I learned a few hours ago that yet another professional wrestler has died young. Former WWE star Andrew "Test" Martin was found dead in his Tampa apartment at the young age of 33. From the looks of it, it was most likely due to drugs.
Martin is now one of many professional wrestlers who have died young. Why are so many wrestlers dying at such young ages?
The earliest drug-related death I can recall is the 1986 death of Charles Wolfe, who wrestled under the name "Gino Hernandez" for Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling. Wolfe's death was a result of a cocaine overdose.
If you've ever heard of the Von Erich family, you may have heard about their tragedies which usually overshadow their triumphs. In early 1984, David Von Erich - Adkisson is the Von Erich family's real family name - was found dead in a hotel room in Japan. The announced cause of death was acute enteritis. However, there have been rumors that Adkisson's death was a result of an accidental or intentional drug overdose. In fact, Ric Flair stated in his autobiography To Be the Man that "'everyone in wrestling believes' it was a drug overdose that really killed him and that Bruiser Brody (a fellow wrestler who found David) disposed of the narcotics by flushing them down a toilet before the police arrived."
In the following years, three of Adkisson's younger brothers - Mike Von Erich, Chris Von Erich, and Kerry Von Erich - committed suicide. Mike Adkisson committed suicide by intentionally overdosing on placidyl. Chris Adkisson intentionally shot himself because he felt he couldn't live up to the Von Erich image due to his stunted growth. Kerry Adkisson was involved in a 1986 motorcycle accident which eventually resulted in the amputation of one of his feet; Kerry subsequently became addicted to painkillers and was also arrested at one time for forging prescriptions.
Starting in the early 1990s, drug-related deaths became more and more frequent. This is a partial list of those who deaths were related to drugs:
- Buzz Sawyer ("Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer), 32, died on 2/7/1992 from from heart failure due to an overdose
- Art Barr ("Beetlejuice", "American Love Machine"), 28, died on 11/23/1994 due to "unknown circumstances"; an autopsy report indicated he had drugs and alcohol in his system
- Eddie Gilbert ("Hot Stuff"), 33, died on 2/18/1995 from heart disease which is thought to have been brought on by drug use
- Brian Pillman ("Flyin' Brian", "Loose Cannon"), 35, died on 10/5/1997 from heart disease which many say was brought on by drug abuse
- Louis Mucciolo ("Louie Spicolli", "Rad Radford"), 27, died on 2/15/1998 from overdosing on Soma and wine
- Chris Candido ("Chris Candido", "Bodydonna Skip"), 33, died on 4/28/2005 from a blood clot which was believed to be a complication from a then-recent surgery on his broken leg; he, along with his fiancee Tammy "Sunny" Sytch, had drug problems throughout their careers
- Eddie Guerrero ("Eddie Guerrero", "Black Tiger"), 38, died on 11/13/2005 from a heart attack which many say was brought on by years of drug abuse
There was really no serious talk of cleaning up professional wrestling until the tragic Benoit family double-murder/suicide when Chris Benoit murdered his son Daniel and his wife Nancy before killing himself. When the truth about the tragedy came out, there was finally talk about cleaning up professional wrestling. Since then, all the serious talk mysteriously disappeared.
Andrew Martin's death was senseless. Plus, it's ridiculous that World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. offers health insurance and other related benefits to their office workers but not to the performers who are actually used to sell the product.
What can be done to clean up professional wrestling? I offer the following suggestions:
- Lighten the work loads by scaling back the number of pay-per-view events to four or five per year, cut the amount of house shows by at least half, air two live television shows - such as Raw - per month while taping the rest of the month's shows in advance before the live shows.
- Adopt a comprehensive and strict drug testing policy administered by an outside company which would be free from any corporate "swaying" and "bribing" by the promotions. In other words, don't allow Vince McMahon to pay the drug tester to give Vince's son-in-law Triple H any preferential treatment.
- Extend the office workers' benefits to the on-air talent. As of right now, WWE considers their on-air talent to be independent contractors. Recently, several former WWE employees sought to have the benefits extended to the on-air talent. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Scott "Raven" Levy, Chris "Kanyon" Klucsarits, and Mike Sanders. A federal judge in Stamford, CT - which is from where the WWE is based - dismissed the case. Sanders has since dropped the case, but Levy and Klucsarits are considering an appeal which could eventually go before the Supreme Court. (EDIT: Chris "Kanyon" Klucsarits died on April 2, 2010, from a drug overdose.)
If the above three fail to make any impact, then the only alternative would probably be government regulation.
In conclusion, professional wrestling needs to be cleaned up before there's another senseless death.