WWE's 2007 Steroid Scandal Explained

After Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son before taking his own life, World Wrestling Entertainment was public enemy number one as far as the mainstream media and much of the general public was concerned, with its detractors not needing an excuse to attack Vince McMahon’s spandex-powered empire.

What the company needed to avoid in the summer of 2007 was another scandal. WWE’s own roster, however, gave the company’s critics all the ammunition they needed when several high-profile stars were named in a steroid scandal that rocked professional wrestling, leading to suspensions, firings and more. 

WWE's History With Steroids

WWE was no stranger to a steroid scandal, with Vince McMahon having already gone through a highly publicised trial in 1994. McMahon was facing three charges – two for distribution of illegal anabolic steroids and one for conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids – after being implicated by Dr. George Zahorian, a one-time ringside doctor for WWE events in Pennsylvania who had been convicted of illegally distributing steroids in 1991. 

At his trial, it emerged that Zahorian had supplied the illegal, muscle-building drugs to WWE stars and McMahon was subsequently investigated and indicted. McMahon was found not guilty by a jury, but he wasn’t taking any chances when it came to his performers, many of whom had looked like walking neon signs for steroid use before the federal government circled in.

A drug-testing policy was implemented in 1992 and had been responsible for various fines and suspensions, as well as for the departures of the likes of The Ultimate Warrior and Davey Boy Smith, who were both caught using human growth hormone. 

Drug testing was all-but dropped at some point in 1996, as it was costing the company too much money. They were in the middle of a wrestling war and their competitors, WCW, weren’t testing at all. Random tests would still be administered, however, if WWE management believed that an individual or group of individuals had a problem that needed to be addressed.

It was no coincidence that physiques that had generally shrunk or become softer suddenly swelled to herculean proportions once mandatory testing was phased out. Coincidentally or not, this also corresponded with a sharp uptick in WWE business during the vaunted Attitude Era. 

It was obvious that many on the roster were using and, in some cases, abusing performance-enhancing and other drugs, while WWE’s talent relations department continued to hand out suspensions and firings to those who had substance abuse issues, while a few were given the ultimatum of going to rehab or losing their jobs. 

While there were isolated cases, nobody had died from drug abuse while a part of WWE since Brian Pillman passed away in a Minneapolis hotel room on October 5, 1997, just hours before he was scheduled to wrestle in a featured match at the Badd Blood pay-per-view.

While WWE tried to steer the conversation away from Pillman’s drug use after his death – including with an abhorrent interview McMahon conducted with his widow Melanie on Raw just 24 hours later – the Loose Cannon’s problems were well-known and McMahon himself had, in fact, ordered Brian to take a drug test just five weeks before his untimely death. Pillman’s test came back positive for prescription painkillers and trace amounts of steroids. Empty bottles of prescription painkillers were found next to his body. 

Eddie Guerrero

It would be over eight years before another active member of the main WWE roster passed away while on the road, and the effects of it would reverberate across the wrestling industry for years to come when Eddie Guerrero passed away in a Minneapolis hotel room on November 13, 2005. 

A former WWE Champion and one of the most beloved wrestlers both with fans and in the locker room, Guerrero was just 38 years old and in the midst of another main event run as one of the top stars on the SmackDown brand at the time of his passing. His official cause of death was labelled as a heart attack, due to heart disease caused by long-term anabolic steroid usage and recent usage of narcotics medication. 

Though WWE (and Eddie himself) had pushed the narrative that Guerrero had been totally clean since his return to the company in April of 2002 – having been fired for drug and alcohol issues the previous year – this was not entirely true.

While Eddie may have stopped drinking and using drugs recreationally, he had been using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone to pump up his naturally smaller body, as well as pain medication to deal with the constant, chronic agony that was a consequence of his almost 20-year career. 

The day before flying to Minneapolis for the combined Raw and SmackDown television taping, an exhausted Guerrero visited his doctor and complained that he hadn’t been able to sleep for two weeks due to the pain he was in, primarily due to his back. Guerrero may not have been abusing medication at the time of his passing but long-term use of various drugs is what ultimately led to his enlarged organs and narrowed arteries.

WWE Introduces The Wellness Policy

With WWE feeling compelled to act and, hopefully, avoid another tragedy, Vince McMahon informed his grieving roster at the November 21, 2005 television taping in Sheffield, England that the company were going to be implementing a new talent Wellness Policy, which would cover performance enhancing drugs, recreational drugs, and abuse of prescription drugs. 

All performers under a full-time contract would be subject to frequent, random tests by a third-party agency. They would also undergo comprehensive cardiovascular exams, and other tests and measures would be taken to ensure the health of WWE's stars. The independent body administering the tests would first inform the performer if there was an issue or an anomaly and advise them on what do to, before reporting their findings to McMahon.

As if to emphasise that there were issues that needed to be addressed, four days before the announcement of the return of drug testing, Nick Dinsmore (AKA Eugene) accidentally locked himself out of his hotel room and passed out in the hallway after taking one too many somas following a house show in Manchester. He was subsequently sent home from the tour, suspended and ordered to enter rehab.

WWE released details of their Wellness Policy on February 27, 2006, which was the same day they informed their roster at a combined Raw and SmackDown taping. Along with the list of banned substances and notes surrounding valid prescriptions was the information that a first test failure would result in a 30-day suspension, a second failure would result in a 60-day suspension, and a third failure would result in automatic termination. 

The first round of testing was conducted at a combined television taping on March 20. By that point, it was obvious just by looking at the change in some of the physiques on television that at least some wrestlers were taking the policy seriously.

Chris Benoit

Chris Benoit, however, was not one of those wrestlers and after the double-murder suicide, a large quantity of substances, including steroids and prescription painkillers, were discovered at his home. It also emerged that Benoit was being prescribed a 10-month course of anabolic steroids every three-to-four weeks by his doctor, and the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion also ordered prescriptions from MedXLife, a Florida based company. 

The media jumped on this information and posited that the killings had been the result of roid rage and that Benoit must have slain his family due to his messed up body chemistry. 

WWE moved to steer the conversation away from the issue of steroids and other drugs and shifted the focus onto marital issues between Chris and Nancy. While the 'roid rage theory was questioned by those who pointed out the time period that had elapsed between the murders – Chris murdered Nancy on Friday evening, Daniel sometime earlier Saturday morning or afternoon, and then himself early Sunday morning – the sheer amount of drugs Benoit had in his home sent alarm bells ringing as he was subject to WWE’s Wellness Policy. 

Benoit had taken his last WWE-mandated drug test on April 10, 2007, and had passed, something which many questioned as it appeared to be obvious that Benoit had been using substances to maintain the size and definition.

When Benoit’s toxicology report was released on July 17, it emerged that while he had Xanax and Vicodin in his system at normal, therapeutic levels, the amount of testosterone he had in his body was through the roof, with his testosterone to epitestosterone ratio being 59:1, when a normal ratio is 1:1. For the Olympic Games, their testing threshold is 4:1. WWE’s own Wellness Policy allowed for anything up to 10:1, providing the performer had a valid prescription.

Benoit did have a prescription, through his doctor, under the guise of testosterone replacement therapy, a medical practice commonly used to help people whose systems are not producing enough testosterone naturally. As a lifelong user of steroids and human growth hormone, Benoit’s body was failing to produce enough testosterone by itself. Reports also suggested that he had tried to quit steroids shortly before the tragedy, but decided the physical and psychological effects of withdrawal would likely be too much following years of abuse. The assumption was also that he had used steroids shortly before his own death, hence the staggeringly elevated number. 

Despite the toxicology report, WWE tried to brush past it, noting that Benoit had passed four steroid tests within the past year, though just how he passed them wasn't readily apparent since WWE wouldn’t release the details of his first three tests. WWE and some of their wrestlers also attempted to make a distinction between ‘steroids’ and ‘testosterone’ during appearances in the media, though the injectable testosterone that Benoit was being prescribed in huge amounts was a steroid.

For Benoit’s doctor, Dr. Phil Astin, it emerged that Benoit wasn’t his only pro wrestling client and other wrestlers in contact with him included Rey Mysterio, Bob Holly, Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, and Johnny Grunge.

Signature Pharmacy Scandal

While this was embarrassing enough for WWE, the company then announced on August 30, 2007 that they were suspending 10 other wrestlers based on information they had received from investigators at the Albany, New York District Attorney’s office. A statement also added that, from that moment on, WWE would be publicly disclosing the names of people who failed the Wellness Policy starting November 1. 

WWE had met with prosecutors from Albany on August 14, which is likely when they were given a list of all WWE performers who had been clients of Signature Pharmacy, an online steroid-selling venture based in Orlando. Within hours of WWE sending out its press release, the New York Daily News had named 11 wrestlers who were known Signature clients in Randy Orton, Edge, Booker T, Ken Kennedy, William Regal, Chavo Guerrero, Johnny Nitro, Charlie Haas, Shane Helms, Santino Marella, and Simon Dean. Benoit and Brian Adams – who wrestled as Crush and had passed away on August 13, aged 43 – were also known Signature clients, as was Eddie Guerrero. 

Later in the afternoon of August 30, Shaun Assael wrote an article for ESPN claiming that sources close to the investigation had also named Batista, Chris Masters, and Funaki as clients. Not long after that, Sports Illustrated posted an article naming 12 wrestlers, along with the drugs they received and the dates they received them. 

The following wrestlers received:

• Randy Orton received somatropin (a growth hormone), nandrolone and stanozolol between September 2004 and February 2007.
• Edge received somatropin, genotropin and stanozolol between September 2004 and February 2007.
• Mr Kennedy received anastrozole (an anti-oestrogen drug used to combat the development of female breast tissue), somatropin and testosterone between October 2006 and February 2007.
• William Regal received stanozolol, somatropin, genotropin and anastrozole between November 2004 and November 2006.
• Chavo received somatropin, nandrolone, and anastrozole between April 2005 and May 2006.
• Johnny Nitro received somatropin, anastrozole, testosterone, stanozolol and chorionic gonadotropin between June 2006 and February 2007.
• Charlie Haas received anastrozole, somatropin, stanozolol, nandrolone and chorionic gonadtropin between August 2006 and January 2007.
• Shane Helms received (among other drugs) testosterone, genotropin and nandrolone between November 2003 and February 2007.
• Sylvain Grenier (who was released on August 13) received somatropin, nandrolone, genotropin and stanozolol between February 2005 and July 2006.
• Umaga received somatropin between July and December 2006.
• Funaki received Somatropin in March 2006. 
• Chris Benoit received nandrolone and anastrozole in February of 2006
• Eddie Guerrero received nandrolone, anastrozole and testosterone just two weeks before his death. 

Batista flatly denied any involvement with Signature Pharmacy via a note on his website which read: 

"To my fans and friends: I categorically deny a report on ESPN.com, and repeated by other media outlets, that I am or ever have been a customer of Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, an on-line pharmacy company that is a target of an investigation by the Albany, New York District Attorney’s Office. I am being tested regularly by the WWE, and I am in full compliance with the WWE Wellness Program. I regret the inaccurate reporting, and I will do all I can in the future to stop any publication or anyone from making such false accusations."

Batista was not one of the wrestlers suspended by WWE and, in fact, never violated the company’s Wellness Policy. Booker T also denied being a Signature client and was so upset with WWE for handing him a 60-day suspension that he asked for and received his release.

Simon Dean (real name Mike Bucci) was fired by WWE after being named as a Signature client. He was no longer an active talent, having left his position on SmackDown to help manage WWE’s developmental system. He may have been an executive, but Bucci had also had heat internally for a while and this was deemed as the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Gene Snitsky was not publicly named as a client of Signature Pharmacy, but he was suspended (for 30 days) with the rest of the offenders on August 30. 

It should be noted that this wasn't the first Sports Illustrated story of the year to link WWE stars to nefarious ways of securing illegal drugs. In March of 2007, the outlet published an article linking Orton, Edge, Helms, Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and Kurt Angle to Dr. David Wilbirt of Arizona. 

Wilbirt was under investigation by the DEA for writing 3,879 prescriptions for patients that requested drugs over the internet, and Copeland and Helms were listed as having received prescriptions for human growth hormone (which Helms claimed was to treat an injury), while Guerrero and Mysterio were listed as having received stanozolol, with Mysterio also allegedly receiving nandrolone. Orton had received six prescriptions for various drugs. 

It’s worth noting, however, that the wrestlers (according to Wilbirt) visited him in-person to have blood-work done, and that everything he prescribed was in 2004 and 2005, before the Wellness Policy was introduced. 

WWE Takes Action

The scandal rocked WWE and Vince McMahon had flown 11 then-unnamed wrestlers to WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut for a private meeting to discuss the situation, only for one of the wrestlers to miss their flight. 

After it emerged who had been on prescription drugs within WWE, there was even greater scrutiny on which WWE wrestlers had conducted interviews to discuss the Benoit double- murder suicide. 

Chavo, following the passing of his friend, said on Greta Van Susteren that not only were people in wrestling not really dying prematurely anymore and there was no drug issue in the industry, but that most of the locker room didn’t even drink. 

Ken Kennedy also voluntarily appeared on Greta Van Susteren, during which he flatly denied that he was on steroids and claimed that WWE didn’t have a steroid problem. Then, in a podcast interview with The Sun, Kennedy said:

"I don't take steroids. I have taken steroids in the past. I never took a lot of steroids, but when I was working the independent scene I was trying everything I could. I never took massive amounts of steroids and do you know why I stopped taking them? Because of the Wellness Policy.

"Because they instituted the Wellness Policy and I knew that having a job with the WWE was way more important than the 10 pounds of extra muscle that the steroids gave me. I stopped taking them and I had the biggest push of my life. I worked with The Undertaker for the last six, seven months. Working on top of all the house shows. I worked PPVs, I was on every PPV. I didn’t take any steroids and that’s the thing, nowadays, in our business, you don’t have to take that stuff in order to get a push."

Not only did the former United States Champion lose a tonne of credibility, he also lost his push and a planned main event feud with Triple H. It had been planned that Kennedy was going to be revealed as the illegitimate child of Mr. McMahon as the payoff to that particular saga. Instead, he was ‘fired’ on the air for ‘impersonating a McMahon’, while Hornswoggle was named as Vince’s son. 

As if to pile on the misery, in an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine recorded before but published after his suspension, Kennedy once again went to great pains to explain how WWE was zero tolerance when it came to their wrestlers taking steroids.

As everyone in the world now knew, that wasn't the case. It was also something that Dr. David Black, the founder and chairman of the Aegis Sciences Corp - who came up with and implemented WWE's drug policy - had admitted publicly in media appearances following the Benoit tragedy. 

Other enforced changes to WWE creative saw Jeff Hardy defeat Umaga for the Intercontinental Title, and CM Punk beat Johnny Nitro for the ECW Title.

Following the scandal, WWE did actually publicly announce when talents had failed the Wellness Policy. This began on November 2, 2007 when the company announced that Chris Masters had been suspended for 60 days for his second infraction, while David Hart Smith was also suspended for 30 days. Masters was released four days later, but he wasn’t the only Signature client to reoffend. 

William Regal was suspended for 60 days on May 20, 2008, while Umaga would be released on June 8, 2009 for refusing to check into rehab at the company’s request. Eddie Fatu would pass away just six months later.

Randy Orton – who was not suspended with the other Signature clients for reasons which were never made completely clear – was suspended for 60 days on May 30, 2012. He also at some point voluntarily entered drug rehab, which (per the rules of WWE’s Wellness Policy) got one of the two strikes removed from his record. 

The Legacy of the Signature Pharmacy Scandal

There have been suspensions and firings related to the Wellness Policy since the Signature Pharmacy scandal, but nothing close to the same scale. 

At the time, it was the worst possible news for a company that was facing wave after wave of bad press but, as they had done when mired in scandal in the past, WWE rode it out and, in a shockingly short amount of time, the Signature Pharmacy ordeal was all-but forgotten about. 

People just seemed to move on and nothing ultimately came of a congressional investigation into the company’s drug policy, with WWE agreeing to send congress results of company drug tests dating back to 1998. 

WWE themselves also moved on, officially changing to a PG-rated product in July of 2008.