« Tuesday TV talk: HERO’s stays the course | Home | Wednesday work week: Oregon MMA gets publicity »
Benoit toxicology report
By Zach Arnold | July 17, 2007
If you aren’t interested, don’t read any further. If you’re interested, post any and all related replies to this post. Information in full-post mode.
Update: I linked to a transcript of an interview that Dr. David Black did with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes II in 2005 on CBS. I copied the link onto two sites – here and on the F4W message board. Now, Wade Keller is using the same snippet that I pointed out and not mentioning how he magically found the link to the transcript. Hard work. 🙂 Send Wade a friendly e-mail here.
Here is The Associated Press report on the toxicology reports on Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, and son Daniel Benoit.
WWE statement on the Benoit toxicology report. Lance Storm comments on the drug problems in pro-wrestling.
One thing that I think is critical to point out is that at the press conference to announce the findings of the toxicology report, it was stated that Chris Benoit had a T/E ratio of 59:1.
T/E = (testosterone-to-epitestosterone)
To put this into perspective, the average human is 1:1. In order to fail a WADA drug test, you have to reach 4:1. Same with the NFL and NBA. In those drug tests (and drug tests administered to MMA fighters), there are no loopholes or exceptions. If you take prescriptions, you must notify the testers ahead of time.
In WWE, the ratio must be higher than 10:1 to fail, or approximately a 250% higher T/E ratio in comparison to testing in other sports. In addition, there is a loophole in which you can get testosterone-replacement therapy via a doctor’s prescription. Richard Sandomir in The New York Times discussed TRT in his article on Monday. Usually, wrestlers use TRT because they’re testosterone is low due to steroid usage.
Now, as to the question of whether or not testosterone is a steroid, the answer is yes. Dr. David Black, who helped formulate the NFL’s drug testing policy in the 1980s, is the man who oversees the WWE’s drug-testing policy now.
Here’s Dr. Black in a 60 Minutes II interview with Anderson Cooper in 2005 (this is about the 2004 Carolina Panthers Super Bowl team having members who supposedly took illegal prescriptions for steroids);
Cooper: Offensive lineman Todd Steussie, 6-foot-6, 320 pounds, an NFL veteran and two-time pro bowler. Out of 190 games, he’s missed only one because of injury, a remarkable record. His prescription record, however, tells a different story. Eleven prescriptions of testosterone creme over an eight-month period.
Cooper: “Is testosterone a steroid?”
Black: “Yes. Testosterone is the, ah, original base chemical, or the starting chemical for all the anabolic steroids.
Cooper: “Are NFL players allowed to take testosterone?”
Black: “Ah, no.”
So, why is this important? On Bryan Alvarez’s audio show today, he stated that WWE is considering testosterone to be different than anabolic steroids. However, Dr. Black is on-the-record as saying that testosterone is the original base chemical of anabolic steroids.
Let’s go back to WWE’s statement today:
On Mr. Benoit’s last drug test in April 2007 administered by Aegis Labs, he tested negative for anabolic steroids and for testosterone.
If testosterone, as Dr. Black pointed out in 2005, is an original chemical base for anabolic steroids, then this statement by WWE is extremely questionable in my opinion.
Topics: Media, Pro-Wrestling, WWE, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zach, I’ve been very much baffled by several things, especially today:
1. Lack of wrestlers failing tests despite not very many wrestlers dropping significant muscle mass in the wake of testing in the last year.
2. Chris Benoit was said to have passed his last test.
3. Tox report says he took testosterone and the media quickly referring to it as ‘anabolic steroids’, backed by writers like Meltzer.
4. WWE, in a press release, says Chris was not positive for anabolic steroids.
Your post somehow made things click.
A. WWE often states they use a 4:1 ratio like the NFL, but in practice it’s 10:1.
B. WWE does not count testosterone as a steroid, which makes their standard even weaker.
They aren’t even making it clear that Chris would have failed their standard based on the tox screen. If anyone didn’t realize that their testing is a joke before, it’s obvious now.
I thought WADA’s was 6:1
WADA used to be 6:1, it went down to 4:1. 4:1 is the common ratio for drug testing in all major sports (NFL, NBA, Tour de France, etc.)
59:1? Sweet Jesus!
He must have been frickin out of his mind when he killed his wife and kid.
The worst thing will be watching Vince McMahon playing stupid as if he has no clue what is going on. He knows everything that is going on in his company.
I haven’t watched pro rasslin seriously since high school, but I’ve still checked Meltzer’s site consistently to read mma news and occasionally pro rassling stories, and I never had a particularly angry feeling towards the business. However this whole incident, and seeing the constant stream of lies from the disgraceful WWE “performers” who blatantly lie to protect their asses, makes me hope that either Congress or various state athletic commissions test these roided-up heart attacks waiting to happen, or that the entire industry simply collapses on itself.
There aren’t many things as sad to witness as guys whose best friends have just died, acting like the business they are in didn’t cause it, acting like wrestlers don’t need nor want insurance nor time off, that painkillers and roids aren’t a big issue in pro wrestling, and that the WWE “wellness policy” (which I now believe is set up to make sure that WWE wrestlers are taking enough steroids, as opposed to not taking them) is anything but a complete fucking joke. Fuck you Jericho, fuck you Cena, fuck you Blackman, fuck you McDevitt, fuck you DiBiase, and fuck all the other wrestlers who literally are content to smile and protect their own asses while their “brothers” keep dying at a rate that is well-past alarming.
I wonder if the WWE line of putting “smiles on people’s faces” applies to the corpses of Nancy and Daniel Benoit, or any of the thousands of friends and relatives who have had to go to funerals for strong men who have died decades too early in order to “entertain people”.
Wow…59/1…that’s truly frightening.
How can a person choose to do that to themselves? I’m saddened just thinking about it. Was he mislead? Did he know what this was doing to him?
Either way, there are some doctors and promoters that belong in fucking JAIL if they’re letting this happen.
They’re either uninformed at the AP, or someone is covering up at GBI . They said they couldnt test the son for HGH or testo because of a lack of urine. Not true.
http://www.usdoctor.com/testone.htm
Ctrl+F the words “blood test”. First area that pops up.
Sounds fishy. He may have been killed, how could he calmly hang himself with such a huge amount of test in him. Why would he inject that much? If he was trying to O.D. he could have taken a bottle of painkillers. Also the early reports of his death on wikipedia suggest someone knew of his death before the police did. Hanging himself on a weight lifting machine sounds set up. Was there any suicide note? I think there’s more than enough evidence to pursue the theory that he was murdered.
Testosterone is not proven to cause rage and is not classified as a steroid. The WWE does test for testosterone I believe but as long as it is medically prescribed and “necessary” as it supposedly was in Benoit’s case then the rules become sketchy with regards to testing.