About This Collection

In the early to mid-1990's, the then named World Wrestling Federation was embroiled in a series of scandals that could have had a disasterous effect upon the company.

It all began in 1991 with the trial and conviction of Dr. George Zahorian, a medical doctor who would work for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission as the ringside doctor when the WWF held events in Pennsylvania. Found guilty of prescribing steroids without a medical need, several WWF wrestlers were called to testify as to their involvement with Zahorian. An attempt was made to include the WWF's most popular personality, Hulk Hogan, however that was quashed by the judge. Regardless, evidence indicated that Hogan had received Federal Express packages from this doctor leading to speculation of steroid abuse. 

With these questions arrising, the mainstream news media began to examine the issue. Here was a children's idol in Hogan possibly involved in taking illegal substances, while preaching to kids about the importance of saying your prayers, and eating your vitamins. As the media scrutiny turned further towards Hogan and the WWF, attmepts were made to address the issues including instituting steroid testing, and Hulk Hogan making a rather poor decision to outright deny illegal steroid use on the Arsenio Hall Show. 

This lead to further troubles in 1992, as former employees began to make the rounds of daytime television programs with claims of sexual harrassment by top WWF executives, and charges of sexual impropriety with minors. This led to Vince McMahon himself appearing on The Phil Donahue Show to address many of the people making these charges. 

The steroid issue had not dissappeared however as during a show in St. Louis, WWF personnel were met by police and drug sniffing dogs examining every performer looking for any illegal substances. Rumblings also began to be heard that the Federal Governement was investigating Vince McMahon, an investigation that would eventually lead to his indictment in 1993 and eventual trial in 1994 on the charge of the conspiracy to distribute steroids. McMahon was eventaully found not guilty on these charges, and despite taking a hit in their public reputation at the time, the WWF has continued to be a powerhouse global company. 

However the reporting during these years, when examining the mainstream media, leaves a shallow and hollow understanding of the issue at best. But the work done by independent wrestling journalists has made available much more of the facts and has consistently delved deeper into the stories and issues surrounding wrestling as a whole. 

While much of the issues centered around Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan and the WWF, no mention was made of the other national wrestling promotion owned by Ted Turner and TBS who hesitated in instituting a steroid policy until long after the WWF had. Further, during the trail of Vince McMahon, much mainstream media focused on the testimony of two wrestlers in the entire trial. the first was Kevin Wacholz who was the only one that claimed that he was instructed by McMahon to take steroids. He also indicated in his testimony that he "hated" Vince McMahon. Hulk Hogan was the other focus, as according to the mainstream media reports, he admitted for "the very first time" that he had used steroids. 

Along with examples of the mainstream media coverage, also included are the writings of two independent professional wretling journalists, Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller. Each has been publishing their own newsletter covering all of the news in the world of professional wrestling (since 1982 and 1987 respectively). With their focused attention, they were able to examine this most complicated period in wreslting history in great depth, but were also able to navigate around the misdirections and doublespeak that can be presented by any corporation that is addressing negative publicity.

Further, this collection is a demonstration of the importance and need to maintain the work done by niche communities that document their own history. There is only so much time and energy that a large media corporation has to learning the nuances and intricacies of a new topic. In order to preserve a clearer view of history, we cannot rely solely on the media representations in newspapers and on television. An effort must be made to seek out and preserve the writings and audio recordings of the individuals that were more closely involved with the issues at hand so that a full and clear picture of an event can be shared.