----This is probably the reason that WWE suspended people today. It keeps them from looking stupid if they didn't suspend them. WWE has to be worried until they know who will be called. As I have said, there are probably a dozen Jose Canseco or MORE that will testify AGAINST WWE.
A congressional panel that grilled Bud Selig, Paul Tagliabue and David Stern about performance-enhancing drugs in sports two years ago will hold a hearing next month on steroids and professional wrestling.
The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection will hold the hearing in late September, three months after World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit allegedly strangled his wife and suffocated his 7-year-old son before hanging himself with a weight-machine pulley in his suburban Atlanta home.
"I am extremely concerned about the possible illegal and destructive practices by professional entertainment athletes that negatively influence the younger generation," said Rep. Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who is the chairman of the committee. "We must make sure that today's wrestling sports heroes are not using illegal performance-enhancing drugs that, unfortunately, can and have led to their untimely deaths."
A congressional source told the Daily News that the panel has not yet compiled witness lists, and it is still not clear who will be asked to appear at the late-September hearing. Rush's subcommittee sent a letter to the WWE on July 31 requesting information about the wrestling federation's drug-testing policies. Similar letters were sent to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance on Aug. 13.
WWE spokesman Kevin Hennessy said his organization was unaware of the hearing but would comply if asked to attend. A spokesman for TNA declined comment. NWA officials could not be reached for comment.
The subcommittee's ranking Republican, Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida, called for Congress to investigate steroids in wrestling two weeks after Benoit's death.
As the Daily News reported, Benoit abused the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, also known as the "date-rape drug." Experts say GHB can lead to violent mood swings, especially when users are withdrawing from the drug.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, and that committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, also have asked the WWE for information about its steroid policy, but no hearings have been scheduled. A committee source said aides were reviewing the material.
Sources said the hearing was fueled in part by reports that scores of wrestlers have died prematurely during the past two decades. "I am working in a bipartisan manner to determine how much the industry is trying to detect and prevent illegal drug use among wrestlers," Rush said.
Credit: http://www.nydailynews.com/
