be banned.”
By “sports,” Ray means legit sports – which takes us back to the pointless debate over what pro wrestling is, rather than the ethical and moral implications of what wrestlers, whatever you call them, are forced to do to themselves in order to succeed.
There are two fallacies in what Ray says. First of all, steroids do help athletes, by the athletes’ own limited definition of “help.” They help them train, they help them recover. They may not push a fly ball over the fence for a home run, but additional repetitions of practice of athletic skills, at the elite level, improves performance. It is sophistry to say that “performance-enhancing drugs” is a misnomer.
The second fallacy is wrestling-specific: “It can make you bigger, it can make you stronger.” Well, in choreographed performance, being bigger and stronger is a competitive advantage.
In defending several witnesses in these interviews, WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt was fond of lecturing, “Stop dancing. Ask the question.” I say to that, “Stop dancing. Answer the question.”
Irv Muchnick